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When people think of digital communications, they tend to imagine data speeding invisibly through the air. But even in this era of ubiquitous wireless technology, their networks still rely heavily on physical connections: fiber optic wires traverse oceans and tie together continents. The number of these undersea cables is increasing, and they play an important role in their high-tech society. Yet the undersea cable industry is largely unknown and suffers from a chronic labor shortage. Opportunities abound for engineers in many disciplines, but most don't know about the possibilities or where to get training. A new curriculum at the University of California, Berkeley, is attempting to address both challenges. Housed in the Berkeley Center for New Media, the certificate program takes an interdisciplinary approach to global internet infrastructure, including the "technical, economic, legal, environmental, and social dimensions." Nicole Starosielski, a UC Berkeley film and media professor, developed the program. She teaches classes and supervises projects on digital infrastructures in addition to conducting research on elements such as data centers and undersea cables. Over her decade in the industry, she has heard repeatedly about the labor challenges. "We need additional people," she says.
WHEN WE THINK OF digital communications, we tend to imagine data speeding invisibly through the air. But even in this era of ubiquitous wireless technology, our networks still rely heavily on physical connections: fiber optic wires traverse oceans and tie together continents.
The number of these undersea cables is increasing, and they play an important role in our high-tech society. Yet the undersea cable industry is largely unknown and suffers from a chronic labor shortage. Opportunities abound for engineers in many disciplines, but most dont know about the possibilities or where to get training.
A new curriculum at the University of California, Berkeley, is attempting to address both challenges. Housed in the Berkeley Center for New Media, the certificate program takes an interdisciplinary approach to global internet infrastructure, including the "technical, economic, legal, environmental, and social dimensions."
Nicole Starosielski, a UC Berkeley film and media professor, developed the program. She teaches classes and supervises projects on digital infrastructures in addition to conducting research on elements such as data centers and undersea cables. Over her decade in the industry, she has heard repeatedly about the labor challenges. "We need additional people," she says. "We need engineers in the industry. And there aren't any training programs at universities. So that motivated me to address the workforce gap"
Slim but Mighty
TeleGeography, a Washington, DC-based company specializing in telecommunications data and analysis, estimates that submarine cables account for about 99 percent of intercontinental data traffic. According to research analyst Lane Burdette, "these long, thin cables transmit data more cheaply and efficiently than satellites"
Submarine cables are a "critical but often forgotten part of global communications; Burdette says. As digital infrastructure becomes increasingly important to the world, UC Berkeley's webpage stresses, that invisibility places continuity of service at risk.
The history of subsea telecommunication cables stretches back to the early days of the telegraph. Since the installation of the world's first submarine cable in 1850, connecting France and England across the Dover Strait, these cables have been essential to the world's communications infrastructure.
Whereas cables once connected cities, they now link data centers. Today, some 900,000 miles of cables crisscross the earth's oceans as part of nearly 600 different systems, according to TeleGeography. Enabling millions of phone calls and terabits of video and internet data per second, they re now owned by tech giants such as Google and Amazon instead of former telecommunication greats such as Bell and AT&T.
An undersea cable is surprisingly thin, only about the diameter of a garden hose. Yet one cable consists of many fiber optic strands, made of glass, packaged in ribbons. For example, an 864-count package consists of 36 ribbons each containing 24 strands of fiber as thin as a human hair. A jacket made of plastic protects the bundles.
One such system, Anjana, is a 7,121-km (4,425-mile) transatlantic fiber optic submarine cable connecting Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Santander, Spain. It is privately owned and operated by Meta through multiple subsidiaries. The system consists of 24 fiber pairs (48 individual fibers), each with a design capacity of approximately 20 terabits per second.
Help Wanted
The proliferation of subsea cables has largely followed growth in the tech and electronic industries. Cable installation flourished from around 1980 to 2002, particularly during the dot-com boom, says Peter Jamieson, vice chairman of the European Subsea Cables Association, a trade group of cable owners.
After that, the industry "went dormant for about 10 or 12 years," Jamieson continues. Then, around 2015, with the rise of social media and companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, it took off again.
Nexans Subsea Operations is a 120-year-old company focused on cabling and electrification. US sales director Pete Kohnstam assesses the cable workforce: "It's been a small niche area for a long time. The skill sets are not typically widely available on the market. It doesn't get the headlines some of the other industries do" That makes hiring a challenge, he says, and "engineering is one of the bottlenecks"
What disciplines are needed? "You name it; Kohnstam says. The industry needs "telecommunication engineers, civil engineers, and mechanical engineers. I'm a civil engineer originally, but I crosspollinated into a telecommunications engineer."
Burdette explains that "optical engineers are always working on new technologies to keep up with global bandwidth demand and transmit data faster, further, and cheaper" As she puts it, young people often don't know about internet infrastructure, but they "become very interested in the topic after learning about it"
A Broad View
Enter the Berkeley certificate program, launched this past summer. The program on global digital infrastructure focuses on subsea cables and data centers. It is supported by partnerships with industry organizations and other Berkeley entities such as the College of Engineering, School of Information, and Graduate School of Journalism. The University of Oregon's School of Computer and Data Sciences is also a collaborator.
The holistic curriculum, the program's website explains, includes "components, business models, design/build, operations, and maintenance, alongside the impacts of/on economies, geopolitics, artificial intelligence, and the environment"
The undergraduate classes are open to anyone from any field. Starosielski says the first cohort included working professionals from the tech sector and graduate students. Cal Berkeley attendance is not required-nor is prior digital infrastructure, engineering, or computer science experience. The program organizers believe that since everyone uses the internet, everyone should be able to grasp what makes it work.
The certificate requires three six-week courses, but participants can also take the classes individually. Digital Infrastructure 101 explores the fundamentals, such as the historical development of cables and data centers and the role of those infrastructures in emergent internet technologies. How to Build a Global Internet examines the steps and challenges in executing these megaprojects. Tech Wars focuses on the security and geopolitical aspects of digital infrastructure.
This past summer, about 200 people enrolled in the courses. The format was heavily influenced by the industry's need for engineers. Starosielski explains that, because engineering curricula are so chock-full, the organizers created the program "as a kind of 'summer minor; which students could take to specialize in an area beyond their engineering focus and expand their career opportunities."
The classes are held online, with lectures and discussion content scheduled synchronously so students can ask questions, contribute ideas, and hear from guest lecturers. But they are also recorded and made available for any student that needs to take the course asynchronously.
Diving Deep
How to Build a Global Internet is the most technical class of the set. As Starosielski explains, the project development course centers on how to "build, design, and implement subsea cable and data center projects at scale." Six modules make up the class, including Subsea Cable Design and Development and Manufacturing and Cable Installation.
The course is taught by Erick Contag, president of the board of trustees of the SubOptic Foundation, which offers educational programs to grow the future subsea workforce. Contag has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tulsa and an executive engineering management certification from Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA) in Venezuela.
To create the curriculum, Contag worked with three undergraduate students. He shared his experience in developing large-scale projects, and the students researched and developed slide decks for the class pairing his insights with peer-reviewed academic content. "The students learned from him and then helped him translate [his knowledge] into student-friendly terms and relate it to existing academic literature; Starosielski says.
How to Build a Global Internet covers financial considerations, project management, and hurdles on the ground, from permitting to weather. Case studies focus on digital infrastructure in locations around the world. Contag uses a service level agreement as a framework to dive into designing, building, operating, and maintaining various components.
Artificial intelligence, sustainability, and energy are also key topics in the course. As a culminating project, students work in teams to design a new digital infrastructure, considering aspects such as architecture and regulation.
From Academia to Industry
Originally from Douala, Cameroon, Ngandjon Landry works in Paris as a telecommunications engineer for mobile operator SFR. He holds an engineering degree from the Catholic University of Central Africa and is enrolled at Télécom Paris for a master's degree in digital architecture.
In addition, Landry, 35, completed the Cal Berkeley certificate program this summer to build his expertise in subsea cables and digital infrastructure. The program enabled him to combine academic learning with real-world challenges, Landry explains.
Amina Ibrahim, 30, also completed all three courses. She graduated from Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (Tanzania) in 2022 and now works as an electronics and telecommunications engineer contractor for Vodacom Tanzania PLC.
"During my degree work, I didn't have much exposure to subsea cable technology," she says. "I took the class to fill that gap and understand how digital infrastructure supports global connectivity, especially the role of subsea systems in enabling internet and data services."
Greater Understanding
Like Landry, Ibrahim highlights how the certificate program complemented her academic foundation by adding "real-world, practical knowledge that connected directly to the telecommunications field" Calling it "rewarding and eye-opening," she says "the class gave me a new perspective on how deeply interconnected our world is through physical infrastructure that most people never think about."
Ibrahim says she now understands the huge role that undersea cables play in global communication, as well as their engineering, planning, and maintenance challenges. "It gave me a deep appreciation for the systems behind the services we often take for granted," she adds.
Currently working as a customer support network engineer, Ibrahim says that the certificate program has helped her understand the origin and infrastructure of the services her company provides. She explains, "It has made my work more meaningful and has strengthened my interest in pursuing a career in global infrastructure and sustainable digital systems."
Landry says he learned not just about the technical aspects of undersea cables but also "their strategic importance for global connectivity and digital sovereignty" He continues, "I came to appreciate how subsea cables are not only an engineering challenge but also a geopolitical and economic issue, since they enable the vast majority of international data traffic"
This education influenced Landry's career goals, broadening his perspective beyond his contributions as a technical presales engineer and allowing him to imagine himself in roles such as a bid manager in the subsea cable industry.
Next Steps
Starosielski reports good results for the programs inaugural run, with around 90 percent of participants rating it "extremely effective" in course evaluations. "So it was very well received by the students who took it," she says. Industry showed interest as well. Not only did digital infrastructure professionals take the courses to broaden their knowledge, but industry members also expressed interest in hiring graduates. UC Berkeley plans to offer the courses again next summer.
Starosielskis most recent project focuses on increasing the sustainability of digital infrastructures. The project team has developed a catalog of best practices for sustainability in the subsea cable industry as well as a carbon footprint of a cable.
Across the industry, getting more young people involved in and educated about subsea cables will remain a high priority. As Kohnstam puts it, "it's an interesting world to be in"
Based in Sugar Grove, Virginia, Tom Gibson, PE, is a consulting mechanical engineer and freelance writer.
Learn more about the Certificate in Global Digital Infrastructure at https://benm. berkeley.edu/digital-infrastructures.
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