May 15, 2025

A Community of Champions: New Ways to Engage with One Another and CENIC

Almost 30 years ago, CENIC was founded by California's research and education community to advance education and research statewide by providing the world-class computing network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth.

But the networking provided by CENIC extends well beyond the physical network itself. Conferences, initiatives, committees and councils, webinars, publications, and other means of engagement have resulted in a human network consisting of CENIC member institutions themselves and their faculty, researchers, and staff.

To highlight this, CENIC is celebrating how it facilitates connection between members and itself through new online content meant to broaden member knowledge and encourage collaboration within and across segments while fostering greater engagement.

Learn How Your Community Benefits from CENIC Membership

CENIC offers its members a host of benefits, including unique services specific to each segment it serves.

CENIC Charter Associates include the following segments: the University of California system, the California State University system, California’s Community Colleges, the California K–12 system, California Public Libraries, and four independent universities: Caltech, Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and the Naval Postgraduate School. Other members include scientific and cultural institutions, hospitals and specialized medical institutions, space and environmental research organizations, and Tribal nations.

Learn how CENIC helps its member communities thrive at our Community Portal.

Spotlighting Your Community's Network-Enabled Achievements

In the CENIC Community News Spotlight, we share stories and announcements from our members about innovative network applications in teaching and learning, research, and community engagement; strategies to advance broadband access; network technologies and cybersecurity; and collaborations supported by an interconnected research and education world.

Take a look and see what you and your colleagues among the CENIC membership have made possible for one another and the world! And if you have a story that you'd like us to add to the Spotlight, please send it to us at comms@cenic.org.

CENIC Initiatives on Behalf of Our Member Communities

The CENIC AIR Champions Interactive Map

CENIC AIR is enabling California’s research and education communities to contribute constructively to the transformations promised by AI and machine learning while collaborating extensively with one another and colleagues nationwide over the same infrastructure.

With our new CENIC AIR Champions Map, you can perform a deep dive into CENIC AIR and its community of users and participants, including the following information:

• The network routes that link CENIC AIR resources and users together
• A list of compute and storage resources hosted at each participating institution, including CPUs, GPUs, and shared Terabytes of storage
• Invaluable insights from CENIC AIR Champions—senior administrators, IT leadership, facilitators, and faculty at early adopter institutions sharing advice for anyone wanting to know how their institution can participate in and benefit from CENIC AIR

CENIC Community Technology Affinity Group

The CENIC Community Technology Affinity Group (C2TAG) is a forum for representatives from all CENIC member segments to share information and expertise about network technologies, creating a community of like-minded professionals who serve their colleagues as trusted advisors. It also allows members to engage CENIC staff and explore recently deployed network services and their applications among CENIC segments.

By joining the C2TAG, technology professionals are connected to a network of their peers in an informal setting. Through our mailing list, Slack, and various meetings, we share best practices, discuss problems and solutions, and gain valuable insights into industry trends.

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