Lecture Series in Mobile Telecommunications and Networks (1583KB)

Welcome and introduction
Professor Michael Walker: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the second lecture in the third
series on mobile communications and networks, which is jointly sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering and
Vodafone. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Michael Walker and I am responsible for research and
development for the Vodafone Group and I shall be chairing this evening’s meeting.
This is our second lecture in the third series and tonight we have invited Dr Linda Doyle from Trinity College, Dublin, to
address us. She is in the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department, and I guess that most of our academic
visitors here come from similar departments. She heads Emerging Networks Research in a centre with the interesting
name – one I had not heard of until now – The Centre for Telecommunications Value-chain Research, so this is
something new for me at least. It is a multi-disciplinary centre, so I guess it has engineers, economists and perhaps
some social scientists, all looking at a subject which is central to my existence at least, and to that of a number of others
in the audience.
Linda’s team specialises in spectrum access and reconfigurable networks and she also has an interest in art and
technology, although I do not know whether she will talk about that this evening. That is a subject which has also
recently been of interest to a couple of people in the research group in Vodafone. Frankly, it has not made much
traction in the company as yet but there is a growing interest in art and technology. I do not think it is like Ray’s art,
which means that he paints as well as being a first rate technologist.
Tonight, Linda will address us with a lecture entitled ‘To the edge of chaos: the complexity and promise of a Technology and
service-neutral future.’
22 The Royal Academy of Engineering