Round 4
Dec 2000
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Office of the Provost
Compact Plan
Part Two: Initiatives
A. Initiatives Supporting University Goals
University Goal: Advancing Areas of Academic Thrust: IT and Networking
5. Participate in Network Technologies Center
What will be achieved, how, and why is it important to the university
The College of Engineering's compact plan proposes to build on NC State's existing strengths in networking research by building a Network Technologies Center on Centennial campus in support of applied and theoretical network research. The proposed Network Technologies Center will bring together many of the university's existing network laboratories, technical groups and partnership resources. A showcase "lab of labs," the Center will help maximize the unique opportunities that NC State has at its disposal and help maintain a competitive edge on Georgia Tech, Stanford, Michigan, Virginia Tech, Maryland and others who have made similar investments in IT lab facilities. ITD is strongly supportive of this proposal and believes it to be an appropriate and necessary next step in building NC State's leadership and excellence in IT.
Computer Networking is an identified "Academic Thrust Area" within the university's compact planning, and the Network Technologies Center is a critical component in this effort. ITD's participation will be vital to its success. Not only will ITD's participation in the Center contribute highly sophisticated practical and technical expertise, it will also provide opportunities for partnerships with networking industry leaders and the Center's participation in national next-generation networking initiatives.
ITD's NCState.net unit has assisted in the success of the research labs NC State has built to further applied and theoretical network research and advance the academic mission of the university. Examples include the undergraduate network projects labs in Withers and Daniels, graduate research labs in Daniels and EGRC, Centennial Network Labs (CNL) in EGRC, e-commerce labs in Nelson, and a network control lab in Gardner. Each of these labs support graduate and undergraduate teaching, graduate research, and applied research in support of campus, NCREN, and Internet2 initiatives. NCState.net unit's contributions include developing and outfitting the labs, teaching, mentoring, and maintaining a high level of competency in support of the labs and their initiatives. NCState.net has also played a leadership role in regional and national networking initiatives, including building the nation's first Gigapop, establishing the NCNI, and being designated the Internet2 Abilene Test and Evaluation Center. The NCNI has been responsible for grants and corporate contributions totaling approximately $15,000,000. ITD's participation in the Networking Technologies Center will focus on emerging networking technologies, e-commerce degree programs, NCSU/NCREN/NCNI research, CNL testing, Internet2 Abilene Test and Evaluation Center testing, and Centennial Campus partner collaborations (Lucent, Juniper, Red Hat, Erricson). All of these will further advance the academic mission of the university.
By bringing together in one location many of the university's existing network laboratories, technical groups and partnership resources, the Network Technologies Center addresses some practical issues: sharing of expensive equipment, sharing of space that suits the needs of these labs (power, air, raised floor), fostering collaboration, co-location of key intellectual resources. Most important, it will enable the kinds of results that sends a clear message to the NSF, the RTP community, the Centennial partners (and future partners), the faculty/staff/students, UNC-GA, Internet2, and others that NC State is committed to being a leader in networking and network research - applied and theoretical.
Impact or outcomes for students, faculty, staff, external clients or others
The importance of the Network Technologies Center to the academic mission of the university is clear, since networking has been identified as an Academic Thrust Area. NC State has abundant talent, expertise, and experience in both theoretical and applied research in networking. The new Center will promote greater collaboration and will leverage and enhance these intellectual resources. Students and faculty will have access to a richer set of opportunities and synergies that come from being part of an engaged intellectual community. ITD will also be better positioned to both assist academic research and develop and implement enabling technologies for the university.
Resources needed
ITD proposes to relocate much of its research and development efforts to the Center. In addition to the proposal advanced by Engineering, ITD will nominally require approximately 1500 square feet to accommodate this move. The best case scenario would be to move the entire ITD operation to Centennial Campus in close proximity to the Network Technologies Center.
Deliverables
· Identify and upfit space for Network Technologies Center
· Move into Network Technology Center (Progress cannot be made on this Initiative without additional funds. Requests for a capital campaign on behalf of this initiative have been made.)