New NSF Grant Will Enable High-Speed Connections and Drive Research on Campus

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A cross-departmental UMass Amherst team was recently awarded a $337,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create high speed internet connections to support Big Science and Big Data projects on campus. The project, “Enabling Big Science and Big Data Projects at the University of Massachusetts,” will support the growing needs of the university faculty and increase the ability to work with partners nationally and globally.

Led by Assistant Professor of Physics Rafael Coelho Lopes de Sa, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Michael Zink, and UMass Amherst IT Chief Technology Officer James Mileski, the project dramatically increases internet speeds that facilitate connections to both national and international research and education networks, including Internet2 and the U.S. Department of Energy’s ESnet, all while enhancing the capabilities of multi-disciplinary research.

Through the NSF Grant, UMass Amherst and its higher education partners, including the Northeast Research and Education Network (NEREN), will continue to grow their infrastructure and directly connect to data hubs in Boston and NYC, enabling the expansion to worldwide points of presence.

“This NSF grant will enable UMass to further our campus research efforts in collaboration with other institutions while expanding regional and international partnerships through data sharing, research, and innovation,” notes Christopher Misra, vice chancellor for information technology and CIO.

The new high-speed, 400 Gb/sec capable infrastructure will provide the ability to handle the scale of data transfers necessary to facilitate many aspects of research in a broad range of disciplines including physics, math, computer science, astronomy and biomedical studies, among other areas.