Held at the usual location — the Donald P. Stevens Convention Center in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont — Sensors Expo and Conference will be later in June this year, from the 24th to the 26th. But it will be worth attendees’ time to arrive early. While the keynotes and technical sessions won’t begin until Wednesday morning, June 25 and the exposition floor won’t open until 10 a.m. that day, attendees will do well to participate in one of the pre-conference symposia that take place on Tuesday, June 24. That’s because the symposia, by providing in-depth information on subjects that are now becoming critical in most engineering environments, are an excellent place to continue one’s education.
A case in point is the symposium entitled Making the Internet of Things a Reality: A Toolkit for Designing “Smart.” Chaired by Will Tu, the Director of Embedded Segment Marketing for ARM, the day-long session’s focus on IoT couldn’t come at a better time; a recent study by The Economist Intelligence Unit (www.economistinsights.com/analysis/internet-things-business-index) found that 75% of companies across a wide range of business segments are actively exploring IoT.
In looking at where IoT is going, Tu writes in a recent blog post, “We can see sensor fusion at work with smartphones, tablets and wearables today as they apply the concept of contextual awareness of where a user is and what he or she might be doing. From this awareness a device can respond to offer a service, enable features on a device, conserve valuable battery power or delight users in some novel way.
Among the participants in the IoT symposium at Sensors Expo are (clockwise, from top left) ARM's Will Tu, Sensor Platforms' Kevin Shaw, ARM's Zach Shelby, and Atmel's Adrian Woolley.
“Sensor fusion will bring the same type of value to embedded devices and these software algorithms will be the key to unlocking the commercial value proposition of future IoT device.”
Turning billions and billions of “things” into a global network — from sensors to servers — requires businesses to agree on standards that apply to access, data connectivity, and sharing. The IoT market needs collaboration and cooperation to build the foundation that enables a wonderful array of new services.
According to Tu, Sensor Platforms CTO Kevin Shaw will kick off the session with an overview of how IoT devices can evolve to optimize their interaction with humans – ultimately becoming invisible and predictive. Following him, ARM’s Director of Technology for Internet of Things, Zach Shelby, will look at connectivity issues. Zach is currently a key contributor at the IETF for IoT standards with contributions in 6LoWPAN, routing, web services and security related standards, ETSI and OMA standardization on M2M, and in several top international research programs.
Next, Adrian Woolley, Director of Technology for Internet of Things Strategy & Business Development – Microcontroller Business Unit, Atmel will then discuss the hardware side of the IoT. A 25-year veteran of the semiconductor market, Woolley has an extensive background in the mobile and communication markets, along with a considerable amount of embedded experience in microcontrollers. Other speakers in a star-studded line-up include Mike Stanley (Systems Engineer, Freescale), Milan Raj (Senior Design Engineer, MC10), Kaivan Karimi (VP & GM of Wireless Solutions, Atmel), Scott Nelson (CTO, Logic PD), David Anderson (CEO, Novati Technologies), Jim Carver (Technical Marketing Manager, ARM) and Mark Majewski (Executive Director, Vestec).
This is only one of three important symposia on Tuesday, the others being Designing MEMS In: How to engage the Supply Chain organized and chaired by MEMS Industry Group Managing Director Karen Lightman, and Energy Harvesting for Powering Wireless Sensor Networks — Tutorials 2014 under the tutelage of Randy Frank, President, Randy Frank & Associates, Ltd. For more information, contact Questex Media Group, 800-496-9877, or visit www.sensorsexpo.com. And don’t be late for class.
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