A team of top-notch telecom engineers has won the prestigious Global Telecom Engineering Award, the first of its kind.
The group of seven men and women from Telstra, Google, Facebook, IBM, Cisco and Twitter were chosen to present the award to the nation’s top telecom engineers on Thursday night in New York.
The GTE awards recognize the most innovative minds in the technology industry and the achievements of the next generation of innovators, who will be tasked with developing the next-generation of networks, networks solutions and devices.
“It is an honor to receive this award, and we are honored to work alongside the world-class technical team in developing the technology that will be a part of the future of telecom, as well as a platform for furthering the work of the many innovators,” said Google executive vice president of engineering Brian McClendon.
“We’re thrilled to be able to work with the GTE team and help them take a leading role in developing this groundbreaking technology.”
The GTA is awarded annually to a group of the country’s top network engineers.
It was founded in 2003 to recognize the best and brightest network engineers in the world, who have achieved excellence in a broad range of technical areas, from building the world’s most advanced telecommunications infrastructure to developing innovative services and products.
“This year’s GTE was a culmination of many years of hard work and hard decisions, and it shows just how strong the talent pool in the field is,” said Facebook chief technology officer Brian Schiller.
“The GSE team’s hard work, hard thinking and hard-won insight has led to a breakthrough in broadband internet, and a world-leading position for our technology in general.
We are honored that they will be the ones to take the GTA’s mantle.”
The award is made up of two awards: the International Award for Engineering Excellence and the GAEA Global Award for the best work in communications and technology in the United States.
The winner of the first award will be announced later this year.
Google, Facebook and IBM won the second award, while Cisco and Cisco Systems won the third.
In their acceptance speech, Google and Facebook noted that they had been working on a project for many years, and were “not looking for a particular award, but rather for a platform where we could collaborate to make a better world.”
They said they had also been “focusing on the challenges of global connectivity, and the need for a modern digital infrastructure to deliver a better life for all.”
“We are incredibly fortunate to have been selected to present this award and are proud to work in this field,” said IBM CTO Rajesh Jain.
“We will strive to deliver world-changing solutions that will empower people to connect, and work together to build a better digital world.”
