There is no doubt that the Internet has changed the world as we know it. Being of (slightly) advanced age, I remember the days when the only way to source new knowledge was to ask your mum or dad, thumb through an (out of date) encyclopedia, or search it out in your local library. Now, the answer is a mere click of the mouse away. To shamelessly steal the words of Ben Harrington in his article for The Telegraph… ‘the Internet has connected the world and brought to the fingertips of two billion people almost the entire span of human learning.’ Wow. Just think about that for a moment.
So, that’s why it is great to see that the founders of the Internet revolution; Louis Pouzin, Robert Kahn, Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee and Marc Andreesen; were recognised last week by the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
Louis Pouzin, Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf made seminal contributions to the protocols (or standards) that together make up the fundamental architecture of the Internet.
Tim Berners-Lee created the worldwide web (WWW) which vastly extended the use of the Internet beyond email and file transfer.
Marc Andreessen wrote the Mosaic browser that was widely distributed and which made the WWW accessible to everyone. His work triggered a huge number of applications unimagined by the early network pioneers.
I think it’s fair to say that engineering is sometimes (unfairly) viewed as the Cinderella discipline in the scientists vs. engineers debate… Take this joke:
A mathematician, a scientist and an engineer were being interviewed. As part of the process, they were given 2 brass ball bearings, left alone for a while, then asked what they had done.
A UK panel of leading industry experts recently called for a cultural shift in the way engineering is perceived – and stressed that government and business must work together if the UK economy is to be successfully rebalanced towards manufacturing. Dubbed the ‘Nobel Prize for Engineers’, the Queen Elizabeth Prize was created to increase the profile of engineering, celebrate outstanding engineering advances that have changed the world and to inspire a younger generation to go into engineering. Perhaps this award will help fuel this cultural shift, and bring an end to jokes like those cited above. As winner Vint Cerf was quoted as saying “It’s like waking up from a dream and realising the geeks are winning.”
The Science and Innovation Network works with scientists and engineers across the UK and US to facilitate trans-Atlantic collaborations in areas of UK priority. This not only helps us learn more about each other’s scientific policies – it helps us to achieve the UK’s economic and social goals, and to play our part in addressing global challenges. Every country that aspires to be a knowledge economy needs an excellent research base to create new knowledge, the right infrastructure to convert this into new products, processes and services and skilled people to make effective use of innovations. But, no country is an island (Okay, Britain actually is, but you know what I mean). Knowledge is increasingly developed and transferred through international collaboration. The internationally collaborative nature of the invention of the Internet is a fine example of this. While the Queen Elizabeth Prize winners each made major contributions to the development of the Internet and the WWW these systems were the result of collaboration involving engineers all over the world. I am proud to play just a small part in making these international collaborations a reality through the work of our network.