三、教研优势
The University of Southampton is changing the world for the better, working with industry, governments and research institutions to make a global impact.We are a world-class research-intensive Russell Group university. Over 96 per cent of our research has been assessed as world-leading and internationally excellent in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014.
南安普顿大学与工业、政府和研究机构合作对全球产生影响和改变世界。我们是世界一流的研究密集型罗素集团大学。我们研究的96%以上被评估为 2014年研究优秀框架(REF)的世界领先和国际优秀研究成果。
1.南安普顿大学的研究重点
研究重点一：使用“黑板”避孕改善世界最贫穷国家的孕产妇健康状况
Around 250 babies are born every minute in developing countries – that’s almost 10 times the birth rate of the developed world. Ahead of the University of Southampton’s public lecture on maternal health, Nyovani Madise, Professor of Demography and Social Statistics, gives an overview of today’s greatest challenges for the health of pregnant women and their babies in the world’s poorest areas.My research focuses on the social determinants of health; I’m particularly interested in investigating the influence of poverty on maternal and child health, as well as nutrition and reproductive health in low-income countries in Africa.
There are three main challenges to the health of pregnant women and their babies in low-income countries. The first is the early age of childbirth. In rural Africa for example, around 20 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 years have begun childbearing; by the age of 18, more than a third are mothers. Many of these pregnancies happen before marriage, which means that the girls often delay telling their families that they are pregnant – sometimes right up until they give birth – so they have no access to antenatal care, information about good nutrition in pregnancy and, if needed, drugs to prevent HIV being transmitted to the baby.Five things you might not know about maternal health:More than 135 million women give birth per year.One woman dies every 90 seconds from complications during pregnancy or childbirthThe risk of maternal death is 2.7 times higher among women with no education.In sub-Saharan Africa, less than 50% of women have a trained midwife, nurse or doctor with them during childbirth.140 million women worldwide would like to delay or avoid pregnancy, but don’t have access to voluntary family planning.Giving girls the opportunity to stay in school for longer would solve this. In sub-Saharan Africa, there is a shortage of secondary school places for girls. As well as providing opportunities, access to education empowers women to make informed and healthy choices for their families – for example in terms of good nutrition – and to ask more questions to health professionals, rather than simply accepting what they are told. Only a handful of African countries, including Kenya, Uganda and Mauritius, provide free and universal secondary education, and this is something that governments need to adopt more widely.The second challenge is lack of access to skilled birth attendants’ care during labour. Currently in Africa, only around 50 per cent of women give birth in a healthcare setting with a qualified practitioner. This is partly due to what we call the ‘three delays’ in accessing care – these are delays in: making the decision to go to a healthcare setting; getting there, for example waiting for a relative who has the money for transport; and waiting for a bed to become available.We are trying to increase the proportion of women who give birth attended by skilled health workers, because if there are complications and the woman is at home, it can be fatal for mother and baby. Our research has shown that improving the quality of care, including interpersonal communication, advising women during antenatal to deliver at health facilities and engaging male partners, can be effective in the decision to deliver at health facilities.The third challenge, to the health of the babies, is low rates of breastfeeding. The World Health Organization recommends that women exclusively breastfeed for at least six months – particularly in areas of poor sanitation. However, we have found that in the poorest areas, there are some of the lowest rates of breastfeeding because mothers often need to go back to work soon after giving birth and leave their baby with a crèche or a friend or relative.My team and I recently carried out an intervention in the slums of Nairobi in Kenya with the aim of encouraging more mothers to breastfeed. In this particular area, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding for six months was just two per cent, compared to 20 to 40 per cent across Africa. We gave community health volunteers and the mothers information on the benefits of breastfeeding and support to help them in practice. By the end of our study, breastfeeding rates in this area had risen to around 50 per cent.
用黑板避孕改善世界最贫穷国家的孕产妇健康状况。发展中国家每分钟出生250名婴儿，几乎是发达国家出生率的10倍。在南安普敦大学关于孕产妇保健的公开讲座之前，人口与社会统计教授尼奥瓦尼·马蒂斯(Nyovani Madise)概述了今天世界上最贫穷地区孕妇及其婴儿健康的最大挑战。我的研究重点是健康的社会决定因素; 我特别感兴趣的是调查非洲低收入国家贫穷对妇幼保健以及营养和生殖健康的影响。孕妇及其婴儿在低收入国家的健康有三个主要挑战。第一个是分娩的早期。例如，在非洲农村，大约20%的15至19岁的女孩已经开始生育; 18岁以下，三分之一以上是母亲。这些怀孕中有许多是在婚前发生的，这意味着女孩们往往会延迟告诉家人怀孕 - 有时甚至直到生下 - 所以他们无法获得产前保健，有关怀孕良好营养的信息，如有需要，预防艾滋病毒传染给婴儿的药物。你可能不了解孕妇健康的五件事情：每年有1.35亿妇女分娩，一个女人每90秒从怀孕或分娩期间的并发症死亡产妇死亡的风险是没有受过教育的妇女的2.7倍在撒哈拉以南非洲，不到50%的妇女在分娩过程中接受过培训的助产士，护士或医生全世界有1.4亿妇女愿意延迟或避免怀孕，但无法进入自愿计划生育.让女孩有机会长时间留在学校就可以解决这个问题。在撒哈拉以南非洲，女孩的中学学位不足。除了提供机会之外，获得教育也使妇女能够为家庭做出知情和健康的选择，例如营养良好，并向卫生专业人员提出更多的问题，而不是简单地接受他们的消息。只有少数非洲国家，包括肯尼亚、乌干达和毛里求斯提供免费普及中等教育，这是政府需要更广泛采用的。第二个挑战是在劳动过程中缺乏熟练的接生员护理。目前在非洲，只有约50%的妇女在具有合格从业人员的医疗保健环境中生育。这部分是因为我们所说的“三个延迟”在获得医疗服务方面 - 这些都是延迟：决定去医疗机构、到达那里，例如等待有钱的亲戚去、并等待可用的床铺。我们正在努力增加成熟的卫生工作者分娩的妇女的比例，因为如果有并发症，那么母亲和婴儿可能是致命的。我们的研究表明，提高护理质量，包括人际沟通，在产前向妇女提供保健设施和配合男性伴侣的咨询，可以有效地在保健设施上得以实现。对婴儿健康的第三个挑战是母乳喂养率很低。世界卫生组织建议妇女至少进行六个月的母乳喂养，特别是在卫生条件差的地区。然而，我们发现，在最贫穷的地区，母乳喂养的比例最低，因为母亲经常在出生后很快就要回去工作，而是让他们的婴儿托儿所或朋友或亲戚离开。我和我的团队最近在肯尼亚对内罗毕的贫民窟进行了干预，目的是鼓励更多的母亲进行母乳喂养。在这个特定领域，六个月的纯母乳喂养率只有百分之二，而非洲的百分之二十到百分之四十。我们给社区卫生志愿者和母亲的信息，说明母乳喂养和支持的好处，以帮助他们在实践中。在我们研究结束时，这一领域的母乳喂养率已经上升到约50%。
在肯尼亚，2016年4月议会通过的一项法案规定，雇主必须为符合国际劳工组织(ILO)的母乳喂养母亲提供工作场所支持，因此情况开始发生变化。具体的雇主团体，比如花产业，很大程度上依赖于女性，已经开始做出一些让步，例如，在工作的时候，妇女可以母乳喂养或表达牛奶。我希望大公司也开始考虑提供更多的crche设备，并且随着时间的推移，小公司可以提供灵活的工作时间。15年来，我们一直在支持非洲的几所大学和年轻的非洲研究人员，通过他们自己的机会和研究渠道，来应对各自国家的挑战。我认为这是向前发展的方式——人口统计学和社会统计数据的诱惑，在世界范围内的健康选择，通常是最贫穷的人做出了最不健康的选择。母乳喂养的婴儿往往体重过多，这对他们以后的生活来说是很难改变的。即使在非洲最贫穷的地区，现在也有快餐店，而蛋糕和其他高热量食品的摄入量也在上升。我相信教育青少年是儿童时期和成年后健康生活方式之间的桥梁。在南安普敦大学，我们开创了“LifeLab”——一个独特的实验室，专门为学生们提供第一手的科学报道。这种方法对非洲的学校来说是理想的。我非常乐观地认为，在孕产妇健康方面，情况会有所改善。我尤其受到鼓舞，因为我们开始让非洲的研究人员进行他们自己的研究，以便他们能够推动这项研究，我们将会有更多的支持作用。15年来，我们一直在支持非洲的几所大学和年轻的非洲研究人员，通过他们自己的机会和研究渠道，来应对各自国家的挑战。我认为这是前进的方向。在世界上最贫穷的国家，使用黑板来证明母亲的健康是有问题的。
研究重点二：为改进铁路网络提供循证解决方案
Next stop, the futureSouthampton research is providing evidence-based solutions for improving rail networks.The UK’s rail networks are based largely on a Victorian infrastructure, dating back to the mid 19th century. These aged tracks come with a hefty maintenance bill: Network Rail spends around half of its £9bn budget on repairs and renewal each year. Research at Southampton is set to reduce these costs and enable greener and more efficient rail travel.Across the UK, most of our railway track is built on ballast – a bed of stones to reduce the stresses transmitted from the moving train to the ground below. This poses a fundamental problem: the ballast tends to move over time due to the vibrations from the trains travelling along the track.“The situation with the railways in the UK is a bit like energy efficiency in housing: the big challenge is retrofitting current homes to be energy efficient, and ballasted track is the retrofit of the transport infrastructure,” explains William Powrie, Professor of Geotechnical Engineering.Extending the interval between track repairs and maintenance by a factor of two or three would be a game-changer, and this is what the Southampton team aims to achieve, says William. As part of the prestigious £3.1m ‘Track 21’ project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), William and his team have developed and assessed techniques that rail companies could use to mitigate these problems. “For example, we looked at changing the grading of the ballast to improve mechanical interlocking of the stones, and retaining vegetation to provide deep-rooted suctions that help prevent embankments from failing,” explains William. These projects were ranked as world-class in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014).Five things you may not know about rail:Passenger rail journeys in Great Britain reached 1.69billion in 2015/2016There were 28 complaints made per 100,000 train journeys in 2015/2016, with punctuality / reliability the most common cause for complaint.There was 15,760km of rail route in Great Britain in 2014/2015.The UK was ranked 16th out of 104 countries for quality of railroad infrastructure in 2014/2015.17.8 billion net tonne kilometres of freight was moved by rail in 2015 / 2016.Improving track for the future.Southampton researchers are leading a consortium of UK institutions (the universities of Huddersfield, Birmingham and Nottingham) in a new £8.5m research programme, ‘Track to the Future’. The aim is to develop railway track that will cost less and last longer, with reduced maintenance needs and improved environmental performance.“We are testing several aspects that could improve performance, including putting rubber pads under railway sleepers to spread the contact and prevent the ballast from moving so much, and using strips of polypropylene in the ballast to help lock it in place,” says William.These ideas are tested rigorously in the lab and the field. “We have a rig on which we can test a single sleeper bay and subject it to three million load cycles over a period of 12 days, which is the equivalent of two to three years of traffic on a busy railway line,” William explains. The team also carries out extensive field monitoring – for example using sensors that respond to the velocity of vibration of the track, and embedding devices into ballast particles to measure the accelerations to which they are subjected.Points, crossings and transitions onto bridges take up a large proportion of any railway company’s maintenance budget, despite making up only a small percentage of the total length of track. William and his team are working with Huddersfield University to improve the design of the metalwork at the junction, including the potential use of techniques such as 3D printing, to achieve a smoother transition of the train through the crossing, thereby reducing wear and tear. Work based in the University’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) is looking at ways to reduce noise – a growing concern for people who live near railway lines.“The size of the prize of reducing maintenance is substantial, in terms of increased availability, as well as reduced cost,” says William. “The railway is now so busy that the time that can be given to maintenance is very short, and this is only going to get worse: London Underground, which is already very heavily trafficked, will soon be running overnight on Friday and Saturday nights. So low-maintenance track will significantly reduce disruption.”
Complex systems:Railway tracks are complex systems: changing one factor can have unintended consequences. “All of our research is building the knowledge base of how the modern rail system really works: over the last few decades our railways have gone from limestone to granite ballast; timber to concrete sleepers; they have changed the shape and type of steel in the rail, and the suspension and wheel profile of the trains. All of these have a significant impact on the system that we need to understand,” William explains.The Southampton team is working with all the major UK rail operators – Network Rail, London Underground, HS1 and HS2 – as well as European rail operators such as Pro Rail in the Netherlands, to address issues that arise as the nature of railways changes.“With HS2, for example, we are addressing a concern that under certain conditions high-speed trains on ballasted track may cause particles of ballast to become airborne as a result of aerodynamic forces coupled with ground-borne vibration,” says William. “Our results so far suggest that this problem can be avoided through good design and careful tidying up after maintenance operations”.Infrastructure challengesStormier weather resulting from climate change is bringing further challenges for our railways. Through a strategic partnership with Network Rail, Southampton researchers are working to address these. For example, the West Coast Mainline in Scotland has been closed recently because of damage to the foundations of a viaduct over a river caused by the riverbed being washed away. “We are developing novel ways of detecting these types of occurrences as they take place and creating better models of predicting when this type of damaging erosion could happen,” says William.Current electrification projects are facing multi-billion pound over-runs in cost, mainly because of the inefficient design of support masts for overhead line equipment and their foundations. Our researchers are working with Network Rail to develop more economical design methods to help bring costs back under control.The size of the prize of reducing maintenance is substantial, in terms of increased availability, as well as reduced cost.William Powrie - Professor of Geotechnical Engineering
下一站，未来南安普敦的研究正在为改进铁路网络提供循证解决方案。英国的铁路网络主要基于维多利亚州的基础设施，可追溯到19世纪中期。这些老旧的轨道带来了巨大的维护费用：网路铁路每年在修理和更新上花费90亿英镑的预算的一半。南安普敦的研究将降低这些成本，实现更环保和更有效的铁路旅行。在英国，我们大部分的铁路轨道是建立在压载物上的 - 一块石头，以减少从列车运送到下面地面的压力。这是一个根本的问题：由于列车沿着轨道行进的振动，镇流器往往会随时间移动。“英国铁路的情况有点像房屋能源效率：面临的挑战是改造现有房屋，以节能，压载轨道是运输基础设施的改造，”岩土工程教授William Powrie解释说 。威廉说：“将轨道维修和维护间隔延长二三分之一将是改变游戏规则，这就是南安普敦团队旨在实现的目标。” 作为由工程和物理科学研究委员会(EPSRC)资助的享誉盛名的310万英镑的“21世纪轨道”项目的一部分，William和他的团队已经开发和评估了铁路公司可以用来减轻这些问题的技术。“例如，我们考虑改变压载物的分级，以改善石块的机械互锁，并保留植被，以提供深层次的吸引物，以防止堤防发生故障。”William解释说。这些项目在最新的“研究卓越框架”(REF 2014)中排名世界级。铁路可能不知道的五件事情2015年，英国的铁路旅客达到169亿、2015年每10万次火车旅行有28次投诉，守时/可靠性是投诉最常见的原因2014年英国有15,760公里的铁路线、2014年，英国在104个国家的铁路基础设施质量排名中名列第十六、2015年/ 2016年，铁路货运量已达178亿吨。改善未来的轨道，南安普敦研究人员正在领导英国机构(哈德斯菲尔德大学，伯明翰大学和诺丁汉大学)的一个新的850万英镑的研究计划“追踪未来”。目的是开发成本更低，持续更长时间的铁路轨道，减少维护需求和改善环境绩效。威廉说：“我们正在测试可以提高性能的几个方面，包括将橡胶垫放在铁路枕木下面，以传播接触，防止镇流器移动这么多，并在镇流器中使用聚丙烯条来帮助将其锁定在适当位置。这些想法在实验室和现场严格测试。“我们有一个钻机，我们可以测试一个卧铺海湾，并在12天的时间内进行三百万次载荷循环，相当于在繁忙的铁路线路上运行两到三年。”William解释说。该团队还进行了广泛的现场监控，例如使用响应轨道振动速度的传感器，并将设备嵌入到压载颗粒中以测量其所受到的加速度。桥梁上的点，交叉点和过渡点占铁路公司维修预算的很大一部分，尽管只占轨道总长度的一小部分。William和他的团队正在与哈德斯菲尔德大学合作，改进交界处金属制品的设计，包括3D打印技术的潜在应用，以实现火车通过交叉点的平稳过渡，从而减少磨损。在声学和振动研究所(ISVR)工作的工作正在寻找减少噪音的方法 - 对生活在铁路线附近的人们越来越关心。威廉说：“降低维护费用的大小在很大程度上取决于可用性的增加以及成本的降低。” “铁路现在很忙，可以给维修的时间很短，这只会变得更糟：伦敦地铁已经被非常严重的贩运，很快就会在星期五和星期六晚上过夜。所以低维护轨迹将显着减少破坏。“复杂系统，铁路轨道是复杂的系统：改变一个因素可能会产生意想不到的后果。“我们所有的研究都在建立现代铁路系统如何真正运作的知识库：在过去的几十年中，我们的铁路已经从石灰石转为花岗岩镇流器，木材到混凝土轨枕; 它们改变了钢轨的形状和类型，以及列车的悬挂和车轮轮廓。所有这些都对我们需要理解的系统产生重大影响，“William解释说。南安普敦团队正在与所有主要的英国铁路运营商 - 网络铁路，伦敦地铁，HS1和HS2以及荷兰的Pro Rail等欧洲铁路运营商合作，解决出现铁路变更性质的问题。例如，以HS2为例，我们正在关注的是，在某些情况下，由于气动力与地面振动相结合，高速列车在压载轨道上可能会导致压载颗粒飞散，“威廉说。“到目前为止，我们的结果表明，通过良好的设计和在维护操作后仔细整理，可以避免这个问题。”基础设施挑战气候变暖导致的天气恶化，给我们的铁路带来了更多的挑战。通过与网络铁路的战略合作，南安普敦的研究人员正在努力解决这些问题。例如，苏格兰的西海岸干线最近被关闭，因为河床被河床冲洗造成的高架桥基地受到损坏。威廉说：“我们正在开发新的检测这些类型的事件的新方法，并创建更好的预测何时可能发生这种破坏性侵蚀的模型。目前的电气化项目面临着数十亿英镑的成本超额运营，主要是由于架空线设备支撑架及其基础设计效率低下。我们的研究人员正在与网络铁路公司合作开发更经济的设计方法，以帮助使成本得到控制。
独特贡献，南安普敦对负担得起的可持续铁路基础设施工程的贡献的独特性是多方面的。“首先，这是我们开发和运用科学原理来解决现实问题的精神。William解释说，运用健全的科学解决实际问题是我们在教学，研究和企业方面所做的一切工作的标志。近年来，威廉及其团队开发出轻松部署的技术来衡量和了解铁路的运行情况，以及实验室测试的成果，帮助企业制定更具成本效益的维护策略。威廉说：“另一方面在土木工程、流体动力学、土壤力学、结构工程、声音和振动、材料和经济模型方面，我们所拥有的技能相结合，使得南安普敦在这一领域脱颖而出。” 这使得研究团队有能力研究与从历史基础设施混合交通的铁路到单一目的的新建生产线相关的所有问题。他们可以将人力和社会经济因素的外部因素考虑到与气候变化相关的压力。威廉说：“第三，规模庞大的活动和外部资金为我们带来了巨大的协同效应，为赞助商和利益相关方带来了许多好处。” 我们大学经营着一个充满活力的EPSRC资助的可持续基础设施系统博士培训中心，作为英国基础设施和城市研究协作室(UKCRIC)的一部分，我们即将开始建设新的4000万英镑的国家基础设施实验室，完成Boldrewood创新园区的发展。“这将使我们能够继续开发针对基础设施挑战的创新解决方案，培训未来的专家，并推动在英国及其以外地区负担得起的可持续发展基础设施的改进。”
研究重点三：网络锁死的威胁正在成为一个主要问题
Making the internet fasterOur research connects the planet; the whole global internet relies on our invention of erbium-doped fibre amplifiers that boost optical signals to allow fast telecommunications.Published: 4 July 2016These days most of us depend on the internet for communication, work and leisure. However, with the internet continuing to grow at a rapid rate and the increasing use of bandwidth-hungry applications such as on-demand video, streaming TV players and online gaming, the threat of network gridlock is becoming a major concern.The University is leading a £7.2m project to pioneer new technologies for a ‘photonics hyperhighway’. Professor David Richardson, Deputy Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) explains: “We are starting with a critical re-examination of some of the technologies that are the building blocks of the current system. The project hopes to radically transform the physical infrastructure underpinning today’s networks by developing devices capable of 1,000-fold improvements in performance.”Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, this major project combines the world-leading expertise of Southampton’s ORC and the High Performance Network Group of the University of Bristol along with industry project partners.The results of research at the ORC have touched everyone’s lives one way or another, according to Professor David Payne, Director of the ORC. Arguably the most important break-through here is the development of low-loss optical fibres which now form the basis of the global internet, he explains“The whole global internet relies on our invention of erbium-doped fibre amplifiers that amplify optical signals, which allow fast telecommunications. Whenever you use a mobile phone you are probably using our amplifiers, because the phone signal goes to a mast that is then optically connected through fibres to other masts,” he says.Solid foundations.The ORC was established in 1989, but the research that forms its foundations at Southampton began in the 1960s when researchers started work on lasers. In Autumn 1964, Professor Alec Gambling from the University, presented a paper to the Southampton meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in which he suggested that optical fibres – flexible, transparent fibres that transmit light between the two ends – could be used for high-speed communications.The team started collaborating with a defence establishment in Christchurch, in the New Forest, as the development had great potential for secure, high-speed communications. By 1966 the group was focusing on trying to make long-distance light communication a practical reality.Making the impossible possible,“There is enough optical fibre installed globally today to circle the world over 30,000 times,” says David. At the time of starting his PhD at Southampton the thought of covering the world with optical fibres that carry a global internet never occurred to him. “We thought at the time that it would be good to get from Southampton to London and even that seemed impossible,” he adds.David explains that when he was an undergraduate and postgraduate student at Southampton, it was a very young university and the environment was that the impossible could be possible. “We were in the interesting situation of being the only low-loss fibre developers outside of big, heavily protected corporate research labs and as a result the world literally beat a path to our door,” he says. By 1969 the first optical fibres were being drawn using the unique fibre drawing tower at the University. “They just couldn’t believe that they could come to our labs and see kilometres of low-loss optical fibres being made.”Today, the impact of the ORC spreads way beyond global telecommunications with the research penetrating many industries, especially manufacturing. David explains that most ‘special’ optical fibres in the world today sprung from the ORC. These optical fibres are used in a variety of applications, such as high-powered lasers for machining, cutting or welding and medical devices. “They are also found in the Moon Rover and Mars Explorer among other things,” he says.The ORC has 64 laboratories and the leading university fibre manufacturing clean rooms in Europe. As well as fibre, it carries out research on new concepts relating to silicon interconnects on microchips led by Professor Graham Reed, light-emitting devices, next-generation nanotechnology and investigating new metamaterials that can be manipulated to behave in ways that nature had not intended, led by Professor Nikolay Zheludev. “We cover an extremely wide range of research. The reason for this is photonics is pretty much anything to do with light,” says David. “The last century was one of electronics and it has been said that this is the century of light.”Looking to the future
Research at the ORC has changed substantially since the 1960s, but the ethos of blue sky thinking and pushing the boundaries of the field is still very much a part of the culture. For example, Professor Anna Peacock is aiming to revolutionise optical communications still further with her research. The age of optical communications has been enabled by semiconductor-based chips used to process optical data and the low-loss optical fibres used to transport the data, she explains.“The aim of my research is to combine these two technologies by incorporating semiconductor materials inside the fibres. This will enable the fibres to act as processors as well as transmitters of light, transforming the way information is distributed,” she says. Anna hopes to develop fibres that will increase the speed and capacity of telecommunication systems, while at the same time offering reduced energy consumption. “The broad wavelength range over which these fibres can transmit light means that their applications also extend beyond communications and into areas such as medicine, sensing, imaging and security monitoring. For example, compact mid-infrared laser sources could be used in tissue imaging and drug analysis.”Enterprising edgeAs well as developing cutting-edge technology the ORC has been instrumental in commercialising products and supporting local business. “There are at least 10 companies in the local area that owe their existence to the ORC and they are selling globally and employ large numbers of people,” says David. “For example, the world’s leading special fibre supplier, Fibercore, trades on the University of Southampton Science Park,” he adds.“The work that we do here at Southampton, not just in the ORC, but in the whole University, is very focused on creating wealth for the nation,” says David. “We are an entrepreneurial and agile university that loves to work with industry and take real tangible things forward for the benefit of the economy and mankind. And long may it continue,” he adds.
现如今，我们大多数人依靠互联网进行沟通、工作和休闲。然而，随着互联网持续快速增长，以及越来越多的使用带宽需求的应用程序，如点播视频，流媒体电视播放器和在线游戏，网络锁死的威胁正在成为一个主要问题。我们大学正在领导一个720万英镑的项目，为“光子高速公路”开创新技术。光电研究中心(ORC)副主任David Richardson教授解释说：“我们正在开始重新审视当前系统的基本组成部分的一些技术。该项目希望通过开发能够提高1000倍性能的设备，彻底改变支撑今天网络的物理基础设施。“该项目由工程和物理科学研究理事会资助，该项目结合了南安普敦ORC和布里斯托大学高性能网络组的世界领先专业知识以及行业项目合作伙伴。根据ORC主任David Payne教授的说法，ORC的研究结果触动了所有人的生活。可以说，这里最重要的突破是低损耗光纤的发展，现在它已经成为全球互联网的基础，他解释说。“整个全球互联网依赖于我们发明的铒掺杂光纤放大器来放大光信号，从而允许快速通信。每当您使用手机时，您都可能使用我们的放大器，因为手机信号进入桅杆，然后通过光纤与其他桅杆进行光学连接。“他说。坚实的基础ORC成立于1989年，但在南安普敦形成基础的研究始于20世纪60年代研究人员开始研究激光。1964年秋季，大学教授亚历克·博博尔(Alec Gambling)教授向英国科学促进会南安普敦会议提交了一份文件，他提出在两端之间传输光的柔性透明光纤可以是用于高速通信。该团队开始与位于新森林的基督城的防务机构进行合作，因为这一发展具有很高的安全高速通信的潜力。到1966年，集团力图将远距离光通信作为现实。使不可能实现David说：“目前全球已经有足够的光纤安装在世界各地，超过3万次。在南安普敦开始博士学位的时候，透过光纤覆盖世界的思想，从未发生过全球互联网。他补充说：“我们当时认为从南安普敦到伦敦是件好事，甚至看似不可能。”大卫解释说，当他是南安普敦的本科和研究生时，这是一所非常年轻的大学，而环境是不可能的。他说：“我们处于有限的情况，作为唯一的低损耗光纤开发商在大型，受到严重保护的企业研究实验室之外，因此世界正在打破了我们的大门。” 到1969年，第一条光纤正在大学使用独特的纤维拉拔塔进行拉丝。“他们不敢相信他们可以来到我们的实验室，并看到制造了几千公里的低损耗光纤。”今天，ORC的影响远远超出了全球电讯业，其研究涉及许多行业，特别是制造业。大卫解释说，今天世界上大多数“特殊”的光纤都是由ORC发起的。这些光纤用于各种应用，例如用于加工，切割或焊接的高功率激光器和医疗装置。“他们也被发现在月球漫游者和火星探险者等等，”他说。ORC在欧洲拥有64个实验室和领先的大学纤维制造洁净室。除了光纤，它还对Graham Reed教授领导的微芯片上的硅互连新概念进行了研究，发光器件，下一代纳米技术和调查新的超材料，可以被操纵，以自然不想要的方式行事由尼古拉·泽杜耶夫教授领导。“我们涵盖了非常广泛的研究。这样做的原因是光子学与光线无关，“大卫说。“上个世纪是电子学之一，据说这是一个光明的世纪。”展望未来
自20世纪60年代以来，ORC的研究发生了巨大的变化，但蓝天思想和推动边界的精神仍然是文化的一部分。例如，Anna Peacock教授正在努力通过她的研究进一步革新光通信。她解释说，光通信的时代已经由用于处理光数据的半导体芯片和用于传输数据的低损耗光纤实现。“我的研究的目的是通过将半导体材料结合在纤维中来结合这两种技术。这将使光纤作为处理器以及光发射器，从而改变信息的分发方式。“她说。安娜希望开发能提高电信系统速度和容量的光纤，同时降低能耗。“这些光纤可以传输光的宽波长范围意味着它们的应用也超出通信范围，并扩展到诸如医学，感测，成像和安全监控等领域。例如，紧凑的中红外激光源可用于组织成像和药物分析。“进取的边缘。除了开发尖端技术，ORC一直在产品商品化和支持当地业务。大卫说：“当地至少有10家公司将其存在于ORC，并在全球销售，并雇佣了大量的人员。“例如，世界领先的特种纤维供应商Fibercore在南安普敦科学园区工作，”他补充说。大卫说：“我们在南安普敦的工作不仅在ORC，而且在整个大学，都非常专注于为国家创造财富。”“我们是一个创业灵活的大学，喜欢与工业界合作，为实现经济和人类的利益而采取切实的实际措施。很久以后，他会继续下去。“使互联网更快我们的研究连接着地球;整个全球互联网依赖于我们发明的掺铒光纤放大器，其提高光信号以允许快速通信。
请继续阅读第3页为南安普顿大学校园环境和杰出校友详细介绍。
