Bench Talk

IoT World 2018! According to executive keynote speakers, crucial industries to watch include energy, smart grid, agriculture, healthcare, transportation safety, smart cities and homes, and autonomous vehicles. Key technologies supporting advances in these areas include sensors, edge computing, data security, digital twinning, open source, RF wireless, AI, data management, and more. Here’s a look at the keynote presentations, as told by your favorite Mouser Electronics engineer:

1:00 a.m.

Alarm goes off.

1:30 a.m.

On the road to the airport.

2:00 a.m.

Arrive at airport.

4:00 a.m.

Flight leaves, bound for San Jose, CA.

8:00 a.m.

Flight arrives in San Jose, CA.

9:00 a.m.

Drop off luggage at the hotel.

10:00 a.m.  

Arrive at Mouser booth for setup.

11:00 a.m.

Attend presentation: IoT Deployment Experiences—Learning from Real World Case Studies
by Tony Shakib, Microsoft

Microsoft is building some of the most innovative IoT technologies. This innovation includes making machines that are made to help themselves, call for service, and never break down. The areas most impacted include retail, energy, smart grid, transportation, agriculture, and healthcare among many others. Knowledge and AI will be ubiquitous with computing devices and multi-sensors everywhere. Microsoft’s Azure IoT Hub securely connects millions of devices, enables digital twinning, does tagging, all while sending billions on unique sets of information into the cloud from the device. Devices are being made to be self-provisioning, self-configuring, and self-securing. Automatic data management provides time series insights and Azure provides an intelligent edge through the employment of containers at the edge. Over ninety percent of Microsoft’s IoT solutions are open source. Approximately 8B–9B MCUs get sold per year, with less than five percent of them secure in and of themselves. Microsoft has many component partners that are supported by Mouser Electronics including Intel, STMicroelectronics, Renesas Electronics, and Advantech.

11:30 a.m.

Attend presentation: The US Smart Cities Challenge—A Catalyst for Change?

A panel led by Greg Kahn

IoT is one of the fastest growing technology markets. It is heavily informing cities decisions in how they invest their money. 2018 smart city technology expenditures are estimated at $80B. The primary outcomes that cities use are data and analytics to make better decisions for people they serve. For example, the city of San Francisco has invested in sensors that change rate based on time of day and usage. Security is primarily being achieved by ensuring corporate partners have skin in the game. Machine learning, AI, and 5G are all expected to make a significant impact shortly. One area of focus is autonomous vehicles and the marriage of ensuring high mobility for city dwellers through IoT, AI, and the adoption of V2V and V2I with connected infrastructure deployments. Fleet management is also of primary interest since it may curb city spending and improve efficiencies.

12:00 noon

Attend presentation: Connecting the Internet of Everything at the Edge

by Verizon

It is expected that 20B devices will soon be on the IoT. Eighty-five percent of users touch more than one cloud provider. Seventy-five percent of cars will be connected by 2020. Every network continues to evolve to provide solutions for IoT. 5G will help allow massive amounts of data to get to the cloud and back. Edge computing allows for ultra-responsive processing, optimized traffic across the network, and the offloading of IoT device processing while enabling rapid real-time innovation. Edge computing focuses on critical applications including traffic and public safety, autonomous vehicles, and manufacturing. It enables devices to reduce power consumption and commute offload. It allows networks to be optimized for data traffic while reducing traffic across the core. All this will enable services to fulfill more applications and ultimately easily provide the bandwidth for video analytics when 5G arrives.

1:00 p.m.

Break. *whew*

1:30 p.m.

Attended presentation: Business Outcomes in a Connected World

by Mala Anand of SAP

I just listened.

2:00 p.m.

Lunch!

3:00 p.m.

Attended presentation: Industry Collaboration & the Cybersecurity Framework

by Walter Copan, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology & Director, National Institutes of Standards (NIST)

NIST sees tremendous opportunities for IoT including innovation in autonomous cars, smart homes, smart cities, improved grids, and efficient manufacturing. NIST believes that the industry must overcome several key challenges that are technology based. Their priority and focus are on ensuring a safe and secure Internet, reducing the regulation burden, and enabling business. Specifically, they desire to unleash American innovation and reduce barriers to technology transfers. The current Wild West atmosphere needs measurement science and standards including encryption algorithms, time signals, tools for forensics, and such. IoT cuts across all NIST programs including materials and sensors development, standards, data, and wireless. They are working on security and privacy issues to identify, protect, detect, and recover data. They are championing IoT priorities including 5G, and are focused on defining standards that work well for all parties.  

4:00 p.m.

Booth duty at the Mouser booth!

5:00 p.m.

More booth duty.

6:00 p.m.

Show ends.

7:00 p.m.

Fingers on the home keys, ready, begin: Write an 800-word blog describing the keynote presentations!