Amin Shokrollahi: Kandou’s Mastermind
It was in 2006, at the height of the FIFA World Cup in Germany, that the air travels of a young Iranian mathematician, and his assistants and their willingness to watch the soccer game during the flight posed a challenge to the world of technology. Despite the fact that high-end airplanes had access to the Internet at the time, the TV network that broadcasted the world cup couldn’t be accessed.
MSTF media reports
Although the worldwide broadcast of digital content with high speed and quality is a piece of cake today, at the time it was an unsolved issue that occupied the mind of the Iranian mathematician, Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi. His research in this regard led to a brilliant and innovative idea that was soon adopted in modern communication technologies.
Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi was born and raised in the center of Tehran. He studied at the German School Tehran and went to Germany to finish his high school education and get his diploma. He stayed in Germany, and obtained his master’s degree from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In 1991, he successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis, titled “Contributions to coding and complexity theory using algebraic function fields” at the University of Bonn.
In Shokrollahi’s view, mathematics is not abstract knowledge, far from life and daily requirements, but an efficient tool to build and advance the world's technologies. Therefore, his activities range from working in universities and on projects of some of the world's major scientific and laboratory centers to working in technological companies. For some time, he was a senior researcher at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, an institute that has brought together scientists from all over the world since 1988 to study topics such as big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. He, then, returned to the university where he had graduated from and began teaching and conducting research as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science. He was also a member of the technical staff of Bell Laboratories for a while. However, his greatest scientific achievement to date came when he worked at Fontaine Digital and revolutionized the Fountain Codes used by this company.
Fountain Codes were proposed when the old Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which was used in data transmission, faced new challenges upon the emergence of novel technologies. TCP protocols, despite being highly efficient, belonged to the early years of the emergence of the Internet; Shokrollahi also believes that, at the time, mass data transfer was not an issue yet. In the late 1990s, a scientist called Michael Luby at International Computer Science Institute, Berkley, came up with an invention that made it possible to transfer bulk data to a large number of independent users. This code makes an unlimited stream of data flow in such a way that any set of this data with sufficient size can be used to recover the primary data. It is like when you want to fill an empty cup using the water of a fountain; it doesn’t matter which water drops fill the cup as long as the cup is filled with water. Luby’s invention was thus named “Digital Fountain.” In 2002, he released his first functional Fountain Codes named LT. Despite causing a significant change, the LT code faced some issues in terms of coding and decoding, which led Shokrollahi to come up with a new type of Fountain Codes in 2001 only a few months after joining the Digital Fountain Company which was cofounded by Luby in 1998. With his brilliant idea, he corrected coding and decoding processes and facilitated faster algorithms. Shokrollahi called this code “raptor” which, for many, is reminiscent of Jurassic Park movies. His German wife who was working on a documentary about Dinosaurs proposed this name. “Are you working on the fast version of Fountain Codes? Name it raptor,” his wife had told him at the time. “Raptor” is a word that was popularized after the movie Jurassic Park (1993) was released. The word is, in fact, the shortened form of the word “Velociraptor” which refers to a genus of carnivorous and agile dinosaurs who lived on earth about 75 million to 71 million years ago. “Veloci” refers to their being carnivorous and “raptor,” their agility. No wonder Shokrollahi’s wife had suggested the faster versions of Fountain Codes be named “raptor.”
Shokrollahi’s innovation in designing and developing Raptor and Fountain Codes grabbed the attention of prominent scientific institutions in the realm of electricity, electronics, and computers. On top of all his awards stand the awards granted by the credible institute, IEEE; in 2002, Shokrollahi received IEEE Information Theory Society Best Paper Award. In 2007, he received Joint Communication Society/Information Theory Society Best Paper Award. In the same year, he was granted IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award for Outstanding Contributions to Communication Technologies. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers which is known by its abbreviation, IEEE, was formed in 1963 by the merger between two older institutes: the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) and the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE).
IEEE which pronounces its mission to be “advancing technology for the benefit of humanity” specifically focuses on electrical and electronics engineering, telecommunications, and computer engineering. IEEE declares its objectives as educational and technical advancement in these areas and other similar disciplines. Having over 200 peer-reviewed journals, this institute produces nearly 30% of the world’s literature in the electrical, electronics, and computer engineering fields.
Shokrollahi’s awards at IEEE were not limited to his papers. He was also appreciated for his teachings and lectures about Information Theory by this institute. Shokrollahi did not miss conferences in Iran either. In 2011, his paper which was presented at Iranian Mathematics Conference was selected as the Best Paper and won him the Riazi Kermani Award. Iranian Mathematical Society grants this award in memory of Abbas Riazi Kermani, an outstanding mathematician and the founder of modern astronomy in Iran. This award has been given to Iranian mathematicians for their valuable research since 1991. Shokrollahi has declared that this award is highly valuable to him and stands at the top of his awards in his office.
In 2012, Shokrollahi became one of the prominent figures in the field of Information and Communication Technology in the world. This year, he received the IEEE Hamming Medal, one of the most prestigious IEEE awards. IEEE has designated this award for exceptional contributions to Information science, systems and technology. Shokrollahi’s success went on as he won the Jan Van Vessum Award of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference for the best European paper in this conference in 2014 and the Best Paper Award of IEEE Data Storage Technical Committee in 2015.
“Raptor Code” drew the attention of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize Scientific Committee. In 2017, the secretariat of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize announced Shokrollahi as one of the laureates of Mustafa(pbuh) Prize in the field of “Information Theory.” Mustafa(pbuh) Prize Scientific Committee describes his achievements as such: “Today, millions of products around the world are using these codes, ranging from Internet TV to data transmission systems that facilitate data distribution to rural areas. Hence, Dr. Shorkollahi has become a Mustafa(pbuh) laureate for his efforts in the sphere of Raptor Codes and their lasting impact on humanity.” At the time of receiving the 2017 Mustafa(pbuh) Prize, Shokrollahi had already 200 registered patents.
Shokrollahi’s Raptor Codes which were at first taken for granted at the Digital Fountain Company became the main cause of this company’s success, so much so that Qualcomm, which is one of the pioneers of designing wireless systems in the world, bought the Digital Fountain Company. In Qualcomm, a new version of Shokrollahi's Raptor codes was released under the brand RaptorQ. Over time, Shokrollahi released newer versions of his Raptor Code for various applications of information distribution.
He continues to vigorously conduct his research and keeps his studies close to the industry. He is a faculty member of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. Adjacent to this university is the technology park of this university in which Shokrollahi, founder-CEO of Kandou leads this company to the production of cutting-edge technologies. Once again, it was Shokrollahi’s wife who proposed the name “Kandou” to him. Kandou means "beehive" in Persian. This name is reminiscent of the synergy among bees and the effectiveness of the work of individual bees in the formation of the final product. “The bees’ collective work is so much more than their individual work,” Shokrollahi says. According to him, this is exactly what happens at Kandou.
Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi is a renowned mathematician in the world. He has shattered many stereotypes about the abstractness and inapplicability of mathematics. Time and again he has shown that he can easily pave the way from algebra and Computer Algebra to Computational number theory to coding systems analysis and eventually to industry while thinking of new ideas in the way.
