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

提案编号：EPS-1108076提案标题：美属维尔京群岛EPSCoR RII计划：校际和校内连接机构：维尔京群岛大学这个研究基础设施改善项目旨在通过提供必要的宽带连接来投资于网络基础设施，以加速在维尔京群岛大学的发现和学习，维京群岛大学是一所历史上的黑人大学。这种连接将使弗吉尼亚大学S的教职员工通过接入Internet2和国家兰布达铁路(NLR)更充分地融入全国跨学科研究合作。通过拟议的课程扩展、增强的研究生研究经验和高性能计算培训，紫外光？S的学生将更好地为研究生院和海洋科学、数学和计算机科学的终身职业生涯做好准备。通过提供从圣克罗伊潜艇登陆站到紫外光？S圣克罗伊校区的高带宽网络互联，该项目将把整个领土上的紫外光研究人员、合作者和导师彼此联系起来，并连接到全国各地的其他人。该项目旨在将圣克罗伊园区与AMPATH国际交换点连接起来，AMPATH国际交换点将提供对Internet2和National Lambda Rail(NLR)等网络的接入。加强的网络基础设施环境将支持在弗吉尼亚大学开展的海洋科学广泛领域的合作研究项目。具体地说，这些项目侧重于确定增加或减少珊瑚礁的因素--S对环境压力的耐受性和对过渡到交替生态状态的抵抗(生态弹性)。这些项目还包括强有力的实地实验，利用复杂的环境分析技术和开发高分辨率的海洋学模型，以增加对自然和人为干扰如何影响生态模式和过程的了解。了解这些复杂的关系对于管理它们至关重要，特别是考虑到在过去的三到五年里，由于气候诱导的压力(即温水漂白)和疾病，美属维尔京群岛内的珊瑚经历了30%到40%的死亡。拟议的基础设施增强将确保研究和教育活动拥有与关键的国内和国际合作者建立可靠的研究和工程网络连接所需的协作带宽支持。广泛影响通过UVI？S通过新光纤改善与AMPATH的连接，未被充分代表的本科生将获得更多的研究和教育机会，这将使他们为在研究生院取得成功做好更好的准备，并导致领土-S劳动力的改善。该项目团队旨在利用S大学海洋与环境研究卓越中心的VI-EPSCoR海洋科学计划-加勒比海沿岸综合生态系统，开发科学和技术服务，为当地决策者提供自然资源管理和空间规划方面的支持。该项目将支持对学生进行科学、技术、工程和数学学科的培训，这些学生在本科生和研究生中都是代表性不足的少数民族和女性。该项目的改进将确保该领土的宽带接入和有竞争力的选择。在岛屿上进行的研究的数据和结果将更容易为远方的合作者所获取，向利益攸关方传播的情况也将大大改善。

Proposal Number: EPS-1108076Proposal Title: United States Virgin Islands EPSCoR RII Program: Intercampus and Intra-campus ConnectivityInstitution: 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 ImpactsThrough 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.