Andy Hopper
Encyclopedia
Andrew Hopper CBE
FRS
FREng
FIET
(b. 1953 in Warsaw
, Poland
) is the Professor of Computer Technology and Head of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
.
before going to the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Trinity Hall, Cambridge
in 1974 to start a PhD
under the supervision of David Wheeler. Hopper was awarded his PhD in 1978.
Hopper’s PhD was in the field of communications networks and he worked with Maurice Wilkes on the creation of the Cambridge Ring
and its successor, the Cambridge Fast Ring. The expertise gained in these networking projects put the Computer Laboratory at the forefront of research in chips
for communications networks. The Cambridge Ring ran at 10 megabits per second and the Cambridge Fast Ring ran at 100 megabits per second (in 1980). The Cambridge Fast Ring was further developed into ATM
.
Hopper has supervised approximately fifty PhD students.
Hopper's research interests include multimedia systems
, Virtual Network Computing
and sentient computing
. His most cited paper describes the indoor location system called the Active Badge. He has contributed to a discussion of the privacy challenges relating to surveillance.
More recently, Hopper's research under the title Computing for the Future of the Planet examines the uses of computers for assuring the sustainability of the planet.
Since 2005, Hopper has been a member of the advisory board of the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology at Queen's University Belfast. Since 2003, Hopper has been on the advisory board of Fraser Research.
's Clifford Paterson Lecture
on Progress and research in the communications industry and was thus awarded the society's bronze medal for achievement.
In May 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He became a member of the Council of the Royal Society in 2009.
Hopper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
in 1996 and awarded their Silver Medal in 2003.
He was a member of the Council of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2007 to 2010.
Hopper is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology
and was a Trustee from 2003 until 2006 and again since 2009. In 2004, Hopper was awarded the Mountbatten Medal
of IET and in 2010 he was appointed deputy president of the organisation.
In the 2007 New Years Honours List, Hopper was made an CBE
for services to the computer industry.
After more than 20 years at Cambridge University Computer Laboratory, Hopper was elected Chair of Communications Engineering at Cambridge University Engineering Department in 1997. He returned to the Computer Laboratory as Professor of Computer Technology and Head of Department in 2004.
In 2004, Hopper was awarded the Association for Computing Machinery's
SIGMOBILE
Outstanding Contribution Award.
In July 2005, Hopper was awarded an honorary fellowship of Swansea University
.
In December 2008, Hopper was a member of the team carrying out the Capability Review of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
.
In 2010 Hopper was awarded an Honorary Degree from Queen's University Belfast.
In 2011 Hopper was elected as a Trustee of the Council of the University of Cambridge and a member of the Finance Committee.
Hopper serves on several academic advisory boards. In 2005, he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Institute of Electronics Communications and Information Technology
at Queen’s University Belfast. . In 2008 he joined the Advisory Board of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford.
In 2011 he was appointed a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
..
Hopper is Chairman of the Emerging Technologies and Industries Steering Group of the UK Technology Strategy Board
and is on the Technical Advisory Council for BP
.
In 1978 Hopper worked with Hermann Hauser
and Chris Curry
, founders of Acorn Computers Ltd; Orbis became a division of Acorn in 1979 and continued to work with the Cambridge Ring. While at Acorn, Hopper helped to design some of the chips for the BBC Micro
. When Acorn was acquired by Olivetti
in 1985, Hauser became vice-president for research at Olivetti, in which role he co-founded the Olivetti Research Laboratory
in 1986 with Hopper; Hopper became its Managing Director.
In 1985, after leaving Acorn, Hopper co-founded Qudos, a company producing CAD
software and doing chip prototyping. He remained a director until 1989.
In 1993, Hopper set up Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd
with Hermann Hauser
. This company went public as Virata
in 1999. The company was acquired by Conexant Systems
on 1 March 2004.
In 1995, Hopper co-founded Telemedia Systems, now called IPV, and was its chairman until 2003.
In 1997, Hopper co-founded Adaptive Broadband Ltd (ABL) to further develop the ‘Wireless ATM’ project started at ORL in the early 90s. ABL developed a wireless broadband technology which offered high data rates over a point-to-multipoint radio link (25 Mbit/s operating in the 5.8 GHz unlicensed frequency band). High-speed connectivity at low-cost was made possible by a combination of Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA) and packet-on-demand bandwidth management, based on ATM
technology. ABL was bought by California Microwave, Inc in 1998.
In January 2000, Hopper co-founded Cambridge Broadband
which was to develop broadband fixed wireless equipment; he was non-executive chairman from 2000 - 2005.
In 2002 Hopper was involved in the founding of Ubisense Ltd to further develop the location technologies and sentient computing
concepts that grew out of the ORL Active Badge system. Hopper has been chairman since 2006 and a director since 2003 and was involved in its IPO in June 2011.
In 2002, Hopper co-founded RealVNC
and has served as chairman since the company's inception.
In 2002, Hopper co-founded Level 5 Networks and was a director until 2008, just after it merged with Solarflare Inc.
From 2005 until 2009, Hopper was chairman of Adventiq, a joint venture between Adder
and RealVNC
, developing a VNC-based system-on-a-chip.
Hopper was an advisor to Hauser’s venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners from 2001 until 2005.
He was also an advisor to the Cambridge Gateway Fund from 2001 until 2006.
light aircraft.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
FRS
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
FREng
Royal Academy of Engineering
-Overview: is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy brings together the most successful and talented engineers from across the engineering sectors for a shared purpose: to advance and promote excellence in engineering....
FIET
Institution of Engineering and Technology
The Institution of Engineering and Technology is a British professional body for those working in engineering and technology in the United Kingdom and worldwide. It was formed in 2006 from two separate institutions: the Institution of Electrical Engineers , dating back to 1871, and the...
(b. 1953 in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) is the Professor of Computer Technology and Head of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
The Computer Laboratory is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. As of 2007, it employs 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 155 research students...
and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
.
Research
Hopper studied computer technology at the Swansea UniversitySwansea University
Swansea University is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes...
before going to the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
in 1974 to start a PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
under the supervision of David Wheeler. Hopper was awarded his PhD in 1978.
Hopper’s PhD was in the field of communications networks and he worked with Maurice Wilkes on the creation of the Cambridge Ring
Cambridge Ring
The Cambridge Ring was an experimental local area network architecture developed at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory in the mid-late 1970s and early 1980s. It used a ring topology with a theoretical limit of 255 nodes , around which cycled a fixed number of packets...
and its successor, the Cambridge Fast Ring. The expertise gained in these networking projects put the Computer Laboratory at the forefront of research in chips
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
for communications networks. The Cambridge Ring ran at 10 megabits per second and the Cambridge Fast Ring ran at 100 megabits per second (in 1980). The Cambridge Fast Ring was further developed into ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
.
Hopper has supervised approximately fifty PhD students.
Hopper's research interests include multimedia systems
Multimedia framework
A multimedia framework is a software framework that handles media on a computer and through a network. A good multimedia framework offers an intuitive API and a modular architecture to easily add support for new audio, video and container formats and transmission protocols...
, Virtual Network Computing
Virtual Network Computing
In computing, Virtual Network Computing is a graphical desktop sharing system that uses the RFB protocol to remotely control another computer...
and sentient computing
Sentient computing
Sentient computing is a form of ubiquitous computing which uses sensors to perceive its environment and react accordingly. A common use of the sensors is to construct a world model which allows location-aware or context-aware applications to be constructed....
. His most cited paper describes the indoor location system called the Active Badge. He has contributed to a discussion of the privacy challenges relating to surveillance.
More recently, Hopper's research under the title Computing for the Future of the Planet examines the uses of computers for assuring the sustainability of the planet.
Since 2005, Hopper has been a member of the advisory board of the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology at Queen's University Belfast. Since 2003, Hopper has been on the advisory board of Fraser Research.
Achievements
In 1999, Hopper gave the Royal SocietyRoyal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
's Clifford Paterson Lecture
Clifford Paterson Lecture
The Clifford Paterson Lecture is a prize lecture of the Royal Society given annually on an engineering topic. A £500 gift is given to the lecturer...
on Progress and research in the communications industry and was thus awarded the society's bronze medal for achievement.
In May 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He became a member of the Council of the Royal Society in 2009.
Hopper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Royal Academy of Engineering
-Overview: is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy brings together the most successful and talented engineers from across the engineering sectors for a shared purpose: to advance and promote excellence in engineering....
in 1996 and awarded their Silver Medal in 2003.
He was a member of the Council of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2007 to 2010.
Hopper is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology
Institution of Engineering and Technology
The Institution of Engineering and Technology is a British professional body for those working in engineering and technology in the United Kingdom and worldwide. It was formed in 2006 from two separate institutions: the Institution of Electrical Engineers , dating back to 1871, and the...
and was a Trustee from 2003 until 2006 and again since 2009. In 2004, Hopper was awarded the Mountbatten Medal
Mountbatten Medal
The Mountbatten Medal is awarded annually for an outstanding contribution, or contributions over a period, to the promotion of electronics or information technology and their application....
of IET and in 2010 he was appointed deputy president of the organisation.
In the 2007 New Years Honours List, Hopper was made an CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
for services to the computer industry.
After more than 20 years at Cambridge University Computer Laboratory, Hopper was elected Chair of Communications Engineering at Cambridge University Engineering Department in 1997. He returned to the Computer Laboratory as Professor of Computer Technology and Head of Department in 2004.
In 2004, Hopper was awarded the Association for Computing Machinery's
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
SIGMOBILE
SIGMOBILE
SIGMOBILE is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Mobility of Systems, Users, Data and Computing, which specializes in the field of mobile computing and wireless networks and wearable computing....
Outstanding Contribution Award.
In July 2005, Hopper was awarded an honorary fellowship of Swansea University
Swansea University
Swansea University is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes...
.
In December 2008, Hopper was a member of the team carrying out the Capability Review of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was a UK government department created on 28 June 2007 to take over some of the functions of the Department of Education and Skills and of the Department of Trade and Industry. In June 2009 it was merged into the newly formed Department for...
.
In 2010 Hopper was awarded an Honorary Degree from Queen's University Belfast.
In 2011 Hopper was elected as a Trustee of the Council of the University of Cambridge and a member of the Finance Committee.
Hopper serves on several academic advisory boards. In 2005, he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Institute of Electronics Communications and Information Technology
ECIT
ECIT was established in 2003 at the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University Belfast ....
at Queen’s University Belfast. . In 2008 he joined the Advisory Board of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford.
In 2011 he was appointed a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Computer and Communication Sciences at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
The École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology and is located in Lausanne, Switzerland.The school was founded by the Swiss Federal Government with the stated mission to:...
..
Hopper is Chairman of the Emerging Technologies and Industries Steering Group of the UK Technology Strategy Board
Technology Strategy Board
The Technology Strategy Board is a UK public body operating at arm's length from the Government reporting to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills .- History :...
and is on the Technical Advisory Council for BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
.
Industry
In 1978, Hopper founded Orbis Ltd to develop networking technologies.In 1978 Hopper worked with Hermann Hauser
Hermann Hauser
Hermann Maria Hauser, CBE FREng FinstP CPhys , is an entrepreneur who was born in Vienna, Austria but is primarily associated with Silicon Fen in England....
and Chris Curry
Chris Curry
Christopher Curry is the co-founder of Acorn Computers, with Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper.-Early life:...
, founders of Acorn Computers Ltd; Orbis became a division of Acorn in 1979 and continued to work with the Cambridge Ring. While at Acorn, Hopper helped to design some of the chips for the BBC Micro
BBC Micro
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
. When Acorn was acquired by Olivetti
Olivetti
Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.- Founding :The company was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin, by Camillo Olivetti. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti...
in 1985, Hauser became vice-president for research at Olivetti, in which role he co-founded the Olivetti Research Laboratory
Olivetti Research Laboratory
The Olivetti Research Laboratory was a research institute in the field of computing and telecommunications founded in 1986 by Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper.-History:...
in 1986 with Hopper; Hopper became its Managing Director.
In 1985, after leaving Acorn, Hopper co-founded Qudos, a company producing CAD
Computer-aided design
Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
software and doing chip prototyping. He remained a director until 1989.
In 1993, Hopper set up Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd
Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd
Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd was set up in 1993 by Dr Hermann Hauser and Professor Andy Hopper as a spin-off from the Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge....
with Hermann Hauser
Hermann Hauser
Hermann Maria Hauser, CBE FREng FinstP CPhys , is an entrepreneur who was born in Vienna, Austria but is primarily associated with Silicon Fen in England....
. This company went public as Virata
Virata Corporation
Virata Corporation is an inactive acquired company that was a major contributor to the "Cambridge Phenomenon" or Silicon Fen high-tech cluster in the United Kingdom. Case studies and research papers have been created to illustrate the role of social networking in the creation of Virata's success...
in 1999. The company was acquired by Conexant Systems
Conexant
Conexant Systems, Inc. is an American semiconductor company, formerly the semiconductor division of Rockwell International. Currently it's privately owned by Golden Gate Capital, an equity firm headquartered in San Francisco.-History:...
on 1 March 2004.
In 1995, Hopper co-founded Telemedia Systems, now called IPV, and was its chairman until 2003.
In 1997, Hopper co-founded Adaptive Broadband Ltd (ABL) to further develop the ‘Wireless ATM’ project started at ORL in the early 90s. ABL developed a wireless broadband technology which offered high data rates over a point-to-multipoint radio link (25 Mbit/s operating in the 5.8 GHz unlicensed frequency band). High-speed connectivity at low-cost was made possible by a combination of Time Division Multiple Access
Time division multiple access
Time division multiple access is a channel access method for shared medium networks. It allows several users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different time slots. The users transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each using its own time slot. This...
(TDMA) and packet-on-demand bandwidth management, based on ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
technology. ABL was bought by California Microwave, Inc in 1998.
In January 2000, Hopper co-founded Cambridge Broadband
Cambridge Broadband
Cambridge Broadband Networks is a manufacturer of point-to-multipoint packet microwave backhaul solutions. The company's VectaStar product is designed to improve backhaul performance while reducing capital and operating expenses...
which was to develop broadband fixed wireless equipment; he was non-executive chairman from 2000 - 2005.
In 2002 Hopper was involved in the founding of Ubisense Ltd to further develop the location technologies and sentient computing
Sentient computing
Sentient computing is a form of ubiquitous computing which uses sensors to perceive its environment and react accordingly. A common use of the sensors is to construct a world model which allows location-aware or context-aware applications to be constructed....
concepts that grew out of the ORL Active Badge system. Hopper has been chairman since 2006 and a director since 2003 and was involved in its IPO in June 2011.
In 2002, Hopper co-founded RealVNC
RealVNC
RealVNC is a company that provides remote access software. The software consists of a server and client application for the Virtual Network Computing protocol to control another computer's screen remotely.-History:...
and has served as chairman since the company's inception.
In 2002, Hopper co-founded Level 5 Networks and was a director until 2008, just after it merged with Solarflare Inc.
From 2005 until 2009, Hopper was chairman of Adventiq, a joint venture between Adder
Adder Technology
Adder Technology is a manufacturer of information technology hardware based in Cambridge, England, UK. It is the largest producer of keyboard, video, mouse controllers in Europe.- Overview :...
and RealVNC
RealVNC
RealVNC is a company that provides remote access software. The software consists of a server and client application for the Virtual Network Computing protocol to control another computer's screen remotely.-History:...
, developing a VNC-based system-on-a-chip.
Hopper was an advisor to Hauser’s venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners from 2001 until 2005.
He was also an advisor to the Cambridge Gateway Fund from 2001 until 2006.
Personal life
Hopper is married to Alison Smith, a Professor of Plant Biochemistry at Cambridge University. They have two children. He is a keen flyer with over 5,000 hours logged, and his house near Cambridge has an airstrip from which he flies his six-seater CessnaCessna
The Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets. The company is a subsidiary...
light aircraft.
External links
- Andy Hopper's Home Page at the University of CambridgeUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
- Andy Hopper, IT innovator, awarded CBE
- Andy Hopper interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 22nd May 2008 (film)
- Profile Computing and Sustainability, by Michael Kenward in The Royal Academy of Engineering's Ingenia magazine, March 2010
- Listen to an oral history interview with Andy Hopper - a life story interview recorded for An Oral History of British Science at the British Library