Lincoln (Neb.) - Nov. 10, 1997 - A partnership of universities and research facilities has received more than $2.5 million to develop a scientific computer network to strengthen scientific research in the Great Plains region.
The National Science Foundation has awarded a two-year grant of $1,479,980 to an alliance of six Midwestern states, called the Great Plains Network, to be matched with $1,277,118 from the states - North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
The proposal was initiated and funded by the NSF EPSCoR project (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) in Nebraska and by the EPSCoR programs in the other six states.
The Great Plains Network aims at bridging the "virtual distance between our respective states," said Jerry Niebaum, director of information technology services at the University of Kansas and the principal investigator for the network at KU. The program seeks to develop a north-south communications corridor for scientific collaboration among states that have historically been disadvantaged by being geographically separated from major research concentrations on the East and West Coasts.
"The idea for the network is built around an initiative in Earth system science that uses geographic information systems, satellite imaging and high-speed computations for GIS modeling, but the network would be available to researchers in all disciplines needing its capabilities," said Royce Ballinger, director of Nebraska EPSCoR and associate vice chancellor for research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "The network is especially for scientists who need to exchange or share large databases. It will eventually connect to Internet 2 to provide a high-speed, high-capacity, high-technology communications and research tool."
Nebraska is one of more than 100 institutions nationwide developing Internet 2, which will largely replace the original Internet in the nation's research community.
"The reason we're developing the next level of the Internet is because the Internet in some parts of the country is over- trafficked," said Kent Hendrickson, associate vice chancellor for information services at UNL. "Because of delays, parts of messages being dropped and other problems, the Internet is not nearly as reliable as researchers need it to be."
The Great Plains Network is expected to meet the needs of scientists while facing the challenges of national communications and computing initiatives by increasing network capacity among the states; providing high-capacity access to the national computer grid and thereby to national supercomputing facilities; and maximizing use of the telecommunications network and supercomputing resources through training, consultation and software services.
"Because the Great Plains states have small populations and large land areas, the major telecommunications companies are not competing vigorously to bring advanced services to the region," Niebaum said. "By aggregating their purchasing power, the alliance states can develop a high-capacity, interstate backbone network for the entire region."
Without the network, each state would have to purchase access to the national grid at a cost of as much as $500,000 per state per year, or more than $3 million for the region. Shared access is expected to reduce the yearly costs to $500,000 for the entire area.
The network in Nebraska is funded by the NSF with state
matching funds provided by the university.
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