United States Virgin Islands EPSCoR RII Program: Intercampus and Intra-campus Connectivity.

[No authors listed]

UIID-NSF: 1356

Abstract

Proposal Number: EPS-1108076 Proposal Title: United States Virgin Islands EPSCoR RII Program: Intercampus and Intra-campus Connectivity Institution: University of The Virgin Islands (UVI) This Research Infrastructure Improvement project seeks to build on the Territory?s investments in cyberinfrastructure by providing the broadband connectivity needed to accelerate discovery and learning at the University of The Virgin Islands (UVI), an Historically Black University. This connectivity will allow UVI?s faculty and staff to be more fully integrated into nationwide interdisciplinary research collaborations though access to Internet2 and the National Lambda Rail (NLR). Through proposed curricular expansions, enhanced graduate research experiences, and high-performance computing training, UVI?s students will be better positioned for graduate school and life-long careers in marine science, mathematics, and computer science. Intellectual Merit By providing a high-bandwidth network interconnection from the St. Croix submarine landing station to UVI?s St. Croix campus, this project will connect UVI researchers, collaborators, and mentors across the Territory to each other and to others across the nation. The project aims to connect the St. Croix campus to the AMPATH International Exchange Point which would provide access to networks such as Internet2 and National Lambda Rail (NLR). The enhanced cyber-infrastructure environment will support collaborative research projects underway at UVI in the broad area of marine science. Specifically, these projects focus on determination of factors that enhance or reduce a coral reef?s tolerance to environmental stress and resistance to transitions to alternate ecological states (ecological resilience). These projects also include robust field experiments, utilizing sophisticated environmental analysis techniques and developing high-resolution oceanographic models, to increase the understanding of how ecological patterns and processes are influenced by natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Understanding these complex relationships is of paramount importance to managing them, especially considering that over the last three to five years the corals within the USVI experienced 30% to 40% mortality due to climate-induced stress (i.e. warm-water bleaching) and disease. The proposed infrastructure enhancements will ensure that research and educational activities have the collaborative bandwidth support needed for a reliable research and engineering network connection to key national and international collaborators. Broader Impacts Through UVI?s improved connection to AMPATH via the new fiber, underrepresented undergraduate students will have access to enhanced research and educational opportunities, which will better prepare them for success in graduate school and result in improvements in the Territory?s workforce. The project team aims to leverage the VI-EPSCoR marine science program at the University?s Center of Excellence in Marine and Environmental Studies called the Integrated Caribbean Coastal Ecosystems to develop scientific and technical services to support local decision-makers in natural resources management and spatial planning. The project will support training in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines for students, who are underrepresented minorities and women, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The enhancements in this project will ensure continued broadband access and competitive options for the Territory. Data and results from studies conducted on the islands will be made far more accessible to distant collaborators and dissemination to stakeholders will be significantly improved.

Other Details

• Award Instrument: Standard Grant
• Email: [email protected]
• Organization: University of The Virgin Islands
• Other Investigators: Frank Waxman, Raymond Huhnke, Tina Koopmans
• Primary Investigator: Henry Smith
• Program(s): RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROV
• Start Date: 08/15/2011