CC*DNI Campus Design: Enhanced Data Delivery at Fort Hays State University

Fort Hays State University, Hays KS

Investigators

Abstract

Fort Hays State University is upgrading their campus network to support scientific data transfer needs of researchers in Physics, Informatics, Geosciences, and the Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Sciences. Activities include re-architecting the campus border with a design patterned after the science DMZ concept in campus research and education networking and establishing 10 Gbps connectivity for science data flows. Scientific research collaborations across campus are enabled by these network upgrades. Physics faculty and student researchers run multiple simulations simultaneously to investigate the effect of lasers on human retinal tissue in collaboration with Kansas State University and the Air Force Research Laboratory, with the goal of producing safer lasers. Geoscience faculty and student researchers now access very large data files from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in investigating the causes of large, deadly tornados in Kansas and surrounding states. In addition, they use mortality data provided by the U. S. Military Academy to correlate anomalous weather events and mortality. Additionally, investigators are analyzing archived data to establish the long-term weather trends in Kansas to document how global weather changes are affecting Kansas. Informatics faculty and students have created a big data (Hadoop) platform that is being used to mine vast quantities of unstructured data located across the Internet to assist Geoscience and Informatics research. Kansas Academy of Math and Science (an early college entrance STEM program) students are now using LandSat imagery data for their research projects. Informatics researchers use the expanded reach and improved network monitoring tools to test more advanced network protocols. The results of these experiments will be shared in publications, conferences, FHSU workshops, and archived in a data repository.