This article is the second of a two-part series in support of the SubOptic Foundation and their work to foster the next generation of global submarine communications industry leaders. The first article appeared in Issue 11.
In the previous issue of InterGlobix Magazine, we discussed how our nonprofit SupOptic Foundation is working to ensure long-term continuity in the submarine fiber optic knowledge base. Through four different initiatives—the Subsea Optical Fiber Communication Summer School, Regional Subsea Symposia, the CrewTube Video Library, and the SubOptic Mentorship Program—the foundation is readying the fiber optic leaders of tomorrow for the industry’s critical challenges.
While these four well-established pillars of educational opportunities have achieved a lot in a short amount of time and set a great foundation for establishing and maintaining subsea fiber optic knowledge continuity, there’s still a lot of groundwork to be laid before we can be confident the industry’s knowledge base will stand the test of time-and continue to weather and adapt to new climates.
That’s where our blueprints for the SubOptic Institute come in.
Broadening the Vision: The SubOptic Institute
With these four successful pillars of training opportunities in mind, the foundation is now looking to use the pillars as building blocks for the “SubOptic Institute.” This institute would be a global training platform that integrates and disseminates formal and informal knowledge through a coherent educational program. Through this multi-disciplinary program, it would provide training across levels and geographies to facilitate student and young professional development in the fiber optic subsea cable industry.
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What You Can Do to Help
The foundation’s success so far has been entirely dependent on the goodwill of industry participants and their generous contributions of time and financial support. The plans described above call for a stepping up of these contributions from all who believe that this industry can and should be sustained by offering exciting, stimulating, and rewarding careers to young people. We are asking you, readers, to consider joining us by becoming a mentor, or sponsoring mentees and students. Alternatively, you can contribute by becoming a symposium lecturer or arranging an internship program within your firm. Or, if you want to support these initiatives but do not have time to spare, you and your company can always support the SubOptic Foundation and its SubOptic Institute financially.
That unassuming girl in a sixth-grade classroom, decked out with nothing more than benches and a chalkboard as teaching aids, may hold the key in her fast-developing brain to ensure our industry continues to be at the forefront of sustainably building a connected planet for the benefit of humankind. Through the SubOptic Foundation, you can be part of realizing her potential.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erick Contag is a seasoned strategist driven by his passion for building and managing sustainable digital infrastructures. With over 25 years of executive management, entrepreneurship, marketing & sales, and business development experience, he specializes in building high-performance teams, fostering growth, and scalability.
Contag has been responsible for managing C-level relationships and telecommunications / high-technology projects for start-up enterprises through large, multi-national, and Global 100 companies in the US and Latin America. He has proven success in starting, building, and operating telecommunications and subsea networks as well as colocation data centers, infrastructure, and high-tech businesses. Contag was thrice awarded the Global Telecoms Business Power 100 Award, an honor bestowed upon the most powerful 100 executives in the telecom industry.
Contag holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tulsa and an Executive Engineering Management certification from Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA). More recently, he attended the Executive Program at Singularity University.
Valey Kamalov is an expert in subsea optical networking and responsible for building the first coherent cable (SJC), the first open cable (Faster), the first SDM cable (Dunant), and the first fiber switching cable (Equiano). He also discovered how operational submarine cables can detect earthquakes and water waves and now runs a company on early earthquake and tsunami detection. Previously he worked for 20+ years at Siemens and Google.
With 23 years of experience in the subsea cable industry, Rawle has worked across emerging and developing markets and with clients operating in Asia, Africa, South America, Australasia, Oceania, Europe, and North America. His skills and expertise span every stage of undersea cable development and operation, from feasibility and traffic studies through to business plans, M&A advisories, pre-sales, installation, backhaul, and maintenance.
Nicole Starosielski, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, is the author or co-editor of over thirty articles and five books on media, infrastructure, and environments, including The Undersea Network (2015), a book about the history and cultures of the subsea cable industry. Starosielski's most recent project, the SupOptic Foundation’s Sustainable Subsea Networks research initiative, focuses on the sustainability of digital infrastructures.
