Bhatia of the ECE department was involved in defining many research projects for this ambitious goal of the magnetic data storage industry which is one of the pillars of Singapore’s economy. The new goal of 10 Terabits/in² puts this technology roadmap beyond solid state memories which will run out of gas by 2017. If the key scientific challenges are worked out, the hard disk drive industry will arguably be a viable business well beyond 2017 and will allow Singapore’s economic growth in this important segment of technology.

For his efforts in defining some of the key Extreme High Density Recording (EHDR) research projects for 10 Terabit/in², Prof Bhatia was recognized by INSIC with the Distinguished Contribution Award. The award citation reads, “(INSIC) Staff has, on rare occasion, chosen to recognize an individual whose overall contributions to INSIC stand out in terms of the depth and breadth of their service to the organization. This year, the INSIC Staff was pleased to present the 2008 Distinguished Contribution Award to Dr. C. Singh Bhatia of the National University of Singapore in recognition of his dedicated, long-term leadership and outstanding level of contribution to tribology & head-disk interface research for the INSIC EHDR Research Program in advanced hard disk storage technology. Dr. Bhatia is the only individual to have twice been awarded the INSIC Leadership Achievement Award (in 1998 and 2003), and he was honored for nearly a decade and a half of leadership in tribology research, for his recent efforts in leading a working group to define approaches to the head-disk interface for 10 Terabits per square inch recording, and for his pioneering efforts to include the entire nation of Singapore (through the involvement of the Data Storage Institute, the National University of Singapore and, most recently, the Institute for Materials Research and Engineering) in INSIC’s research programs.”

 

Figure 1: Hard disk drive areal density projections.