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Net-working: NU opens international research center to lead future Internet developments Wednesday, April 7, 1999
By: Emily Bittner http://dailynorthwestern.com In 1969, the nation listened to Neil Armstrong proclaim that he had taken a "giant leap for mankind." On Tuesday, a researcher in Singapore pioneered new ground in cyberspace when his image and words were beamed directly to Northwestern's Chicago campus. His words: "Hello, Joe. It's great to see you." Demonstrating a live videoconference with Singapore, University President Henry Bienen announced Tuesday the official opening of the International Center for Advanced Internet Research, a first-of-its-kind collaborative effort between NU and several technological corporations. Joined by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and executives from IBM, Ameritech and Cisco Systems, Bienen said researchers at iCAIR will create digital technologies for communications, business, education, medicine, engineering and entertainment. The center, 1890 Maple Ave., Evanston, was created as an extension of a 1994 effort between NU and several other research institutions to create the high-performance Metropolitan Research and Education Network. NU administrators announced their plans to create iCAIR last August. Despite the Internet's rapid growth, panelists said more research needs to be done in order to understand its complexity and enhance its applications. "The tools we have today are completely inadequate to describe the Internet," said Stephen Wolff, Cisco's executive director of advanced Internet initiatives. "There are genuine, fundamental and basic research issues at stake." Center administrators also said they plan to equip NU's dormitories with the powerful broad bandwidth used to transmit information from the center. "We think broad band ought to be prolific, ubiquitous and persistent so that anyone can tap in at any time," said iCAIR director Joel Mambretti. "There's an ambitious project under way to do some aggressive wiring in dormitories so that you can use broad band in your dorms." The center will help attract students to NU and give them unique hands-on-learning experience, Mambretti said. "Students find working on exciting, new, leading-edge projects quite enticing," Mambretti said. "Students will be able to learn the tools of their trade far in advance of just about anyone else in the world." Bienen said he was delighted NU is hosting the center. "In the 21st century, the Internet will play a much greater role in commerce, medicine and education," Bienen said. "This is a learning-by-doing phenomenon." Durbin said iCAIR will establish Chicago as a center for technology. "It will help stake out ground and territory in terms of the future for technology, science and engineering," he said. "I want Chicago and Illinois to be a crossroads of information." Durbin is sponsoring a bill to increase the federal government's investment in Internet research by $366 million and he wants Illinois to receive much of the funding. Research conducted at the center will go through a developmental stage, but it may reach consumers sooner than people think, Mambretti said. "If you remember the Internet as it was, right now it's not much like the Internet of 10 years ago," Wolff said. "The Internet of 10 years from now is going to look nothing like it is now." Panelists demonstrated some Dutch prototype systems which offer television programs on demand from three networks. Eventually, thousands of channels could be offered. News broadcasts would have the potential to be more context-rich on such a system because viewers will be able to immediately link to maps. In the future, watching television programs at scheduled times will be a "quaint model," Mambretti said. "If you want to see something, you can go see it. People can watch what they want whenever they want." |