Hint: It's not named for Al Gore
The University of Guam has announced the completion of GOREX, the Guam Open Research and Education eXchange. UOG has spent 24 months putting the pieces of the system, which will allow Guam to connect to the Pacific Submarine Cable and connect to existing networks in Asia, the Americas, and Australia at very high speeds of internet.
The system is currently offered only to UOG students and faculty, but partners in its use may be created later. The ability to receive and send out data at a 100 gigabyte speed rate will take Guam's research and non-profit abilities to the next level, UOG president Robert Underwood predicted.
Using a model and infrastructure established by the University of Hawaii, a cyberteam from the University of Guam, with the help of two large National Science Foundation grants, and the Guam Telephone Authority brought in the high fiber optic speeds.
UOG commemorated the event by having a video conference between Underwood, Chief Information Officer Rommel Hidalgo and David Lassner, President of the University of Hawai’i System.
"It's Not named after Al Gore." Underwood said as he broke the ice with President Lassner as they talked about the possibilities GOREX will offer Guam and the University of Hawaii.
Chief Information Officer Hidalgo, a recent hire at UOG, talked about the problems faced at the university in the past. "Before our scientists had to send out a 1 Terrabyte hard drive in the mail." Took two weeks to get everything off it." But with the speeds of GOREX, it will take only a day. UOG has a 25 year contract with Hawaii to use the underwater cables, and the system will be operated a non-profit "cost recovery basis."
Underwood and Hidalgo said ongoing research on the Marianas Trench and at the UOG Marine Lab will greatly benefit since both depend on data intensive research.