Andy Hopper

Andy Hopper

Andrew "Andy" Hopper (* 9. May 1953 in Warsaw , Poland ) is a professor of computer science (Computer Technology), head of the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge , Fellow of Corpus Christi College and co-founder of the computer company Acorn .

Life

He came to England at the age of ten after his mother married an Englishman. Hopper studied computer science at the University of Wales in Swansea . In 1974 he moved to Cambridge University to do his Ph. D. with David Wheeler in 1978 .

Act

Hopper works primarily on the subject of data networks, among others with Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge Ring and its successors. The Cambridge Ring was already working at 10 megabits per second in 1980, its successor, the Cambridge Fast Ring , reached 100 megabits and was later developed into ATM .

In 1997 he was appointed to the Chair of Communications Engineering in the Engineering Department at Cambridge University. In 2004 he became Professor of Computer Science and Dean of the Computer Science Department. Hopper is a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) and has been a member of the IEE Information Technology Sector Panel since it was founded in 2002 .

Hopper is a keen aviator and has a landing pad for his private plane, a six-seat Cessna , at his home in Cambridge .

Awards

In 1996 he became a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering . She awarded him the silver medal in 2003. In 1999, Hopper gave the Royal Society's Clifford Paterson Lecture on The Progress and Research in the Computer Industry . He then received the bronze medal of the Royal Society for his work. In 2004 he received the Mountbatten Medal from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IEE). In 2005 he became an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wales. In 2006 he became a member of the Royal Society, whose Bakerian Lecture he gave in 2017. He has been a full member of the Academia Europaea since 2010 .

Company foundations

Before 1978, Hopper founded Orbis Ltd for the development of data networks. In 1978, Hopper, together with Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry , the Acorn Computers Ltd ; the Orbis Ltd was incorporated in this Acorn and continued to work at Cambridge ring . After Acorn was bought by Olivetti in 1985 , Hauser became Vice President of Olivetti Research and in that role founded the Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) in 1986 , of which he became director. The laboratories were bought by Oracle and later by AT&T in 1999 and closed in 2002.

In 1985 he co-founded Qudos Technology Ltd (Quick Design On Silicon). In 1993, Hopper and Hauser Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd . The company was renamed Virata Ltd. on February 11, 1998 . renamed, then merged with Globalspan and renamed GlobespanVirata . This company was bought by Conexant on March 1st, 2004 . In 1995, Hopper co-founded Internet Pro Video Ltd (IPV), then Telemedia Systems Ltd, together with Alan Chaney .

In 1999 Hopper and others founded Adaptive Broadband Ltd (ABL) to further develop Wireless ATM , which was developed by ORL in the early 1990s. ABL developed a wireless broadband technology that enables high data rates with 1: N communication (25 Mbit / s on the free 5.8 GHz band). This is made possible by a combination of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and packet-on-demand bandwidth management together with ATM technology. 1998 ABL California Microwave, Inc bought.

In February 2000, Hopper co-founded Cambridge Broadband Ltd with Peter Wharton, which developed broadband for fixed wireless connections. He is still a silent partner today. In 2002 Hopper co-founded Ubisense Ltd , which deals with location technologies and environment modeling (sentient computing), which comes from the ORL program Active Badge system . In 2002 Hopper also founded RealVNC Ltd , which looks after the commercial version of VNC (Virtual Network Computing). Also in 2002 he co-founded Level 5 Networks Ltd . Together with Peter Wharton, he founded Adventiq in 2006 .

Hopper was for some time an advisor to the venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners , founded in 1997 by Hermann Hauser , Anne Glover and Peter Wynn .

Web links

• Andy Hopper's website