NRTS Project Purpose
The TSU NRTS was established to substantially increase the use of the Internet and its resources by faculty and students. The establishment of the NRTS was made possible with a grant from NASA funded through the Minority University - Space Interdisciplinary Network (MU-SPIN) from funding provided by the Minority University Research and Education Program(MUREP). The main object of the program is to transfer computer network technology and promote its use in support of collaborative interdisciplinary, scientific research among faculty and students, and other scientists and to use the Internet to enhance the education on the campuses served by the grant. The major objectives of the program are:
- Provide HBCU/OMU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Other Minority Universities) institutions with the expertise and funding assistance necessary to establish local and wide area network connectivity and other services in support of campus based networks.
- Provide User Support Services to enhance the campuses capability to manage and use the network and its resources effectively and develop the campus expertise to support the long term use of the network facilities .
- Provide activities that will accelerate the development of MU-SPIN faculty and student expertise in network technology and its application to support information exchange between NASA and the MU-SPIN community.
- Provide a mechanism for integrating HBCUs and OMUs into scientific and technical programs sponsored and/or supported by NASA into mainline education and research activities.
- Establish a MU-SPIN Users Working Group as a vehicle for exchanging scientific and technical information between NASA and the MU-SPIN community
The MU-SPIN Program offers many valuable needed services to the university community. These services include hands-on training to faculty and students in scientific network applications and in accessing resources available over the Internet, a worldwide network of networks; hands-on training to technical staff in local area and campus network installation, management and user support; and technical sessions as well as annual conferences.