“Together with CalNGI, we are committed to ensuring that California lead the nation and the world in the design and commercialization of the next-generation Internet,” said Ramesh Rao, Director of the UCSD division of Cal-(IT)2. “The institute is already deploying testbeds for advanced technologies, and this partnership will allow us to accelerate the research and development work our academic and industry partners are doing on Web applications we see burgeoning over the next five to ten years.”
Both organizations have roots in the University of California, San Diego. Cal-(IT)2 is a collaboration of UCSD and UC Irvine. CalNGI is based at SDSC, which is also part of UCSD. CalNGI opened in December 2001, with funding from the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI), and CommerceNet, a global, not-for-profit organization for the advancement of eCommerce worldwide.
“Cal-(IT)2’s participation gives CalNGI a very deep bench of experts as we tap into the institute’s inter-disciplinary team of 220 academic researchers and more than 50 industry partners,” said Mike Vildibill, the CalNGI Director who also directs SDSC’s High-End Computing and Communications department. “In particular, Cal-(IT)2 brings with it a unique and visionary research agenda in wireless communications that will be a corner-stone of the next-generation Internet.”
According to Vildibill, the first NGI application grants funded by CommerceNet and DSTI were announced in October 2001, covering a wide range of applications, including global trading, multi-modal Internet access for the disabled, wireless Web Services, and prospecting for natural resources. A second round of awards will be announced this spring. The southern California center will provide testbeds and access to advanced research networks otherwise unavailable to commercial companies. Innovative Internet-based applications developed by California businesses, non-profit corporations and public institutions will be enhanced, tested and showcased at CalNGI. CalNGI is one of two “development and testing hubs” set up by CommerceNet with funding from the State of California; the other is Net21, based at UC Berkeley.
About Cal-(IT)2
The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology is one of four institutes funded through the California Institutes for Science and Innovation initiative. Created in late 2000 by Gov. Gray Davis, CISI aims to ensure that California maintain its leadership in cutting-edge technologies. As part of CISI, the mission of Cal-(IT)2 is to extend the reach of the current information infrastructure throughout the physical world—enabling anywhere/anytime access to the Internet. More than 220 professors and senior researchers from UC Irvine and UC San Diego are collaborating on interdisciplinary projects. For more information on Cal-(IT)2, go to www.calit2.net. About CalNGI
Located at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, CalNGI is home to the State of California-sponsored Southern California Next Generation Internet Application Center. The mission of this center is to foster the development, testing, incubation and demonstration of new business and applications designed specifically to take advantage of the capabilities of the Next Generation Internet. With funding from the State of California, CalNGI was set up by CommerceNet, a global, not-for-profit organization (www.commerce.net), through a partnership with the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency's Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC). For additional information about CalNGI, see http://www.calngi.org
About SDSC
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an organized research unit of UCSD and the leading-edge site of the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI). SDSC's mission is to develop and use technology to advance science, and SDSC provides leadership both nationally and internationally in computing, data management, biosciences, and other areas. As a national laboratory for computational science and engineering, SDSC is funded by the National Science Foundation through NPACI and other federal agencies, the State and University of California, and private organizations. For more information, see http://www.sdsc.edu.