[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8159]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           RECOGNIZING OARnet

 Mr. BROWN. Madam President, Ohio has a robust history of 
pioneering innovation--as the home of Thomas Edison, the Wright 
Brothers, aerospace leaders including former Senator John Glenn, Neil 
Armstrong and more. Today, Ohio is transforming from the Rust Belt into 
the Innovation Belt.
  This week, OARnet, a member of Ohio Technology Consortium or OH-TECH, 
is being honored here in the Nation's Capital for its new ultra-fast 
broadband network as an honored 2013 laureate by IDG's Computerworld, 
an international source of technology news and information for 
informational technology influencers.
  This Emerging Technology Award is based on Ohio's innovative efforts 
to meet the growing economic and research opportunities offered by 
``Big Data.'' In 2012, Ohio invested more than $13 million to increase 
tenfold the speed and network capacity of OARnet, a statewide broadband 
network, to 100 gigabits per second, Gbps. Although several research 
institutions in other States are experimenting with this new gold 
standard of broadband speeds, Ohio is the first in the Nation to 
harness this capacity on a statewide scale. Ohio touts connections to 
10 major cities, 90 of Ohio's higher education institutions, commercial 
applications, and Internet2's international network.
  These broadband speeds are expected to create many opportunities for 
Ohio. At 100 Gbps, each of Ohio's 1.8 million enrolled K-12 students 
could download an e-book simultaneously in just over 2 minutes; data 
equivalent to 80 million file cabinets filled with text can be 
transferred daily; 300,000 X-rays can be transmitted in just 1 minute; 
8.5 million electronic medical records can be transmitted in 1 minute; 
and data can be sent at 50,000 times faster than current average 
smartphone speeds.
  OH-TECH's international recognition is further testament to Ohio's 
evolution into a high-tech environment that supports next-generation 
business applications to attract new employers, connects the State's 
higher education institutions, our cutting edge medical corridor, and 
serves as a platform for developing large-scale scientific research.
  Ohio is also celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Ohio 
Supercomputer Center with the launch of a new cluster supercomputer. 
This new supercomputer, which can perform 88 trillion calculations per 
second, allows researchers statewide to innovate and compete for grants 
and national supercomputing resources in the areas of the biosciences, 
advanced materials, energy, and the environment. I am proud to have 
worked closely with the White House to secure a $5 million grant to the 
Ohio Supercomputer Center and several partner organizations to support 
the advanced manufacturing efforts of Midwestern small- and medium-
sized manufacturers, SMEs. I have also helped secure Federal funding to 
help small polymer companies address the technical barriers, costs, and 
training needed to use advanced manufacturing technologies. Through 
partnerships with the government and collaborations with technology 
leaders like Procter & Gamble, we can work together to help strengthen 
Ohio's manufacturing sector and provide the tools needed to compete in 
the global marketplace.
  My home State is one of the largest investors and active partners in 
the National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium, NDEMC, a 
broad public-private partnership supporting the use of modeling and 
simulation by small- and medium-sized manufacturers. This project gives 
manufacturers the ability to conduct complex simulations to test 
virtual prototypes and maximize production methods, all through cost-
effective means. These platforms reduce manufacturers' time and labor 
costs and help them bring products to market faster, making them more 
competitive with our overseas counterparts.
  A Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial proclaimed, ``Ohio is wired for 
business. Goodbye Rust Belt, Hello Nerd-vana.'' The Columbus Dispatch 
similarly noted, ``For those inventing the future, Ohio is the hot 
spot.''
  They are correct. Ken Murray, Transformatix founder and CEO, 
explained:

       One reason we located our new company, BioLinQ, in Ohio, 
     rather than California, is because Ohio demonstrated the most 
     forward-thinking approach to technology and high-speed 
     innovation.

  Ray Leto, president of Total Sim, echoed those sentiments:

       Our business focuses on modeling and simulation for the 
     automotive industry, and we chose Ohio over the North 
     Carolina Research Triangle because of the advanced technology 
     infrastructure available here.

  The knowledge economy is the pathway to restoring our national 
prosperity, and I am proud to represent Ohio--a pioneering State that 
is providing the tools and leading the way.

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