PROVO — The engineering department of Utah's Transit Authority has discovered a potential gold mine in testing technology — for free.

Thanks to the final project of 10 Brigham Young University students, UTA now has new information on how to add varying wireless Internet connections to TRAX and commuter rail. Beyond that, the students, who initiated the idea of doing real-world research for UTA for school credit, have taught UTA something valuable.

"In the last 10 years or so, we haven't tapped into higher education," said Abraham Kololli, a UTA engineer. "On the Wasatch Front, there are a lot of smart students, so if we tap into that, I think it will benefit both UTA and the community."

The team of students, who called themselves "Meshnet," for about four months studied how to establish a successful "mesh" network to allow TRAX trains to connect to wireless portals as they move.

UTA gave the students free bus passes, but Parvus, a communications company that specializes in rugged and mobile Internet connections, loaned the team equipment in exchange for full rights to any information that came from the project.

That means the project won't be entered into any collegiate contests, but Jason Orgill, who organized the group, says he doesn't mind.

"We were a little bored with our engineering homework," Orgill said. "It was really exciting to have the opportunity to work on a project and use this kind of technology. It's been a really great experience."

Orgill was joined by Adam Barlow, James Carroll, David Madsen, Monte Fairbanks, Daniel Wilding, Josh Engel, Ben McMillan, Ryan Parkinson and Steven Roberts for the project.

The students, who major in electrical engineering and computer engineering, tested their system on a one-mile segment of track between 2100 South and 3900 South in Salt Lake City.

Making the Internet available on TRAX isn't a priority for UTA, but UTA engineer Kyle Brimley says the information is still useful.

"These students did a bang-up job of finding out what has to happen to have Wi-Fi (on TRAX)," Brimley said. "It's a good base to see how all of this technology can happen."

UTA spokesman Justin Jones says the organization plans to have wireless Internet connections available on commuter rail shortly after the train is brought to Utah County, possibly in 2011. Jones said he hopes the service will be seen as an amenity that makes riding on UTA more attractive than driving a vehicle.

"We have every intention of providing a high quality Internet access when commuter rail comes to Utah County," Jones said. "We compete with the automobile and we need to attract people away from their cars onto commuter rail. One of the best ways to do that is to provide people an opportunity to be productive while they're commuting. Here, people think of their commute as a waste of time. If we can convince people that it's not a waste of time, we can pull them from their cars."

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