Colin Howlett of Vecima on the Pace and Sources of Innovation

Here is the last interview from my time at the Cable Tec-Expo Show in Philadelphia. Collin Howlett, the CTO of Vecima, joins us to discuss the acceleration of innovation in the cable industry. Collin Howlett of Vecima on the Pace and Sources of Innovation Predicting the future grows more challenging as the pace of innovation accelerates. Customers are deploying innovations at faster speeds than ever. Most cable operators are now mobile operators, with their focus fixed on fiber. At CableLabs, we are showing coherent optics at 50,000 gigs over a single strand. While this mind-blowing capacity may not be needed now, it will no doubt be needed in the future. Hardware to Software With the pace of the broadband industry increasing, necessary transitions are occurring. As the network transitions from hardware to software, engineers must develop a different skill set. This is leading to a shortage of people who understand both software and hardware. Collin emphasized the importance of knowing where to put certain parts of the technology while understanding the software and hardware division. Some hardware has been out there for 30 years, and the companies that created it are now gone. Its valuable to build hardware that is generic and can be developed over time. It's vital to build software from a modular perspective. Many of the technologies deployed today will greatly affect our predecessors. We must think about the unintended consequences of our innovations. Collin believes organizations must think of their innovation's effects at least 10-15 years into the future. Innovation Culture Collin's team at Vecima likes to follow what's happening in other industries and identify what they can take from those industries and apply to their own. Due to the pace of innovation, concepts and prototypes need to be spun out a lot faster than in the past. Decisions need to be made quickly. Collin said it is also important not to get emotionally tied to what you are working on. Being able to quickly pivot to the next innovation is vital. Automation and AI Many brilliant engineers of our day are retiring, and the question becomes, "How do you capture that expertise?" Collin believes there is value in automating the development of technologies, and low-level work through machine learning and AI. While we can capture everything, this could be a way to help bridge the skills gap going forward. The bottom line is, if innovators are not applying machine learning today, they will be left behind. About our Guest: Collin Howlett Colin Howlett is the Chief Technology Officer, joining Vecima in 1997. He is responsible for defining the overall technology strategy at Vecima and leads a group of product architects who work directly with customers to define the next generation of Vecima products. Colin has been an active participant in industry standards development within CableLabs and the WiMAX Forum and is currently actively involved in D3.1 and D4.40 initiatives at CableLabs. He holds multiple patents related to his work in cable broadband access systems at Vecima. Colin holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree and a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan.