CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

By Ned Randolph The Advocate A regional consortium won the right Thursday to link Baton Rouge to an exclusive network of supercomputers that will eventually connect some state universities with institutions and pre-eminent scholars around the world. The invitation by the National LambdaRail board to join the network caps a six-month push by university officials -- backed by an endorsement from Gov. Kathleen Blanco. The project, which initially costs $5 million, was also helped along by a Southeast regional university group, which donated fiber-optic strands and committed up to $3 million to help build the network infrastructure from Dallas to Interstate 10, allowing the network to stretch to Baton Rouge. Joseph Savoie, the Louisiana commissioner of higher education, hailed the news saying, "It will be to university research and scientific progress what the interstate highway system has been to interstate commerce." LambdaRail transmits information by light waves over fiber-optic cables at speeds thousands of times faster than typical office computer networks. It allows researchers to connect several supercomputers at once to perform large-scale experiments, on such things as global weather mapping, battle simulations or the gravitational effects by black holes. Advocates say the LambdaRail connection gives Louisiana universities 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. "This is going to lead to job creation in high-growth, high-wage jobs. It will put us on the map as a place where other researchers want to come," Blanco's chief of staff, Andy Kopplin, said. Researchers can collaborate on projects in "real-time" with institutions around the world, which will elevate LSU to an exclusive club, said Dr. Ed Seidel, director of LSU's Center for Computation and Technology. The $5 million, which is the first phase of a two-phase initiative, was approved by the state Board of Regents in March. It will be paid out over five years, with LSU and Tulane University each committing $150,000 a year. "I think it's outstanding," said Charlie McMahon, LSU telecommunications director. "It shows extraordinary cooperation from the leading research institutions in the state. They all had to come together to make this a reality." Ironically, the LambdaRail was not originally routed to come through the Gulf South. "It would be like the Transcontinental Railroad passing by your state," McMahon said. To help the state entice the 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 I-10. SURA will pay up to $3 million and donate about $1.5 million in fiber-optic strands to "light" the network down to Houston and east along I-10. The point of access in downtown Baton Rouge will be completed sometime between Christmas and Memorial Day, McMahon said. The LambdaRail network should be fully implemented by spring 2005, officials say. In its strategic plan, the LambdaRail board intended for each participating state to loop its institutions together by fiber-optic to connect to a regional node on the national LambdaRail. A second phase, called the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, would link eight state universities and institutions by fiber-optic to the Baton Rouge node. That would cost up to $24 million. The eight institutions 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. AT&T has agreed to donate the fiber-optics between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and between Shreveport and Monroe, McMahon said. LSU's Seidel, also a renowned expert in so-called grid computing, sees the grid technology as a tool with applications beyond science. "More and more, larger collaborations of people are required to solve a single problem," he said recently. "They are trying to harness technology to solve any problem -- in science, math, music." Huge computer data sets are required to simulate a black hole colliding or map the capillaries of an eye, Seidel said. And how about using sound, rather than picture, to illustrate a black hole twisting and turning in outer space? The Acadiana Digital Immersion Center slated for the University of Louisiana -- Lafayette research park, would use LambdaRail to harness computing power to turn its 3-dimensional stereophonic theater into a virtual reality chamber to rival "Star Trek." A doctor could be surrounded on every side by the image of an eye from a patient in Germany. An oil executive looking to drill off the coast could input his seismic data and experience the environment of the deep ocean floor. "You can recreate this virtual reality as if you were there," said Duane Blumberg, ULL vice president of research and graduate studies. "Obviously, doing something like that involves a lot of computer power. "We will want to exchange data and work with other facilities around the world," he said. The Regents' board will likely ask some of the state universities to help contribute to the larger Louisiana Optical Network Initiative, McMahon said. Seidel said he is optimistic the progress will continue. "I just moved here from Germany, but I've been amazed at the level of support from the people I've spoken to," Seidel said. "There's been unprecedented support in terms of the universities through the state. Everyone wants to get in on this." Also invited to join National LambdaRail on Thursday were Cornell University in New York; the Lonestar Education and Research Network, a collaborative of Texas universities; the Oklahoma State Board of Regents; the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.; and the University of New Mexico.