Center for the Study of the Origin and
Structure of Matter
(COSM)
Presented at
University of Texas, Brownsville
March 1, 2002
Howard Brown
Hampton University…
• Is one of just over 100 Historically Black
Colleges and Universities
• ~approximately 6,100 students
• mostly African-American
• privately endowed
Historically Black Colleges and
Universities
• Performing with very limited resources, HBCUs
are responsible for the undergraduate and graduate
careers of:
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40% of this country’s Black college graduates
75% of all Black Ph.Ds
46% of all Black business executives
50% of Black engineers
80% of Black federal judges
85% of all Black doctors
75% of Black military officers
75% of the nation’s Black veterinarians
Increased Diversification
• Hampton University has educated students from
four continents around the globe.
– Some countries our students have been from include:
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Kenya
Ghana
Japan
China
Armenia
France
Myanmar
Spain
Greece
Brazil
And many others
– We’ve also had students from various Native American
heritages
Network Stats and Capabilities
• Hampton university operates for the
moment on a DS3 connection:
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45 mbps
Internet2 affiliate
Local loop connects to an ATM OC3 hub
Connects to internet2 through Network
Virginia
• Goes from VA-tech’s OC12 to the MAX(OC48)
Network Stats Continued…
• Local loop shadowed and protected by a
Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET)
Ring
• Our servers work with 10/100 combos for
local networks
– Connected via a 1 gig NIC through copper
lines to a 1 gig fiber back plane connecting the
campus
Network Stats Continued…
• Desktops connect to 10/100 switches (Cisco
1900, 2900 and 3500 series switches) via copper
• All buildings are connected via fiber to a Cisco
6509 multi-layer switch capable of
LAN/WAN/MAN convergence on a single
platform
• Five of these multi-layered switches provide a
primary and redundant path to a CISCO 7000
series router over a 1 gig fiber backbone
Center for the Study of the Origin and
Structure of Matter organization at HU
COSM
CPP
Center for Particle Physics
ATLAS*
•* Denotes HU group
QUARKNET*
IVDGL
The Purpose of ATLAS
• The purpose of the ATLAS project is the
design, construction, operation and physics
exploitation of a large general-purpose
detector (ATLAS)
• It is to be installed in one of the interaction
regions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
at CERN
ATLAS
• We are the ATLAS group operating at Hampton University
• Over 1,800 researchers in 33 different countries are
participating in the ATLAS collaboration
• There are 27 universities
and 3 national laboratories
that make up the US
ATLAS group
ATLAS
• The US ATLAS Project is supported by the
United States Department of Energy (DOE)
and the National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)
serves as the main Project office of US
ATLAS
Hampton’s Role in US ATLAS
• Our two main focuses at HU regarding
ATLAS are on both the hardware and
software level
• At Hampton, we’re building and testing
parts for the inner detector of ATLAS
– We construct straws and components for small,
medium and large detector modules
Hampton’s ATLAS involvement
• In addition to the construction of these modules,
we’re also doing simulations on data
– These simulations are being done remotely at BNL
– All the code for the analysis and hardware is housed on
Linux boxes at BNL
– One of the reasons we’ve needed this fast connection
before our iVDGL involvement was to help the transfer
of this data between Hampton and BNL
Quarknet
• Quarknet is a teacher professional
development program funded by the NSF
and the DOE
• It’s purpose is to reach middle and high
school students through the intense training
of teachers
• The Project office for Quarknet is FermiLab
Quarknet
• Teachers work on particle physics
experiments during a summer
– These teachers along with scientists work on
introducing some aspects of their research into
their classrooms
Quarknet
• Quarknet does more than just allow teachers to
work on frontier physics during the summer
– It also provides material for the teachers to use to guide
the students in the classroom as they conduct
experiments
– For all the projects, there are web pages for both the
teacher and students
• This refreshes the teachers’ memories and provides another
tool for the students to look to for further study
Quarknet
• Quarknet serves many goals:
– It gets teachers involved with particle physics
providing them with hands on experience
– It allows students a better chance of really
learning about the experiments due to the
teacher’s experience
– It increases the number of students exposed to
particle physics; a seed program of sorts
Quarknet
• There are already 34 universities and labs
across the US involved with Quarknet
• That number is expected to grow to 60
within two years
Contact Information
HU ATLAS/COSM
• Dr. Oliver Keith Baker
oliver.baker@hamptonu.edu
Quarknet
• Dr. Ken Cecire
ken.cecire@hamptonu.edu
iVDGL
• Howard Brown
howard.brown@hamptonu.edu