BNR – World-class university

After graduation in 1978, I was hired by NT, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, and initially assigned by NT to work at Bell-Northern Research (BNR), in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. My mission was to continue the work from my prior summer job, namely, to transfer technology of the experimental SL-10 packet switching system technologies from BNR labs to NT manufacturing.

In the late 1970s, BNR was the perfect learning environment. It was staffed with the top minds in the communications industry. The entire organization was extremely creative, energetic, innovative, and collaborative. Its culture was centered on telecommunications systems research and development. BNR had a truly amazing lab capability and funding was readily available for many projects. Working there presented many opportunities to collaborate with excellent scientists and engineers in the tri-corporate NT (later known as NorTel), BNR, and operating company Bell Canada.

I was assigned...