CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

The Advocate By Ned Randolph Gov. Kathleen Blanco has committed $40 million over 10 years toward building and maintaining a statewide fiber-optic system that will link eight state universities and research institutions to a national network of supercomputers. Gov. Kathleen Blanco Blanco made the announcement during at a two-day Louisiana Optical Network Initiative conference that began Thursday. The proposed statewide network, known as LONI, will be linked to the LambdaRail, a national network of supercomputers. The network uses light waves to transmit data over fiber-optic cables at speeds thousands of times faster than typical office computer networks. The network will allow researchers to connect several supercomputers around the country to perform large-scale experiments, on such things as global weather mapping, battle simulations or the gravitational effects by black holes. The state will tie into the national LambdaRail network by way of a "node" in Baton Rouge. The eight institutions being tied to the network are LSU, Louisiana Tech University, LSU-Shreveport Medical Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Southern University, University of New Orleans, LSU Medical Center and Tulane University. Advocates say the LambdaRail connection gives Louisiana universities and research institutions an opportunity to bid on grants from the likes of NASA, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health — opening the door to hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money. Ironically, the LambdaRail was not originally routed to come through the Gulf South. To help the state entice the LambdaRail board to bring it here, the Southeastern Universities Research Association, known as SURA, agreed to subsidize the added cost of bringing the network from Dallas down to Interstate 10, allowing the network to stretch from Houston through Baton Rouge. The state Board of Regents in March committed $5 million over five years toward the project. Blanco on Thursday promised $4 million per year over 10 years, via the Board of Regents, to help build, maintain and upgrade the statewide infrastructure. The national LambdaRail network should be fully implemented by spring 2005, officials say.