García-Luna envisions an Internet that everyone
could log onto cheaply and easily, anytime and anywhere.
His ultimate goal: to democratize the Internet.
Like most computer engineers, J. J. García-Luna works on things that
would baffle all but his colleagues and a few other technical wizards. But
anyone who uses a computer can appreciate his ultimate goal: He wants to
democratize the Internet.
García-Luna envisions an Internet that everyone could log onto cheaply and easily, anytime and anywhere. Each user would become an integral part of the Internet itself, connected invisibly to other users via radio waves and handheld devices that plug into portable computers. All this will take, García-Luna believes, is a good set of WINGs: Wireless INternet Gateways, now taking shape in his UCSC lab.
WINGs will move wireless technology to the next level. Today's cutting-edge tool, the wireless modem, allows people to reach the Internet from home or the middle of a field. However, users still must connect through service providers, such as a university or America Online. Those providers then carry out the tasks each person requests, routing and transferring e-mail and other information.
Computers equipped with WINGs will be powerful and versatile enough to do all that themselves. Whenever two or more WINGs are within radio hailing distance, a seamless community of communication will arise, unreliant upon electronic middlemen.
"We wish to bring the Internet to the nomadic environment," García-Luna explains. "People need to move more and more often, away from walls and workstations. We're trying to make networking pervasive and transparent. It will be everywhere, but you won't know it's there."
García-Luna and his UCSC coworkers have teamed with Rooftop Communications
Corp. of Los Altos to fashion the software, algorithms, and protocols
for WINGs. They recently built a prototype in nine months, but that unit
would cost consumers thousands of dollars. García-Luna says a strong
market push, forcing industry to produce many WINGs, must exist for the
project to take full flight.
Enhancing the connectivity of our lives has formed the core of García-Luna's work since he came to UCSC in 1993 from SRI International, a leading research corporation in Menlo Park. A particular passion is applying the tools of his trade to education. He played a key role in creating BayLink, a multimedia network that links researchers at sea in Monterey Bay with students at schools and museums via live interactive video, audio, and data. He's also pushing the concept of "distance learning," devising better ways for college professors to teach students in many locations.
"As much as possible, we would like to emulate the feeling of being in the same room at the same time," García-Luna says. "The challenge for higher education will be to integrate this technology into the educational process and make each student the driver of how learning takes place."
García-Luna is an architect, building our future communications infrastructure from the ground up. There's a big difference, though, in his brand of architecture and the kind we admire from street corners, gazing skyward at elegant curves and facades. For computer engineers, such admiration is rare.
"Sometimes it's hard for us plumbers of the Internet," García-Luna says with a smile. "If everything that we design works well, no one ever notices it."
Robert Irion