Cases & Voices

RNP (the Brazilian national research and education network) always seeks to innovate and improve the service experience for its users. The arrival of ChatGPT, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that has caused a stir in social networks recently, is a great example of this. From the beginning, RNP recognised that AI presented an opportunity to take customer support to a new level, and carefully evaluated the technology.

It was a long and very complex journey, but Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) through the connectivity of the BELLA Programme (Building the Europe Link to Latin America) shortened the distance to cross the Atlantic Ocean, allowing the exchange of information and distance “rehearsals”, in real time and virtual environment, between Rio de Janeiro and London. Result: craniopagus twins Eduardo and Arthur Lima, nearly four years old, were separated after nine surgeries.

“The Digital Alliance between Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe: an opportunity to bridge the digital divide” is the title of an article recently published by the executive director of RedCLARA, Luis Eliécer Cadenas, in which he reflects on the progress and challenges in scientific cooperation between the two regions, the role of regional and national research and education networks and the opportunities of the BELLA II project.

A university student who wants to watch a video lecture, a researcher who needs to finish a paper or a professor who is correcting tests at the end of the semester can now connect to the wireless internet network, secure and dedicated to the academic community, eduroam, also at stations by metro, train and bus from the city of São Paulo, in Brazil. The network, operated in the country by its national research and education network, RNP, was activated in 65 new locations in the most populous city in Latin America.

When COVID-19 lockdowns started in early 2020 it was inevitable that usage of eduroam would initially suffer as travelling became nearly impossible for most and heavily restricted for everyone.

Cape Verde is an archipelago of ten islands on the west coast of Africa with around 500,000 inhabitants. The country is on the route of the ELLALink submarine cable, the first to directly connect South America to Europe via the Atlantic Ocean. However, it was not possible for it to have access to this connectivity because it did not have its own academic network. This meant that Cape Verde did not qualify to make use of fiber pairs from the BELLA Project (Building the Europe Link to Latin America), for collaboration between the two regions.