What is worse than having no internet? Having a really slow connection. And that is what researchers at Macquarie University have sought to fix. Not only did they invent a device that makes download speed rocket to 10 gigabytes per second; they also went and won a prize for it. Read on to find out more...

A palm-sized device that radically speeds up internet download times without the expense and disruption of installing new fibre-optic cable has won the photonics industry’s equivalent of an Oscar.

Macquarie University Distinguished Professor Michael Withford was in San Francisco earlier this month to receive the Prism Award for Photonics Innovation in Optics and Optomechatronics, beating two other finalists in the category, including multinational giant Nikon.

The five-member team from the Sydney-based start-up Modular Photonics won for their Plug n Play Omplex Passive Silica Chip, which retrofits legacy fibre-optic networks quickly and cheaply to speed up data flow without the need to re-cable.

What impact has it really had you ask? At one Sydney private school where classes were suffering from poor download speeds, Plug n Play was installed in less than two hours rather than several days, and for about a tenth of the $20,000 cost to install new cable.

Where a single class of 30 accessing the same 1-gigabyte file would have to wait a total of at least 40 minutes to download the file, with the Plug n Play retrofit the total download time for a class can be as little as 24 seconds.

With seed funding from Macquarie University and the CSIRO, Modular Photonics was registered in January 2017, to commercialise 15 years of research at Macquarie’s MQ Photonics Research Centre. Photonics is the science and technology of generating, controlling and detecting photons, which are particles of light that, among other applications, can transport data at close to the speed of light.

Macquarie University is a fantastic place to study, do research and develop your business ideas. The university consistently ranks in the top 1% of the universities worldwide. It is considered one of Australia’s best universities, producing graduates that are among the most sought after professionals in the world.

The university is located in Sydney, Australia’s largest and most-happening city. Sydney has world-class museums, shopping centre, stadiums, restaurants and entertainment venues, including the famous Sydney Opera House. The city also has MNCs like Apple, HSBC, Microsoft, Deloitte, etc. based there.

If this wasn’t enough for the university offers AUD$10,000 (INR 5 lakhs approx) of scholarship for each year of undergraduate or postgraduate (by coursework) students!

Head to your nearest STORM office to find out more and start applying! While you’re at it, don’t forget to download our STORM Overseas app from Google Play store to keep on top of the latest news developments, check out the hot trending courses, bag Scholarships and prepare for your IELTS/PTE online, take practice tests, participate in our regular live webinars, also get to speak to or chat with students studying abroad, or you could even win cool prizes every day plus so much more....

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