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University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
March 15, 1999 |
Contact: David Lassner, 808-956-3501, david@hawaii.edu Donnë Florence, PIO, 808-956-7522, donne@hawaii.edu |
UH receives milestone grant for advanced Internet services The University of Hawai'i has been awarded a $343,668 High Performance Connectivity grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to connect Hawai'i to the Next Generation Internet and Internet2 national and international networks. The project includes over $3 million in in-kind service from the Department of Defense, which has agreed to let the University use its link in order to reduce costs to the University. Initial connectivity will be in place by the end of March for use at the GOIN99 Workshop at the East-West Center (see March 12 Media Advisory). Principal Investigator for the grant, UH Director of Information Technology Services David Lassner, says, "This is a long-awaited milestone for Hawai'i. Every other major research university in the country has been involved in this program, but because the ceiling on this NSF grant program was so far below the cost of establishing a connection from Hawai'i, we had been unable to participate until now." Hawai'i's high performance connection will be the first university link established utilizing a unique cooperation among federal agencies. Through an agreement with NSF, the US Department of Defense has agreed to let UH utilize its existing Hawai'i-mainland DS3 (45 million bit per second) link, which is part of the Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN) program. This is an in-kind service valued at over $3 million for the two-year period of the grant. The grant funds will then be used to connect UH to the DREN hub on O'ahu, to pay the costs of connecting to Internet2 on the mainland, and to establish a new high-speed link between Mauna Kea and UH Manoa to permit the international astronomy community to have access to the Mauna Kea observatories. UH must continue to maintain its separate DS3 Internet link for standard Internet connectivity, through which all 10 campuses, as well as the State of Hawai'i, are connected. Internet2 is a project led by over 130 US universities with major telecommunications and technology corporations. Its purpose is to develop the new software and networking technologies needed for the next generation of Internet services. Once developed and tested in the research environment, these technologies will be eligible to migrate to the commercial Internet where they will be available to everyone. For example, Internet2 is working on making the Internet more usable for real-time video and audio, finding new ways to distribute information around the world for fast access, and deploying new models of regional Internet hubs. Last month the new $500 million Abilene network backbone was inaugurated as a major Internet2 project in Washington, DC. Internet2 is closely aligned with the federal government's Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, which involves all the federal agencies that are active in advanced networking and network development. The University of Hawai'i will use its new Internet2 connection to support a variety of research and education projects. One major application will be to support remote observing using the Mauna Kea Observatories. With the new digital instrumentation, several of the observatories are developing a capability that will permit scientists anywhere in the world to conduct their observations and experiments from home without the arduous aspects of traveling to the Big Island and ascending to the 14,000-foot summit which houses the observatories. Through remote observing, scientists anywhere on the Internet will be able observe in real time and control the instruments just as if they were at the summit. Other UH projects that will benefit from the Internet2 connection include the search for near-Earth asteroids, the study of active volcanoes, the Hawai'i Space Grant College, research in meteoritics and astrobiology, weather modeling and research into future distance learning delivery modes. The UH grant is one of 16 new awards made by NSF this month. More information: The UH proposal to NSF, pointers to information about GOIN99, and information about research proposed for Internet2 in Hawai'i: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~david/hawaiihpc/
Information about Internet2:
Information about Next Generation Internet
Information about NSF -UH-
Text of the NSF News Release (2 pages) follows this page. NSF PR 99-x March 15, 1999 Media contact: Peter West, (703) 306-1070/pwest@nsf.gov Program contact: William Decker, (703) 306-1949/wdecker@nsf.gov
NSF FUNDS NEW HIGH-SPEED NETWORK CONNECTIONS Program Now Reaches Institutions In Every State The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded 16 grants, worth a total of $6.3 million, to allow 19 universities to connect to the advanced high-performance computer networks that will constitute the Internet of the future. The new two-year grants bring to 150 the number of high-performance connection grants awarded by NSF's Advanced Networking Infrastructure (ANI) program. The number of connections exceeds by 50 NSF's original goal for this part of President Clinton's Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative. "I am delighted to announce that every state in the nation is participating in the Next Generation Internet," said Vice President Al Gore. "This will allow researchers all over America to make breakthroughs in science and engineering-such as more accurately predicting tornadoes and developing life-saving drugs more rapidly." Thirty-three of the 150 awards were made to institutions in 18 states in NSF's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). EPSCoR focuses on states that historically have received less federal research and development funding. William F. Decker, ANI program director, noted that the new grants also mark an important cooperative milestone between government agencies that will advance NGI. For example, in collaboration with the Department of Defense, NSF will allow the University of Hawai'i to afford a link to the US mainland at a fraction of commercial rates, noted David Lassner, the university's director of information technology services. Recipients will use the grants to benefit research in a variety of fields. At the University of Hawai'i, Lassner said, the link will be used extensively, including taking the first steps to allow astronomers around the world to use telescopes atop Mauna Kea remotely in "real time." The University of Alaska, Fairbanks, will use its link to serve as a conduit for distributing networked information from the continental US to the state's sparsely populated interior, noted Frank Williams, director of the university's Arctic Region Supercomputing Center. The connection also will allow researchers to collaborate with institutions nationwide to refine predictions of the weather in the ionosphere which affects the reliability of satellite communications. High-speed connectivity for Florida International University will help researchers there develop an Internet "server" that will allow forecasters to combine data from multiple sources to improve hurricane forecasting, according to Naphtali Rishe, the director of the university's High-performance Database Research Center. Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno, meanwhile, will be able to connect to supercomputers at federal research labs to model the complexities of the distribution of contaminants in groundwater, including possible materials from the Nevada nuclear test site, noted Steve Zink, associate vice president for information resources and technologies. A joint grant to the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will provide UAMS doctors access to a variety of leading-edge medical diagnostic tools and UALR researchers the ability to connect to powerful, though remote, supercomputers, said Keith Hudson, the university's assistant dean for research. But just as importantly, he added, the university's enhanced research capabilities may provide an incentive to technology firms to consider relocating nearby, sparking economic growth. "Arkansas is just not a very rich state," he said. "To bring this capability to Little Rock has the potential to really provide tremendous benefits." -NSF-
LIST OF HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING GRANT RECIPIENTS Case Western University Desert Research Institute (Nevada)/University of Nevada, Reno/University of Nevada, Las Vegas* Florida Atlantic University Florida International University George Mason University Michigan Technological University Ohio University Southern Methodist University University of Arkansas-Little Rock/University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences* University of Akron University of Alaska, Fairbanks University of Connecticut University of Georgia University of Hawai'i University of Louisville University of Vermont * joint grants |
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