Researcher develops technology to make broadband 100 times faster and wins University of Melbourne prize

Media Release, Tuesday 23 October 2007

A researcher who developed technology to make broadband up to 100 times faster without multi-billion dollar investments in cabling infrastructure has won one of the University of Melbourne’s top academic prizes.

Dr John Papandriopoulos, who has patented his new technology in Australia and the US, will today (23 October) be presented with a Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD.

Dr Papandriopoulos developed two methods – patented as SCALE and SCAPE – as part of his PhD in the University’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

He says the new techniques can dramatically reduce the interference which slows down data transmission in typical DSL networks and use less power in the process.

Dr Papandriopoulos used complex mathematical modeling and optimisation techniques to develop the system, which he says can be used with existing telecommunications networks without laying kilometers of expensive fibre optic cabling.

He says to facilitate the faster data transmission speeds, telecommunications providers would need to change their operational systems and consumers purchase new modems.

Based on his research, he says the new technology could deliver between 100 and 250 megabits per second, compared to typical Australian speeds ranging from between one megabit (ADSL) and 20 megabits (ADSL2+).

Dr Papandriopoulos completed his PhD, supervised by Associate Professor Jamie Evans and Professor Subhra Dey, in 2006. He has since worked as a researcher in the University’s Centre for Ultra Broadband Information Networks (CUBIN).

Next month, he will take up a new position in the United States working for a start-up company founded by Stanford University Professor John Cioffi, the so-called “father of DSL”.

The University of Melbourne’s Chancellor’s Prizes are granted in four areas – Humanities and Creative Arts; Social Sciences; Science and Engineering;and Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences – and were chosen from were chosen from 499 doctorates successfully completed in 2005.

Other winners included:

Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences: James Ryall, a physiology researcher, for his work into the use of anti-asthmatic drugs to prevent muscle wasting associated with old age.

Although anti-asthma medications had been known to prevent muscle wasting since the 1980s, there were significant cardio-vascular side effects.

However, Dr Ryall’s study, which looked at newer generation drugs, found that they could increase the size and strength of muscle without the serious side effects in animal models of ageing.

His findings have the potential for future application in the treatment of numerous muscle-wasting disorders.

Dr Ryall’s thesis generated five publications and he also published six papers during his PhD on similar topics.

Social Sciences: Gaye Williams, an education researcher, who conducted an innovative study into insightful student thinking in mathematics classrooms.

Dr Williams conducted video-stimulated post-lesson student interviews to analyse learning in lessons in Melbourne and the USA.

In particular she found students who developed deep understanding by manoeuvering their own space to think creatively where this was not the explicit intention of their teacher.

"Teachers need to have faith in their students' ability to think independently,'' she says.

"You can help students help themselves if you let students struggle with appropriate problems without immediately telling them how to do it - it's about looking at what questions teachers can ask students to help them go further with the problem."

Humanities and Creative Arts: Dr Luthfi Assyaunkanie, the first international student to win the coveted award.

Dr Assyaunkanie’s thesis explored the development of Islamic thought in Indonesia.

“It deals with the Muslim responses to the modern political concepts such as democracy, freedom and secularisation,'' he says.

“Indonesian Muslims are currently more open and positive to political secularisation than four or five decades earlier.”

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