Sensors Expo Pre-Conference Symposia Recharge Designers with Real Power

By Andra KeayCalifornia Robotics News

Learn how to innovate the next wave of applications and even create new markets by attending Sensors Expo this June in San Jose.

Even though no one can say so with absolute certainty he was the first to speak it, we commonly attribute the oft-used phrase “knowledge is power” to Sir Francis Bacon, mainly because one of the earliest incidents of the phrase is found in his writings from around 1597. Whether Bacon is certainly the author or not, the phrase, in the literal sense, is certainly wrong and highly misleading when used to teach or instruct. Blasphemy, yes?

Potential Power versus Actual Power

Knowledge is not power, it is potential power. Knowledge is essentially static matter until put it to use. For example, you’re driving an SUV with four app developers in the back seat who are feverishly pecking away at their smartphones and you get a flat tire. While your tech-savvy passengers feverishly scour the internet for a solution, you put your knowledge of a spare tire, jack, and tire iron (potential power) to good use and change the flat (power). Hopefully you made the task easier by asking your passengers to wait outside of the vehicle while you worked (value-added innovation?).

One could also make a case for the application of tool knowledge in changing the flat as a disruptive technology. The replacement of the flat disrupted a longer than necessary delay. Be that as it may, let’s stick with potential versus actual power.

A Plethora of Directions And No Yellow Brick Road

Probably, at no point in history has the technology arena had so many concepts and acronyms vying for your and the public’s attention, and each one is very important in terms of revenue production. Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), are just a few of those technologies. Wearable, implantable, and brainwave sensors, MEMS-based devices, smart homes and cities, automation, robotics, etc., etc., etc., all racing forward, And the one thing all these markets and applications have in common are sensors.

You know what sensors are, how they work, and where they fit in your applications: potential power. Now, to address all these emerging markets that are and will be converging with your market, you need to learn how to innovate the next wave of applications and maybe even create new markets. It’s time for you to acquire actual power, time to consider Sensors Expo pre-conference symposia.

Sensors Expo 2017 Pre-Conference Highlights

Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to boost your actual power levels. Emerging and future sensor technologies will be presented, dissected, and inspected from every angle by experts and pioneers in each field. Five all-day, deep-dive sessions will cover a wide array of markets and methods while serving up plenty of creativity-inspiring insights.

MEMS and Sensors

Presented by the MEMS & Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), “Creating and Capturing Value in the MEMS and Sensors Ecosystem” Pre-Conference Symposium will provide an overview of the MEMS and sensors industry including a look at current trends, opportunities, and strategies for maximizing value. Topics include data-generating hardware, sensor algorithms, machine learning, and data analytics, which are the hottest areas today in MEMS technologies.

Energy and Power

With the trillions of connected devices in the IoT world, the billions of sensors holding it all together will require power more reliable and long lasting than batteries alone can provides. The “Energy Harvesting and Energy-Efficient Power Solutions for Sensor Applications” Symposium offers a full day of tutorials presented by a plethora of experts in the field. Presenters will provide an in-depth analysis of the challenges and solutions of using energy harvesting techniques of varying types for powering sensors in wireless and other ultralow power applications. Additionally, other topics on tap include high efficiency, low-power microcontrollers, wireless connectivity, and dc-power management.

IoT

Organized by ARM, DSP Concepts, and Will Tu, a third Pre-Conference Symposium, aptly dubbed “IoT Lifestyle: invisible technology moving in your home, your car, your office,” will show how smart homes, smart cars, and smart offices provide high-level intelligence that creates the IoT lifestyle imagined by futurists (Start Trek, Jetsons, etc.). Attend and you will understand the latest use cases of sensor technology in day-to-day life and the ecosystems necessary to create high-level intelligence. You will also get a handle on market and technology trends that will impact IoT intelligence.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

As if the IoT was more fun than a room full of golden retriever puppies, the IIoT, also called Industry 4.0, is a whole different ballgame. In Symposium 4, “Designing for the Industrial IoT,” you’ll learn different facets of designing an Industrial platform: hardware, software, and everything in between.

Bend It, Flex It, Wear It

One of the hottest technologies on the bill, a technology that has deeply embedded itself in a variety of markets from consumer to medical, military, and aerospace, is stretchable, flexible,, and bendable sensors. The fifth Symposium, titled “Printed, flexible, stretchable, and functional fabric sensors and systems: Technologies and Applications For Wearable and IoT Applications,” offers industry experts who will present several of the most interesting printed/flexible/stretchable and functional fabric sensor technologies and their applications. These will consist of technologies and applications currently under development and in production in the commercial sector, as well those under development in the research universities and labs worldwide. Speakers will also address integration challenges with other elements of IoT devices.

The Stars And The Producers=

It’s important to note that the presenters and sponsors of these pre-con symposia are considered the experts, the rock stars if you will, in each of their fields. Their names and accomplishments are well known in the market. The speakers you will be hearing from include:

 

Symposium 2: Energy Harvesting and Energy-Efficient Power Solutions for Sensor Applications – Tutorials:

Symposium 3: IoT Lifestyle: Invisible Technology Moving in Your Home, Your Car, Your Office:

  • Will Tu, Vice President, DSP Concepts
  • Curt Bramel
  • Ken Cartmill
  • Benjamin Cisneros
  • Peter Cooney
  • Edoardo Gallizio
  • Guillaume Girardin
  • Charlene Marini
  • Jim McGregor, Founder/Principal Analyst, TIRIAS Research
  • Scott Nelson
  • Mike Pan
  • Pushkar Ranjan
  • Steven Schmidt

Symposium 4: Embedded Technology – Designing for the Industrial IoT:

 

Symposium 5: Printed, Flexible, Stretchable and Functional Fabric Sensors and Systems: Technologies and Applications for Wearable and IoT Applications:

 

View the complete schedule at www.sensorsexpo.com/schedule.

Recharge

Obviously, you are involved with one or more of these technologies and/or markets; otherwise you would not be reading this page. And as a busy professional who realizes knowledge is never-ending potential power, you know exactly where to get recharged with a serious dose of actual power: Sensors Expo & Conference this June 27-29 in San Jose, California.

Mat Dirjish | Executive Editor | Sensors Magazine