University Park, Pa. -- The recent completion of a massive, multi-year, multi-million dollar project to expand and upgrade the telecommunications infrastructure at University Park has made several important research projects possible and a large number of new services available to the Penn State community.
By greatly magnifying the bandwidth of Internet connections throughout the University and increasing the number of places these connections are available, the network expansion has made it possible for researchers to do such things as search digital resources more quickly and transmit video and three-dimensional images to colleagues around the world. The project also, for the first time, extended high-speed Internet access to numerous buildings throughout the University, including the dairy complex and many classroom facilities. This has allowed agricultural researchers to access digital data transmitted to the network from transponders on dairy cows and students to converse with experts from all parts of the globe.
As an overall upgrade and expansion of the University's telecommunications infrastructure, funded by the Pennsylvania Department of General Services (DGS), the seven-year, $15.8 million project involved the installation of 2,000 miles of telecommunications wiring and upgraded the technical capabilities in more than 250 technology classrooms and 106 buildings at University Park. In addition, new fiber optic cabling enabling high-speed Internet access was extended to approximately 25 more buildings, including agricultural facilities.
"The process of awarding large sums of money to purchase telecommunications equipment and other electronics for a project of this nature, in addition to funding the construction aspects of the project, was a bold step for both the University and the commonwealth when the project first began in 1995," said Steve Updegrove, senior director of Telecommunications and Networking Services. "We understand that this process now serves as a model that can be applied by DGS for other such projects."
Updegrove added that the enhanced telecommunications infrastructure has widespread benefits for all of the University's research activities, including the assessment of national watersheds; the design of cutting-edge architecture; international collaboration; aerospace engineering; biogenetics; and more.
"We live in an era when research effort requires collection and exchange of enormous volumes of data," said Updegrove. "The expanded infrastructure means that Penn State can now more easily accomplish such things."
Faculty, staff and students also can access important resources such as digital library information, University policy data and employee benefit materials more easily, according to Updegrove.
"With the completion of the project, all Penn State community members have higher quality digital services and better access to more information."
Peter Tozer, assistant professor of animal science in the College of Agricultural Sciences, attests to the value of the newly expanded network. With the extension of fiber to agricultural facilities such as the cow barns, Tozer said that research on the metabolic and milk production processes of livestock is being done in ways that would have been impossible before the wiring took place.
Tozer's research involves using a computerized dairy system to tabulate the daily activity of cows along with daily milk yield. Data is recorded from a transponder attached to a band on the leg of the cow that calculates each movement made by the animal. The cow's identification number, milk production and activity information then is transmitted via the Internet each time the cow enters the milking parlor and is milked.
"The ability to use this data to detect health problems could decrease economic losses in the dairy industry due to the decrease in milk yield, as well as labor and veterinary expenses caused by clinical and sub-clinical diseases," said Tozer. "Because the technology was previously unavailable, there was limited research to show any health effects resulting from a cow's daily activity."
Concurrently, Gabriella Varga, distinguished professor of animal science, is using transponder technology to monitor cow digestive functions by their feeding behavior.
"The access to the Internet has been a wonderful tool for us in this regard," said Varga. "The technology makes it possible for us to know the duration and the number of times a cow feeds -- information that can help farmers know a cow's breeding potential, among other things."
University Park students also are benefiting from new services made possible by the infrastructure expansion. For example, project funds enabled the University to create a state-of-the-art interactive videoconferencing classroom in 108 Wartik that uses a high-speed connection to facilitate conferences. The highly automated classroom features custom-made student workstations and cutting-edge equipment such as automated cameras, microphones and rear screen projection.
Chris Churchill, research associate in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, teaches an advanced level course in 108 Wartik, which incorporates course materials and instruction he designed around the technical capabilities of the classroom. His class provides the students with the opportunity to participate in discussions, via videoconferencing technology, with experts from worldwide organizations such as NASA and the SETI Institute.
During each videoconference, Churchhill explains, students can see the guest expert on the large screens in the front of the room and the expert can view the entire class from his or her location. When a student asks the expert a question, the automated control system changes from a classroom view to a tight shot of the student speaking.
"I could never achieve this kind of learning atmosphere by traditional lecturing," Churchill added. "The guest speakers have said it's a wonderful experience to be able to interact with students in such a direct manner."
"This project has helped pave the way for further delivery of high-speed networking, state-of-the-art videoconferencing and other leading-edge telecommunications services within classrooms, offices, conference rooms and laboratories," said Updegrove. "This infrastructure is critical to Penn State's use of the latest networking technologies for research and learning, and for support of future Internet applications."
For more information, visitt http://tns.its.psu.edu/projects/dgsproject/dgsproject.html