Why UWI's Science and Technology Faculty getting SPIE funds Optics Research

“The opportunities for employment and economic sustainability are therefore quite significant. A highly technically literate workforce could potentially make it more profitable to move technology jobs to Jamaica and the region instead of India and China. It is also worth noting that innovations developed in one area can and often drives growth in disparate sectors”

Excerpts from the interview with Lead research and Lecturer in the Department of Physics at UWI Mona, Dr. Kert Edward by The Jamaica Gleaner on Sunday March 10^th, 2013

It seems that the UWI (University of the West Indies) is finally catching on to the idea of making money via Research. This as they’ve decided, on the suggestion of Lead research and Lecturer in the Department of Physics at UWI Mona, Dr. Kert Edward, to restructure the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences at the Mona, Cave Hill and St Augustine campuses as the Faculty of Science and Technology as stated in “UWI rebrands school of science - Eyes optics for industrial applications”, published Sunday March 10, 2013, The Jamaica Gleaner.

The name change is thanks to Dr. Kert Edward securing a grant from the SPIE (Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers) for the UWI to make money from patents and discoveries in Photonics or Optics Research, a field that covers everything from Lasers to Fiber Optic Technology, which is related to Telecommunications, the main reason it caught my eye.

Fiber Optic Communications and any Optical System’s going to be big business in the future. The trending right now may be toward Tablets and smartphones, but there’s also a trending towards the Development of Optical Computers and Communication systems based on Electromagnetic Radiation in the IR (Infra-Red), Visible and UV (Ultraviolet) spectra.

Some of these developments may result in FLORA (Fiberless Optical Receiver Array) technologies for ultra-fast Communications using visible light that may even double as LED lighting as noted in “Multi-tasking micro-lights could spark a Communications revolution”, published January 25, 2013, Physorg. A development deserving of its own article, I might add.

Signs of this can be seen in the coming development of an Optical Cable standard for Thunderbolt that was developed by Intel for Apple as noted in “Optical Thunderbolt cables in Mass production”, coming soon published January 2, 2013 11:11 AM PST by Topher Kessler, CNET News.

In my blog article entitled “Fiber Optic Thunderbolt Cables are coming by the Third Quarter of 2013 – Apple Mac's to finally get upgraded as Optical Computer now closer to practicality” I predicted it’ll be introduction to Apple iMac, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air and Mac Mini as an upgrade that’ll make these product super-fast – and super desirable.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple chose to replace the internal Peripheral connectors completely with Fiber Optic Thunderbolt Cables and Ports directly to their Motherboard in this summer of 2013 refresh of the Mac Line.

Coupled with the Development of Optical Processors by IBM by (International Business Machines) that they may begin to license in 2015 as noted in my blog article entitled “IBM develops 25Gbps Photonic Optical Processor at the 90nm level - IBM's Red Dawn (2012) for Optical Processors”.

Dear reader, we may be on the threshold of Optical Computers with clock speeds bordering on 10Gbps without the need for exotic cooling methods to match the larger Hard-drives and read-write speeds that 100GBps Optical Thunderbolt Cables are capable.

Most likely these Optical Processors will show up in Servers that are running chipset made by IBM but’ll eventually be licensed (or developed?) by Intel. Eventually everything, from RAM (Random Access Memory) to SSD (Solid State Drive) to the very Motherboard’ll have to be made Optical to reduce bottlenecks and thus result in a cooler running PC sans electric components.

This means the development of technology based on Optical Storage, reading and writing of Data such as the use of Quartz Glass to store Data as noted in my blog article entitled “Hitachi develops Eternal Storage using Bits embedded in Quartz Glass for 2015 Debut – Diamonds are Forever until WRECK-IT Ralph Breaks the Ice”.

Thus UWI’s rebranding is very strategic and timely.

I only wish that along with this, they’ve also take a leaf out of The UTECH (University of Technology) Faculty of Engineering playbook and go off the Grid for newly rebranded Faculty of Science and Technology using a combination of Solar Panels and Wind Turbines via a partnership with JPS Co as noted in my blog article entitled “JPS Co to build 100 KW Solar Plant at UTECH - Marubeni of Japan and EWP (East West Power) Benevolence as LNG Project now Taken 2 the next Level for 2015AD”.

Equally too, UTECH can take a page out of UWI’s handbook and introduce Tablets for its Students in all faculties as the Department of Medical Sciences at the UWI is currently doing as noted in my blog article entitled “UWI Medical Sciences Students get deal on JL Mobile SmartTab Tablets and cheaper ebook versions of Textbooks - From Gross Anatomy to Islandwide Push towards Tablet Adoption”.

UWI’s Faculty of Science and Technology is already in collaboration with UTECH in developing Hydrogen Gas as a replacement for LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) used in Cooking Gas cylinders as noted in my blog article entitled “UTECH partners with GOJ and UWI to develope Hydrogen Cooking Gas Cylinders - EU Funded 3 Year Project is Chasing Mavericks to push Jamaica into the Hydrogen-Electron Economy”.

I’d like to suggest a further expansion of this partnership by merging the Faculty of Engineering at UTECH with UWI’s Faculty of Science and Technology for the furtherance of Research and Development in Jamaica in the STEM (Science, Technology Energy and Mining) field in Jamaica.

After all, the more minds we have working on Research and Development into Optics, the faster this initiative may attract more funding from other multilateral funding agencies such as SPIE. In the process, FLORA and Fiber Optic Communications technologies, starting first with Fiber Optic based Thunderbolt that’ll come first to the Apple’s Mac line of computers that’ll debut technologies  developed to cope with the faster speeds, setting the trend for the PC world to follow.

This is Welcome to the Punch (2013) at a multi-billion dollar Optics Revolution coming to Computers, starting first with Servers, then Desktops and Workstations and eventually evolving to smartphones and Tablets.