Nanotechnology, Sensing, Bioinformatics: The Changing Face of Healthcare

Shekhar Bhansali, professor, Florida International University and ASSIST

With a $10 gene sequence, unlimited data storage and affordable computation around the corner, what needs to happen in the personalized environmental sensing space to really advance human health?

Leveraging existing technologies is moving us further toward commercialization. One major gain to date is the use of micro and nano sensors in personalized environmental health monitoring systems. These sensor-based systems can help us to better understand the role of pollutants, chemicals, toxins and radiation on human health. And we may be just steps from realizing a new class of sub-dollar biochemical sensors that will transform care in critical areas such as depression/stress and pregnancy, which have considerable generational effects.

Intuitive Internet of Things for Global Pollution Monitoring

Sywert Brongersma, senior principal scientist, imec

What is the air quality like in your office? In your street? On the route you take to go jogging? At the moment, it is practically impossible to get definitive answers. But if we incorporate gas sensors everywhere, store the data in the cloud and allow for some smart data-processing, this could all change. According to the World Health Organization, the number of cases of allergies and asthma is rising rapidly, and around seven million people die early each year as the result of poor air quality.

But air quality can differ dramatically, depending on the vicinity of parks, the presence of traffic jams, or even the wind direction relative to the street. And indoors, air quality is very different in a busy meeting room compared to a large office with just one person. Small inexpensive sensor systems that measure a multitude of gases can give us the critical information we need to ascertain air quality, an important stepping stone to monitoring air pollution one room, building, neighborhood and city at a time – until we understand the true impact of global pollution. This presentation will explore how the combination of networked sensor systems and cloud based big data analytics can enable novel business opportunities around the availability of such global pollution data.

Perceptive systems combine their own sensory capabilities with data accessible through cloud/fog based communication for improved data analytics and performance. (Source: imec)

TSensors Initiative: a Bridge between Abundance, IoT and mHealth.

Dr. Janusz Bryzek, Chair of TSensors Summit, CEO of eXo Systems, Inc., CEO of JB MEMS, Inc.

In 2012 Bestselling Author Peter Diamandis, founder of XPrize Foundation, Singularity University and on the list of Fortune’s Top 50 World Leaders, co-wrote the book, “Abundance – The Future is Better than You Think.” In this book, Diamandis introduced the concept of “Abundance,” a utopian vision of our world with no hunger, universal medical, clean air and water, and access to sufficient green energy.

Remarkably, Abundance is expected to come around 2035-2040, enabled mainly by eight exponential technologies producing goods and services on Earth faster than the global demand. One of those technologies is sensors.

Visionary Speaker Dr. Janusz Bryzek will explore how the massive proliferation of sensors and sensor networks – as well as other enabling technologies/technology trends, new organizational structures, and new jobs will expedite the realization of a trillion sensors (TSensors) by 2030, opening great opportunities and the potential to help realize Diamandis’s vision of Abundance.

Sensing for Agriculture

Supratik Guha, director of Physical Science, IBM Research, IBM Thomas J. Watson

Big Data is dominated today primarily by data that is either “enterprise data,” which is transactional in nature, or social data. It is physical data (data gathered by physical sensors) that will play an increasingly dominant role in the future. We can already see this in the real world, with the popularity of GPS sensing and route mapping.

But it’s the nexus of agriculture, water and energy in which sensing and the IoT can play a dominant role. Mr. Guha will dive into a case in point, in which IBM Research is working with E&J Gallo winery in a pilot project involving sensing and the IoT.

Powering the Internet of Things: A Vision of Energy Harvesting for 2025

Shad Roundy, assistant professor, University of Utah

Smart buildings and homes, wearable health and wellness sensors (i.e., mobile health), structural health monitoring and smart transportation environments are all good examples of wireless sensing and communication nodes requiring their own power.

Today, almost all wireless sensor nodes use batteries as their sole power source. In some cases, this does not limit performance, but in others, it is an absolute deal-breaker. That’s where energy harvesting comes in.

While energy harvesting for wireless sensors has been a serious research topic for the past 10-15 years, we are now experiencing real gains in vibration and motion based energy harvesting, thermal energy harvesting, RF energy harvesting and wireless power transfer, acoustic power transfer, and batteries (which are both a competitive with and complementary to energy harvesting solutions).

What are some of the barriers to realizing energy harvesting over the coming decade – and what are two possible scenarios that will help us to move energy harvesting from the realm of R&D to the world of commercialization?

Ubiquitous Wearable Sensors for Healthcare Applications

Ben Schlatka, vice president of corporate development and co-founder, MC10

Soft, intelligent body-worn sensors linked to cloud based analytics will revolutionize how healthcare is delivered. Data from these body worn networks will enhance the treatment efficacy and quality of care and will be used in conjunction with therapy to provide objective data on both the disease and its treatment. This revolution will affect every aspect of the care continuum, from healthy living to long-term disease management. The opportunity for both durable and disposable sensors that acquire unique physiological data sets on a daily basis for both acute and chronic disease will provide explosive growth in sensor consumption, but more importantly, will make possible new health care insights that will result in longer, healthier living at a lower cost of care.