Beyond all the food, family and football we enjoy on Thanksgiving Day, there is also the deep understanding of what this day truly means. It’s a time for gathering with loved ones and reflecting on everything we are fortunate to have in our lives.
And while having our most vital human needs met is obviously at the top of the “being thankful” list, there are many other things in our daily lives for which we can and should give thanks.
Within the Ohio Technology Consortium, we’re reminded on a daily basis of how important technology resources are to our past, present and future. The proof decorates our very hallways and meshes into our daily routines in a seamless way.
But we don’t take it for granted. Not for a minute.
Our four consortium member organizations – the Ohio Supercomputer Center, OARnet, OhioLINK and eStudent Services – each deliver invaluable services to national and statewide communities through high performance computing, high-speed networking, resource sharing and online learning services.
For those of you who might be unfamiliar with these four organizations, take a look at what they’re doing 24/7, 365 and you just might start to see why their services are something for which we give thanks.
eStudent Services
The eStudent Services programs are designed to improve students’ access to higher education through e-learning and technology-enhanced education. It aggregates services and resources so Ohioans can better meet their learning potential.
The goal of the eTutoring Collaborative program is to have these vital services available to all of the more than 600,000 college and university students studying in Ohio.
OhioLearns is Ohio’s higher education statewide course catalog of distance learning courses and degrees. Over 115,000 students enrolled in Ohio public higher educations’ distance learning courses in fall of 2010. More than 112,000 Ohio college students have access to free online tutoring in algebra, anatomy and physiology, biology, chemistry, calculus, physics, statistics and writing.
OARnet
The Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARnet) connects our clients with affordable broadband service that provides them with increased access to worldwide resources. OARnet’s high-speed transport service flows through a lightning-fast 100 gigabit-per-second, 2,240-mile, fiber-optic backbone. That backbone supports entities within the education, healthcare, public broadcasting and government sectors.
High-speed connectivity can literally be a lifesaving tool, according to David Bailey, Morgan County’s NG911 coordinator. OARnet provides reliable, consistent connections for the county’s digital first-responder dispatching system.
“We’re not a huge county in terms of population and sometimes things trickle slowly down here,” Bailey said. “Since our system went live, we have had zero glitches, zero down time and zero things we would change.”
OhioLINK
Research can mean so many things in the information realm. OhioLINK’s rich array of resources for students, faculty and researchers at member institutions can be the key to incredible breakthroughs in science or agriculture, insights into social processes and even discoveries that lead to cures for diseases.
An illustration of the powerful nature of OhioLINK’s resources is how it provides Lynn Ulatowski, a Ph.D. graduate of Case Western Reserve, with access to critical journals and literature relevant to her research on Vitamin E. Her studies potentially could help patients diagnosed with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, ALS and Down syndrome.
“It is critical to read and understand what has been done,” Ulatowski said. “Literature searches and resource gathering through OhioLINK are standard to these steps.”
The Ohio Supercomputer Center
Have you heard of the Ohio Supercomputer Center? We all know the demand for computational resources grows by the minute, and OSC meets those demands head-on. In essence, OSC’s supercomputing, storage, research and educational resources support the academic and industrial communities with a robust shared infrastructure and proven expertise in advanced modeling, simulation and analysis.
One perfect example of how we are helping a national entity is in the way NASCAR and TotalSim are using OSC and its AweSim project to model aerodynamics to boost safety and performance on the racetrack.
“Understanding the aerodynamic behavior of the cars in traffic is crucial to ensuring the cars do not become overly aero sensitive and limit the racing quality,” said Eric Jacuzzi, an aerodynamics and vehicle performance engineer at the R&D Center for NASCAR.
Using customized software, Jacuzzi performs simulations critical to understanding competition and safety issues such as drag advantage, performance and downforce. Be sure to a look at the full story from our 2014-15 research report.
OH-TECH’s consortium members are responsible for delivering amazing next-generation technologies. This foundation sets the groundwork for a rich educational experience, dynamic innovations and game-changing discoveries. And it’s a consortium we’re very grateful to be part of.
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Oh and also, have a wonderful, warm Thanksgiving holiday.
