HPNC: High-Performance Science Education and Research Project

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The Exploratorium will conduct a two-year project to establish and maintain a High Performance Network Connection (HPNC) to the national Abilene/Internet2 backbone through an affiliation with the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), the statewide Abilene Participant organization. The HPNC will enable the Exploratorium to expand its media-based and museum-based educational programs to include high-bandwidth IPvideo transmission, MPEG2video/audio streaming, transmission of high-resolution imagery, real-time data mining and manipulation, remote videoconferencing, and other multimedia applications requiring a DS-3 (45mbps) connection. The project will involve using existing fiber and equipment requiring minimal upgrades to connect the Exploratorium's Palace of Fine Arts building to the California Research and Education Network (Cal-REN2) POP in Sunnyvale, Calif., which serves as a port to the Abilene/Internet2 backbone. The installation and connectivity project has been planned in collaboration with CENIC, which is in the process of linking K-20 educational institutions throughout California to an optic network. CENIC's sponsorship of the Exploratorium will strengthen the museum's ties to the educational technology community and increase access to the museum's extensive educational programming to schools and colleges throughout the Abilene/I2 network. The HPNC will provide the Exploratorium with access to high-bandwidth connections to partner research organizations, such as CERN, JPL, and NASA, who participate in Exploratorium Webcasts and remote educational programs. The programs produced will be made available over the Cal-REN2 and Abilene/Internet2 networks to participating educational institutions and researchers, including the schools linked to the CENIC Digital California Project, the Pacific Lighthouse Project, and the I2K20 Initiative. The HPNC will further the impact and reach of existing, federally supported Exploratorium programs such as Origins, a three-year series of NSF-supported Webcasts from remote science research stations; the Microscope Imaging Station, an NIH-funded state-of-the-art microscopy station in the museum's wet biology lab; and Eclipses and Observatories, the Exploratorium's ongoing production of remote Webcasts in partnership with the NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum.