The proposed Pennsylvania Science DMZ (PA Science DMZ) project addresses critical infrastructure and connectivity gaps in five participating institutions: Pennsylvania State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), Lafayette College, The Digital Foundry at New Kensington (DFNK), and Swarthmore College.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) is a public, R2 doctoral/research university strongly committed to undergraduate and graduate instruction, scholarship and public service. IUP’s 9,500 students choose from over 100 undergraduate majors in our five academic colleges. IUP’s campus spans 354 acres and 75 major buildings and the IUP Student Cooperative Association manages, owns, and maintains a nearby 280-acre outdoor recreational park.

IUP is excited to be part of the PA Science DMZ, supporting researchers and students who require high-performance computing (HPC) and large-scale data analysis. As a member of Access-ci.org, IUP has developed a local HPC cluster used for cutting-edge work in machine learning, AI, computational chemistry, computer vision, and data science. These resources enhance productivity by enabling reliable and rapid data movement between local and cloud-based systems.

KeystoneREN is a nonprofit organization that provides educational institutions and other research centers with unparalleled access to Internet2 and promotes the innovative use of digital technologies. The driving focus of KeystoneREN is to provide advanced research and education networking and expertise to empower communities across the commonwealth.

Lafayette College, located in Easton, Pennsylvania, is a highly selective undergraduate liberal arts college with approximately 2,700 undergraduate students. The College offers over 50 programs of study across the humanities, social and natural sciences, as well as having a significant focus on engineering programs. Undergraduate research is an integral part of the Lafayette academic experience, where students learn and work alongside their mentors through independent studies, honors theses, paid research assistant positions, and the co-authoring of papers. Lafayette has also developed a campus high performance computing (HPC) strategy in collaboration with its peer, Swarthmore College, to address the increasing demand for enhanced research enabled by computational resources and capacity.

Founded in 1864, Swarthmore College is a small, highly-selective liberal arts college in Swarthmore, PA, with approximately 1,700 students and 170 faculty. Swarthmore offers more than 40 courses of study, including engineering, and provides the opportunity for students to design their own major.

The Penn State Digital Foundry at New Kensington (DFNK) serves as a hub for advancing digital technologies and fostering skill development for university students, workforce professionals, and manufacturing companies in southwestern Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. DFNK collaborates with industry-leading technology providers to establish a Digital Learning and Demonstration Lab (DLDL)—a fully connected manufacturing ecosystem that integrates Smart Manufacturing technologies and digital automation components. 

Through partnerships with industry experts, PSU Information Technology, faculty, student interns, and consultants, DFNK focuses on the installation, testing, and demonstration of Industry 4.0 technologies. These efforts enable hands-on learning experiences and training programs designed to enhance employability and earning potential in high-demand manufacturing jobs. The DLDL’s hands-on demonstrations offer companies and learners at all levels an opportunity to explore and apply cutting-edge digital technologies that are rapidly transforming modern manufacturing operations.

​The Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) at Penn State is a central hub for high-performance computing (HPC) and data science research across the university. As one of seven interdisciplinary research institutes within Penn State’s Office of the Senior Vice President for Research, ICDS fosters collaboration among faculty from numerous departments and campuses, aiming to address complex scientific and societal challenges through advanced computational methods .

ICDS's mission is to support Penn State faculty in leading multidisciplinary research teams that integrate domain expertise with computational and data science approaches. The institute provides a network of co-hired faculty and affiliates, access to advanced computational infrastructure, and technical consulting services. Its vision is to catalyze transformative, interdisciplinary, computational, and data-driven discoveries that advance science and benefit society .​