Engineering and construction of the latest extension of the campus high-performance research network, called YosemiteConnect, has begun.
This project is a partnership between UC Merced and the non-profits Nature Bridge and CENIC, as well as the National Park Service to build a new, fixed wireless microwave network that will provide researchers operating at partner sites and remote field stations unprecedented networks speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second.
Initially, the system will provide high-speed network to Nature Bridge’s new $50M educational facility, where UC Merced will conduct summer programs. It will also allow future expansion to multiple sites in the central Sierras, and provide path diversity in emergencies for both Yosemite National Park and UC Merced. And perhaps most importantly, each site will host environmental sensors and cameras that link to the San Diego Supercomputer Center’s WiFire project to use advanced artificial intelligence and supercomputer-driven simulations to pinpoint and predict emerging wildfires.
