Washington

Earthquake engineers are eagerly anticipating the first test of a national network of seismic experiments. The George E. Brown Jr Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) is an $82-million project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, to build a series of 16 centrifuges, shake tables and other large-scale experimental equipment at universities across the United States.

When they are completely integrated in 2004, these earthquake simulators will be part of a network of experiments and software tools that will enable engineers to conduct their research through the web.

The first test of the web-interface technology takes place this week at the University of Nevada in Reno. A shake table will vibrate a model bridge fitted with about 100 sensors. These sensors will stream video and data straight into the computers of watching engineers, who will then attempt to analyse the bridge's performance.

“This is the first public peek at this infrastructure,” says Dan Reed, director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who oversees the computing aspects of NEES.