The UA, USC and other institutions are building the future of communications using light.

Researchers from the University of Arizona, the University of Southern California and seven other institutions are attempting to save the Internet by making it cheaper, faster and better.

With the rising demand for Internet access outstripping the existing Internet capacity, scientists are turning to optoelectronic technology – transmitting data using light. The technology is well-established but is still being developed in order to handle the increasing data loads that users require.

In 2008, the National Science Foundation gave a five-year, $18.5 million grant to establish an engineering research center that is based at the UA and unites it with USC and the other universities in a collaboration known as the Center for Integrated Access Networks, or CIAN.

CIAN's goal is to solve the data crisis by bringing optoelectronic technology to its full potential.

"CIAN is aimed at transforming the Internet to a high-speed network that uses less energy, is more reliable so that it reconfigures itself around network impairments, is scalable to make it suitable for a growing number of end users, and is not too costly," said Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and aasers in the College of Optical Sciences at the UA.

"The UA and USC and seven other university partners are working together on improving the reliability of the network as well as the network speed and cost," he said.

Other partner institutions in the CIAN are the University of California, San Diego; the California Institute of Technology; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University; Norfolk State University and Tuskegee University.

"We're using optics to enable higher capacity communications," said Alan Willner, Steven and Kathryn Sample Chair in Engineering of the USC Dornsife College. Willner and Columbia professor Keren Bergman are leading the system and networking research for the group.

"I can send 10 gigabits per second across the backbone of the national network," Willner said. "The problem is, how do you get 10 gigabits to every home, every access point?"

Now in its fourth year, the nine-university collaboration has made important breakthroughs in transforming the way large amounts of data are transmitted.

In a paper published earlier this year in Optics Communications, a team of researchers including Willner and lead author Hacene Mahieddine Chaouch, a graduate research assistant at the UA, developed three new methods of restoring degraded optical signals – a key hurdle to overcome when transmitting big chunks of data.

Willner said he hopes that one day, computer terminals will come equipped with chips that use these methods to clean up damaged data.

Said Peyghambarian: "The Internet continues to transform people's lives, and collaborative projects like CIAN, allowed by NSF and industrial support, allows multiple schools around the world working together to push the boundaries of human knowledge."

Keren Bergman gets as aggravated as anyone by how long it takes to email a video of her son's recital to her parents. Unlike most people, Bergman, a professor of electrical engineering and department chair at the engineering school, can do something about it.

Bergman specializes in optical data, and her central research project involves the fiber optic network--the portion of the Web that consists of optical fibers over which data can be sent in the form of light waves. Fiber optics can handle large files--including the huge files of high-definition video--faster than traditional copper wires. Even so, the fiber optic network as it is currently configured isn't very efficient.

"It's like one big, dumb pipe," Bergman says, adding that not much progress can be made if the pipe doesn't smarten up. Internet traffic around the world reached 176 billion gigabytes in 2009, according to a report from the networking firm Cisco Systems Inc., an enormous amount of data for a network developed in the 1970s for a few thousand researchers.

As the country presses forward in developing green energy and Los Angeles strives to become a hub of clean technology, UCLA Associate Professor Diana Huffaker noticed there was one thing still missing: a program to train the future leaders of environmental industry in L.A.

So she created it -- and, working with about 20 other professors, won support for it: $3 million in stimulus funding via a highly competitive grant from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship (IGERT) award.

The Clean Energy for Green Industry Fellowship, designed to develop leaders in environmental energy, could start as soon as the upcoming winter quarter. It will grant Ph.D. students a $33,000 stipend for pursuing coursework in the science, business and policies of clean technology.

"Over the course of the five-year program, we'll graduate 33 Ph.D.s with expertise in energy storage, energy harvesting and energy conservation," Huffaker said.

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From Meredith Kupinski.  A Science Night for elementary students was organized by OSC Professor Scott Tyo at Robins Elementary School last Friday evening.  Eleven exhibitors from UA science departments, local industry, and local science clubs participated to share fun demonstrations of science principles with more than 150 students and their families. OSC would like to thank graduate student Samantha White for making the index of refraction an unforgettable lesson by showing a Pyrex beaker disappear in Wesson cooking oil.  OSC undergraduate Devinna Fleming proved lasers are used for more than just pointers by broadcasting her iPod music through a fiber optic. Thanks for sharing your interest in science with young students.  Also thanks to Zachary Denny, Jennifer Harwell, and Kali Wilson for assistance with the preparations.

Top students from throughout the United States and Mexico come to the UA to participate in 10 weeks of intensive research training with some of the nation's top researchers in their fields.

By Rebecca Ruiz-McGill, University Communications
August 10, 2009

Eighty-six of the United States' and Mexico's top undergraduates, most from underrepresented populations, are participating in 10 weeks of intensive research at The University of Arizona.

The UA's Graduate College Summer Research Opportunity Program for undergraduate students, or SROP, is a collaboration among UA faculty and colleges to prepare the next generation of scientists for graduate school.

The program provides research opportunities and other benefits, including funding for U.S. students accepted into the program.

The program is funded through a variety of UA and federal programs including the Minority Access to Research Careers program, the U.S. Department of Education's Ronald E. McNair Achievement program, the National Institutes of Health Minority Health Disparities Program and several optical sciences grants.

Students from the top Mexican universities are part of the Mexico Science and Engineering Research Program, which provides funding for its students.

The UA recruits scholars from universities throughout the U.S. and Mexico based on their high academic achievement, research experience and a desire to pursue graduate education in the fields of science, education, health, engineering, humanities and the social sciences.

"It is extremely rewarding to see the caliber of these students, their love for learning and the hard work they are willing to put into their research and other learning opportunities we provide through the program," said Maria Teresa Velez, associate dean of the UA Graduate College. "Many come from poor backgrounds and the academic distance they have traveled to be where they are foretell the great accomplishments they are likely to make."

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