From: "Swisher, Bob" <bswisher@ou.edu>
To: "'it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu'" <it-fyi@listserv.ou.edu>
Subject: it-fyi: Northwestern Internet Technology Research Center (EduCau
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 07:32:57 -0500
Northwestern University, IBM, and Ameritech Announce New Advanced
Internet Technology Research Center
[Source: http://www.educause.edu/page2/internet_research_center.html]
Providing a focal point for leading edge Internet research and
innovation, Northwestern University and IBM, with initial support of
Ameritech, Cisco, and other corporate partners, plan to establish a new
research center to advance next generation Internet technology. The
center will undertake cooperative projects with regional, national, and
international research and education networks, and will initiate
large-scale projects in advanced, next generation Internet research,
innovation, and experimentation.
The center, which will open in late 1998, will establish strategic
initiatives centered on advanced application design, new network
services, and network performance. The innovative applications will be
specifically designed to take advantage of high performance networking.
The center will showcase examples of innovative technology solutions for
the industrial sectors, corporate processes, education, and personal
communications.
"UCAID applauds this initiative by Northwestern University and its
corporate partners, which will accelerate the availability of advanced,
network applications for research and education," stated Douglas Van
Houweling, president and CEO of UCAID.
The director of the center will be Joe Mambretti who will join the
Information Technology Division of Northwestern University in August. He
will continue his role as the director of the Metropolitan Research and
Education Network (MREN), one of the world's most advanced high
performance networks.
The center will have multiple sites on the Northwestern University
campuses in Evanston and Chicago and at IBM facilities. The facilities
are part of the MREN (Metropolitan Research and Education Network)
backbone. The center will have testbed access to the multi-gigabit
Internet2 backbone recently announced by UCAID, Cisco, Qwest, and
Nortel, coined Abilene. Leveraging this backbone, researchers,
academics, entrepreneurs, and participating corporate partners will be
able to create prototypes of advanced Internet solutions.
"Collaborative work among universities, national laboratories, and high
technology corporations created the Internet. The center will continue
this tradition. I am delighted that IBM will play a central role in this
collaboration," said Mort Rahimi, vice president for information
technology, Northwestern University. "I am also pleased with the
continued participation of Ameritech to provide world class network
infrastructure, services and expertise and Cisco Systems for their
network solutions."
Northwestern University has one of the most powerful campus networks in
the world, for which it has received national awards. Northwestern is a
founding member of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet
Development (UCAID), a partnership of over 125 major research
universities, which has established the Internet2 project. Northwestern
University President Henry Bienen serves on the UCAID Board of Trustees.