During the past year, LEARN has continued to build partnerships to enhance the strategic value of LEARN to Texas. LEARN is a very diverse and talented consortium with a history of success, but a focus on the future. Highlights from the past year include:
In 2012, the National Science Foundation ("NSF") solicited proposals for Campus Cyberinfrastructure - Network Infrastructure and Engineering Program (CC-NIE) grants, one component of which was "Science DMZ's" at local campuses. The intent of the program was to support activities at the local level such as... More
The Houston Community College (HCC), the tenth largest college in the country with 114,288 students, six colleges, and 5,000+ employees, faced the likelihood of significant cost increases in its network connectivity with the demise of Texas' HB2128 several years ago. That bill provided educational institutions in the Texas with much lower rates on telco circuits, including wide area network (WAN) circuits, and the Houston Community College System (HCCS) was concerned that those rates would increase significantly. HCC therefore embarked on a project to find alternative sources of network connectivity as well as to upgrade its network to meet the growing need for bandwidth within the district and to the Internet. More
Responding to the needs for mental health services of underserved clients in rural areas of its region, the Texas A&M Health Science Center's (TAMHSC) Telehealth Counseling Clinic (TCC) is providing telehealth counseling to four counties in southeast Texas. Delivered via videoconferencing equipment, mental health counseling is given to patients who would otherwise lack such services. More
In support of the K-12 students in Texas, the Texas Education Telecommunications Network (TETN) provides services to enhance the classroom experiences of students in school districts throughout the state that are supported through the 20 Education Service Centers (ESC) throughout Texas. As classroom teachers become ever more dependent on bandwidth to support their needs to deliver quality education, TETN continues to add bandwidth capacity to serve the ESCs, with four more members expanding to 10Gbps connections within the past year. Recognizing that network expansion means that additional management tools will be needed, TETN continues to improve its security and bandwidth management services as well as its video content platforms. More
Southern Methodist University, the nationally ranked university in downtown Dallas, has taken significant steps to achieve a new level of computational capabilities on its campus of 11,000 students. With strong programs in the humanities and sciences plus seven professional schools, SMU has recognized that the best path forward to advancing its research agenda is computationally-based research, not the traditional wet labs of the past. More