John O’Sullivan is an Australian electrical engineer whose work at CSIRO
in the application of Fourier transforms to radio astronomy led to his
invention with colleagues of a core technology that underpins WiFi.
CSIRO patented the technique O'Sullivan and the team developed
for reducing multipath interference of radio signals in wireless
computer networks and CSIRO has earned hundreds of millions
of dollars in royalties as a result.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports today that the Marsfield lab
in Sydney where that work was carried out is "facing job cuts that
threaten its commercial capabilities, according to scientists who work there".
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Originally Posted by Marcus Strom, Sydney Morning Herald
One scientist at the Marsfield lab told the Herald that redundancies had already reduced capability. He said that from nearly 50 staff in mid 2013 there were now about 35.
"It's getting to the point where removing a single person will end our ability to produce any useful systems," the scientist said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The Marsfield lab undertakes research and product development on antennas, circuits, algorithms and firmware, among other technologies. Some of the commercially-relevant research involves location technology for the mining industry and firmware that allows for faster trading in financial markets.
Another scientist at the site said that "the Wi-Fi lab continues to bring in vital revenue for the CSIRO from the private sector, which will have to be terminated or scaled back owing to the loss of capabilities".
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Marcus Strom, Sydney Morning Herald
One of the leaders of the Wi-Fi team from the '90s, John O'Sullivan, told Fairfax Media he was "concerned that important skills get dissipated" during redundancies "not to mention the personal consequences".
Dr O'Sullivan is no longer connected to the Marsfield lab but said he believed people still working there "did not have clarity around what was going on".
Another member of that Wi-Fi development team said there was "continuing confusion" at the Marsfield lab that was affecting morale.
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Today John O'Sullivan is working on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radiotelescope project.
Article here -
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politi...25-goegih.html
CSIRO job cuts threaten lab that 'invented Wi-Fi' - Sydney Morning Herald
