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NSF Grant NCR-9613870
7/96 to 7/98 | National Science Foundation, Directorate for Computer Information Science and Engineering, Division of Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure, Connections To The Internet Program |
The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has received a National Science Foundation grant, NCR-9613870, to provide direct access to the NSF vBNS (very High Speed Backbone Network Service, provided by MCI), through a single mixed-use high-speed ATM-based [glossary] connection. (The network layout is illustrated Network Overview.) This connection, located at the vBNS's Chicago NAP (Network Access Point, run by Ameritech), connects UIC researchers to the vBNS for meritorious applications, and provides access to the Internet for commodity traffic for the general UIC campus of some 30,000 users. This grant funds upgrades to three principal UIC network links:
For a more detailed description of the project, including its goals and expected contributions to the state-of-the-art in network connections, see Project Summary.
There are currently two research groups at UIC with unusually high networking requirements, as well as the Academic Computer Center's experimental video server project, all of which would benefit from a high-performance connection to the vBNS. The proposed connections will initially serve these groups, and will be made available to all qualified campus users in the near future.
The UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), directed by Thomas DeFanti, Daniel Sandin, and Maxine Brown, specializes in virtual reality and scientific visualization. EVL has received international recognition for the development of the CAVE, a virtual-reality equipped room that can accommodate several researchers to provide a shared VR experience. Currently, EVL is focusing on research to connect CAVEs at geographically distant locations (e.g., ANL) so virtual design and prototyping experiences can be shared by researchers in networked CAVEs. For a list of projects which will benefit from this grant, see Participation of the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory.
The UIC Laboratory for Advanced Computing (LAC) under the direction of Robert Grossman develops software and algorithms related to high-performance data management for use by scientists making computationally intensive queries on very large amounts of data. LAC collaborates with researchers at University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland, and partners from industry and national laboratories on the National Scalable Cluster Project (NSCP).The principal groups have combined resources from all three campuses to create a computational cluster whose power, storage, and communications would be extremely expensive to duplicate in any one place. For a list of projects which will benefit from this grant, see Participation of the UIC Laboratory for Advanced Computing
The Academic Computer Center of the University of Illinois at Chicago provides a variety of computing and networking services to the UIC community for use in instruction and research. With the increased interest by faculty and students in the use of computers and networked services, the Academic Computer Center, with the support of the UIC administration, is taking initiatives to become a national model for the use of technologies as instructional and research tools. For an overview of the Academic Computer Center's current projects, see Participation of the UIC Academic Computer Center.
September 20, 1996
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