CONTACT: James Webb, 806-651-4357, jwebb@wtamu.edu
COPY BY: Brittany Castillo, 806-651-2682, bcastillo@wtamu.edu
CANYON, Texas—This summer, students from West Texas A&M University traveled to Copenhagen for a study abroad trip that included working with IT to set up a secure WiFi network with global access.
The network, called Eduroam, was developed for the international and research community to allow students traveling abroad to securely access their home institution login.
"This provides an opportunity for students from WT visiting in other territories (both abroad and here across states) to use their credentials to utilize the Internet in a safe and dependable manner. For students on a study abroad program, this presents a significant advantage and convenience," Dr. Jeffry Babb, Gensler Professor of Computer Information Systems at WT, said.
In 2003, the infrastructure based in Europe began with six countries and has since spread across 100 territories in thousands of locations. Eduroam has since provided roaming network access across research and education networks like WT and successfully became accessible at other partnering institutions.
"This is really exciting because it will provide our faculty, staff, and students with the ability to connect to any university in the world that uses eduroam with their WT credentials. Pretty much every university in Europe is providing eduroam," James Webb, CIO, said.
Eduroam will further support possibilities for students and faculty to collaborate with other institutions as well as present new abroad opportunities. The network is based on the most secure encryption and authentication standards that exists.
—WTAMU—