Australians are an inventive mob. We pioneered the ‘black box’ flight recorder, spray-on skin, the pacemaker, polymer bank notes and the bionic ear. There was also wi-fi technology, which lets us stream music and movies on our mobile devices and television, thanks in part to John O'Sullivan, leader of the team of researchers at the CSIRO who made that breakthrough. A critical part of their work was designing the first wi-fi computer chips based on a global standard. Silicon Valley giant Cisco Systems liked the idea so much that it bought the business.
Some 20 years later, another Australian with a team of scientists has developed a new generation of chips that will radically change the way the world uses wi-fi. Michael de Nil co-founded Morse Micro to exploit a major emerging trend in the market called the internet of
