RIYADH, 27 February 2007 — Dr. Jeong Kim, president of Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs organization, the telecommunications industry’s most heralded research organization, is visiting the Middle East for the first time.
Dr. Kim, a noted innovator, and his team at Bell Labs, are responsible for designing the products and services that are at the forefront of communications technology today. Dr. Kim spent the first two days of his visit in Riyadh, where yesterday he delivered a keynote speech on “Charting the Course for Research — Innovating Innovation.”
The keynote was part of a two-day Technology Seminar organized by Alcatel-Lucent in conjunction with King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). The theme of the keynote was “Roadmaps for Success — Technology Directions and Insights for the New IP-Everything World.”
KACST President Professor Saleh Al-Athel was the guest of honor and opened the seminar and Vincenzo Nesci, leader of the Middle East Regional Unit of Alcatel-Lucent, was on hand to ensure the success of the event.
The seminar is part of a series which has been held in Saudi Arabia on six different occasions since 1997. Alcatel-Lucent executives stated that rather than being a marketing ploy, as is common with seminars sponsored by some other technology companies, the Alcatel-Lucent Seminars are learning and networking events for the Kingdom’s technology community. The seminars demonstrate Alcatel-Lucent’s commitment to the Kingdom and the company’s determination to play an active role in the development of science and technology in the country.
The Alcatel-Lucent Research seminar attracted more than 250 delegates from all over Saudi Arabia. The majority of the attendees were professionals involved in either decision making or direct interaction within the telecom field. Representatives from the government, private sector and academia were all invited to come and share their thoughts and experiences with the Alcatel-Lucent technology innovators who had traveled from their research facilities to be at the event.
Following the merger of the two companies, leading scientists and researchers from both the Bell Labs organization as well as the Alcatel-Lucent Research & Innovation community were speaking at the seminar. Presentations focused on the latest developments in communications technologies and future directions and breakthroughs. Topic areas included convergence, mobile technologies, broadband access technologies and network transformations.
Among the top speakers were Peter Vetter, manager, Multi-Service Access Everywhere (MUSE) Project, Alcatel-Lucent Technical Academy; Bernd Haberland, head, Radio Research and manager, Radio Protocols and BTS Nodes Project, Research and Innovation; Paul Gagen, director, Network Design Operations and Methods, Bell Labs; and Dr. Sid Ahuja, VP, Converged Networks and Services Research Laboratory, Bell Labs.
Today, Dr. Kim and Vincenzo Nesci will leave for Egypt. There, Dr. Kim will tour the Smart Village, the location of the Middle East headquarters of Alcatel-Lucent. His agenda will also include a breakfast with distinguished members of the business community at the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo where he will speak on “Global Competition, Economic Growth and Innovation.”
The focus of the discussion will be on whether innovation can take seed in Egypt and what role should the government have in promoting these changes. Dr. Kim is also scheduled to meet with Dr. Tarek Kamel, Egypt’s minister of communications and information technology.