Cyber-gap hurts researchers here
Universities push for state aid to build South Carolina Light Rail

Published: Sunday, March 4, 2007 - 2:00 am
By Anna Simon
CLEMSON BUREAU
asimon@greenvillenews.com

CLEMSON -- South Carolina research universities lose out on millions of potential research dollars because they can't access a high-tech fiber optic line that runs through the state.

Without access to the cyber-infrastructure, South Carolina research universities can't apply, let alone compete, for some federal grants from agencies including the National Science Foundation, said Jim Bottum, Clemson's new chief information officer.

The fiber optic line, called the National Lambda Rail, runs between Charlotte and Atlanta and is capable of carrying high volumes of data at high speed so researchers in different locations can collaborate in real time, said Chris Przirembel, Clemson's vice president for research and economic development.

It passes through Anderson County, near where the university's supercomputers are housed in Clemson's Information Technology Center in a research park off Interstate 85.

Adding insult to injury, North Carolina research universities own some of the lines, Bottum said.

In order to send a large-scale simulation to an Oregon firm he was working with, Jim Leylek, a mechanical engineering professor at Clemson, wrote the information to hard drive and discs and shipped them across country, which took several days -- and the information had to be shipped back and forth several times during the process.

Researchers in many other states can whoosh data across the country with a mouse click.

South Carolina researchers will be increasingly handicapped by the cyber-infrastructure gap as technology advances, said Leylek, executive director of Clemson's Computational Center for Mobility Systems, which will be housed at Clemson's Center for Automotive Research in Greenville.

"Massively large-scale simulations will be very commonplace in the near future," and South Carolina researchers need the technology in order to work with potential partners across the country, Leylek said.

South Carolina is one of about a dozen states without some form of state, regional or individual university network that connects with a national network, Bottum said.

Now Clemson, the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina are collaborating on a solution, Bottum said.

The universities want to create a "South Carolina Light Rail" that would be a communication grid for the universities and other research entities in the state -- hospitals, for example -- that would tap into the national network.

It would allow South Carolina to not only "catch up," but "leapfrog ahead," Bottum said.

The South Carolina Light Rail, a communication grid that would include a network allowing any faculty member at the schools to go online anywhere and access the same technology available on the main campus.

The universities have an ally in state House Speaker Bobby Harrell, who is "very supportive of the three research universities working together in the most efficient way possible," said Greg Foster, Harrell's spokesman.

The House budget proposal approved by the Ways and Means committee last week includes $1.5 million for each of the three universities toward development of the light rail "that would let our three research universities communicate at the fastest level possible," Foster said.

"Our research universities are working together like never before," Foster said. "What they have the possibility of creating is more jobs for our state, new technologies, which will hopefully produce new companies, new entrepreneurs, new businesses and new jobs, high-paying jobs."

A separate proposal also before state lawmakers for a state wireless broadband network is a "first cousin" to the light rail the universities seek. While it won't move the massive gigabytes of information for researchers or tie into Lambda rail, it's also something the state needs, Przirembel said.

Wireless broadband "is particularly important to rural areas and schools in rural areas," Przirembel said.

The state needs both, Bottum said. The combination "would serve all aspects of the population and the economy."