Membership will bring advanced broadband capabilities to remote areas

BOULDER, Colo. — Students and researchers across Wyoming will now have access to advanced collaborative resources through the national Internet2 networking consortium.

Wyoming’s statewide government and educational system has joined the U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN), an Internet2 community program working with regional research and education networks across the country to advance broadband capabilities.

The new capabilities are being made possible through the State of Wyoming; the University of Wyoming; the Front Range GigaPoP (FRGP), a regional network managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR); and the Western Regional Network, a regional network providing the three Internet2 connections managed by the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC).

Wyoming is the 44th state to offer U.S. UCAN connections.

“We’ve had a long and valuable relationship with the State of Wyoming,” said FRGP manager Marla Meehl, who heads High Performance Networking at UCAR. “We are pleased and excited that we are now able to extend access to the preeminent U.S. network for research and education.”

That relationship, Meehl noted, includes networking for the state-of-the-art NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center in Cheyenne, which opened in 2012.

—–New connections, new resources—–

Through U.S. UCAN membership, Wyoming state entities will be able to connect community anchor institutions to advanced broadband capabilities and applications. In turn, those anchor institutions will be able to interact directly with more than 93,000 other anchor institutions across the nation that are connected to Internet2.

For example, Wyoming K-12 schools will be able to take advantage of a number of resources. These range from interactive master music classes to the Presidential Primary Sources Project, where students can interact with past U.S. presidents and take part in virtual field trips to various national parks and presidential libraries.

“We continue to expand access to high-speed broadband. This benefits all citizens and particularly children,” Governor Matt Mead said. “Resources like Internet2 allow us to compete and collaborate globally. I thank UW for its help and the Front Range GigaPoP staff for making this possible.”

Robert Aylward, University of Wyoming vice president and chief information officer, noted that many state-affiliated entities, such as K-12 schools, community and technical colleges, , have typically not been eligible or able to become Internet2 members themselves, due to the size of their institution or the costs associated with individual access. “Now these institutions will be able to use the network to expand global and local collaborations,” Aylward said.

Louis Fox, president and CEO of CENIC, added, “We welcome Wyoming’s participation in education and research initiatives–in California and the West, through the Western Regional Network–and nationally, through U.S. UCAN.”