Eric
Brewer
UC
Berkeley
Technology
Research
for
Developing
Regions
Abstract: The
historic
focus
of
development
has
rightfully
been
on
macroeconomics
and
good
governance,
but
technology
has
an
increasingly
large
role
to
play.
In
this
talk,
we
review
several
novel
technologies
that
we
have
deployed
in
India
and
Africa,
and
discuss
the
challenges
and
opportunities
of
this
new
subfield
of
EECS
research.
Our
flagship
project
has
been
the
development
of
long-distance
WiFi
for
rural
connectivity
and
its
use
for
telemedicine
in
rural
India.
Working
with
the
Aravind
Eye
Hospital,
we
currently
support
doctor/patient
videoconferencing
in
25
rural
villages
at
the
rate
of
roughly
3600
patient
exams
per
month
and
over
50,000
to
date.
More
than
3000
people
have
had
their
blindness
cured
due
to
these
exams.
Biography: Dr. Brewer focuses on all aspects of Internet-based systems, including technology, strategy, and government. As a researcher, he has led projects on scalable servers, search engines, network infrastructure, sensor networks, and security. His current focus is (high) technology for developing regions, with projects in India, Ghana, and Uganda (so far), and including communications, health, education, and e-government.
In 1996, he co-founded Inktomi Corporation with a Berkeley grad student based on their research prototype, and helped lead it onto the Nasdaq 100 before it was bought by Yahoo! in March 2003.
In 2000, he founded the Federal Search Foundation, a 501-3(c) organization focused on improving consumer access to government information. Working with President Clinton, Dr. Brewer helped to create USA.gov, the official portal of the federal government, which launched in September 2000.
He received an MS and PhD in EECS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BS in EECS from UC Berkeley. He was named a "Global Leader for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum, by the Industry Standard as the "most influential person on the architecture of the Internet," by InfoWorld as one of their top 10 innovators, by Technology Review as one of the top 100 most influential people for the 21st century (the "TR100"), and by Forbes as one of their 12 "e-mavericks," for which he appeared on the cover. He was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering, for leading the development of scalable servers, and named an ACM Fellow.
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