CITRIS IBM Day 2007: Abstracts

Back to main CITRIS IBM Day page

Abstracts

Umair Akeel, Chief Architect, IBM WebSphere RFID Information Center

Title: Electronic Product Code (EPC) Networking Standards and ePedigree Compliance (Pharma Track and Trace)

The state of California is leading the nation in an effort an effort to automatically detect counterfeit drugs by mandating the mass serialization of all pharmaceutical products at the item, case, and pallet levels by January 1, 2009. The state has instituted electronic pedigree legislation that will require the data sharing of sensor network information to help secure the supply chain. This presentation will focus on the use of EPC Networking standards from EPCglobal to provide a comprehensive approach for global product serialization, data management and data exchange that will enable compliance with California's ePedigree law.

Ron Ambrosio, IBM Research

Title: Stream and Event computing: Building Cyber-Physical-Business Systems Solutions

A new class of applications has recently emerged with the goal of better managing complex, large-scale physical-world systems through advanced information technology. Examples of these applications include smart electric grids and natural ecosystem monitoring (such as rivers and estuaries) and management systems. To support such solutions, IBM Research is developing System S, a software platform to enable complex analytics and optimization applications that operate on continuous high-volume streams of data. In conjunction with System S, and to better connect it to the physical-world, there are also several Cyber-Physical-Business System projects underway that are defining rich, event-based programming platforms aimed at integrating the very heterogeneous world of sensor networks and control systems into an overall system that bridges the business, operations, and physical domains.

Bernhard Boser, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley

Title: Moving sensors to the mainstream

Digital computation and communication have enabled the proliferation of electronic systems into almost every imaginable aspect of daily life. But a processor is only as good as the data it is fed, and increasingly sensors are the enabling ingredient for new applications. Modern CMOS-like technologies applied to sensor fabrication have resulted not only in lower cost, but also considerably reduced the barriers to deployment, with IC-like packaging and digital interfaces. Automotive electronics has long embraced this trend, and personal communication devices increasingly use sensors to add new and differentiating features. We will explore the opportunities and challenges with near term examples--sensor-enabled accurate in-door personal navigation--and hypothesize about the future based on early results with point-of-care biomedical diagnostic devices.

David Culler, Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley

Title: Real World Web Services

Steven Glaser, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley

Title: Using Sensors

New technologies have allowed new approaches to sensing. There is wide-spread interest to build new micro-sensors and devise self-assembling wireless networks in many disparate disciplines. The love of technology alone, however, is not enough to expect interest and funding from the rest of the world. This presentation will present some interesting applications which demonstrate that problems of wide interest can now be positively addressed. The applications range from monitoring world heritage sites, to state awareness in tunnels, to quantitative diagnosis of neurological diseases. The new performance-based design contracting paradigm will be briefly discussed as a driver for micro-sensor and Mote development.

Jennifer King, Research Specialist, Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic

Title: Sensors as Disruptive Technology: Guidelines for Future Development

Ravi Nemana, Executive Director, Services Science, Managament and Engineering, CITRIS

Title: Sensors and Services

Sensors offer the potential of acquiring deeply granular and continuous data. In Services, where a very large portion of costs come from labor, this can granularity can be tantalizingly profound. Yet more research is required to shed light on appropriate ways to use this granularity to structure and improve the performance of services. The new CITRIS initiative in Services: Science, Management, and Engineering (SSME) aims to improve the scalability, design, structure, measurement and "art" of services through curricula at member campuses and through fundamental research. This presentation explores the role of sensing in SSME, using healthcare as an exemplar.

Thomas Nesbitt, Executive Associate Dean, UC Davis Health System

Title: Telemedicine: Improving Access to Quality Medical Care

In order for patients to receive quality medical care, high quality information must be available in order to make the next health care decision. Both accurate information about the patient and information about current medical science relating to the patient's condition must come together at the point of care. Advance information, sensor and telecommunication technologies have a significant role to play in this process. This presentation will discuss how these technologies are being applied to improve care, particularly to areas that traditionally have lacked specialty expertise. Evidence for the effectiveness of telemedicine and the future of telemedicine will also be discussed.

James Spohrer, Director, Almaden Services Research, IBM Almaden Research Center

Title: Who put the sensors in my product -- oops, I mean our service system?

Sensors are getting smaller, and they are showing up in more and more places. From tires, to jet engines, to skyscapers, to oil platforms, to game controllers, to people, to pets, there is a lot of valuable information out there, and sensors are hard at work making measurements and collecting data. In the good old days, manufacturers would mass produce products and sell them to customers who would use them. Today, service providers provision a service to customers, and never let go of the product core, but provide sensor-enriched products to gather information and create an on-going relationship. For example, why sell a jet engine, when you can provide a propulsion service and keep track of everything the customer does with your/their/our engines? Transactions to relationships. Products to service systems. When you use my X, I can get information about your Y. Service science is the study of customer-provider interactions and how more value can be created for both parties (service = value co-creation). The more information the provider has about the customer, the better win-win value proposition they can create - this can improve quality, productivity, regulatory compliance, and future innovation capacity of service systems. The more information the customer has about alternative providers, if switching costs between service systems remain low, the more customers can select the best value proposition with the most competitive service system. Better sensors, better information, better value propositions, and better service systems.

Peter Williams, CTO, IBM Big Green Innovations – Sensing and Water Management

Title: Sensing and Water Management

Approximately 2.3bn people live in water stressed areas today, with this number increasing to 3.5bn by 2025. Those affected include developed areas such as the Western USA, SE Australia and SE England, as well as third world countries. At the same time, the management of water resources and infrastructure is characterised by manual processes operating on incomplete, fragmented or absent data about the status of water resources in any given area. The ability to sense many dimensions of water quantity and quality, combined with sensing of atmospherics, soil conditions and other factors, provides the basis to create up to date or even real-time information on which water management decisions can be taken. The net result will be that the same quantity of available water should support more domestic, agricultural and industrial consumers.

Paul Wright, Acting Director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute@CITRIS; A. Martin Berlin Chair in Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley

Title: Greater Energy Efficiency in a Time of Reduced Resouces and Global Warming

The CITRIS Demand Response project is increasing energy efficiency in California by using wireless-based technologies that monitor energy use and lower it when prices or demand are high. This automatic load reduction can avoid rolling blackouts in California’s summer heat and save as much as $5 billion in energy costs and four million metric tons of carbon each year. PG&E has recently begun installation of their “Smart Meter,” an effort related to CITRIS research and technology. And eleven million homes in California may be outfitted with smart, indoor thermostats that are a direct result of CITRIS research. These devices contain small cheap radios that can receive emergency signals and up-to-date price information from the utility company to drive more efficient energy usage.

Thomas Zimmerman

Title: Human Interface Sensors; The Fulcrum for Innovation and Success
The iPod and iPhone are great examples of how sensors can enable simple elegant interfaces that produce tremendous success in the market place. The Nintendo Wii gaming system does not boast the fastest processor or most sophisticated graphics engine, but the Wii hand held controller with three axis accelerator and fast motion tracking camera has propelled sales to over 12 million units in the first year, exceeding Xbox and Playstation3 sales. In this talk, we shall review other products that use sensors to create innovative human interfaces and speculate on what kind of sensors and interface designs will affect future products.