Stanford University SLAC NIIT and the Digital Divide
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Stanford University, SLAC, NIIT and the Digital Divide Prepared by Les Cottrell, SLAC for the NIIT , March 18, 2005 1
Stanford University • Location 2
Some facts • Founded in 1890’s by Governor Leland Stanford & wife Jane – in memory of son Leland Stanford Jr. – Apocryphal story of foundation • Movies invented at Stanford • 1600 freshman entrants/year (12% acceptance), 7: 1 student: faculty, students from 53 countries • 169 K living Stanford alumni 3
Some alumni • • Sports: Tiger Woods, John Mc. Enroe Sally Ride Astronaut Vint Cerf “father of Internet” Industry: – Hewlett & Packard, Steve Ballmer CEO Microsoft, Scott Mc. Nealy Sun … • Ex-presidents: Ehud Barak Israel, Alejandro Toledo Peru • US Politics: Condoleeza Rice, George Schultz, President Hoover 4
Some Startups • Founded Silicon Valley (turned orchards into companies): – Start by providing land encouragement (investment) for companies started by Stanford alumni, such as HP & Varian – More recently: Sun (Stanford University Network), Cisco, Yahoo, Google 5
Excellence • 17 Nobel prizewinners • Stanford Hospital • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) – my home: – National Lab operated by Stanford University funded by US Department of Energy – Roughly 1400 staff, + contractors & outside users => 3000, ~ 2000 on site at a given time – Fundamental research in: • • Experimental particle physics Theoretical physics Accelerator research Synchrotron Light research – Has faculty to pursue above research and awards degrees, 3 6 Nobel prizewinners
Work with NIIT • Co-supervision of students, build research capacity, publish etc. , for example: – Quantify the Digital Divide: • Develop a measurement infrastructure to provide information on the extent of the Digital Divide: – Within Pakistan, between Pak & other regions • Improve understanding, provide planning information, expectations, identify needs • Provide and deploy tools in Pakistan 7
World View C. Asia, Russia, S. E. Europe, L. America, M. East, China: 4 -5 yrs behind Important for policy makers Quality in KBytes/s S. E. Europe, Russia: catching up Latin Am. , Mid East, China: keeping up India, Africa: 7 yrs behind India, Africa: falling behind Internet performance from US to Europe & India Sub-continent Factor 10 improvement in 6 years India Europe 7 years behind ng up i p e e K Many institutes in developing world have less performance than a household in N. America or Europe 8
Compare with TAI • UN Technology Achievement Index (TAI) Note how bad Africa is 9