Nortel Institute for Telecommunications of the University of Toronto

Identifying and assessing technology trends to guide and inform future research and development, education and policy-making



 NIT's challenges:
  • The accelerating rate of change in information technology, with profound impacts on society, industry and the economy;
  • The increasingly global competition in the information technology and telecommunications sector;
  • The very high cost to a national economy that must “catch up” in technological development and the significant rewards to an economy that achieves leadership.

Responses
  • Assist and inform public policy-making and business planning in a changing world;
  • Identify and assess future technology trends to gain and maintain competitive advantage;
  • Develop long-range research and education plans to ensure that the Canadian economy is prepared for new technologies, businesses and industries.

Approaches
  • Organize and promote “think tank” sessions to produce independent, unbiased resources for planners, decision-makers and policy-makers;
  • Draw on the resources and expertise of academia, industry and governments for multi-perspective assessments of current and future technology trends;
  • Provide national and international leadership in futuristic thinking, attracting creative participants from the across the broad spectrum of stakeholders.

NIT organizes and presents gatherings that range from the highly specialized to the broadly interdisciplinary, with attendees from business, government and academia. Think-tank sessions have been held on future tends in microelectronics and distance learning technologies.


The Nortel Institute is ideally positioned to serve as a national and international focal point for strategic analysis of technology trends to identify and assess developments and to anticipate their direction and impact. Through “think tank” sessions, the Institute produces independent, multi-perspective resources for planners, decision-makers and policy-makers in a wide range of fields. Further, this strategic analysis mission informs and guides other Institute activities, enabling its research and education programs to gain and maintain the lead in new technologies.


Strategic Analysis Events organized by NIT include:

The objective of this workshop was to foster discussions involving leading scientists working on fundamental aspects of Nonlinear Optics (Spatial and Temporal Solitons, Nonlinear Pulse Propagation in Periodic Structures, Cavity Solitons, Solitons in BECs etc.) as well as the physics behind the enabling technologies required for the realization of future telecommunication systems. Taking advantage of the NLGW (Nonlinear Guided Waves) Meeting in Toronto (March 28-31, 2004), a focused workshop on Soliton Physics took place on March 27th and 28th.

This event brought together some of the high caliber speakers that participated in the OSA meeting into a more focused two-day workshop, to promote scientific discussions and interactions. 

The workshop's aims were to foster discussion and further collaboration among graduate students and research groups from the University of Toronto and the University of Tokyo in the rapidly evolving field of emerging materials and systems. 

 

Emerging Technologies WorkshopEmerging Technologies for Future Optical and Wireless Networks Workshop. This strategic workshop's aimed at fostering discussion and collaboration among academics and industrial researchers from Scotland and Canada in the rapidly evolving field of emerging technologies. The workshop was co-sponsored by Scottish Enterprise and the Nortel Institute. Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's main economic development agency.

 

 




Canada-France Conference on Molecular Photonics and Plastic Electronics 2001: NIT was instrumental in launching a Canada-France Bilateral Initiative in Molecular and Plastic Optoelectronics and co-organized the very successful Canada-France Conference on this topic.

Data Analysis for Commercial and Industrial Applications 2000: NIT working with the Fields Institute for Mathematics, held a conference on “Data Analysis for Commercial and Industrial Applications”. The aim of the workshop was to bridge leading-edge mathematical techniques with commercial and industrial applications of data analysis and to present problems motivated by commercial and industrial needs.

 


1999 - “Beyond Moore’s Law”: The Institute organized and sponsored a think tank on the subject of mega-trends in microelectronics, entitled “Beyond Moore’s Law” (report published by Wiley).


1998 - Tele-learning: Emerging Applications and Opportunities in the Knowledge Economy
This two-day symposium brought together leading experts and practitioners in technology, education, business and government to present and exchange ideas and information regarding emerging trends in tele-learning. Six sessions, each followed by a panel discussion, explored implementation issues, best practices, instructional design, administration and management of tele-learning in the areas of elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, corporate training and professional development. Speakers from Canada, USA and UK addressed current practices, future trends and emerging applications and opportunities, as well as technological and socio-economic challenges.