From the "I wish my college had been that cool!" files...

The James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland is turning themselves into a WiMAX guinea pig, deploying a fully functional wireless WiMAX broadband on campus. Nodes, routers, and base stations on campus will be used to create the network. The "lab," as they're calling it, is being built in collaboration with the industry group the WiMAX Forum, and there is only one other one in the world right now - in Taiwan.

The school has a research lab right on campus - the Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences - and they are providing the equipment, a lot of which is made by Motorola, including the base stations and a lot of the devices. This test network is going to be a learning experience for the students, too. Computer Science majors are going to work on applications like real-time campus bus updates that other students will be able to use with the WiMAX system. They also aim to put it to use for security purposes, allowing information about emergency situations to reach security and police much quicker.

This experiment is a huge boon to the lucky students, but it will also benefit locals who live near campus. The WiMAX range is much further than wifi, so folks living in nearby areas will likely be able to take advantage, too!