Chicago -- A memorandum of understanding between the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) will be signed to formalize a collaboration that puts Chicago at the hub of ultra-high-speed advanced optical network research and development exchanges with Japanese research and education institutions.

The Japanese Advanced Testbed Network for Research and Development, known as JGN-II, links Tokyo with Chicago via StarLight, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded advanced Internet switching facility located at Northwestern University's downtown Chicago campus and managed by UIC and Northwestern.

Japan's choice of Chicago's StarLight underscores confidence in both the technology and research being conducted at UIC to develop new application tools and techniques that enable, for example, real-time transmission of super-high-resolution images (four times the quality of current HDTV) and computer simulations over long-distance optical networks.

Researchers from UIC's Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), will be available to describe likely applications for this technology.

The signing will take place Wednesday, July 26, in UIC's University Hall.