Advanced Networking and Research Bulletins

This research bulletin explores the advanced networking issues and investments that colleges and universities that aspire to support their faculty and students in leading edge research and education activities must face in the near future. It is drawn from the work of the Advanced Networking Services Work Group at the University of California, which was charged with evaluating the current state of UC’s networking infrastructure, identifying best practices in global networking activities, and making recommendations to position UC for competitive advantage. The author served as chair of the Work Group. 

Citation for this work: McCredie, Jack. “Advanced Network Services: Current Issues in Higher Education” (Research Bulletin, Issue 9). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

This research bulletin explores how to develop, deploy, and extend cyberinfrastructure assets within higher education—both within and across institutions. As research becomes increasingly computational, data-intensive, and interdisciplinary, innovative approaches for functional cyberinfrastructure models become ever more important. This bulletin describes a model that was developed at one institution and then deployed across institutions, with the goal of addressing issues as diverse as the need for simulation systems rather than wet labs, insufficient computational research support to help an institution compete for top-notch faculty, and astronomical spikes in power and cooling demands.

Citation for this work: Alvarez, Rosio. “Developing and Extending a Cyberinfrastructure Model” (Research Bulletin, Issue 5). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

This research bulletin examines the ways many research universities govern their IT activities, explores some inherent problems in these processes, identifies several good practices, and suggests changes that may improve the current state of the art. It draws on research conducted by MIT and ECAR on IT alignment and governance; information submitted to the EDUCAUSE Core Data Service survey; the results of an extensive review of IT governance at the University of California, Berkeley; a one-day governance workshop hosted by the Common Solutions Group; the work of a project team participating in the IT Leaders Project; and the observations and results of several external review committees on which the author has served.

This research bulletin provides policymakers with an introduction to the evolving national cyberinfrastructure, discusses the role that new networking and enabling technologies play in integrating institutional research capabilities, and describes the impact these technologies may have on today's higher education research and on campus IT planning.

Bioinformatics applies principles of information sciences and technologies to complex life sciences data. Life sciences research and education are increasingly dependent on bioinformatics and advanced information technologies in order to support their experimental approaches. This research bulletin provides an overview of the opportunities, challenges, and strategies for information technology organizations to optimally facilitate bioinformatics research and broader life sciences development efforts in higher education.

Research is fundamental to colleges and universities. The next generation of IT infrastructure for research includes grid computing and cyberinfrastructure. Leading-edge scientists are reconceptualizing the research infrastructure that will allow them to push the frontiers of knowledge and tackle more complex problems, such as the human genome, brain science, and high-energy physics. This Research Bulletin describes grid computing and details the issues institutions must address to capitalize on its promise.