ZEF Public lecture: Rural connectivity in regions affected by conflict: supporting the peace process in Colombia

April 17, 2023 | 11:00 h - 12:00 h

Topic: Rural connectivity in regions affected by conflict: supporting the peace process in Colombia

Speaker: Dr. Neil Guerrero Gonzalez, vice-chancellor National University of Colombia, campus Manizales

Venue: ZEF Conference Room (Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn, ground floor)

The lecture will be held in hybrid mode, so you are also welcome to join us online via Zoom: https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5AkdO6hqzkrG9cB36SUEHQG7kyIcmEkF9G7
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Abstract
Access to information and communication technology (ICT) is a fundamental factor for the socioeconomic development of emerging countries, as it provides endless opportunities for education, research, health services among many others. In spite of the Colombian government efforts to extend access to ICT, there is still a significant shortage of fixed broadband connections restricting access to internet for many communities. This talk will take you through our work in the frame of the project "Reconstruction of the social fabric in post conflict zones" (Scientific Colombia) aimed at integrating connectivity services to rural development models through the backhaul network design (WiBACK), in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Information Technology. Our project offers the possibility of electromagnetic spectrum analysis to measure demographic behavior in remote areas, in addition to expanding access to internet. Reference: https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052508.

Biography speaker
Neil Guerrero González is an electronic engineer who received his PhD in photonics from the Technical University of Denmark - DTU. He has worked as researcher in the telecommunications industry on high speed optical networks (Huawei European Research Center-Germany; CPqD-Brazil) for more than 5 years. Since 2016, Neil is an Associate Professor at the National University of Colombia (Manizales campus) and currently holds the position of Vice-chancellor. He is interested in researching and teaching on the topics of signal processing for optical communications and expanding the access to internet/electricity in rural areas of Colombia using renewable resources. Neil has been elected as a member of the Global Young Academy (Germany) since 2021.