In today’s fast-paced educational landscape, researchers, teachers, and students seek seamless sharing of STEM knowledge and collaborative opportunities across institutions but face several daunting operational and security challenges.
How can a coherent learning experience, early access to science research data, and the ability to collaborate with teachers and researchers be securely provided to students as early as possible in their educational careers?
The answer could be an Education DMZ. This innovative network concept has the potential to provide improved access to data, applications, instruments, and collaboration for teachers, researchers, university and community college students, and high schoolers.
Sun Corridor Network (SCN), Arizona’s research and education network, is developing an innovative approach to cyberinfrastructure (CI) and information technology (IT) targeted toward making science universally available – in other words, the democratization of science. This will initially be applied by SCN at testbeds in Arizona. SCN is working with other research and education networks across the country, along with the Quilt, to regionalize and nationalize this concept.
“Access for students at the community college and high school levels means they can start the journey to becoming interested in science and even start collaborating with scientists and researchers,” says James McCabe, an infrastructure architect and strategist leading special science projects at Sun Corridor Network. “Then, by the time they get to the university level, they have all those years of knowledge and experience to build on.”
How does an Education DMZ work?
The Education DMZ concept builds on Science DMZs, which are designed to provide high-throughput, low-latency network paths for very large science data sets, usually across university research centers and national labs. Science DMZs achieve this by tailoring cyberinfrastructure and IT to support high-performance data flows.
Education DMZs operate in a similar fashion, but instead of focusing on high-performance data flows, they are tailored to address challenges faced by science at the community college and high school levels – stable hardware and software platforms, intuitive and easy-to-use applications to store, access, transfer and present science data, and tools for collaboration.
They can be accessed by STEM teachers and researchers, opening new ways to expose students to science data earlier in their academic careers.
Implications for community colleges and high schools
For community colleges and high schools, improved science delivery is based on providing a stable, persistent, and highly usable platform (hardware, software, apps, cybersecurity, and IT) that will make access to science easy and consistent.
SCN will be working with universities, community colleges, and high schools to develop standards and a reference architecture for science delivery and collaboration. As Arizona’s research and education network, SCN is well positioned to provide Education DMZ as a service, making it easier for schools to adopt and use.
Partnerships with other Research and Education Networks
Sun Corridor Network is currently working with NevadaNet and The Quilt members to define and develop the Education DMZ concept.
“As a member of a national community of research and education organizations striving to bridge the digital divide and increase access to science for underrepresented communities, The Quilt believes that the Education DMZ will be an important stepping stone to bridge this gap,” said Jen Leasure, President, The Quilt. “An Education DMZ creates a platform for other K-20 environments to reduce the burden on educators accessing materials, data, and tools to educate the scientists and researchers of tomorrow. Our Quilt members, non-profit regional research and education networks, are well-positioned to enable this type of platform in collaboration with their education institution partners.”
Scotty Strachan’s research engineering group at NevadaNet has been developing a “Research & Teaching” DMZ since 2018. In 2023, three University of Nevada, Reno computer science faculty members, one high school teacher, and one community college faculty member were able to teach five courses with more than three hundred students total that included methods and materials that would never be permitted on a campus enterprise network.
“Teachers had a high degree of administrative control over their isolated virtual hosts, student environments, and weekly curriculum,” Scotty Strachan said. “Researchers were able to experiment with new hardware and test computing performance changes on dedicated systems. However, these services require a high degree of technical ownership by the engineering group and department-level facilitation for daily/weekly support to instructors and students.”
Applying the Education DMZ to Precision Agriculture Research
SCN was recently awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to expand wired and wireless networks and Internet of Things (IoT) systems to Yuma precision agriculture research farms. They plan to apply the Education DMZ concept to this project. The grant will support research in precision agriculture in Yuma, with participation from Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and University of Arizona at the university level, Arizona Western College at the community college level, and Yuma School District at the high school level.
Agriculture is being taught at the high school, community college, and university levels in Yuma, so this is an excellent opportunity to develop, test, and demonstrate how an Education DMZ could impact student performance and prepare them for careers in precision agriculture by providing a coherent learning experience across high school, community college, and university levels.
A coherent learning experience, early access to science research data, and the ability to collaborate with teachers and researchers are all part of SCN’s goal to democratize access to science with the Education DMZ.
Yuma, AZ, lies in the Southwestern corner of Arizona near the borders of California and Mexico. Known as one of the sunniest places on Earth, Yuma is home to one of the most important agricultural regions in the country, with over 10,000 acres of irrigated farmland producing over 90% of America’s winter vegetables. Both the Colorado River and the Gila River flow through the county and are sources of irrigation for local farms.
The precision agriculture program in Yuma is an excellent example of an Education DMZ learning environment that provides students with early access to science data and exposure to precision agriculture tools like sensors and drones. The Education DMZ will allow research farms in Yuma to collect, analyze, and share soil, crop, and environmental data with agricultural science education collaborators, leading to increased crop yields and reduced impact on natural resources.
Data from precision agriculture research, such as water usage, temperatures, humidity, and pollutants, developed at research farms in Mesa, Valley, and Arizona Western College Farms, could be applied to a database that would give STEM and precision agriculture classes at Arizona Western College and Yuma high schools access to a subset of the data. This would allow teachers to use actual field data in their classes and enable collaboration between students, teachers, and researchers at the university level.
The Education DMZ will give students across Arizona early exposure to resources in high-demand industries, like precision agriculture. Together, we aim to put science data into the hands of students as early as possible in their academic careers, enabling collaboration and democratizing access to science.
About Sun Corridor Network
Sun Corridor Network, Arizona’s research and educational network, provides gigabit-speed, reliable connectivity, and access to the national research and education community via Internet2. The network creates direct connections between subscribers, provides opportunities for collaboration and information sharing, and makes available national and international educational resources. Sun Corridor Network is a collaborative effort sponsored by the Arizona Board of Regents’ three state universities— Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona. Arizona public schools, colleges, and libraries, as well as state universities and museums, are eligible to subscribe to the Sun Corridor Network. Learn more at suncorridor.org.
