Newsletter: US Ignite Application Summit, Agriculture Tech, more
Published: June 19, 2013
Summit to Demonstrate Next-Gen, Gigabit Applications
You’ve heard all the talk about gigabit networks, but what can we actually do with all that speed? Find out at the US Ignite Application Summit.
Set for Monday, June 24 through Wednesday, June 26 in Chicago, the US Ignite Application Summit will give the developers, communities, government officials, foundations and universities working with and interested in gigabit networks and the applications that will run on them a place to gather, learn and showcase their work.
As an event partner, Broadband Illinois will moderate a presentation “Chicago and the Illinois Gigabit Communities Challenge” at 11:15 a.m. on Monday, June 24. The session will convene current awardees of Governor Pat Quinn’s Illinois Gigabit Communities Challenge, including Gigabit Squared, the City of Aurora and the City of Evanston. John Tolva, Chief Technology Officer at the City of Chicago will also present on gigabit activity and the Chicago Broadband Challenge.
The Illinois Gigabit Communities Challenge was announced by Governor Quinn in February 2012 and offered $6 million in capital funding to companies or private-public partnerships that proposed innovative ways to connect at least 1,000 end users to gigabit level broadband. The first three awardees have been announced and more are expected to follow. To learn more about the Gigabit Communities Challenge, visit gigabit.illinois.gov.
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Executive Director Drew Clark: How Next-Gen Apps are Changing Society for the Better
The race to build ultra high-speed gigabit networks is on. From Kansas City to Chattanooga, everyone’s talking about “getting to a gig.” But what will we do with all that speed and why do we need it?
US Ignite, a non-profit organization funded in part by the National Science Foundation, is tackling this question. They’re fostering the development of next-generation applications for education, healthcare, energy and more. And they’re not just building applications for appli?cations sake. These apps are going to provide transformative public benefit to our society.
Next week, US Ignite will convene a summit in Chicago bringing together developers, entrepreneurs, technology companies, research universities and federal agencies to provide a first glance at these gigabit apps.
We’ll see demos on real-time emergency response systems that combine ultra-fast broadband and radar to improve hazardous weather warning and response. The project also focuses on aircraft surveillance by identifying and tracking small, low-flying aircraft by developing new detection algorithms that operate digitally on uncompressed, high-bandwidth radar data.
We’ll see a real-time audio-visual app for ambulances uses high-quality, robust data communications that let doctors interact with patients while they’re en route to the hospital. This app, called WiMed, is application aware and able to cross-layer and cross-application optimize when wireless connectivity changes due to ambulance location.
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Ag Students Embrace New Broadband Technologies at State FFA Convention in Springfield
The face of agriculture is changing with the advancement of internet technology, and the next generation of farmers appears to be more than willing to embrace it.
Thousands of FFA Chapter members convened in Springfield this month for the organization’s annual statewide conference – most with handheld devices in their pockets and the power to access any agriculture information instantly.
The business of farming is booming with potential thanks to these new applications, according to Bryan Barnett, FFA chapter advisor and agriculture teacher at Winchester High School.
Barnett said that internet technology has made a tremendous impact in Illinois agriculture. From the availability of on-demand information to GPS-guided equipment, the way farmers work is changing.
“A farmer can be out in the field and look on his phone as far as fertilizer, soil types, what chemicals to use,” he stated. “He can really look that up in a moment’s time and figure out what the problem is and the solution to it.”
Barnett tells his students that mobile apps can be a remarkable advantage in the field.
“They’re going to become more and more important as we move on,” Barnett said. “Once upon a time, information wasn’t in the palm of your hand like it is now. Farmers use this greatly on a regular basis.”
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MTC Communications Boosts Connection at Western Illinois University School of Agriculture
Learning capabilities at Western Illinois University’s School of Agriculture has received a major boost thanks to MTC Communications.
Through the Illinois Broadband Innovation Fund, the Colchester-based telecommunications outfit was awarded $35,000 toward the new fiber optic network.
WIU’s School of Agriculture is located approximately one-and-a-half miles north of the main campus.
“Up until last year, they had basically a dial-up service for their internet,” said Bill Buchanan, president of MTC Communications. “So anything that had to happen in their classroom had to be done on (main) campus. The labs and things done on the farm couldn’t be done in a broadband aspect.”
The main campus was already home to an extensive fiber network. MTC simply extended a line from that network to the agriculture facilities.
The new connection gives agriculture students at WIU the opportunity for distance learning and much more.
For example, the school regularly partners with swine management group Carthage Veterinary Service for educational opportunities.
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Broadband Extras and Upcoming Events