Gigabit application prototypes to help cities and communities serve citizens better
NSF awards nearly $12 million to expand innovation ecosystem for next-generation Internet applications Credit and Larger Version |
The United States lags behind most developed countries in terms of high-speed Internet availability. Though there are signs this is changing, insufficient investment in gigabit networks--those capable of 1,000 megabits per second, roughly 30 times faster than the networks commonly available today--threatens to limit U.S. leadership in Internet applications and services.
In June 2012, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with other federal agencies, announced US Ignite, an initiative seeking to promote U.S. leadership in the development and deployment of next-generation gigabit applications with the potential for significant societal impact.
Today, NSF announced nearly $12 million for US Ignite awards that build on the initiative's successes.
The 11 new awards expand US Ignite to new cities and regions, support novel application prototypes in areas of national and societal importance--such as healthcare, energy, and education and learning--and advance the goal of creating connected, digitally empowered communities.
The effort coincides with the National Smart Cities Initiative, announced today, and is part of NSF's broader commitment to support the technologies needed to foster the smart and connected communities of the future.
"NSF's experience with US Ignite over the last two years has shown that local communities and regions are sources of considerable innovation," said Jim Kurose, head of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at NSF. "With support from NSF and other public and private partners, dozens of gigabit application prototypes have been piloted, developed and launched, often in partnership with community anchor institutions such as universities, libraries and municipal service providers."
Examples of successful US Ignite-supported gigabit application prototypes include smart policing technologies pioneered in Flint, Mich.; a fitness application that recently secured venture funding; and a remote sensing system that observes the lower part of the atmosphere and enables real-time analytics allowing meteorologists to provide earlier warnings to the public about severe weather threats.
Through this latest stage of the initiative, NSF awarded two large, three-year grants totaling nearly $9 million to US Ignite, Inc.--a public-private partnership spanning over 40 cities and communities across the nation--and to the Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to openness, innovation, and participation in the Internet.
These two new projects are:
- Sustainable Ecosystem of Smart Applications: Glenn Ricart of US Ignite, Inc., serves as principal investigator.
- Mozilla Hive in Gigabit Cities: Living Laboratories for Next-Generation Learning Applications: Christopher Lawrence and Ben Moskowitz of the Mozilla Foundation, serve as principal investigators.
NSF also awarded five smaller, three-year projects, ranging from $200,000 to nearly $600,000. These awards support the development of innovative application prototypes that leverage or enhance advanced networking technologies--including software-defined networking and the ultra-high-speed Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI)--and apply them to healthcare, energy, education and learning, advanced manufacturing, and transportation.
The five new projects are:
- DISTINCT: A Distributed Multi-Loop Networked System for Wide-Area Control of Large Power Grids: Yufeng Xin of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Aranya Chakrabortty of North Carolina State University and Kaiqi Xiong of Rochester Institute of Technology serve as principal investigators.
- Industrial Cloud Robotics across Software Defined Networks: Malathi Veeraraghavan of the University of Virginia and Andrea Fumagalli of the University of Texas, Dallas, serve as principal investigators.
- Enabling Connected Vehicle Applications through Advanced Network Technology: James Martin of Clemson University serves as principal investigator.
- Cloud Computing and Software-Defined Networking Enhancements to Support Collaborative, Problem-based STEM Education: Shivakumar Sastry of the University of Akron and Aniruddha Gokhale of Vanderbilt University serve as principal investigators.
- Remote Management of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) Patients Using Utah Telehealth Network: Christopher Butson of the University of Utah serves as principal investigator.
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Aaron Dubrow, NSF, (703) 292-4489,
Program Contacts
Bruce Kramer, NSF, (703) 292-5348,
Joseph B. Lyles, NSF, (703) 292-8950,
Wendy Nilsen, NSF, (703) 292-2568,
Related Websites
US Ignite Program Solicitation: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15508/nsf15508.htm
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2015, its budget is $7.3 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 48,000 competitive proposals for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $626 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
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