NSF PR 01-65 - August 27, 2001
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Earthquake Engineering Network: Design Goes to
Illinois-Led Team
Development of a national cyber-network for earthquake
engineering research will begin in earnest with a
$10 million award from the National Science Foundation
(NSF) to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The award launches the design and implementation of
the George E. Brown, Jr., Network for Earthquake Engineering
Simulation (NEES) which, when completed in 2004, will
allow multiple researchers to share facilities, equipment
and data via a high-speed Internet grid.
In developing the network, the university's National
Center for Supercomputing Applications will partner
with Argonne National Laboratory, also in Illinois,
the University of Michigan, the University of Southern
California and the TeraScale, LLC, company of New
Mexico. The team recently completed a six-month scoping
study to prepare for the design phase.
"The goal is to create a collaborative research network
by linking researchers and engineering testing facilities
across the United States and providing them with the
latest computational tools," said Priscilla Nelson,
NSF division director for civil and mechanical systems.
"We expect this network to speed the simulations,
experiments and data analysis that lead to better
seismic design and hazard mitigation."
NEES will allow researchers to share and remotely operate
experimental equipment at more than 20 advanced earthquake
engineering facilities linked to the network and to
more easily share data and computations. The equipment--including
shake tables, geotechnical centrifuges, a tsunami
wave basin, and laboratory and field stations--models
and analyzes earthquake forces and helps engineers
design buildings and infrastructure to withstand those
forces. Early this year NSF awarded $45 million to
10 institutions to build and upgrade earthquake engineering
equipment in anticipation of the shared-use network.
A community-led consortium will be selected in 2004
to manage and operate NEES through 2014.
For more information, see: http://www.eng.nsf.gov/nees
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fundamental research and education across all fields
of science and engineering, with an annual budget
of about $4.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states,
through grants to about 1,800 universities and institutions
nationwide. Each year, NSF receives about 30,000 competitive
requests for funding, and makes about 10,000 new funding
awards.
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