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As scientists around the world race to find a solution for the broadband digital divide, a young boy among them stands out.
Erfan Nouraee, a 22-year-old from Toronto, Ontario, has just won the 2023 Global Innovator Challenge – and a $1,000 prize – for a discovery that could provide a potential solution to the digital divide.
Nouraee’s winning invention uses photonics to make high-speed internet accessible and affordable.
More than 4 billion people, mostly in developing countries, still don’t have access to the internet. Rural communities often lack access to broadband and other telecommunications services in their towns.
Nouraee, who is Iranian, submitted his project when he was a second-year electrical engineering student at York University – but it wasn’t always going to be focused on finding a solution for the digital divide.
Initially, his goal was to use photonics technology to detect the liberation of electrons from metal surfaces caused by the particles of light or photons.
“I went on the internet and I found that a third of the world’s population is still without access to high-speed internet. It was then that I knew I had to do something.” Nouraee said.
“The Photon Detector is ideally suited for areas where connectivity has been unreliable or completely unavailable,”
Nouraee said he was inspired to find a potential solution to the digital exclusion.
He also learned that people without access to the internet face significant challenges in terms of education, economic opportunities, and social connectivity. Without the ability to connect with information, resources, and networks, they often find themselves at a disadvantage in today’s interconnected world.
Nouraee said winning the prize and title of top young scientist is an honor, but his work isn’t done.
His next goal, he says, is to work alongside scientists and researchers who are fighting to “leverage innovation to bridge the digital divide” by developing his findings into an actual solution.
Of course, Nouraee also finds time to be normal 22-year-old. When he isn’t in a lab or working toward his goal of becoming an entrepreneur or researcher, Nouraee trains for piano, which he has been practicing for five years.
