About the Invention

Dr. Kumacheva, with her team, has developed a technology to improve binary information storage. As much as 10,000 gigabytes of information can be stored in the three dimensional device which is half the size of a sugar cube.

To date, computer data in CD-ROMS and hard drives has always been coded in a two dimensional format. Dr Kumacheva's device uses billions of latex spheres, which resemble tiny M & M candies, each one a millionth of a meter in diameter. Data is encoded on the spheres using a laser pulse that burns information into the matrix at a rate measured in femtoseconds, or less than one millionth of a millionth of a second in duration. The spheres are lined up in an ordered formation, creating megamemory planes that make up a tiny cube.

Right now, the technology allows for about 1000 gigabytes of data storage, but Dr Kumacheva believes the system could be fine-tuned to hold 10 times that amount. This leap in information storage capability could lead to the creation of new types of computers and new approaches to telecommunications

About the Inventor

Eugenia Kumacheva was born in Odessa, the former Soviet Union, on June 22, 1955. She attended the Moscow State University for four years and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel for another 3 years.

Dr Kumacheva is married with two children and works as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto. In 1999 she won the Premier's Research Excellence Award and in 2000, the Chorafas Award. Her work on 3-D memory problems began with a research project funded by the Ontario based Xerox Research Centre.

To date, she has registered 6 patents on her work. Dr Kumacheva says that along with her achievements, her self esteem has grown as she showed that she was capable of doing important things. She says her family is very supportive and understanding about her commitment. "I like to work with excited people who are interested in what they are doing."