The Singapore National Science and Technology Board (NSTB), the USA National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS), are hosting the official launch of the SINGAREN-to-vBNS link on November 7, 1997 at the Grand Hyatt at Washington Center, Washington D.C., 10 am.

The SINGAREN (Singapore Internet Next Generation Advanced Research and Education Network) will connect to the vBNS (the National Science Foundation’s very high-speed Broadband Network Service) via the STAR TAP℠ (Science, Technology And Research Transmit Access Point) in Chicago, and is the first link to Asia.

Connections to the vBNS via STAR TAP℠ will facilitate USA-Singapore cooperative projects requiring the use of high-performance, high-bandwidth intercontinental networking links.

The ceremony will witness the signing of an Implementation Agreement of the link between NSF, NSTB and TAS, followed by the signing of the memoranda of understanding (MOU) between Singapore and several USA research bodies, including the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. EVL and the National Supercomputing Research Centre (NSRC) at the National University of Singapore, which recently purchased a CAVE™ virtual reality theater, are proposing several collaborative tele-immersion projects that will benefit from this high-speed link.

This event will be witnessed by the Assistant to the US President for Science and Technology, Dr John Gibbons, and the Singapore Minister for Education, and Chairman of the National IT Committee, RAdm Teo Chee Hean. Tom DeFanti, EVL director, will also be present.

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