Book Review: The right stuff comes in black

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Kenny 12 years ago

Dr. Mensah's book is a must read. I have had the privilege of hosting discussions with Dr. Mensah on major initiatives that can help our economy and country evolve into a market competitor using innovative technology implemen ...
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Dr. Mensah's book is a must read. I have had the privilege of hosting discussions with Dr. Mensah on major initiatives that can help our economy and country evolve into a market competitor using innovative technology implementation. His book is a must read and will help our leadership employ the right expertise to advance communications and interaction in Ghana using technology. Go and purchase a copy of this book.
Kawaanopaado 12 years ago

Why is the doc not coming to Ghana to help solve some of our technical problems?

Why is the doc not coming to Ghana to help solve some of our technical problems?
KK 12 years ago

This is very interesting info about the man but this is NOT a book review. It only tells us who the man is and what he has done but it does not review the book in order to make me want to buy and read it.

Is the book well ...
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This is very interesting info about the man but this is NOT a book review. It only tells us who the man is and what he has done but it does not review the book in order to make me want to buy and read it.

Is the book well written? What are its strengths as a written piece of document? What are the shortcomings? What else would you have wanted to see? Did he tackle some burning controversial issues and discuss them well? If so what? What is your own take on such issues? If it is really well written, tell us exactly why.

These, and other issues, are worth discussing in a review. What is written here looks like what a publisher will put out purposely to make people buy the book - just the good things.

You should have called it something else.

But thanks for the info. At least it informs us about him.
francis kwarteng 12 years ago

Dear readers,

Ben's article is very imformative.

But there is a "little" known Ghanaian engineer called Dr. Victor Lawrence who happens to be one of the world's greatest inventors in the world day.

Those interested ...
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Dear readers,

Ben's article is very imformative.

But there is a "little" known Ghanaian engineer called Dr. Victor Lawrence who happens to be one of the world's greatest inventors in the world day.

Those interested can google "Dr. Victor Lawrence of Stevens Institute of Technology is Named Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors."

This is the link:

www.stevens.edu/news/content/dr-victor-lawrence-stevens-institute-technology-named-charter-fellow-national-academy
KOLI KO 12 years ago

how do you know that he is a ghanaman? the article you linked us to doesn't mention that.

how do you know that he is a ghanaman? the article you linked us to doesn't mention that.
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

After Illustrious Bell Labs Career, Dr. Victor B. Lawrence to Join mPhase Technologies Board of Directors; Telecommunications Veteran Adds Deep Knowledge of Technology to Company's Leadership
April 26, 2006 12:47 PM Eastern ...
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After Illustrious Bell Labs Career, Dr. Victor B. Lawrence to Join mPhase Technologies Board of Directors; Telecommunications Veteran Adds Deep Knowledge of Technology to Company's Leadership
April 26, 2006 12:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time
LITTLE FALLS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2006--Dr. Victor B. Lawrence, retired from an illustrious career with Lucent Technologies Bell Labs, is joining the Board of Directors of mPhase Technologies, (OTCBB:XDSL), subject to approval by the majority of the company's shareowners.

"Victor Lawrence is a well-respected, extremely knowledgeable scientist who is a pioneer in broadband networking, silicon chip design and applications like digital video - all core technologies driving the company's future," said Ronald Durando, mPhase's chief executive officer. "We are delighted to add a director of his caliber to our board."

“Victor Lawrence is a well-respected, extremely knowledgeable scientist who is a pioneer in broadband networking, silicon chip design and applications like digital video - all core technologies driving the company's future”

Lawrence, elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the most prestigious recognition of engineers in the United States, last held the title of Bell Labs Vice President, Advanced Communications Technology, with oversight of a global R&D organization that included branches in China and the Netherlands, in addition to the U.S. Following his retirement, he joined the faculty of Stevens Institute of Technology in January 2006, where he serves as Associate Dean and Batchelor Chair Professor of Engineering in the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering.

A native of Ghana, Lawrence joined Bell Laboratories in 1974 after receiving his doctorate from Imperial College, London. He began his career in the research area, making many significant contributions to signal processing and communications. Throughout the 1980s he took on increasingly responsible managerial roles, contributing to many significant advances in high-speed transmission, including digital subscriber line (DSL) technology that is enabling today's high-speed communications, including internet based television (IPTV).

Lawrence holds more than 20 U.S. and international patents. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is a Bell Laboratories Fellow. Awarded the 2004 IEEE Award in International Communication, he was a co-recipient of the 1984 J. Harry Karp Best Paper Award, the 1981 Gullemin-Cauer Price Award, and shared the 1997 Emmy Award for the HDTV Grand Alliance Standard with other Bell Laboratories colleagues.

Lawrence has co-written five books and has been a frequent instructor and lecturer on technology, technology management and innovation. For several years since 1996, Lawrence has lectured at the U.S. Industrial College of the Armed Forces, which included support for the Senate Sub-Committee on Science and Technology.

About mPhase Technologies

(OTC: XDSL) develops and commercializes next-generation telecommunications and nanotechnology solutions, delivering novel systems to the marketplace that advance functionality and reduce costs. In telecommunications, the Company's mPhase TV+ platform cost-effectively and reliably delivers entertainment digital television, high-speed Internet access and traditional telephone service over existing copper telephone lines. mPhase also offers a growing line of innovative DSL component products, such as the iPOTS splitters, designed to help service providers lower the provisioning and operating costs associated with DSL. The company, awarded the 2005 Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Technology Award and the Nano 50 Award from NASA Nanotech Briefs, is bringing nanotechnology out of the laboratory and into the market with a planned innovative long life power cell. Additionally, the company is working on prototype ultra-sensitive magnetometers that promise up to a 1,000-fold increase in sensitivity as compared with available uncooled sensors. More information is available at the mPhase Web site at www.mPhaseTech.com

Safe Harbor Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements related to future growth and earnings opportunities. Such statements are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by management of in light of current conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. Actual results may differ as a result of factors over which the company has no control.
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

Prof. Victor Lawrence: Brief Bio

Prof. Victor B. Lawrence Associate Dean: Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Burchard Building, Room 205 Stevens Institute of Technolog ...
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Prof. Victor Lawrence: Brief Bio

Prof. Victor B. Lawrence Associate Dean: Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Burchard Building, Room 205 Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ 07030 Ph.: 201 216-5636 Fax.: 201 216-8246 e-mail: Victor.Lawrence@stevens.edu

Prior to joining Stevens Institute of Technology, Dr. Victor Lawrence was Vice President of Communications Technology Research at Lucent Bell Laboratories where he managed an R&D staff of over 500 technologist responsible for the development of technologies for worldwide communications networks.

Dr. Lawrence has been a key proponent of R&D globalization and is championing the effort to bring fiber optic connectivity to Africa. Over the past several years at Bell Labs, he managed a worldwide R&D organization, with branches in Beijing and Shanghai in China and in Hilversum and Twente in the Netherlands, as well as four states in the US. Before joining Bell Labs in 1974, he taught at Kumasi University of Science and Technology in Ghana, and was employed as a research engineer at the General Electric Company in the UK. Since 1996, Dr. Lawrence has taught a short-course each year at the US Industrial College of the Armed Forces. From 1997-2001, Dr. Lawrence and his staff supported Senator Frist and the US Sub-Committee on Science and Technology.

Dr. Lawrence spun off several ventures internal and external to Lucent to maximize the impact of technology developed in his organization.

Globespan, whose core team came from Dr. Lawrence's organization and created the silicon for DSL. Globespan later merged with Virata and is now part of Conexant.
Lucent Digital Video, a Lucent internal venture, which developed MPEG-2 video encoders that have been deployed in over 150 television stations and in many broadband networks worldwide. The entire R&D team came from Dr. Lawrence's organization.
elemedia, which developed software for VoIP communications.
Lucent Digital Radio (now Ubiquity), which developed VLSI for encoding/decoding and modulation/demodulation of digital audio broadcast (DAB). This technology is now used for both terrestrial and satellite radio.
In addition, he led the systems engineering efforts that designed the architecture for the Sirius Satellite System and developed the Studio Encoder and the ASIC for the receiver system.
During his career, his personal R&D activities have provided major contributions to gigabit, photonic, and wireless networking, signal processing, modem technology, digital techniques, ATM switching and protocols, DSL, speech and audio coding, among other areas. His application of digital signal processing to data communications in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to many significant advances in high-speed transmission over copper lines (e.g., voiceband modems and DSL), and to the creation of Globespan Semiconductor Inc..He was an early champion of VLSI for ATM/IP networks and helped to create two generations of ATM/IP silicon, including the industry leading ATLANTA ATM/IP chip set. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering

At Stevens, in addition to serving as Director of the Center for Intelligent Networked Systems, he serves as Associate Dean for Special Topics. He is the Batchelor Chair of Engineering and a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Education Background 1972-Ph.D. , Electrical Engineering, University of London, United Kingdom 1969-D.I.C., Imperial College, University of London, United Kingdom 1968-B.Sc., University of London, United Kingdom
Career Positions

2005- Present : Batchelor Chair Professor & Associate Dean Stevens Institute of Technology
1995- 2005 Vice President, Advanced Communications Technology, Bell Labs, NJ
1994-1995: Director, Advanced Multimedia Communications Dept., Bell Labs, NJ
1988-1993: Department Head, Data Communications Research Dept., AT&T Paradyne, NJ
1986-1988: Department Head, Digital Techniques Dept., Network Systems Div. Bell Labs,
1982-1986: Supervisor, AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, NJ
1979-1982: MTS, Data Communications Div., Bell Telephone Labs, NJ
1974-1979: MTS, Research Division, Bell Labs, NJ
1973-1974: Asst. Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Kumasi University, Ghana
1972-1973: Development Engineer, ITT, UK
Honors & Awards

IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, 2007
2004 IEEE Award in International Communications
Member of National Academy of Engineering, 2003
IEEE Millennium Medal, 2000
Emmy Award for HDTV Grand Alliance Standard, 1997
Black Engineer for Outstanding Technical Contributions, 1995
Fellow of AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1992
Fellow of IEEE, 1987
1986 University of California at Berkeley, Chancellor's Distinguished Lecture Series
1984 J. Harry Karp Best Paper Award at Interface '84
1981 Gullemin-Cauer Prize Award, IEEE Circuits & Systems Society
Representative Professional Activities

Member, NAE Peer Review Committee, 2004 --
Corporate Patrons Chair, ICC2002, 2001-2002
Member, IEEE Kilby Medal Selection Committee, 2000-
Chairman, IEEE Awards Board, 1994-1995.
Vice-Chairman, IEEE Awards Board, 1992-1993.
Editor-In-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Communications, 1987-1991.
Member of the Board of Governors, IEEE Communications Society, 1990-1992.
Member of IEEE Fellow Nomination Committee, 1989-1992.
Member of IEEE Awards Policy Planning Committee , 1989-1992.
Associate Editor, IEEE Communications Society Magazine, Oct. 1977-1981.
Associate Editor, Digital Signal Processing, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, 1981-1983.
Technical Program Chairman, 1st International Workshop on VLSI in Communications, 1981.
Technical Program Chairman, 1st International Workshop on Metropolitan Networks, 1986.
General Chairman, 4th International Workshop on VLSI in Communications, 1986.
Secretary, IEEE Communications Society Technical Committee on Signal Processing and Communication Electronics, 1984-1986.
AT&T Representative to CCITT Study Group XVII, 1982-1986.
Special Rapporteur on Coding for CCITT SG XVII, 1982-1984.
Sample Publications (from a large list of publications)

“Design and Engineering of Intelligent Communications Systems,” S. V Ahamed & V. B Lawrence, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
US Patent Number 5,524,025, “Coding for digital transmission”, June 4, 1996, V. B. Lawrence and A. N. Netravali
US Patent Number 4,457,004, “Multidimensional Channel Coding”, June 26, 1984, A. Gersho and V. B. Lawrence
“Design and Implementation of Transmitter and Receiver Filters with Periodic Coefficient Nulls for Digital Systems,” Proc. of International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, May 1982, Paris, France-with A Revolution,” V. B. Lawrence and A. C. Salazar.
“Multidimensional Signal Constellations for Voice Band Data Transmission,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 2, No. 5, Sept. 1984, pp. 687-702. A. Gersho and V. B. Lawrence.
“Intelligent Broadband Multimedia Networks,” S. V Ahamed & V. B Lawrence, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
“Digital Processing Techniques in Communications,” Invited paper-IEEE Communications Magazine, Jan. 1978, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 18-32. V. B. Lawrence, et.al.
“Simulation Results for the QAM Codes for DS-1 Rate in Subscriber Loop Plant,” IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, Singapore, June 11-14, 1991, Proc. of ISCAS'91, Vol. 3, pp. 1701-1744-. V.B. Lawrence, et. al.
“Multiprocessor Implementation of Adaptive Digital Filters,” No. 6, June 1983, IEEE Trans. on Communications, Vol. 31, pp. 826-835-V. B. Lawrence and S. K. Tewksbury.
“Intelligent Networks: Architecture and Implications,” Chapter in Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology by Academic Press, 1992, pp. 229-262, S. V. Ahamed & V. B Lawrence.
francis kwarteng 12 years ago

Tekonline.org,

Thanks for giving readers all the necessary details.

I posted my comment on Dr. Victor Lawrence after 12 midnight, too tired to provide all the details readers may have wanted.

I was then simultaneous ...
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Tekonline.org,

Thanks for giving readers all the necessary details.

I posted my comment on Dr. Victor Lawrence after 12 midnight, too tired to provide all the details readers may have wanted.

I was then simultaneously on two of my own articles answering questions, here and there, when I saw this piece.

Actually, one of my KNUST mates (I year my senior; he's a systems analyst) worked with him at Bell.

Another friend of mine in New York who did his BSc in accounting at Stevens knew him. I didn't want to provide these info because that won't still have proved his (Dr. Victor) Ghanaian nationality.

There are other prominent Ghanaians as Dr. Victor. I shall post them here when I find the time.

Thanks.
KK 12 years ago

I have read the bio of Victor Lawrence too. But it seems you guys are hijacking the discussion of Thomas Mensah about whom this article is. Will any of you also write an article about this guy and other Ghanaians who are doin ...
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I have read the bio of Victor Lawrence too. But it seems you guys are hijacking the discussion of Thomas Mensah about whom this article is. Will any of you also write an article about this guy and other Ghanaians who are doing well but are unknown?

Mensah and Victor seem to be working in the same area and both have accomplished a lot. Victor was entirely educated outside Ghana. Mensah's case is more interesting since he went to our own university - KNUST. Shows that things coming out entirely from Ghana can go places... Waoooo...
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

Point well taken, KK. Tom Mensah deserves his spotlight. Rest assured, as KNUST alumni, we are very proud of him, and I'm sure Ghana is as well.

If I were to write about other Ghanaian geniuses, I probably wouldn't finish ...
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Point well taken, KK. Tom Mensah deserves his spotlight. Rest assured, as KNUST alumni, we are very proud of him, and I'm sure Ghana is as well.

If I were to write about other Ghanaian geniuses, I probably wouldn't finish today. Trust me, there are MANY out there. (Will later post about Dr Boahen).

What does this all mean?
It greatly endorses the fact that we ARE indeed mentally well-endowed. We are like powerful seeds, stored in brown envelopes and shelved dry. But when planted on fertile soil, we bloom beyond any imagination.

francis kwarteng 12 years ago

Tekonline.org,

Dr. Victor Lawrence did some work at KNUST...but I don't have the details presently with me.

Presently, I am so busy listening to some serious roots reggae, Burning Spear's "Greetings" and "Identity," am ...
read full comment

Tekonline.org,

Dr. Victor Lawrence did some work at KNUST...but I don't have the details presently with me.

Presently, I am so busy listening to some serious roots reggae, Burning Spear's "Greetings" and "Identity," among several others.

Maybe later.

Thanks.
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

We used to play that in Unity Hall.

We used to play that in Unity Hall.
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

Dr. Kwamena Boahen of Stanford University:

Without a doubt, this is one of he smartest humans on the planet!

To put it very simply, he designs and fabricates computer chips that mimick the human brain. He has been a pio ...
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Dr. Kwamena Boahen of Stanford University:

Without a doubt, this is one of he smartest humans on the planet!

To put it very simply, he designs and fabricates computer chips that mimick the human brain. He has been a pioneer in the new hot area of "Neuroengineering".

Before Stanford snatched him from University of Pennsylvania, his work was the cover story of Scientific American, five years ago.

The cover feature below says it all:

www.stanford.edu/group/brainsinsilicon/pdf/05_journ_SciAm_NeurmorphChips.pdf
Tekonline.org 12 years ago

"Kwabena", not Kwamena.

"Kwabena", not Kwamena.
francis kwarteng 12 years ago

Tekonline.org,

I am from Unity Hall too. Tekonline.org, when did you leave Tech?

Do we know each other? I read mathematics!

Tekonline.org,

I am from Unity Hall too. Tekonline.org, when did you leave Tech?

Do we know each other? I read mathematics!

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Book Review: The right stuff comes in black

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