In developing the network, the university’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications will partner with Argonne National Laboratory, also in Illinois, the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California and the TeraScale, LLC, company of New Mexico. The team recently completed a six-month scoping study to prepare for the design phase.
“The goal is to create a collaborative research network by linking researchers and engineering testing facilities across the United States and providing them with the latest computational tools,” said Priscilla Nelson, NSF division director for civil and mechanical systems. “We expect this network to speed the simulations, experiments and data analysis that lead to better seismic design and hazard mitigation.”
NEES will allow researchers to share and remotely operate experimental equipment at more than 20 advanced earthquake engineering facilities linked to the network and to more easily share data and computations. The equipment -- including shake tables, geotechnical centrifuges, a tsunami wave basin, and laboratory and field stations -- models and analyzes earthquake forces and helps engineers design buildings and infrastructure to withstand those forces. Early this year NSF awarded $45 million to 10 institutions to build and upgrade earthquake engineering equipment in anticipation of the shared-use network.
A community-led consortium will be selected in 2004 to manage and operate NEES through 2014.
For more information, see: http://www.eng.nsf.gov/nees
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