Panelists:

We know the statistics—nearly half of the population is still not connected to the Internet. We’ve heard about the problems, from the homework gap to the lack of accessible health care to financial exclusion.

Experts from technology, policy, and digital inclusion will join forces to describe what the future could look like, the questions we need to answer, and the different points of view we have to consider. We will set the stage for the robust conversations that will take place at the Marconi Society’s Master Class and Symposium, The Decade of Digital Inclusion.

We will touch on the socio-economic issues of getting the right services to the right people, the role of governments in ensuring internet for all and the technologic possibilities and challenges for the next decade.

This event is free with registration.

The post The Decade of Digital Inclusion: Issues That Keep Us Up at Night appeared first on The Marconi Society.

The Decade of Digital Inclusion, a series of interdisciplinary sessions available virtually and in person, brings these communities together in service of a digitally inclusive future. We are honored to invite you to join us for this semester-long master class led by some of the brightest and most creative minds in their fields.

On October 22, 2021, we will open our stage at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center to a dream team of the world’s leading voices, but The Decade of Digital Inclusion extends far beyond one event. We will host a series of pre- and post-symposium virtual sessions about the topics and questions at the heart of this issue from September through December. These events will feature global panelists who offer unique contributions in technology, perspectives on governance, and expertise in research and academia.

In addition to the symposium, we will make history by recognizing and honoring one of the wireless industry’s leading stars, Andrea Goldsmith, as our newest Marconi Fellow.

Broadband Internet played a vital role as the backbone of our society as we weathered COVID-19, and we have never been more aware of the importance of creating a digitally inclusive world. We are thrilled to celebrate the groundbreaking innovators who have made our continued prosperity possible and are committed to building on their success in the next decade.

Join us virtually or in person this fall to help shape the digitally inclusive future!

Vint Cerf

Chairman of the Board, Marconi Society

Co-Chair, The Decade of Digital Inclusion

Samantha Schartman-Cycyk

Executive Director, Marconi Society

Co-Chair, The Decade of Digital Inclusion

The post Join Us for The Decade of Digital Inclusion: A Master Class in Connecting the Next Billion appeared first on The Marconi Society.

This decadal survey, the first of its kind, will challenge researchers to develop practical, actionable solutions to help bring the next billion people online.

Led by Chairman of the Board Vint Cerf, the decadal challenge aims to build consensus within the research community around the priorities for the coming decade. Join us as we discuss the challenges within artificial intelligence and machine learning.

This event is free and does not require registration. We hope to see you there!

Join the call: meet.google.com/scu-gdjj-ix

The post Decadal Challenge: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning appeared first on The Marconi Society.

We may imagine the excitement he generated in December, 1901, when he successfully demonstrated the transmission of signals between Cornwall and Newfoundland at a distance of 2,200 miles. I understand that the signal rate at the time was about 1 bit every six seconds. Ironically, my own experiences with the design and test of the Internet echoes this pace. In tests between Stanford University and University College London in 1975, we achieved a rate of three packets per second with our very early implementations of the Transmission Control Protocol. Of course, the path our packets took involved a round-trip through a synchronous satellite hop at 9.6 kb/s and back and forth across the U.S. on 50 kb/s dedicated telephone circuits.

By 1912, wireless telegraphy was in use for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication and Marconi gained international attention when the sinking Titanic signaled its distress using Marconi’s wireless telegraphy to send an SOS message calling into the ether for help. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Marconi Society’s Community of Experts

The Marconi Society celebrates Marconi’s accomplishments. We are inspired by his work and seek to inspire others. Founded in 1974 by Gioia Braga, Marconi’s youngest daughter, the Marconi Society has celebrated the accomplishments of entrepreneurs, inventors, and researchers every year with a Marconi Fellowship. 

In more recent times, we have undertaken to organize an annual symposium and in 2008, thanks to a major grant from one of our Marconi Fellows, Paul Baran, the Society started a Young Scholars award program to recognize early and notable accomplishments by researchers under the age of 28. For several years now, the Marconi Fellows, Young Scholars, and other experts in our network have made themselves available to communications regulators for consultation on such matters as E911 (emergency calls) and 3D intra-building location in emergency situations such as fire. 

On their own initiative, our Young Scholars started a global Celestini Program, which provides students who undertake projects with guidance of Young Scholar volunteers and funding for their experiments. This program highlights hands-on, communications technology solutions to local community problems. These efforts have taken place in India, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, and Colombia. 

Advocating for a Digitally Inclusive World

In 2019, we began a new phase of the Society’s mission by the addition of a new focus on digital inclusion, thanks to the initiative of our Executive Director, Samantha Schartman-Cycyk, who came to the Society with a history of enthusiasm and success in this domain. We expanded the Celestini Program to include hands-on training with the implementation and operation of Internet communications in addition to research projects aimed at solving local problems. We have a program under way in Uganda in cooperation with the Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU) on the Makerere University campus.

A significant element of digital inclusion involves identifying where the Internet is available and at what level of performance. Working with Code for Science and Society, the Measurement-Lab, and Google, the Marconi Society is collaboratively developing tools for mapping performance data obtained by voluntary crowd sourcing (such as using “speed test” web sites) to aid in the allocation of new resources for building Internet infrastructure to improve access where it does not exist or is underperforming. This is a global initiative and recent proposed legislation in the United States has triggered substantial interest in this program. 

The Decade of Digital Inclusion

Some of you may recall that the mathematician David Hilbert posted 23 unsolved problems in mathematics in 1900. Of course, there were many more such problems, but his posting drew the attention of the mathematics community. A number of his problems are still unsolved or are the subject of continued debate. This effort to focus attention is mirrored in other disciplines such as astronomy, high energy physics, biology, and other scientific fields. So-called “decadal” studies are conducted by a research community to reach consensus on the most valuable areas deserving of research support and pursuit. 

By way of example, planetary researchers have organized an ambitious series of missions to Mars to bring samples to Earth in the 2020s in consequence of such decadal studies. New space telescopes such as the James West space telescope and the Vera C. Rubin observatory (formerly the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) have been developed also as a result of community consensus. 

The Marconi Society has initiated a series of decadal discussions about Information and Communication Technology (ICT) during 2021, probing the community for the most important problems whose solution would lead to significant breakthroughs in information and communication capabilities. The topic is broad and we have had discussions about chip architecture, quantum computing and networking, cryptographic applications, new signaling and modulation schemes, and antenna design, among many others. 

Our symposium on October 22 in Washington, D.C., will explore and prioritize these challenges and celebrate the first Marconi Fellowship awarded to a woman, Andrea Goldsmith, now the Dean of Engineering at Princeton and formerly a long-serving faculty member in Stanford’s Electrical Engineering department. 

Connectivity is Essential

The expansion of the Marconi Society’s mission is timely given the evident role of the Internet and ICT during the continuing pandemic that has gripped the world and caused so much social, personal, and economic devastation. Many of us, the lucky ones, spend our days online collaborating via video conferences, exchanging emails, surfing the World Wide Web, and carrying out research and business transactions. Online entertainment has become an enormous business and we have been forced to find ways to use online resources so people can work from home and children can attend school remotely. 

We have also discovered during this period that supply chains are brittle, especially when the pandemic has forced us to socially distance. So much work involves proximity and many workers have been unable to pursue their livelihoods. Even when work and education can be undertaken online, the capacity of Internet access or availability of computing equipment at home is often inadequate. This deficit gives added impetus to our interest in digital inclusion. 

Adding to the challenge is our discovery that social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, WeChat, and many other applications are sources of misinformation, disinformation, bullying, fraud and other abuse. These are not easy problems to solve but they demand responses. It will take a combination of regulatory policy, public education, business incentives, and perhaps advanced machine learning methods to tackle them successfully. 

I have become persuaded that technologists need the help of sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists and psychologists to understand more deeply how social media are used and abused. Moreover, cyberattacks abound, harming governments, institutions of all kinds and the general public. The challenge is international in scope, especially considering law enforcement and the need to identify and apprehend perpetrators of harm whose victims may be anywhere in the world where the Internet is available. 

We do not lack for challenges in the domains opened up by Marconi’s successes. It is exactly these challenges and Marconi’s example that drive both the Marconi Society towards solutions requiring leadership, technical expertise, and vision. Marconi would expect no less of us than to meet these challenges head on, most especially by encouraging our youth to find new answers to solve them. 

The post Marconi’s Legacy: Exploring 126 Years of Connected Technologies appeared first on The Marconi Society.

Now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia, Nadeem is helping to create the technologies that will help rural communities access the Internet, exploring the applications for smart surfaces, and mentoring her students. We interviewed Nadeem to discuss her current work and her hopes for the future of ICT.

Tell us a bit about your current work and research.

I am working on the recent, transformative concept of smart radio environments, which use intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) to convert uncontrolled communication environments into smart reconfigurable spaces using low-cost passive reflecting elements. Through their efficiency and wide application potential, smart radio environments will help us build green, sustainable future networks. An IRS applies wave transformations onto the impinging electromagnetic waves and shapes them in desirable ways, without generating new radio signals and consuming significant additional power. The combined reflected signals can realize desired communication goals, like increased spatial focusing, coverage, data rates, reliability, while achieving high energy efficiency, making this approach very desirable beyond 5G communication systems. These IRSs are currently implementable using smart reflect-arrays and reconfigurable meta-surfaces. My current research focuses on the development of signal models for IRS-assisted wireless communication systems and their end-to-end performance analysis and optimization.

Another area I have recently started working on is rural connectivity, with the goal of identifying and designing appropriate communication technologies that can close the prevalent digital divide in the world. I am investigating multi-hop networks of flying platforms like unmanned aerial vehicles, high altitude platforms, and tethered balloons/drones that can cover thousands of kilometers of sparsely populated rural area. They communicate with each other using directional antennas over millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies before reaching a ground station through (for example) a free-space optics link. I am designing low-cost and low-complexity implementation schemes for multi-hop networks with a current focus on developing user association algorithms and placement algorithms for various flying nodes and platforms. This research area is particularly exciting because it has the potential to offer efficient, affordable connectivity to many areas in the world that do not have traditional broadband infrastructure.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your research interests? If so, how?

Yes, definitely. The COVID-19 pandemic drove my interest in rural connectivity. Since last year, there has been an ever-greater reliance on high-speed Internet and mobile data with billions of people all across the world using it for connection, information, education, health, and work. While many people take their connectivity for granted, the fact is that not all communities have the same level of Internet access. At the end of 2018, nearly four billion people worldwide were reported to be without Internet access, with most of this unconnected population concentrated in rural and remote areas. This digital divide is a major factor impeding the socioeconomic growth of these communities. With the unprecedented advent of the astonishing 5G era, which I have so passionately worked on for the last five years, I strongly feel that researchers and industry professionals must actively work to narrow the digital divide and allow the isolated rural communities to experience the life-changing benefits that connectivity brings. As a young researcher, I want to play my part in this and, with support from my supervisor, I have been able to actively focus on the topic of rural connectivity since last fall.

How has the Young Scholar Award impacted your career or sense of yourself as a leader/mentor in the field?

Winning the Young Scholar Award has been one of the major highlights of my career so far and is an achievement that stands out in my CV and applications. The international recognition that this award brought my research helped me secure postdoctoral fellowships in several of the world’s leading universities and I am sure it will continue to play a huge role in shaping my future academic career.

Winning this award, especially as a female student from a developing country (Pakistan), has also made me kind of a role model for my students and colleagues at my current and past workplaces. I have a responsibility on my shoulders now to guide and lead them by example. I want them to see me not only as a competent and successful researcher but also as someone who actively practices empathy in research and believes that an empathetic approach can make one a more ethical researcher.

Why do you stay involved with the Young Scholars program at the Marconi Society?

The Young Scholar Award has given so much to me both on a personal and professional level, that I always want to give back to the program in whatever way I can. Also, the kind of networking opportunities I have had by being a part of the Young Scholars cohort are incredible and have helped me grow in my career, learn about new innovations happening in our field and think of ways to shape the future of ICT. 

How would you characterize your experience as a woman in engineering? 

Being a woman in electrical engineering research has been rewarding but also challenging and lonely at times. I have had to work hard to fit in with professional networks, and to identify role models who could show me the way forward. Moreover, as a new mother during my PhD, I was questioned at times about my commitment to my career and did see some career opportunities disappear. On the other hand, by being present, staying up to date with current research trends, and doing my work with commitment and dedication, I have been able to make myself heard and recognized as a prominent researcher in my field. I was also lucky to have extremely supportive supervisors during my PhD and my postdoctoral career, who always provided me with opportunities to grow and excel while also giving me space and time when I needed it. 

What is the most rewarding part of your work?

The most rewarding part of my research is that regardless of the outcome, all of the options or research directions in front of me lead to learning.

What do you think is the most important or exciting aspect of ICT in the coming decade?

For me, the most exciting trend is the advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the introduction of smart cities. Future communication networks will have to interconnect the physical and digital worlds in a seamless and sustainable manner. I think these networks have the potential to be turned into a distributed intelligent communications, sensing, and computing platform. Besides connectivity, this platform will be capable of sensing the environment to realize the vision of smart living in smart cities, and of locally storing and processing information. I look forward to seeing how smart cities will result in a better quality of life for their citizens by streamlining urban services like energy, healthcare, and transportation through smart technology. 

What does digital inclusion mean to you?

As someone who grew up and pursued her undergraduate studies in Pakistan, I have personally seen how lack of connectivity closes doors to a bright future for so many intelligent and smart youngsters of my country. Even though I come from an upper-middle class background, I  struggled when applying to universities due to the poor and uncertain Internet connection I had at home. Just imagine how limited the opportunities are for people who belong to middle-income or low-income backgrounds. While developed countries have moved onto 5G, most of the areas in developing countries still do not have basic Internet access. Having come from such a country, I feel very strongly about digital inclusion and believe that all of us in this field should do our part to close this digital divide.

The post Innovations in Smart Radio to Transform Wireless Environments: Meet Qurrat-ul-ain “Annie” Nadeem, 2018 Young Scholar appeared first on The Marconi Society.

Its Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) was launched in January 2014 with 380 students. With over 4,500 graduates—soon to top 5,000 with the upcoming graduating class—the program has grown at a steady pace since 2014, currently offering over 50 courses to 11,000 students. OMSCS has not displaced on-campus programs, but tapped populations universities have been unwilling or unable to reach.

OMSCS, which uses the massive open online course (MOOC) platform of Udacity, combines the flexibility and accessibility of MOOCs with the academic rigor, support, and credential of an in-person Master’s degree. And social life, too: students have organized over 74 networking groups via social media platforms. Its alumni praise it, some even volunteering to stay on as teaching assistants and coach the following class of students.

“We have been growing every semester,” says Dr. Zvi Galil, former John P. Imlay, Jr., Dean of Computing at Georgia Tech, who initiated and oversaw the development and deployment of this innovative program, which was the first affordable fully online Master’s degree in the U.S. “We break every previous application record each year.”

In addition to alumni feedback, the program has garnered praise both inside and outside of academia. In her wildly popular newsletter, Dr. Barbara Oakley called the program “the most significant leap forward in higher education of recent decades.” The New York Times referred to OMSCS as “the new frontier of study online.” The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the program’s success, naming Galil “the man who made online college work.”

Galil, an international leader in Theoretical Computer Science and member of the Marconi Society’s Board, whom ‘Academic Influence’ recently included in the list of 10 most influential computer scientists in the last decade, reflects on the program’s vision.

“The traditional Master’s program is inaccessible to far too many,” says Galil, “like full-time workers, or those living at a distance from a university offering a high-quality program. And degree programs are prohibitively expensive in the U.S. At around $7,000, OMSCS is the most affordable degree of its kind. Our motto is accessibility through affordability and technology—we are making a Master’s degree in computer science available to thousands of students.”

Due to its accessibility, Galil notes, the program is also reaching students across the globe.

Reflecting on the challenges of setting up such an ambitious program, Galil notes the fundamental, revolutionary shift from the prevailing paradigm of top-tier universities, in which brand is maintained by exclusion and high tuition fees. By contrast, OMSCS accepts 74% of applicants, aiming to admit all who meet the basic qualifications.

The revolution was made possible by the overwhelming support of the College of Computing faculty and a generous founding grant from AT&T. 

“Zvi did something unheard of,” says Sebastian Thrun, chairman and founder of Udacity. “This happened at a time when MOOCs were criticized as poor educational choices. To the present day, I have to pinch myself when I think about how Zvi managed to convince his faculty. This was a piece of absolute Jedi mastery.”

While Galil has stepped down as Dean at Georgia Tech, he remains a vocal advocate for the program. The program continues to grow, now under the stewardship of current Dean of Computing Charles Isbell and David Joyner, Executive Director of OMSCS. Their book, The Distributed Classroom, is slated for publication in September of 2021.

“They were both crucial to the development of our online learning platform,” Galil says. “Their book captures the lessons we learned from OMSCS and shows several new ways that classroom teaching can be combined with online learning in the future.”

How will online degree programs continue to shape higher education? The pandemic caused most institutes of higher learning to shift online for the 2020–21 academic year. Students, faculty, and administrators had to contend with failures as well as opportunities. Galil hopes that online degrees will become an integral part of the top-tier universities ecosystem, allowing much greater access to these institutions.“I am happy I was able to initiate and lead OMSCS. Its high quality and low cost enabled many—16,000 so far—to fulfill their aspirations and improve their lives,” he says. “Everywhere I go I meet grateful alumni and students. There is no greater legacy.”

The post Forging an Accessible Path for Higher Education: Dr. Zvi Galil on Georgia Tech’s Online Master’s Program appeared first on The Marconi Society.

• The Marconi Prize
• The Paul Baran Young Scholar Awards

These awards, given by nomination only, recognize the leaders whose innovative approach to communications technology will improve digital inclusion, inspire the next generation of scientists, and shape the future of the field.

In line with our vision of a world in which everyone has access to the opportunities of connectivity, the Marconi Prize is extending its focus on technical excellence and impact to include recognition for social and humanitarian applications, as well as an expanded focus on entrepreneurship. The award, sometimes called the “Nobel Prize of Communications,” has recognized 54 leading scientists who have built our connected world.

Vint Cerf, Marconi Fellow and Chairman of our Board, Andrea Goldsmith, Marconi Fellow and Chair of the Selection Advisory Committee, and Dina Katabi, member of the selection committee and director of the MIT Wireless Center, discussed the nomination process and judging criteria for the Marconi Prize last month. You can view the recorded webinar here, and we are sharing their top tips for creating a successful nomination for the Prize.

1. Consider candidates from diverse geographies, communications technology disciplines, and demographics.

We actively seek nominations for candidates across the globe who represent the diversity of the field. Our outreach strategy has particularly prioritized geographic, ethnic/racial, and gender diversity. Additionally, we define Information and Communications Technology (ICT) broadly—past Marconi Fellows include those who have created vital communications companies, like Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google, and leaders in cybersecurity like Whitfield Diffie or Marty Hellman.

2. Make sure that your nomination is strong in all evaluation areas, including technical contribution.

We recognize a unique set of contributions that are instrumental in our connected world. In addition to technical excellence, we are looking for candidates who demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit (who have either launched a product in the market, created a business, mentored entrepreneurs or have otherwise helped make their research or work impactful to the broader public) and who are invested in a digitally inclusive approach to technology.

3. Honor a colleague who would value being part of the lifelong Marconi Society Fellowship.

We are looking for candidates who are excited to participate as engaged members of the Marconi Society community. The Marconi Prize represents an induction into the Marconi Society, a group of thoughtful and engaged technologists. Marconi Fellows are invited to take a leading role in advanced communications in service of digital inclusion through our community and programs. Engagement opportunities include our decadal survey of ICT, mentoring underrepresented students in STEM and participating in programs and events..

4. Nominate a candidate that you know well.

While a high-profile nominator may seem like the most strategic choice, we’ve found that the most compelling nominations come from people who know and understand the candidate. Since the award criteria reach beyond technical excellence, a nominator should be able to create a strong case for the candidate’s entrepreneurial qualities and their humanitarian commitment—two things that may not be obvious from their research publications alone.

5. Allocate time to prepare a successful nomination.

While nominators have until June 1 to finalize their submissions, we recommend you start sooner rather than later. From the letters of recommendation to the nominator questions, a successful submission requires time and care. Do you have questions about the nomination process? Email info@marconisociety.org and we’ll help you navigate.

The post Top Five Tips for Nominating a Successful Marconi Prize Candidate appeared first on The Marconi Society.

Jennifer Rexford has served on the Marconi Prize Selection Advisory Committee since 2020, helping to evaluate and recommend our latest Marconi Fellow, Andrea Goldsmith. Rexford currently serves as the Gordon Y. S. Wu Professor in Engineering and Chair of Computer Science at Princeton University, where she has taught since 2005. Prior to her career in academia, Rexford worked for eight years at AT&T Research.

As a researcher and teacher, Rexford prioritizes a thoughtful, contextual approach to solving problems. She describes her areas of research interest as “Internet routing, network measurement, and network management, with the larger goal of making data networks easier to design, understand, and manage.” 

We sat down with Rexford to discuss her perspective on the “plumbing” of the Internet, the importance of building community, and the greatest challenges facing communications technologists.

How would you describe your approach to research and teaching?

My research focuses on how we can make the ‘net work from the point of view of the people who run it. I think of myself as an Internet plumber. Ultimately the research I do will benefit the end user, but my focus is on the network administrators and making the system more flexible, performant, and secure. When we talk about ICT innovations, we’re often focused on the applications and systems that make use of the underlying infrastructure of the Internet. I would like to see a future where the infrastructure itself is programmable and customizable. 

The beauty of the Internet is that it is connected to millions of programmable devices that allow for an amazing variety of innovation. But the inside of the network has not been very programmable. If we were able to make the fundamental structures programmable, we would be able to provide better transparency and more access to effect change on how the ‘net operates, creating “smart plumbing” that would be more agile in responding to security issues.

In my teaching, I think a lot about design patterns. It’s easy to get lost in the details and minutiae of networking issues, so I teach my students to see the patterns of problems and their solutions, which allows them to have a conceptual understanding of networking that can help solve problems across the board. The people who run networks have to master the details, but I want to train researchers who can approach network problems with a wider understanding of the “plumbing” of the Internet and how specific solutions might be applied in other cases.

How has the student population at Princeton changed over time? 

I’ve taught computer science at Princeton since 2005, and I’ve been lucky to teach a subject that is incredibly popular and continues to grow. Over the last decade, we’ve seen the population of computer science students diversify significantly. There are more women and underrepresented students in my courses than ever before. 

Students also bring a diversity of interest—10 years ago most of my students loved tech for its own sake, whereas many of my students now are interested in tech because they see its potential impact on social and humanitarian concerns. What they want to do with technology is all over the map. It’s challenging to teach them well since every student is a unicorn, but it’s incredibly rewarding to see their passion for an interdisciplinary approach to the field.

When I graduated, I didn’t have a sense of how my work and research would fit into the world. My students now have a strong sense of purpose and a confidence that if they understand computer science skills, they can do something useful and powerful when they graduate.

Your 1993 book, She’s an Engineer? Princeton Alumnae Reflect, collected comments of women alumni about Princeton’s engineering program. How has your perspective on being a woman in engineering changed since 1993?

At Princeton, about 40% of our computer science majors are women. It’s the second-most-popular major for women at the school. Once you have that critical mass of women students, you can create student groups that foster community and mentorship. We lose so many talented women in the early stages of the STEM pipeline (as early as middle school) because they don’t feel represented or encouraged. Building a community of women engineers—even high school students and undergraduate students—who can mentor those younger prospective computer science students is incredibly valuable.

Beyond gender diversity, we’ve worked really hard to make sure that the program is inviting and valuable for students from a variety of backgrounds. Our introductory computer science courses are designed to be exciting and accessible for students who have never taken a coding course before. 

You’ve advocated for the importance of a supportive, engaged community for any successful professional, and particularly those that are underrepresented in the field. How do you instill a sense of community in your students?

It’s been difficult to maintain that sense of community we have on campus through the pandemic. But the benefit to working remotely is that everyone’s personal life is much more visible, and that is very humanizing. My students see me balancing my family and my work every day. I think it’s good for students to experience those layers and understand that it’s possible to be a researcher, a teacher, a mentor, and a parent.

Even beyond COVID-19, academia can be a difficult context in which to develop and maintain community. Faculty members work with many students but peer collaboration is less common. I really value my relationships with my colleagues and most of my students are co-advised, which works well for Internet research because it touches so many other fields. It’s a natural fit for interdisciplinary work.

Why do you participate as a member of the Marconi Prize Selection Advisory Committee?

From a selfish point of view, it’s wonderful to be a fly on the wall and hear the members of the committee discuss the pressing issues of the field and the candidates we are considering. I love getting to know each candidate’s background. If I’ve only read their research, I might not be aware of the breadth and well-roundedness of how their work impacts humanitarian and entrepreneurial concerns.

Serving as an advisor for the Marconi Prize is rewarding because the award inspires the next generation of researchers. Each awardee is someone who has used their technical skills to have a great impact on the world. As a culture we often focus on technical excellence or humanitarian impact—this award shows us that it’s important to strike a balance between both. Awards help define what it means to be a leader in the field.

What is the greatest challenge in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the upcoming decade?

As a researcher, I am interested in improving the infrastructure of the network. A major challenge of my work is that we can’t simply turn off the Internet while we implement and test our changes. And while we think of the Internet as one system, it’s a network of networks, all of which are under different party’s control. It crosses economic, social, and national boundaries, and some of those systems have distinct and sometimes competing requirements for how it operates. It’s a very complex system.

Because there are so many intersecting systems and protocols that make the Internet run, it is also very technically difficult to find the right solution that will work universally. This is why I’m interested in making the Internet plumbing more programmable—a solution for my local community’s problem may not work in yours. Right now, we all live with this base system that is very difficult to change. 

One of the great democratizing aspects of the Internet is that if you have the skills to program a computer you can get your information out into the world. If we make the infrastructure more programmable, we can fundamentally expand the set of people who can impact it. The more we make the infrastructure flexible, the more we can create custom solutions informed by local concerns. It’s a very complicated project, but it would have a major impact on access, transparency, and flexibility of the network.

The post Meet Jennifer Rexford, Princeton Professor and Member of the Marconi Prize Selection Advisory Committee appeared first on The Marconi Society.

We believe Internet access is a basic human right. In order to connect the next billion people, leaders in policy, technology, and digital inclusion advocacy must collaborate to identify the most critical problems and develop innovative, practical solutions.

The Decade of Digital Inclusion brings these communities together in service of a digitally inclusive future. This timely conversation can only be hosted by the Marconi Society, a nonprofit that bridges the communities of advanced technology and digital inclusion.

In addition to the symposium, we will make history by recognizing and honoring one of the wireless industry’s leading stars, Andrea Goldsmith, as our newest Marconi Fellow.

Who Should Attend:

• Technologists from academic and corporate environments
• Digital inclusion stakeholders, including practitioners and advocates
• Policy makers from all levels of government and GovTech
• Philanthropists in the digital inclusion and technology for good spaces

BUY AN EARLY BIRD TICKET

October 22 Schedule

We are honored to welcome some of the world’s leading voices to present during the Decade of Digital Inclusion, including 2020 Marconi Fellow Andrea Goldsmith, Doreen Bogden of the International Communication. Union, and Internet Hall-of-Famer Larry Irving.

See the Event Schedule

Program Committee & Speakers

We have assembled some of the world’s leading voices on technology, public policy and advocacy for digital inclusion.  Meet the speakers that you will hear from and interact with during her symposium and master class on connecting the next billion.

See the Program Committee & Speakers

Sponsorship

In order to realize our vision of a connected future, the Decade of Digital Inclusion requires support. As a sponsor, your brand will be featured alongside exciting content from a dream team of leaders from the technology, policy, and digital inclusion practitioner communities. This is your opportunity to join industry leaders like Crown Castle, Medtronic, Qualcomm, and others and show your organization’s commitment to connecting the next billion by supporting this agenda-setting program.

Sponsorship Pamphlet

The post The Decade of Digital Inclusion appeared first on The Marconi Society.

As a proud recipient of several IEEE awards, including the 2021 IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award, and head of the IEEE ad hoc committee on diversity, inclusion, and ethics, I am keenly aware of the important role that awards programs play in the engineering field. They elevate and celebrate the leaders who have enabled unprecedented advancement of technology and expanded its practical impact. They also provide young people with role models.

That is why I am proud to share the open call for nominations for two prestigious Marconi Society awards with my IEEE colleagues. I urge you to nominate worthy candidates. I especially encourage you to consider nominating people who represent the geographic, ethnic, and gender diversity that reflects the richness of the populations that we, as engineers, serve.

The Marconi Society envisions a world in which everyone can benefit from the opportunities of connectivity. Our awards honor both distinguished luminaries and rising stars in the field of information and communications technology (ICT) and welcome them into a diverse community dedicated to digital inclusion through advanced technology.

• The Marconi Prize celebrates established scientists who have made fundamental contributions to our connected world. I was honored to become a 2020 Marconi Fellow and to join the ranks of legendary innovators and IEEE honorees including IEEE Medal of Honor recipients Jacob Ziv, Bradford Parkinson, David Forney, Irwin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi, and others. Nominations for the Marconi Prize are open through 1 June 2021.
• The Paul Baran Young Scholar Award recognizes innovators who are creating the next frontiers in ICT. Hailing from every continent except Antarctica, our scholars are a diverse group of leaders changing the world in academic, business, and social sectors. Many—including Yasaman Ghasempour, Qurrat-Ul-Ain Nadeem, Ken Pesyna, and Piotr Roztocki—are IEEE and IEEE-HKN members. Nominations for the Young Scholar Award are open through 15 May 2021.

Thank you for considering your colleagues and students for the prestigious Marconi honors. We look forward to your nominations. Please contact us with any questions: prizes@marconisociety.org.

IEEE Fellow Andrea Goldsmith is the dean of engineering and applied science at Princeton, where she is a professor of electrical and computer engineering.

A version of this blog appeared on IEEE Spectrum.

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