The following non-technical story has appeared in school magazines and many other news sources from around the world.

Modern and Centuries Old Technologies Meet at AUC

Daniel Reid, senior computer science student at Algoma University finished explaining his project to a room full of his peers. The room fell silent as everyone waited in eager anticipation of the demonstration that was about to begin. Danny sat down in front of an ordinary windows computer and typed a simple command, ping www.sony.co.jp This command sends a test message to the specified computer, namely a webserver on the other side of the planet in Japan.

Ah yes the humble ping test, used to test for connectivity between your computer and another. But this was no ordinary test. It would couple together one of the most primitive centuries old technologies known to man together with the one of the fastest fiber-optic backbones in the Internet.

It all began several months earlier when Professor George Townsend was lecturing to a group of computer science students taking his fourth year Computer Networks course. The topic of the day was the OSI networking model, which describes a layered method of combining different types of technologies together to form functional networking systems. During the lecture, Professor Townsend made the claim that the design of the model permits different types of technologies to be transparently connected together. He suddenly stopped in mid lecture, and stared off into space stroking his beard thoughtfully. After a short moment of silent thought, he suggested to the class, that in theory, this should permit us to use any technology we like to connect a computer to the Internet without compromising its ability to participate in the Internet. Furthermore, he exclaimed, his voice rising in excitement, we could use a set of bongo drums to communicate as our technology of choice!

This was a dangerous claim to make at Algoma University where a unique blend of students exist as a result of the very successful Second Degree Accelerated programs it offers in Computer Science and Information Technology. These fast-track programs allow completion of an accredited university degree for people that already have a university degree in another discipline in only one calendar year. The program attracts many mature students who often bring a great deal of real world experience with them. So, of course, it was not surprising that there were many who doubted professor Townsend’s words. We demand proof, they shouted!

The next morning, Professor Townsend sent out a challenge to the students in the course offering bonus marks to the first student to volunteer to attempt to connect a standard windows PC to the internet using a system of bongo drums. Danny eagerly took up the challenge. Now, several weeks later, under the guidance and direction of Professor Townsend, Danny had a working prototype.

After typing the ping command, Danny tapped smartly on the enter key, and a hush fell upon the room as the students waited to see what would happen. There was a short pause, and then suddenly the primitive sounds of a message being beaten out on a set of bongos filled the air. Several minutes passed, and yet the class remained quiet not wanting to disturb the communication. Having passed through the bongo-link and out onto the Internet, the ping message then raced to its destination in Japan.

Sony’s web server in Japan was none the wiser concerning the source of the communication, and obediently responded to the ping request. The silence was broken by another set of bongos at the opposite side of the classroom as they began relaying their response back to Danny’s computer. Several more minutes passed, and the class remained attentive, spellbound by what they were witnessing. Finally, the bongos stopped, and suddenly the successful ping response appeared on the screen of Dannys computer.

The classroom filled with cheers! History had been made! For the very first time, a computer had successfully communicated over the Internet using Bongo drums!

|  Home |  Overview |  Background |  OSI Model |
|  Phase I |  Phase II |  Phase III |  Phase IV |  Pictures |
| Algoma University |