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