Keynote Speakers

Dr. Ntsibane Ntlatlapa

Dr. Ntsibane Ntlatlapa is a manager of the Networks and Media competency area at CSIR Meraka Institute. The competency area carries out research on wireless communications and networking, real-time media streaming and localization. The broad objectives of the activities in his competency area are to develop core components of technologies aimed at bringing Broadband Internet access and digital services to rural communities and to solve communication challenges in harsh environments such as underground mines. His research interests cover several sub-fields of networking, including wireless mesh and sensor networks protocol optimization.

Dr. Ntlatlapa obtained BSc, MSc and PhD in Computer Science from the National University of Lesotho, University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK) and Auburn University (Alabama, USA) respectively. Prior to joining the CSIR, he worked as a Computer Science lecturer at the National University of Lesotho. While there, he held a number of positions in the faculty, including two years as Head of Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. During that period, he also worked as a senior consultant to the Government of Lesotho in the run-up to the first phase of the World Summit on Information Society, which was held in Geneva in 2003.

Dr. Ntlatlapa has 20 years work experience in academia. He has lectured at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the National University of Lesotho, Alabama State University, Auburn University (both in the USA) and at the University of Part Harcourt (Nigeria). He has also supervised students at Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Zululand (both in South Africa).

Prof. Elias Towe

Elias Towe is currently the Albert and Ethel Grobstein Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He teaches in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His research interests are in photonics and microelectronics for information and communication technologies. He is also interested in biophotonics for biomedical imaging and sensing.

Prof. Elias Towe was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he received his S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He was also a Vincent Hayes Fellow at MIT. He is a recipient of several academic and professional awards that include the US National Science Foundation Young Investigator, the Commonwealth of Virginia Scholar Award, the Young Faculty Teaching Award, the Outstanding Technical Achievement Award from the Office of the US Secretary of Defense, and the Honeywell Technology Award for Advancements in Photonics. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He currently serves as editor of professional journals in his field.

Prof. Towe has been and is a consultant to industry and governments. From February 1997 to March 2001, he was on leave of absence from the university, serving at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he led the Agency’s efforts in photonics. He and his students have published over 160 papers in professional technical journals.

The Revolution that Spawned the Information and Communications Technologies: How it Was Forged and How Developing Countries Can Emulate Some of its Lessons

by Professor E. Towe / Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA USA.

A revolution in microelectronics has profoundly changed the way we live today. Among other things, it spawned information and communications technologies that are at the heart of almost everything humans do. The development of microelectronic technology and its subsequent applications in information and communication systems have largely been a result of a partnership among universities, government, and industry. This enduring partnership has been very successful in solving problems that have technological solutions in the developed world. As a consequence, emerging and newly industrialized countries are successfully emulating some of the lessons of this partnership.

After a brief overview of research from the speaker’s own work that is relevant to the topic of the presentation, this keynote address will discuss how researchers in developing countries might creatively work with what is available in their milieu to build the technical capacity necessary to deploy relevant information and communication technologies. Even though developing countries may not yet have manufacturing industries for information and communications technologies, they do have universities and governments with vested interests in these technologies. Together with vendors of these technologies (from the developed world), local universities and governments can accomplish a lot in developing technical capacity, and in customizing and deploying information and communications technologies to the needs of local populations. Ultimately, however, the objectives of such partnerships must include attainment of self-sufficiency for the local technical community, and benefits that are mutual to all involved