BLACKSBURG, Va., Sept. 1, 2000 -The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $2.55 million to Virginia Tech for a novel education and research program aimed at making the Internet a more accessible global communications infrastructure.
The university will provide matching funds for the Integrated Research and Education in Advanced Networking (IREN) program, which will sponsor fellowships for engineering, computer science, economics, and business graduate students on the Blacksburg campus and at the university's Alexandria Research Institute (ARI). The program also will create a novel educational process that will enable graduates to fully contribute to the revolution in networking.
Working with technology developers and users from industry and government, the IREN fellows will conduct multidisciplinary research on several advanced networking topics, including broadband wireless access, mobile access to Internet resources, Internet appliances, network security, quality of service, and management of large-scale networks.
"These topics represent key barriers to making the Internet the common, ubiquitous, and global communications infrastructure of the future. The goal of the advanced networking program is to help make the Internet accessible in almost any location for almost any application," says Scott Midkiff, Virginia Tech professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECpE) and director of the new program.
"The problems of Internet access that the program will tackle are important to both industry and government," Midkiff says. "These also are areas in which Virginia Tech has research expertise as well as strong faculty and student interest." "This grant will continue to help position Virginia Tech and Southwest Virginia as a national leader in advanced communications systems," says U.S. Congressman Rick Boucher (VA-9). "The research that will be conducted at Virginia Tech will be an important milestone in helping to realize the promise of the Internet in rural areas of the country. This work holds the promise to significantly improve our ability to attract more high-tech employers to the region."
As many as 19 students will participate in the IREN program and five or six Ph.D. graduates are expected per year. About one-third of the IREN fellows will conduct research and take courses at the ARI, Midkiff notes. The ARI also will provide connections to industry and international partners for the program.
In addition to research, students will learn to work in multidisciplinary, distributed teams. "They will gain an understanding of business and global issues and improve their ability to communicate effectively," Midkiff says. IREN fellows at ARI and in Blacksburg will be encouraged to complete at least one internship with an industry or government partner. Current industry partners include 3Com, IBM, Litton Network Access Systems, RF Micro Devices, and United Technologies Research Center. Industry and government partners also will serve as advisers, provide seminars and workshops, sponsor students and research, and collaborate on research.
Virginia Tech is matching the NSF funding primarily through faculty support, graduate assistantships, and laboratory equipment. Other faculty participants are Charles Bostian, Luiz DaSilva, Nat Davis, and Bill Tranter of ECpE; Marc Abrams, Ing-Ray Chen, and Srinidhi Varadarajan of computer science; Pat Koelling of industrial and systems engineering; George Morgan of finance; Sheryl Ball of economics; and Joe Sirgy of marketing. Also assisting with the program are Pam Kurstedt, director for the College of Engineering at the Northern Virginia Center; Bevlee Watford, associate dean of engineering for academic programs; and Michael Alley of ECpE.
Another component of the IREN program will be the university's Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) initiative, the wireless broadband access that the Virginia Tech Foundation acquired from the FCC in 1998. The licensed area covers about 30 percent of the commonwealth, and IREN fellows will participate in the design, deployment, use, and evaluation of novel LMDS-based broadband wireless networks.
"NSF's support of our IREN program is evidence that Virginia Tech is a leader in the state and a strong competitor on the national level in networking technology and research," Midkiff says. NSF is providing funding through its Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) in Advanced Networking program, initiated in 1997 to help educate Ph.D. scientists and engineers with interdisciplinary skills needed for the jobs of the future. The agency awarded grants to 19 universities in 2000. This is the first IGERT grant presented to Virginia Tech.
Additional information about Virginia Tech's IREN program is available on-line at http://www.irean.vt.edu.
PR CONTACT: Liz Crumbley
540-231-9772
Faculty Contact: Scott Midkiff
703-538-8439
midkiff@vt.edu