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CORVALLIS - Computer and research leaders from Oregon State University have been asked to attend a workshop on Feb. 22-23 in Washington, D.C., which will help guide the National Science Foundation in developing the nation's future networks of high performance computers.

This conference, which will include representatives from 25 of the leading research and doctoral-granting universities in the United States, has been convened by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the oldest and largest professional organizations of scientists.

"The computing and networking needs of our great research universities are far more complex than the simple computers or Internet connections commonly used elsewhere," said Wilson C. "Toby" Hayes, vice provost for research at OSU. "The National Science Foundation has already done a great deal to improve the computing capabilities of universities across the nation, and now it wants guidance on future investments in technology and advice on where we should go from here."

Attending the conference from OSU will be Hayes; Cherri Pancake, OSU professor and Intel Fellow of Computer Science; and Scott Springer, a research associate in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.

Those and experts from other universities will be discussing the latest developments in networking technology, how they can best be mobilized to support scientific research across the nation, and the particular goals that should be achieved during the period 2000 to 2005.

OSU students and faculty already enjoy some of the most sophisticated computer networking capabilities of any educational institution in the country, from sophisticated supercomputers studying global climate change to Internet connections in the residence hall room of every student. OSU experts have also become national leaders in the development of computer networking technology, parallel computing, Web software and other fields of study.

Advances in high speed computer networking have become especially important to modern scientific research, Hayes said, because it allows individual scientists to more easily and cost-effectively collaborate, exchange data and conduct more interdisciplinary research with their colleagues all over the world.