April 2004
Ontario and Michigan R&E networks sign historic agreement
ORION and Merit Network, the Ontario and Michigan Research and Education (R&E) networks, have signed an historic agreement to interconnect across the Canada/U.S. border, collaborate on advanced networking technologies, and facilitate research in the Great Lakes region.
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ORION President Phil Baker (left) and Merit President Hunt Williams signed the agreement at the ORION head office in Toronto March 31, 2004, where Merit and ORION held a one-day summit.
"We are looking forward to future collaboration with ORION and with its participating institutions," said Hunt Williams, President of Merit." This agreement will extend our networks east and west around the Great Lakes and open the door to advanced collaborations in many fields.
"This agreement is a great beginning," said ORION President Phil Baker. "Interconnecting with Merit will not only join our two networks physically but will also facilitate exciting new collaborations in advanced networking in support of research and education in both Ontario and Michigan. "
The two networks plan to connect across the Canada/US border at Windsor/Detroit later in 2004, and at Sault Ste. Marie at a later date.
The one-day summit included meetings to discuss potential collaborations with leading researchers in particle physics, astrophysics, landscape and urban design, and telecommunications applications at the University of Toronto.
MichNet Director Mary McLaughlin and Backbone Engineering and Technical Support specialist Brian Cashman also met with ORION Project Director Sam Mokbel and his engineering team to plan the Merit-ORION interconnection.
The group also met with GTAnet chair Bob Gagne of York University and Hospital for Sick Kids Technical Director Chip Campbell, and discussed the new GTAnet Toronto-area R&E network and potential collaborations in genomics research.
The Toronto summit follows an earlier visit by ORION officials to Merit's head office in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Baker expects that the impact of the agreement will position the Ontario and Michigan organizations as key regional partners in reaching across the border to strengthen innovation, new discoveries and mutually beneficial research partnerships.
ORION is also interested in working with the RISQ network in Quebec, and NYSERnet in New York, to establish similar agreements, helping to expand the innovation “ring” around the entire Great Lakes.
Merit Network, Inc. ( http://www.merit.edu ), a non-profit corporation governed by Michigan's public universities, owns and operates America's first regional research and education network. It was founded in 1966, Merit supports the high-performance networking needs of Michigan's universities, colleges, K-12 schools, libraries, state government, health care, and other non-profit organizations.
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