After several long delays due to the events following the uprising in Egypt that toppled the previous ruling regime, a high-speed fibre-optic network linking scientists and educators from around the world has finally linked Egypt into it’s network.

The Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development (GLORIAD) was first formed after the Cold War to link scientists in the United States to their counterparts in Russia. It later extended to cover several countries in the northern hemisphere, reaching out to China, India, Korea and  Singapore. In 2010, Greg Cole, the principal investigator of GLORIAD, announced the network will reach Egypt through its new Taj extension.

“This internet is vastly more powerful than the one we use at our homes and offices and dedicated to support research, education and medical science,” said Cole in a press statement. “Connecting Egypt allows Egyptian scientists and students vastly increased speed of data transfer with thousands of universities and science facilities across the U.S., Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. And it allows the world access to Egyptian scientists’ knowledge.”

Researchers in Egypt will be able to use the high bandwidth connection, with speeds at more than a billion bits per second, to collaborate with their counterparts around the world in research such as high-energy physics, astronomy and climate.

Through the new link, GLORIAD hosted the first ever school-to-school exchange over the new network, involving the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Academy High School and a technology magnet elementary school in Knoxville and GLORIAD’s partners in Cairo.

GLORIAD is set to continue expanding, with a new connection reaching the Gulf States in the Middle East and linking into a science infrastructure in Africa.