Change the world

The Centre for Broadband Communication (CBC) is involved in a number of 4IR research projects, including advanced communication networks and big data science applications for 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), undersea robots, the world’s biggest telescopes and early warning geological sensors to detect earthquakes and ground tremors. Professor Tim Gibbon, Director of the CBC explains, “Our research and engagement is focused on creating machine learning and AI solutions (both hardware and software devices) to real world problems, including how to make the Internet faster; generating big data science technologies for the biggest science projects on the African continent, notably the SKA, MeerKAT and HIRAX; and creating optical fibre sensors for geological applications such as earthquake and dam wall collapse detection. These projects see the university collaborating with three main university partners: City University of London, the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe and the University of Eldoret in Kenya. Graduates from the CBC go back to their own countries to lead research there. These partnerships provide opportunities for global and local innovations in industry and the outputs of the projects could see improved access to information across Africa and globe, thus increasing access to education and knowledge, business efficiency and success, as well as infrastructure safety and security.