37/02 - Global E-Learning: Even students in China can tune in live and on-line to German lectures on Internet security

Peking/Trier. Starting tomorrow the People's Republic of China

will allow its students to participate live and on-line in Internet

lectures abroad. This is what Professor Christoph Meinel (48),

Director of the Institute for Telematics e.V. in Trier, told

journalists today. Starting October 29 the computer science

students of the Peking Polytechnic University will participate

every Tuesday and Thursday, together with other Internet users, in

Meinel's lectures on Internet technology. The lectures will be held

live on the Internet under www.tele-task.de between 8.15

and 10 local time. The focal point of the on-line lectures held in

English transmitted using the latest technology will be "the flaws

and weaknesses" of the Internet. Prof. Meinel is a Computer Science

Professor (C4) in Trier, Germany's oldest town.

As Prof. Christoph Meinel, in the early morning hours German

time, presents the problems of Internet security in his lecture

room using his laptop and acting in front of a web cam, it is

already afternoon in China and still night in the US. "Anyone who

missed the lecture can go to www.tele-task.de and download

a recorded session at a later convenient time" says the scientist.

Tele-task provides a drastically simplified access technology

developed in Trier, which simply needs an ISDN or DSL connection

and a "Real Player" to work. In this way anyone interested can

without any problems and comfortably connect live to the Trier

University lectures on Internet security using his home or office

computer or get them downloaded later.

"Tele-task stands for Teleteaching Anywhere Solution Kit" says

Prof. Christoph Meinel. Not only flicker-free picture and clean

tone of the speaker can be transmitted, but also synchronised,

large-sized video content of the presentation as well as additional

materials, graphics and computer animation. The transmission speed

ranges from 38 kBit/s to 300 kBit/s (standard) up to between 800

and 900 kBit/s - the quality standard required for DVD. If using

ISDN speed, Tele-Task can guarantee a picture format of 850

(horizontal) x 500 (vertical) - more than any current transmission

technology can offer.

With the lecture topic "Internet security" Prof. Christoph

Meinel meets a special wish expressed by the Dean of the Faculty of

Computer Sciences at the Peking University, Professor Baocai Yin

(39). He spent the summer here in Trier doing his research

semester. Three young computer science students from Peking, who

were awarded  post-graduate scholarships, have been working at

the Institute for Telematics e.V. since last autumn. While taking

part in top research projects at Trier, the Chinese scientists have

already contributed to international scientific conferences in the

US, Scandinavia and Greece. At the beginning of October another

three scholarship holders from Peking arrived at Trier.