2nd December 2005

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Telecommunications expert Professor Gerard Parr of the University of Ulster is putting final touches to proposals which will power the next generation of  communications technology, and usher in a new era of  ICT  research and technology transfer between Britain and India, the world’s second fastest growing economy.

According to Professor Parr, we are on the verge of the  ‘Martini age' of communications: faster, better, cheaper communications, delivered “any time, any place, anywhere.”

For almost a year, Professor Parr has headed a UK-India advisory group which has been formulating a development plan for technology collaboration and strengthening research links between the two nations.
 
The British High Commission invited him to lead the project when he gave a series of lectures at a major information and communications  technology (ICT) week  in New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore in January 2005. He attended the event as the representative of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the UK’s premier engineering research body.

Said Professor Parr:

“We’re exploring the infrastructural requirements for the provision of a cocktail of communications applications that will

•      exist at the right locations anywhere in the world
•      are bundled at attractive prices
•      offer optimal performance
•      have integrated intelligence to support the management of all elements
•      offer consistent behaviour over each zone
•      meet user expectations for levels of satisfaction, and are aware of user behaviour and context.

 “The ICT sector is under going a period of rapid change in both the UK and India,” he said.   “The university sector has to be in a position to respond to the research challenges brought about by new demands from consumers of digital communications as well as in terms of collaborative research and demand for trained people from the industrial base and service providers to manage the emerging national infrastructures.”

“The prospects for increased convergence between technologies continues, aided by increased high bandwidth communications and increased internet access services across fixed and wireless networks.”

Professor Parr, who holds the Chair of Telecommunications Engineering at the University’s Coleraine campus, will unveil his proposals at a seminar early next year in Madras which is being organized by the British High Commission in India. The event will take the form of a highly specialised technical workshop in which UK and Indian academics, business representatives and government officials will map out priority collaborative research and technology transfer opportunities.

Current research within Professor Parr’s team with the Ericsson Research Laboratories and Cisco Systems Network Management Research Group in San Jose will feed into this debate, together with relationships that exist with BT Exact.
 
The Indian Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Communications are involved in the advisory group through the participation of Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a leading advisor to the Indian Government and Professor David Koilpillai, of the internationally renowned Institute of Technology in Madras.

In leading the initiative Professor Parr, has been able to build upon high-level contacts in the UK and those which he made during earlier trips among the top research Indian Institutes of Technology in Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai and key companies in the nation’s ICT sector.

The trips were undertaken to determine the level of interest and capability to develop a more in-depth UK-India collaborative effort in ICT, particularly concerning advanced high-speed fixed-wireless communications.  Professor Parr added:

“I want to develop a focused research agenda within the broad church of Next Generation Networking and to encourage the development of real and meaningful collaboration which will be internationally-leading and economically relevant to both the UK and India.

“The proposed Programme will help put the funding mechanisms in place to actively encourage leading researchers and companies to pursue innovative research and technology transfer“.

“We will encourage ICT collaboration between the UK and India, including industry where appropriate, and nurture training opportunities for young people through targeted support, and increased funding for advanced MSc and PhD Programmes in Telecommunications and related Internet Technologies.

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young