A project about transmitting data through light has won one of the first major research grants to arise from the partnership between Monash University and the University of Warwick. Professor Jean Armstrong of Monash and Warwick’s Professor Roger Green have been awarded a A$410,000 (£269,000) Discovery Grant by the Australian Research Council. They are looking at optical wireless communications technologies, in which data signals travel through light.
This technology offers several additional benefits to more mainstream methods of data transfer. Professors Armstrong and Green aim to develop new short-range communications systems with virtually unlimited bandwidth that will combine the speed of optical communications with the convenience of wireless. Applications for their work include rapid data download to portable devices such as smartphones, and communications within very high-speed computers or within cars or aeroplanes.
This project initially benefited from Monash–Warwick seed funding, which enabled the two academics to lay the foundations of their collaboration. The Monash Warwick Alliance was formalised early in 2012, establishing both partners as globally connected institutions and building on a long and productive relationship.
