I developed a distributed "model distribution and interactive control space" for the University of Sydney's VisLab using Java Remote Method Invocation (Java RMI). I also combined it with MATLAB^(R)'s support for Java^TM to enable remote control of MATLAB^(R) visualisations. And I've lectured on RMI as part of a Distributed Computing university course.

What amazing technology RMI is, I love it ! And I'd welcome the opportunity to work with it again. It's soooo much easier to work with than CORBA for Java-centric systems. Certainly RMI is ideal for many distributed scientific control system projects, and certainly for teaching. (Even if RMI is vendor-specific; well so what, it's a great vendor.)