Àngel Lozano, professor in the Department of Information and Communication Technologies at UPF and head of the Wireless & Secure Communications (WiSeCom) Research Group

In the presentation sessions for UPF’s engineering degrees, Professor Rafael Pous and I like to argue that engineering is the world’s best profession, because it is the one that has done most to improve people’s quality of life. Indeed, the world we live in, with all of its creature comforts, was conceived of, designed and built by engineers. Nevertheless, I have a hunch that the next time we are fortunate enough to give such a presentation, we will make a slight adjustment to our talk and proclaim engineering to be the world’s second-best profession, after medicine and its satellites.

The second half of the 20^th century was the era of industrial and civil engineers; the 21^st century belongs to information and communication technology engineers

One part of our argument that will remain unchanged is that, whilst the second half of the 20^th century was the era of industrial and civil engineers, the 21^st century belongs to us. It is the era of information and communication technology engineers. Certainly, physical infrastructure (highways, trains, airports, etc.) is still important, but today it is digital infrastructure that reigns supreme. The real 21^st-century highways are the fibre-optic lines that criss-cross the planet, carrying bits at the speed of light; the real local roads are the electromagnetic waves of WiFi systems.

The awful Covid-19 crisis has made the critical importance of digital infrastructure clearer than ever. Right now, communication networks are sustaining economic activity and making the lockdown bearable for people. It is hard to imagine this lockdown without the connectivity that currently enables all our daily activities: work, entertainment, shopping, personal and family relationships, telemedicine, etc.

Adaptability and resilience are two of the hallmarks of modern networks, the result of a monumental effort by engineers; never have they been put to the test as they are being today

This concentration of activity places a great strain on the networks, with a demand several times higher than that which they were designed for. But the networks are holding and they will continue to hold. One of their main virtues is elasticity, which, if not infinite, is nevertheless very considerable. An example is video streaming, which accounts for approximately two thirds of network traffic. When there is network congestion, streaming is not blocked. Instead, the resolution is gradually scaled back to accommodate the available capacity. The quality returns to normal as soon as the capacity increases again. When there is network availability, content is downloaded in advance and stored in buffers and caches (technical terms referring to different types of memory). More delay-sensitive content (video conferences, video games) is prioritized over less delay-sensitive transmissions (email, WhatsApp messages, websites, film downloads). Adaptability and resilience are two of the hallmarks of modern networks, the result of a monumental effort by engineers; never have they been put to the test as they are being today.

ICT engineers are passing this crisis with flying colours. Second only to doctors and other healthcare workers.