FiReGlobal : West Coast Opening Speaker John Delaney to Receive $126 Million for New UW Seafloor Observatory

FRIDAY HARBOR, WA--(Marketwire - September 29, 2009) - FiReGlobal : West Coast is proud to announce that the program at the University of Washington led by opening speaker John Delaney has just been awarded $126 million for the construction of an ocean research facility that will transform the manner in which science in the ocean basins can be conducted. The funds will be used to build an under-sea remote sensing network of more than 500 miles of fiber-optic/electrical cables and seven science nodes off the Pacific Northwest coast. Known as the Regional Scale Nodes, the project is part of the National Science Foundation's Ocean Observatories Initiative. The recent award includes about $35 million from the federal stimulus package. The high levels of telecommunications bandwidth and power will enable this cabled ocean observatory to transmit continuously via the Internet real-time data, including high-definition imagery, from a vast array of sensors in the ocean and on and below the seafloor. There is the potential to change forever the way scientists, educators, and the public access the oceans.

"The oceans are an immensely complicated, remote, dangerous, and poorly understood system; yet the dynamic behavior of the global ocean profoundly influences living conditions on Earth, even on the continents. A prime objective for scientists and engineers is to optimize conditions that lead first to discovery, second to understanding, and third to prediction of ocean behavior. Inspired scientific use of unprecedented electrical power and the huge communication bandwidths available within ocean space from electro-optical submarine cables will facilitate major progress toward achieving each of these goals. However, we may not yet know many of the questions the system will enable us to ask. One of my favorite truths about science is that there is not much known about what's left to be discovered," said Delaney, a UW Professor of Oceanography and Director of the Regional Scale Nodes program.

Delaney is scheduled to speak at the FiReGlobal : West Coast conference on October 15th at the Seattle Four Seasons Hotel. FiReGlobal : West Coast is the first regional version of the renowned Future in Review™ annual global technology conference, which The Economist calls "the best technology conference in the world."

"Ocean exploration and ocean health are critical discussion areas in current FiRe meetings," said Mark Anderson, CEO of SNS, Chair of FiRe and FiReGlobal : West Coast. "Adding realtime broadband viewing of these key environments will not only help us learn more about them, but will prove the value of high-bandwidth infrastructure everywhere -- another important FiRe project."

FiReGlobal : West Coast will showcase a world-class gathering of local and global thought leaders in technology and economics, through a series of interviews and onstage conversations. In a move beyond current tech conferences, FiReGlobal : West Coast has overlaid regional problems nominated by local leaders, to be solved through the collaboration of local Chief Technology Officers prior to the conference.

Other speakers will include Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell; Irwin Jacobs, Founder of Qualcomm; RealNetworks Founder, Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser; Nobelist Lee Hartwell, President and Director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Steve Reynolds, CEO of Puget Sound Energy; Washington State Commerce Department Director Rogers Weed; and Mark Anderson.

To register, go to www.futureinreview.com/global/wc.

Strategic News Service was founded by Mark Anderson in 1995 as the first paid online news service. Since its inception, SNS has proven the most accurate predictive newsletter covering the computer and telecom industries. Its subscribers include top managers at technology companies across the globe, including Microsoft, Dell, HP, Cisco, Intel, Sun, Google, and Telstra.

SNS has been operating the annual FiRe Conference for seven years. The Economist calls FiRe "the best technology conference in the world." FiRe exposes world experts and participants to new ideas, producing an accurate portrait of the future and focuses on creating technology solutions to current local and global problems. FiRe 2010 will take place May 11-14, 2010 at Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes, CA. For more information to go www.futureinreview.com.

Future in Review™ is a Strategic News Service™ conference. Future in Review™, and Strategic News Service™ are registered international trademarks. The SNS newsletter is the most accurate publicly ranked predictive newsletter in computing and communications.

Websites: www.stratnews.com, www.futureinreview.com, www.futureinreview.com/global/wc

Contact Information: Press Contact: Shane Elben Strategic News Service FiReGlobal : West Coast P.O. Box 1969 Friday Harbor, WA Tel. 360 378 8628 Email: Shane@stratnews.com