Silicon Valley Research Articles

Thermal tunable silicon valley photonic crystal ring resonators at the telecommunication wavelength.

Tunable ring resonators are essential devices in integrated circuits. Compared to conventional ring resonators, valley photonic crystal (VPC) ring resonators have a compact design and high quality factor (Q-factor), attracting broad attention. However, tunable VPC ring resonators haven't been demonstrated. Here we theoretically demonstrate the first tunable VPC ring resonator in the telecommunication wavelength region, the resonance peaks of which are tuned by controlling the temperature based on the thermal-optic effect of silicon. The design is ultracompact (12.05 µm by 10.44 µm), with a high Q-factor of 1281.00. By tuning the temperature from 100 K to 750 K, the phase modulation can reach 7.70 π, and the adjustment efficiency is 0.062 nm/K. Since thermal tuning has been broadly applied in silicon photonics, our design can be readily applied in integrated photonic circuits and will find broad applications. Furthermore, our work opens new possibilities and deepens the understanding of designing novel tunable VPC photonic devices.

Topological sensor on a silicon chip

An ultrasensitive photonic sensor is vital for sensing matter with absolute specificity. High specificity terahertz photonic sensors are essential in many fields, including medical research, clinical diagnosis, security inspection, and probing molecular vibrations in all forms of matter. Widespread photonic sensing technology detects small frequency shifts due to the targeted specimen, thus requiring ultra-high quality (Q) factor resonance. However, the existing terahertz waveguide resonating structures are prone to defects, possess limited Q-factor, and lack the feature of chip-scale CMOS integration. Here, inspired by the topologically protected edge state of light, we demonstrate a silicon valley photonic crystal based ultrasensitive, robust on-chip terahertz topological insulator sensor that consists of a topological waveguide critically coupled to a topological cavity with an ultra-high quality (Q) factor of Q=0.14×106. Topologically protected cavity resonance exhibits strong resilience against disorder and multiple sharp bends. Leveraging on the extremely narrow linewidth (2.3 MHz) of topological cavity resonance, the terahertz sensor shows a record-high figure of merit of 4000 RIU mm−1. In addition to the spectral shift, the intensity modulation of cavity resonance offers an additional sensor metric through active tuning of critical coupling in the waveguide-cavity system. We envision that the ultra-high Q photonic terahertz topological sensor could have chip-scale biomedical applications such as differentiation between normal and cancerous tissues by monitoring the water content.

La Pastorela

La Pastorela

Truth as social practice in a digital era: iteration as persuasion

This article reflects on the problem of false belief produced by the integrated psychological and algorithmic landscape humans now inhabit. Following the work of scholars such as Lee McIntyre (Post-Truth, MIT Press, 2018) or Cailin O’Connor and James Weatherall (The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread, Yale University Press, 2019) it combines recent discussions of fake news, post-truth, and science denialism across the disciplines of political science, computer science, sociology, psychology, and the history and philosophy of science that variously address the ineffectiveness, in a digital era, of countering individual falsehoods with facts. Truth and falsehood, it argues, rather than being seen as properties or conditions attached to individual instances of content, should now be seen as collective, performative, and above all persuasive phenomena. They should be practically evaluated as networked systems and mechanisms of sharing in which individually targeted actions are combining with structural tendencies (both human and mechanical) in unprecedented ways. For example, the persuasive agency of apparent consensus (clicks, likes, bots, trolls) is newly important in a fractured environment that only appears to be, but is no longer ‘public’; the control of narratives, labels, and associations is a live, time-sensitive issue, a continuous contest, or ongoing cusp. Taking a social approach to truth yields observations of new relevance; from how current strategies of negative cohesion, blame, and enemy-creation depend crucially on binary ways of constructing the world, to how the offer of identity/community powerfully cooperates with the structural tendencies of algorithm-driven advertiser platforms towards polarisation. Remedies for these machine-learned and psychological tendencies lie in end-user education. So the Arts and Humanities, whether via comparisons with previous historical periods, or via principles of critical thinking and active reading, offer crucial resources to help counter what since 1997 silicon valley executives and scholars have called ‘persuasive technology’ (Fogg in Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What we Think and Do, Morgan Kaufmann, 2003; Hamari et al. (eds) in Persuasive Technology, Springer International Publishing, 2014; Harris in How a Handful of Tech Companies Control Billions of Minds Every Day, 2017; Lanier in Who Owns the Future? Simon & Schuster, 2014 and Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Picador, 2019). The article proposes a paradigm shift in public understandings of this new social environment: from a culture of discovery, where what matters is what exists or is in fact the case, to a culture of iteration, where what matters is what gets repeated.

Creating and Managing EU Funded Research Networks: An Exploratory Case

The collaborative European funded research and development landscape drives competitiveness among innovative organisations. Recently it has seen the rise of public private partnerships significantly impacting the dynamics of these networks. Thus, the complexity of managing research networks has intensified with the increased diversity of research network members. Additionally, the emergence of the academic entrepreneur has augmented the focus of educational institutions to include innovation and building start-up organisations. The impact of research is scalable if an optimum research network is created and managed effectively. This paper investigates network embeddedness; the nature of relationships, links and nodes within a research network, specifically their structure, configuration and quality. The contribution of this paper extends our understanding for establishing and maintaining effective collaborative research networks. The effects of network embeddedness are recognized in the literature as pertinent to innovation and the economy. Network theory literature claims that networks are essential to innovative clusters such as Silicon valley and innovation in high tech industries. The concept of embeddedness is what differentiates network theory from economic theory. This study adopts a qualitative approach and uncovers some of the challenges of multi-disciplinary research through case study insights. One challenge is competition between network members over ownership and sharing of data. The contribution of this paper recommends the establishment of scaffolding to accommodate cooperation in research networks, role appointment, and addressing contextual complexities early to avoid problem cultivation. Furthermore, it suggests recommendations in relation to network formation, incubation and operations. The network capability is enhanced by the recognition of network theory, open innovation and social exchange with the understanding that the network structure has an impact on innovation and social exchange in research networks and subsequently on research output. The research concludes that the success of collaborative research is reliant upon establishing a common language and understanding between network members to realise their research objectives.

Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger: Precursor Narrative of Upcoming Unicorns in India under Globalization

India in the turn of the millennium has encountered with liberalization, globalization and privatization subsequently resulting in paradigm shift encompassing all activities along with trade and commerce. This transnational and transcultural phenomenon has brought to India advanced technologies with economic opportunities to provide talented and hardworking minds to grow by new exposure and unbiased platforms whicheventually proved boon to the victims of restricted stratified society. To the parallel of legacy of family business, ran the entrepreneurship aspirations by many newcomers in the field to claim the share in emerging economy which had witnessed drastic change with the arrival of greater ideas and dreams. Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker awardee novel The White Tiger, published in 2008 has encapsulated the nuances of globalized contemporary society and foreseen the trend of entrepreneurships and surge of startups to change the scenario to great extent in near future. The protagonist of the narrative, Balram Halwai, a village boy from Bihar emerges as a successful entrepreneur in the cosmopolitan and global backdrop of Bengaluru; the silicon valley of India. The IT/BT revolution in India post-Y2K has strengthened its socioeconomic status in global forum. Recently India has displaced the UK and occupied third positionnext to the USA and China in terms of the number of unicorns created in 2021. This paper attempts to analyse the dynamics of globalizationas a paradigm shift as portrayed in The White Tiger.

Reading the Human through Robots

Reading the Human through Robots

Race and gender in silicon valley

I am a Lecturer of Computer Science, and typically teach programming (CS2 and systems) and theory (discrete math and automata) course. This autumn, I introduced a new seminar course, Race & Gender in Silicon Valley, offered in the Computer Science Department but in a format more typical of a humanities or social science course. One of the primary feedbacks from students about the course was that every computer scientist should be required to learn this material! I believe that presenting the syllabus and an overview of the students' class projects would be useful for attendees of the mini-symposium, either to inspire similar courses at other universities, or simply to give faculty ideas for individual readings and modules that they might insert into other courses at different levels, such as a CS Principles or Machine Learning. Some of the student projects were also on the topic of repackaging the course for a target audience of high school students, so K12 educators at the mini-symposium would also have directly actionable takeaways. (Course syllabus on the web: http://bit.ly/racegenderinsiliconvalley)

Zwischen Rom und Silicon Valley

What has Rome to do with Silicon Valley? In other words, what has the Church today to do with science and technology? Does the Church have any interest in a debate with the present scientifi c and technical progress, of which Silicon Valley is a symbol? The aim of my research is to look for a new idea of technological progress that will allow to build an integral vision of reality. The teaching of Pope Francis, especially in the Encyclical ‘Laudato sí’ (2015), provides the basis for the undertaken topic. The structure of the considerations refers to the principles of the social doctrine of the so-called three steps: look, judge, act. Therefore, in the course of the considerations fi rstly ZWISCHEN ROM UND SILICON VALLEY 69 the features of technical progress will be presented (1), then its evaluation (2), and fi nally elements of an integral vision of reality (3).

Bad blood: secrets and lies in a silicon valley startup by John Carreyrou: Book Review

Bad blood: secrets and lies in a silicon valley startup by John Carreyrou: Book Review

Is it time to drag tech jobs out of Silicon Valley? - [Careers

SILICON VALLEY CONTINUES TO DOMINATE. In every study I've seen, it has the lion's share of tech jobs. Its engineers command the highest salaries. This is despite the fact that over the years, various regions in the United States and worldwide have pitched themselves as the “next Silicon Valley” (or “Silicon Glen” or “Silicon Fen.”) Some have indeed increased their pool of tech jobs. But none have really become a serious technology hub, outside of Boston, Seattle, San Diego, and North Carolina's Research Triangle.

What Can Be Learnt From the Past California’s Budget Crisis

Being renowned with big global trademarks such as Google, Intel, Ebay and Hollywood in Silicon valley, the world people may imagine the enormous potential power of California State, United States. Thanks to this enormous power, this valley has speeded up the Californian economy to a continuous hike. By 2012, California's GDP exceeded 2 trillion US dollars and GDP per capita reached 43 thousand dollars, ranking first in the United State and 12th globally if compared as an independent economy. However, world's cycles of economic and finance’s crises’ troughs have worsened the Californian budget deficit and made it persistent. The 2008-2009's fiscal deficit was 40 billion dollars when the tax revenues reached 90 billions while the state’s spending was 130 billions. Lacking suitable execution measures, the state’s budget has been dragging down behind other states. This paper will examine the historical context and propose some policy measures to tackle the bottle-lock of the state’s dilemma.

Voices from silicon valley expose the polarization of knowledge in the information age

The article is part of a research agenda that adopts the lenses of Political Economy to discuss the following question. What is the role of information and knowledge in the socioeconomic dynamics of the twenty-first century? Firstly, the article confronts two different theoretical perspectives: the cognitive capitalism and the polarization of knowledge approaches. Given the lack of agreement between these interpretations, the article also presents some results of an empirical investigation conducted in Silicon Valley (California), where semi-structured interviews with local workers’ representatives were adopted as an instrument of investigation. The voices of those who live the reality represented by the theories expose some contradictions in the local educational system, where the phenomenon of polarization of knowledge strengthens socioeconomic inequalities.

Michael Milken: The Junk Dealer

We take a closer look at the life and legacy of Micheal Milken. We discuss why Michael Milken, also know as the Junk Bond King, was not just any other King or run-of-the-mill Junk Dealer, but "The Junk Dealer". We find parallels between the three parts to any magic act and what Micheal Milken did, showing that his accomplishments were nothing short of a miracle. His compensation at that time captures to a certain extent the magnitude of the changes he brought about, the eco-system he created for businesses to flourish, the impact he had on the wider economy and also on the future growth and development of American Industry. We emphasize two of his contributions to the financial industry that have grown in importance over the years. One was the impetus given to the Private Equity industry and the use of LBOs. The second was the realization that thorough research was the key to success, financial and otherwise. Perhaps an unintended consequence of the growth in junk bonds and tailored financing was the growth of Silicon valley and technology powerhouses in the California bay area. Investors witnessed that there was a possibility for significant returns and that financial success could be had due to the risk mitigation that Milken demonstrated by investing in portfolios of so called high risk and low profile companies. We point out the current trend in many regions of the world, which is the birth of financial and technology firms and we suggest that finding innovative ways of financing could be the key to the sustained growth of these eco-systems.

Differentiating Photoexcited Carrier and Phonon Dynamics in the Δ, L, and Γ Valleys of Si(100) with Transient Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscopy

Transient extreme ultraviolet (XUV) spectroscopy probes core level transitions to unoccupied valence and conduction band states. Uncertainty remains to what degree the core-hole created by the XUV transition modifies the measurement of photoexcited electron and hole energies. Here, the Si {\L_{2,3}} edge is measured after photoexcitation of electrons to the {\Delta}, L, and {\Gamma} valleys of Si(100). The measured changes in the XUV transition probability do not energetically agree with the increasing electron photoexcitation energy. The data therefore experimentally confirm that, for the Si {\L_{2,3}} edge, the time-dependent electron and hole energies are partially obscured by the core-hole perturbation. A model based on many-body approximations and the Bethe-Salpeter equation is successfully used to predict the core-hole{\apos}s modification of the final transition density of states in terms of both electronic and structural dynamics. The resulting fit time constants match the excited state electron thermalization time and the inter-valley electron-phonon, intra-valley electron-phonon, and phonon-phonon scattering times previously measured in silicon. The outlined approach is a more comprehensive framework for interpreting transient XUV absorption spectra in photoexcited semiconductors.

Michael Milken: The Junk Dealer

We take a closer look at the life and legacy of Micheal Milken. We discuss why Michael Milken, also know as the Junk Bond King, was not just any other King or run-of-the-mill Junk Dealer, but ”The Junk Dealer”. We find parallels between the three parts to any magic act and what Micheal Milken did, showing that his accomplishments were nothing short of a miracle. His compensation at that time captures to a certain extent the magnitude of the changes he brought about, the eco-system he created for businesses to flourish, the impact he had on the wider economy and also on the future growth and development of American Industry. We emphasize two of his contributions to the financial industry that have grown in importance over the years. One was the impetus given to the Private Equity industry and the use of LBOs. The second was the realization that thorough research was the key to success, financial and otherwise. Perhaps an unintended consequence of the growth in junk bonds and tailored financing was the growth of Silicon valley and technology powerhouses in the California bay area. Investors witnessed that there was a possibility for significant returns and that financial success could be had due to the risk mitigation that Milken demonstrated by investing in portfolios of so called high risk and low profile companies. We point out the current trend in many regions of the world, which is the birth of financial and technology firms and we suggest that finding innovative ways of financing could be the key to the sustained growth of these eco-systems.

Establishing a Secure, Transparent, and Autonomous Blockchain of Custody for Renewable Energy Credits and Carbon Credits

To facilitate the widespread adoption of clean energy, we must devise practical economic incentives to deploy clean energy assets while reducing barriers to access that clean energy. While renewable energy credits and carbon offset credits successfully push these goals forward, the associated accounting and management systems still suffer from numerous flaws that drive costs up and slow the monetization of clean energy assets. Blockchain technology has emerged as a promising solution that can provide a secure and transparent distributed ledger, while autonomously executing transactions upon fulfillment of pre-defined criteria (“smart contracts”). As a result, credits can be easily tracked from generation through ownership trades to ultimate redemption. This leaves a simple audit trail, significantly reducing the associated time and cost, and enables producers to monetize their credits immediately after generation. Clean Energy Blockchain Network (CEBN) has recently announced a partnership with the Silicon valley power, where we will apply blockchain technology to simplify their participation in the low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) program. This real-world deployment will demonstrate how blockchain technology can dramatically simplify extremely complex trading environments and enable the practical implementation of valuable programs such as LCFS that financially incentivize clean energy production and use.

Maxing Out Water Desalination with MXenes

In this issue of Joule, Guoxiu Wang, Yury Gogotsi, and collaborators design and synthesize highly porous MXene electrodes that are resistant to nanosheet restacking and deliver high electroadsorption capacity for capacitive deionization (CDI) of saline water. In CDI cells constructed with aerogel-like Ti3C2Tx MXene electrodes, an adsorption capacity of 118 mg/cm3 (45 mg/g) was achieved in a 10,000 mg/L salt solution, more than one order of magnitude greater than carbon-based electrode materials.

An Empirical Study on HR Skills for Employees Recruitment Decision Making with special Reference to Information Technology Enabled Service Sector in Bangalore City

The recent developments in the sector of Information technology enabled services business have assumed considerable significance for the Indian economy. The role of IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) is particularly worth mentioning in this perspective. The growth of this sector has not only helped to improve the current balance of payment of India, but also generated income and employment to the Indian citizens. Human resource management aims at obtaining capable manpower for achieving the objectives of the organization and for ensuring effective utilization of their services. As the success of any organization largely depends on the quality of its human resources and the extent to which they are motivated, human resource management acquires special significance in an organisation. This paper analyses HR Skills required in making effective recruitment decisions to manpower hiring in this sector with special reference to Bangalore city the silicon valley of India. In particular, the paper attempt to find out the core skills required to be a better employee in ITES sector. IT is observed as a change enabler and a source of business value for organizations.

The great urban techno shift: Are central neighbourhoods the next silicon valleys? Evidence from three Canadian metropolitan areas

AbstractA growing literature highlights the emergence of central techno neighbourhoods; however, does this mean that suburban techno districts are designed to decline? We examine the spatial dynamics (1996–2011) of computer service employment, subset of the new economy, in Canada's three largest metropolises using GIS and econometric techniques. The evidence is largely consistent with a growing weight of central neighbourhoods, especially in Montreal and Vancouver, although in all three cities, suburban techno clusters have continued to grow. The econometric results point to the higher weight of neighbourhood environment variables, including indicators of ‘coolness’, as predictors of computer service employment location.