News

CommerceNet, a global, not-for-profit organization leading the advancement of e-commerce worldwide, has chosen the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), as one of two institutions to host its Next-Generation Internet (NGI) Application Centers. The NGI Centers will promote the development, incubation, and demonstration of new business and consumer applications that will take advantage of the evolving Internet.

"The selection of the two Application Centers shows our commitment to keep California at the forefront in the effort to convert research and development into commercially viable high technology," Governor Gray Davis said. "The Next Generation Internet program will help companies be more productive, innovative and create jobs in the Golden State."

The Southern California NGI Center (CalNGI) at SDSC, in collaboration with the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (known as Cal-(IT)2), will focus on applications in the areas of telemedicine, telemanufacturing, wireless networking, network and application performance measurement, distance learning, Web marketing, peer-to-peer networking, and high-performance distributed computing.

"This new center will allow us to provide Californians access to advanced computational resources previously available only through federal programs to national user communities," said Mike Vildibill, Director of CalNGI and Deputy Director of SDSC. "These activities will complement SDSC's mission to deploy leading-edge information technologies for bioinformatics, environmental sciences, and critical data-driven application areas."

"SDSC is a world leader in developing and applying advanced technologies to scientific problems," said Fran Berman, director of SDSC. "Scientists working on the frontiers of biology and biomedicine, environmental sciences, and other fields depend on SDSC's computer networks to transfer data between remote sensors, research labs, and information archives across the country."

The University of California, Berkeley will host the Northern California NGI Center, in collaboration with the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Fisher Center for Information Technology and Marketplace Transformation (CITM) in the Haas School of Business.

Through a partnership with the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency's Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation, CommerceNet has granted $700,000 to the universities for the start-up and operating costs of the two NGI Centers. These Centers will provide a collaborative environment designed to accelerate the development of eBusiness applications, encourage new Internet-related start-up businesses, and test new NGI infrastructure services. CommerceNet expects that between 25 and 40 small businesses will use the Application Centers during the next year, and that each Center will work with a minimum of eight to 10 development projects annually.

CommerceNet has a two-part initiative within its NGI Application Program to further the development of the Next-Generation Internet. In addition to funding the NGI Application Centers, CommerceNet is awarding grants ranging from $100,000 to $300,000 to companies and individuals developing NGI applications. The grant recipients will use the Northern California Center and Southern California Center to develop, test and showcase their NGI applications.

"California's Next Generation Internet Application Centers will be a unique enabler for NGI application development," said Mark Resch, President and CEO of CommerceNet. "By supporting the NGI Centers and NGI Application development, the CommerceNet Consortium will not only have a lasting impact on the Next Generation Internet, but also on the California economy."

Research groups already at SDSC include investigators with the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research, who study and extend the performance of high-speed networks such as Internet2's Abilene, and the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), which conducts and coordinates efforts to maintain and extend the infrastructure of the global Internet.

"I am very pleased to see this award go to SDSC," said Dr. Larry Smarr, Director of Cal-(IT)2. Our Institute's faculty at UCSD and UCI are conducting basic and applied research on future telecommunications technologies - photonics, multi-lambda switching, wireless internet, microsensors - which through our collaboration with SDSC can assure continual upgrading of the capabilities of the Next-Generation Internet Application Center."

For more information about the Southern California NGI Center at SDSC, see http://ww.calngi.org/.

For further information about the NGI Application Centers or the NGI Program, please contact Molly Petrick, NGI Application Development Manager, CommerceNet, < molly@commerce.net,> 408-446-1260 x234, or Richard Jullig, NGI Program Manager, CommerceNet, < richard@commerce.net, 408-446-1260 x286.

SDSC is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego, and the leading-edge site of the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI). As a national laboratory for computational science and engineering, SDSC is funded by the National Science Foundation through NPACI and other federal agencies, the State and University of California, and private organizations. For more information, see http://www.sdsc.edu/ or contact David L. Hart, SDSC External Relations, 858-534-8314, dhart@sdsc.edu

About CommerceNet

CommerceNet is a global, not-for-profit organization of leading business, government, technology, and academic minds working together on the advancement of eCommerce worldwide. As guided by its partners and sponsors, CommerceNet focuses on six initiative areas: Evolving Supply Chains; Next Generation Internet; Security and Internet Payment; Government, Public Policy and Advocacy; CommerceNet Investment Initiatives; and Pervasive and Wireless Internet Access. In these areas, CommerceNet is developing important new technologies and practices that will chart the course for the way companies conduct business. For more information, see http://www.commerce.net/.

CONTACTS:
David L. Hart, SDSC, dhart@sdsc.edu, 858-534-8314
Molly Petrick, CommerceNet, molly@commerce.net, 408-446-1260 x234
Richard Jullig, CommerceNet, richard@commerce.net, 408-446-1260 x286