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National Science Foundation Announces $1.2 Million Cyber Connectivity Award to South Carolina

Submitted by: Jill Hirsekorn on Sep 08, 2010 at 3:25 pm Tagged with: National Science Foundation Award Source: SCRA

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information:
Scientific Contact: Scott Little, SC EPSCoR/IDeA, 803.733.9060
Media Contact: Jill Hirsekorn, SCRA, 843.760.3329

National Science Foundation Announces $1.2 Million
Cyber Connectivity Award to South Carolina

Columbia, SC – September 7, 2010—SCRA, a global leader in applied research and commercialization services, announces today that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $1.2 million to South Carolina for high-speed, high-capacity connections and enhanced classrooms at Benedict College, Claflin University, the Clemson University Edisto Research Extension Center, Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, South Carolina State University, the University of South Carolina, and USC Beaufort. SCRA will provide financial and administrative support for the award.

The project will install high-speed connections and new campus routers at Benedict, the Clemson Edisto REC, Orangeburg-Calhoun Tech, and SC State. Classrooms with enhanced video communications capacity will be constructed at Benedict, Claflin, SC State, USC and USC Beaufort. Students will participate in real-time seminars and research presentations with faculty and students at universities around the state and nation.

The award will enhance the state’s cyberinfrastructure in support two active NSF projects, The South Carolina Project for Organ Biofabrication and a South Carolina-Tennessee partnership in advanced materials and systems biology. The increased connectivity complements the South Carolina Legislature’s investment in SC LightRail, a high-speed, high-capacity fiber optic network, and Clemson’s investment in C-Light, a fiber optic network directly connected to Internet2 and the National Lambda Rail. Faculty and students alike will benefit from improved access to national resources such as the TeraGrid and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In combination with connection to state and national research networks, enhanced classrooms will open communications channels for faculty to share expertise, tools and facilities that have the potential to advance discovery. The high-tech classrooms and improved connectivity supported by NSF will improve training, making graduates more competitive for the science and engineering workforce.
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About SC EPSCoR/IDeA
http://www.scepscoridea.org/
The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and Institutional Development Awards (IDeA) are federal-state-university partnerships designed to increase research capacity and competitiveness for federal R&D funds. Since 1990, SC EPSCoR/IDeA funds have enabled the hire of 102 junior, tenure-track faculty members in science and technology at South Carolina’s colleges and universities. SC EPSCoR/IDeA has supported research in disciplines such as biomedical engineering; neuroscience; alternative energy; nanomaterials; structural, chemical, and cellular biology; and environmental science bringing more than $185 million in federal research funding to the state. SCRA is the fiscal agent for SC EPSCoR/IDeA.

About SCRA
http://www.scra.org
SCRA is a global leader in applied research and commercialization services with its headquarters in South Carolina. SCRA collaborates to advance technology, providing knowledge-based solutions with assured outcomes to industry and government, with the help of research universities in SC, the US and around the world.