IoT Impact a window into the future
On 15-16 October 2019, a number of delegates from the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) attended the IoT Impact conference to contribute to the conversation on Australia’s transition to industry 4.0. Hosted and curated by IoT Alliance Australia (IoTA), the IoT Impact event is the only Australian IoT conference driven by the industry.
“The IoT sector is fast-growing and on the cusp of great acceleration in the next few years,” said Nicholas Haskins, NSSN Chief Operating Officer.“Of course, smart sensing is at the very heart of IoT technology, and it will impact almost every sector – from agtech to protech to medtech. The opportunities are enormous.”
Drawn from industry experts who design and implement IoT technologies, the conference focused on areas such as smart cities, food & agribusiness, water, energy, transport, manufacturing, health, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, communications and data use.
In addition to the insightful keynotes from industry leaders like Lenovo, Bosch, Salesforce & LendLease, the NSSN participated in streams where itself has a leading-edge such as agtech, water, energy, smart cities and data.
“NSSN partners with government agencies to implement the new Internet of Things Policy (Digital NSW). It also partners with the industry to engage in R&D of new smart sensing technologies, introduce new products, achieve product superiority and differentiation in the market,” said NSSN Business Development Manager, Ivan Chua.
“New smart sensing technologies also enable new and innovative business models, deliver greater value to customers, provide a lighter cost structure; thus can improve profitability and increase top-line growth,” Chua added.
Facilitated by the Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), a workshop on IoT in Water, Data & the Drought focussed on deliberate innovation and novel solutions in response to the NSW drought crisis that could be implemented in the near future.
“This workshop was timely and connected with the NSSN’s own efforts in this important space,” said Haskins referring to the NSSN’s existing $3.4 million collaborative project with the water industry. This multi-million dollar venture will use smart sensing for leak detection to prevent breaks in critical infrastructure.
Other workshops delivered at the IoT impact conference included: sustainability & the circular economy; cybersecurity; supply chain; health co-design; devices & the cloud on customer experience and IoT connectivity for decision making.
“For more than two decades, Australia’s recycling industry relied on China for plastic waste. However, in January 2018, China banned the importation of 24 types of recyclable materials, and it placed significant stress and pressure on the waste management system in Australia,” said Chua who participated at a workshop on Sustainability and the circular economy: How can IoT make an impact?
“There is an opportunity for Australia to develop new sensing and AI technologies to strengthen our circular economy, which would create new jobs and attract investments from the waste which we are producing,” Chua added.
The NSSN brings together the world-class research taking place in academia with state government agencies and industry to introduce innovative solutions to critical challenges faced by manufacturers, policymakers and end-users across different sectors. The Network’s thematic focus areas include built environment, resources and energy, environment and agriculture technology, space and aviation, manufacturing and medical technology.
Media: Shahrzad Abbasi — 0466548145