NEC C&C Foundation Awards 2013 C&C Prize - Recognition of Outstanding Contributions to Fundamental Technologies Promoting Big Data -

*** For immediate use October 24, 2013

Tokyo, October 24, 2013 - The NEC C&C Foundation today announced that the 2013 C&C Prize will be awarded to two groups. Dr. Kazuro Kikuchi and Dr. Masataka Nakazawa will represent Group A and Prof. Vladimir Vapnik will represent Group B. Each recipient will be recognized with a certificate of merit and a plaque. Each group will also receive a cash award of ten million yen.

The C&C Prize was established in 1985 and is awarded to distinguished persons in recognition of outstanding contributions to R&D activities and pioneering work related to the integration of computers and communications technologies and the social impact of developments in these fields. This year's two recipient groups are outlined below.

The prize ceremony and acceptance speeches will be held on Wednesday, November 27 from 15:00 at the ANA InterContinental Tokyo.

1. 2013 C&C Prize Recipients

Group A

Dr. Kazuro Kikuchi
	Professor, the University of Tokyo
Dr. Masataka Nakazawa
	Distinguished Professor, Tohoku University

< Citation >
For Pioneering and Leading Contributions to the Advancement of Coherent Optical Fiber Communications Systems

< Achievement >
Dense wavelength-division-multiplexed (DWDM) optical fiber transmission systems have been developed rapidly owing to the performance improvement of wideband erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) and related technologies. As a result, a single-channel speed of 10 to 40 Gbps was achieved together with a total transmission capacity of up to the Tbps level. Although such systems were put into practical use in around 2000, the need for transmission capacity increments of about 40% a year pushed the development of new breakthrough technologies that can increase a single-channel speed up to 100 Gbps.  The most practical and desirable breakthrough technology was the multi-level digital coherent technology with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The C&C Prize was awarded to Dr. Kikuchi and Dr. Nakazawa for their significant contributions to the fundamental development and realization of these new-generation breakthrough technologies.



Group B

Prof. Vladimir Vapnik
	Professor, Columbia University; Fellow, NEC Laboratories America, Inc.

< Citation >
For Contributions to Establishing Statistical Learning Theory and for the Invention of High-Performance and Practical Learning Algorithms

< Achievement >
In recent years, machine learning technology has become one of the significant fundamental technologies for the development of ICT (such as the realization of various Web-based services and social services, the expansion of the integration areas of ICT, and the utilization of Big Data).
Prof. Vapnik proposed a performance evaluation theory for learning models under Statistical Learning Theory (SLT) and a high-performance and practical learning model, Support Vector Machine (SVM), considered to be one of the best learning models in pattern recognition. The breakthroughs made by Prof. Vapnik were extremely significant, and he has made valuable contributions to the development of machine learning technology and the expansion of its application field.
The C&C Prize was awarded to Prof. Vapnik in recognition of the exceptional contributions his work makes to the development of today's ICT field.


See the attachments for profiles of the recipients:
Attachment 1: Profile of the Group A Recipients of the 2013 C&C Prize
Attachment 2: Profile of the Group B Recipient of the 2013 C&C Prize