Panel: “A Smarter Future” with New and Emerging Innovations and Predictions

Plenary Session: July 25, 3:00 – 4:00 pm, Hitotsubashi Hall

A Mini-Technology Time Machine Panel Session

Predicting and immersing one with the future is always a challenge and a desire. The IEEE rises to that challenge based upon the work it does on multiple new and emerging technologies through serving as a catalyst for developing innovations, products and services.  IEEE Future Directions serves as an incubator for these new initiatives.

A panel of industry experts from the fields of AR/VR/MR, Big Data, Blockchain, Communications, Computing will provide their perspectives, observations, and predictions of the future. The focus will be on new developments that will contribute to a smarter future. Emphasis will be upon presenting practical applications and its implementations with a focus on predictions of the future and potential implications across the various fields.

This session, organized and moderated by Kathy Grise, will provide a “mini-Technology Time Machine” preview of the future of AR/VR/MR, Big Data, Blockchain, Communications, Computing technologies.

Invited Speakers

Nicholas Napp, CoFounder, Xmark Labs, LLC

Nicholas Napp has been working with VR and AR systems since the early 1990s. His team at Rainbow Studios pioneered the use of VR in 3D animation production. Nicholas has brought over 40 products to market across a wide range of consumer and enterprise markets. He is a systems thinker with broad skills in business development; product development; innovation & technology; and strategic marketing and partnerships. He is particularly focused on the integration of strategy, technology and corporate narrative
to accelerate business growth. His prior roles include leading multiple startups; Lead External Technology Scout, North america for Sony Ericsson; and Vice-President, Animation, Rainbow Studios (sold to THQ, inc.). He is also Chairman of the Board at FabNewport, a non-profit makerspace for middle school and older students.

Robert Saracco: President of EIT ICTLABS Italy and Italy Node Director of EIT Digital

Robert Saracco is President of EIT ICTLABS Italy and Italy Node Director of EIT Digital (European Institute of Innovation and Technology). His background is in math and computer science. Up to December 2011 he was the Director of the Telecom Italia Future Centre in Venice, looking at the interplay of technology evolution, economics and society. At the turn of
the century, he led a World Bank-Infodev project to stimulate entrepreneurship in Latin America. He is a senior member of IEEE where he leads the Future Directions Industry Advisory Board. He has published over 100 papers in journals and magazines and 14 books.

May Wang, Professor, The Wallace H. Coulter Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering; Kavli Fellow, Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Cancer Scholar; FEllow of AIMBE, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University

May received the Distinguished Cancer Scholar Award from Georgia Cancer Coalition in 2004, an Outstanding Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor
Award from Georgia Tech in 2005, and an Outstanding Service Award from IEEE BIBE in 2007. Wang received her PhD (EE), multidisciplinary MS degrees (EE, Applied Math and CS) from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BEng from Tsinghua University in China. In addition, Wang has several years of industrial R&D experience in the former AT&T Bell Labs, Intel Architecture Labs, Hughes Research Labs, Lucent Technologies Bell Labs, and Agere Systems. Her primary research interest is in biomedical and health informatics for systems medicine, with the goal to accelerate and enable
the discovery, development and translation in modern biology, medicine, and healthcare.

Dejan Milojicic, Distinguished Technologist, Hewlett Packard Labs, USA

Dejan is a distinguished technologist at Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto, CA [1998-]. His areas of technical expertise include operating systems, distributed systems, and systems management. He worked in the OSF Research Institute, Cambridge, MA [1994-1998] and Institute “Mihajlo Pupin”, Belgrade, Serbia [1983-1991]. He received his PhD from University of Kaiserslautern, Germany (1993); and MSc/BSc from Belgrade University, Serbia (1983/86). Dejan was a managing director of the Open Cirrus Cloud Computing testbed (2007-2011), with the academic and industrial sites in US (6), Europe (3), and Asia (6). Dejan has published over 180 papers and 2 books; he has 25 granted patents and over 50 patent applications. Dejan is an IEEE Fellow (2010), ACM Distinguished Engineer (2008), and USENIX member. He was president of IEEE Computer Society and is currently on IEEE Board. He has been on many conference program committees and journal editorial boards. He started two conferences (IEEE ASAP; USENIX WIESS).