Extending the Montana Northern Tier Network to Strategic Partners

University Of Montana, Missoula MT

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number: EPS -1006932 Proposal Title: Extending the Montana Northern Tier Network to Strategic Partners Institution: University of Montana This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The Northern Tier Networking Consortium (NTNC) was formed in 2003 to extend and expand broadband and high-performance optical networks, connecting the Northern Tier to the National Research and Education Network (NREN). The goal of this Research Infrastructure Improvement Inter-Campus and Intra-Campus Cyber Connectivity project is to extend the reach and capability of the Montana University System's (MUS) newly activated owned-fiber network, the Montana Northern Tier Network (MT-NTN). Three new connection points will be built to facilitate local site connections to computational and data storage facilities in the State of Montana Miles City Data Center (MCDC), located in Miles City, Montana; and to use new and existing connection sites to create and support site connections for Montana State University-Billings (MSUB), Salish Kootenai College (SKC, a Tribal College), Miles City Community College (MCCC) and Dawson Community College (DCC). Intellectual Merit This extension of the MT-NTN will allow students and faculty at MSUB, SKC, MCCC, and DCC to engage in expanded undergraduate research programs through enhanced collaboration with other colleges and universities in the system. The project will also provide access for researchers in Montana to an enterprise level data storage and computational facility. Access to this facility will provide back-up, storage and disaster recovery capabilities for vast amounts of research data through a secure, high bandwidth, high capacity network. The two core research focus areas are: environmental and ecosystem science, and health and biomedical sciences. Improved connectivity would enhance the collection and streaming of data from environmental sensors to local data aggregation points and would enable real-time observation of ecosystem changes on a national network scale. The extension of the network into rural and underserved areas would support research and understanding of the health conditions that affect Montana's rural, indigenous, and lower socioeconomic populations. The investigators and other researchers would collaborate with colleagues participating in the Health Information Exchange of Montana (HIEM), a rural health network consisting of five independently owned and operated hospitals and two federal funded Community Health Centers. This collaboration is valuable as the distances in the state are very large, presenting an additional difficulty for such time-sensitive collaboration. Broader Impacts The project leverages ongoing diversity activities funded through current Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) at Montana State University (MSU) and The University of Montana (UM). This project will increase opportunities for collaboration in research and education activities by providing on-line access to all participating institutions. Workforce development activities will be augmented in order to advance and retain Native American students from the Tribal Colleges in the STEM disciplines throughout their undergraduate and graduate careers. A research experience for undergraduates program that includes the 2-year and Tribal Colleges will be developed. Students at DCC and MCC would have the opportunity to collaborate directly with faculty and students at UM and MSU. Faculty at these institutions would have increased access to new graduate-level courses within the framework of MSU's National Teachers Enhancement Network (NTEN). The new courses, covering energy, ecology, and related topics, will become part of a permanent catalog of course offerings and establish a model for EPSCoR to nationally reach teachers of science with timely and accurate science content.