CC* Regional: Tribal Consortium Research Network

纳瓦霍技术大学（NTU）是全国领先的部落学院之一，也是为该地区和纳瓦霍民族提供学术和研究项目的领导者。部落学院经常在合作和协作组织中工作。2017年，南洋理工大学促进了部落联盟的发展，以建立合作支持和技术服务。部落联盟包括纳瓦霍技术大学，纽约州克朗波因特市，戴恩学院，亚利桑那州Tsaile市，托霍诺奥哈姆社区学院（TOCC），亚利桑那州塞尔斯市，以及纽约州祖尼市的A:shwi学院和职业准备中心（ACCRC）。尽管美国原住民学生可以获得文化、语言、职业、科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）课程，但校园和学生的连接选项很昂贵，而且仅限于低于国家标准的蜂窝或宽带容量。学生们没有很好地连接到互联网和更大的研究和教育社区；基本缺乏足够带宽的互联网连接，无法成功参与不断增加的在线课程和项目。该项目通过与南洋理工大学作为区域聚合器连接，增加与每个校园的外部连接，从而提高校园网的性能，以支持教育和研究。该项目通过实施先进的无线测试平台，为当地学生和教师提供家庭作业空白的解决方案，从而解决了远程教育的挑战。该项目利用了与北亚利桑那大学（部落项目和服务的领导者）现有的强大区域关系。该项目强调将需求映射到需求的会议，随后是设计和培训研讨会，这有利于当地的美洲原住民社区。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Navajo Technical University (NTU) is one of the nation's leading tribal colleges and a leader in delivering academic and research programs for the region and for the Navajo Nation. Tribal colleges regularly work in cooperation and in collaborative organizations. In 2017, NTU facilitated the development of a tribal consortium to build cooperative support and technology services. The tribal consortium includes Navajo Technical University, Crownpoint, NM, Dine College, Tsaile, AZ, Tohono O'odham Community College (TOCC), Sells, AZ, and A:shwi College and Career Readiness Center (ACCRC), Zuni, NM. Although Native American students have access to cultural, language, vocational, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs, campus and student connectivity options are expensive and limited to cellular or broadband capacities below national standards. Students are not well connected to the internet and to the larger research and education community; there is a fundamental lack of internet connectivity with sufficient bandwidth to successfully participate in the ever-increasing opportunities of online courses and programs. This project improves campus network performance in support of education and research, by increasing external connectivity to each campus by connecting to NTU as a regional aggregator.The project addresses distance education challenges by implementing an advanced wireless testbed to deliver homework gap solutions for local students and faculty leverages a strong existing regional relationship with the Northern Arizona University, a leader in tribal programs and services. The project emphasizes meetings to map needs to requirements, followed by design and training workshops, which benefit the regional Native American communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.