Mexican and California Universities to Use Internet2 to Collaborate

LOS ALAMITOS, CA - May 21, 1999: A plan to link Mexico's higher education network to CalREN-2 in California was endorsed by California Governor Gray Davis and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León yesterday in San Diego. Now researchers and faculty at major universities throughout the two countries are gearing up to use Internet2 to facilitate collaborative research and education projects.

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), a consortium of Californian universities and other public and private entities, and the Corporación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet (CUDI), its Mexican counterpart, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate in the development of next-generation Internet2 technologies and applications. CUDI also signed an MOU with the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), which manages the national Internet2 initiative.

The main objective of the CUDI-CENIC alliance is to support appropriate collaborations and interconnections among their affiliate institutions for the purpose of developing advanced research and education applications. In conjunction with the signing ceremony, Carlos Casasus, Director General of CUDI and Thomas West, President of CENIC, hosted a joint planning meeting of representatives from their affiliates. The discussion focused on identifying first wave initiatives.

One of their initial projects will be the Virtual Learning Space (VLS) Project, an initiative whose objective is to promote transborder/global efforts in the pursuit of high quality education and collaborative research projects, by joining human and physical resources using next generation communication technologies built around Internet2.

The VLS Project will be an international partnership amongst private and public sectors on both sides of the border. The main participants include:

• CICESE, a Mexican Government think tank in the areas of oceanography, earth sciences and applied physics, located in Ensenada;
• CITEDI, a Mexican research institute in digital technologies, located in Tijuana;
• San Diego State University, which established the first E1/T1 link to CICESE;
• University of Baja California; and
• Telnor, a regional subsidiary of TELMEX in Baja California.

The VLS Project will provide faculty and researchers with the appropriate high-speed telecommunications environment required to develop learning and research applications in the areas of electronics and telecommunications, computer science, management, environmental sciences, biology, and telemedicine. Some of the specific planned applications of the VLS Project are the development of digital libraries using the extensive library resources geographically distributed amongst many academic institutions on the Southern California-Baja California Region and Mexico, the development of distributed computing networks, and the implementation of remote operation of research laboratories.

Dr. Francisco Mendieta, Director at CICESE stated that "...due to the global capabilities of Internet2, the new Internet will greatly facilitate specific joint applications. Previously, transborder collaborations between the participant institutions have been maintained but now, due to the larger bandwidth and connectivity possibilities of Internet2, there is a distinct possibility for the interactive transmission of knowledge and large information databases between universities. Faculty and students at the participating institutions are entering a new era of global technology, research and thinking..."

About CENIC

CENIC is a not-for-profit corporation formed by the California Institute of Technology, the California State University, Stanford University, the University of California, and the University of Southern California to advance the use of communications technology in research and education at California's universities. CENIC Associates include Cisco Systems, IBM, Pacific Bell and Sun Microsystems.

CENIC operates CalREN-2 for qualified public and private sector institutions for research and learning purposes. CalREN-2 is California's segment of the national Internet2 initiative and is partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

About CUDI

Corporación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet (CUDI) is a non-profit corporation incorporated under the laws of Mexico with members from the public and private sectors. Its purpose is to promote and coordinate the development of high capacity telecommunication and computing networks for the development of scientific and educational activities in Mexico. UCAID is a non profit corporation consisting of 140 universities, private businesses and the federal government.