Inter-Campus and Intra-Campus Cyber Connectivity
Vermont Internet2 UCAN:
A New Era of Collaboration
The Vermont Internet2 Unified Community Anchor Network (UCAN) will usher in a new era of education for Vermonters through enhanced collaboration between educational institutions both within Vermont and around the globe.
Recognizing that many of Vermont’s educational institutions (schools, libraries and museums) are located in areas that are underserved by existing fiber optic broadband networks,
- VT EPSCoR will leverage support from existing federal and state programs (i.e. USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, and ConnectVT) and partner with telecommunication providers to promote affordable solutions for Internet2-class (>100Mbps) broadband access for all of Vermont's educational institutions.
- In addition, VT EPSCoR will provide enhanced inter-campus connectivity to the Vermont State College System, including all 12 Community College of Vermont (CCV) locations.
To make effective use of the new broadband infrastructure, VT EPSCoR has created a new Cyber Education Specialist position that will travel across the state to:
- Encourage the integration of broadband technologies into existing education outreach programs;
- Foster the creation of new collaborative educational opportunities made possible or enhanced by higher bandwidth connectivity; and
- Leverage Vermont's strengths along with its statewide vision for a more technologically-adept workforce to champion innovative broadband-enabled activities that are uniquely suited to meet the needs of Vermonters.
Through these integrated and highly leveraged efforts, a cyber-enabled community consisting of researchers, educators, and learners to share resources and best practices relating to the integration of broadband capabilities will emerge. This community will ultimately:
- Allow researchers to seek out new or enhance existing collaborations and share large amounts of data quickly;
- Enable educators to enhance their curricula with interactions with remote experts or other classrooms; and
- Provide all Vermonters with greater access to distance-learning programs across the country and to government services — both of which are increasing their use of the Internet for outreach and application materials.
 | This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. EPS-1107945. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. |