Collin 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.

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 in the future.

Hardware to Software

With the pace of the broadband industry increasing, necessary transitions are occurring. Engineers must develop a different skill set as the network transitions from hardware to software. 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. It is valuable to build generic hardware that can be developed over time. It’s vital to make a software from a modular perspective.

Many of the technologies deployed today will significantly affect our predecessors. We must think about the unintended consequences of our innovations. Collin believes organizations must consider 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, identify what they can take from those industries, and apply them to their own. Due to the pace of innovation, concepts and prototypes need to be spun out much 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 pivot rapidly 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 as we advance. 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. He leads a group of product architects who work directly with customers to determine 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 has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree and a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan.