IEEE 125th anniversary event embraces emerging technologies

IEEE 125th anniversary event embraces emerging technologies

I recently attended IEEE’s 125th anniversary media event that was held in Manhattan. As part of the event, a panel of industry experts discussed how various emerging technologies have the potential to change the world.

I was mostly interested in the event since one of the topics covered was wireless power. Electronic Products covered the technology initially when a team of physicists led by Professor Marin Soljacic developed the theoretical basis for wireless electric power transfer in 2005, and validated their theories experimentally in 2007 (see http://www2.electronicproducts.com/-article-olap01-aug2007-html.aspx.)

WiTricity Corp. was founded in 2007 to commercialize this new technology for wireless electricity. So I was really thrilled to hear what Dr. Katie Hall from WiTricity had to say. She described wireless power technology and its potential applications. The developing technology will benefit portable and home electronics, industrial, medical, and commercial applications. However, it also has great potential for charging vehicle. Just imagine how convenient it would be to just drive your electric car into your garage where a large coil would be embedded in the floor. You park over it and let the battery charge.

Dr. Rangachar Kasturi, from the University of South Florida, described pattern recognition, its benefits, and some of its new applications.

Dr. K.J. Ray Liu, from the University of Maryland, discussed his research in to predicting if a person is predisposed to cancer and classifying the type of cancer through the use of ensemble dependence model. Dr. Liu also believes that within the next 5-10 years, some digital testing of cancer will supplement the traditional biological testing to offer a reliable second opinion in order to reduce false alarms. His vision is that in one day when a person gets an annual checkup, a single blood draw will tell a the doctor if the person is in transition to the cancer stage.

Dr. Dharmendra Modha, from IBM’s Almaden Research Center, continues with his research on cognitive computing, the use of computers to simulate the brains abilities for sensation, perception, interaction, and cognition.

Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, IEEE Member, Professor and Co-directorof the Center for Neuroengineering at Duke University Medical Center, discussed his research on brain-machine interface. His presentation consisted of a video clip that demonstrated the human brain communicating with robots. Then the robot sent a return message directly back to the brain, without the use of sight or touch. The goal of this research is to enable quadriplegic patients to walk again.

Mr. Krishna Palem, IEEE Fellow, Professor, George Brown School of Engineering at Rice University, shared his research on probabilistic electronics technology, which trades off accuracy in computation in favor of reducing energy enabling longer life for portables. Using this technology, a learning tool called “I-Slate” was created for rural schools in India in order to replace slate and chalk used in classrooms. The I-Slate is an educational tool for schools with no power and no teachers. It uses photovoltaic cells and is preloaded with educational material.

Dr. Roy Want, from Intel, ended with his research on dynamic composable computing, that promises to overcome mobile device limitations and enable sharing multiple resources between computers, including displays, networks, storage, and peripherals.