My Rendezvous with Malaysia - To IEEE HardTech Summit 2017 and Back
It was my plan to develop a Report of the IEEE HardTech Summit, but then my friend Keerthana suggested, let it be the documentation of the whole trip from my perspective as a traveler-delegate. I would call this a vivid account of what arrangements went into my travel, how I got an opportunity to indulge in self-reliance as an individualist, the team spirit that I experienced in the whole trip and the sense of achievement in terms of the learnings at the event from the industrialists, technologists and the experts from international arena. It was most of all a matter of pride for me to be in the group of 50 delegates from Asia-Pacific who were invited at the HardTech. So here goes –
October 21st was a memorable day for me as an IEEE YP member when I felt privileged to receive the letter of approval for attending the IEEE HardTech Summit 2017 in Kuala Lumpur as one of the delegates representing Kerala Section. The best part of the news was IEEE Kerala Section would be providing me financial support for my sojourn! Though it was a Sunday morning, I kick-started my preparations for my travel to Malaysia. Shahim Baker, Chairman YP AG, my IEEE friends Jithin and Bibin who were the other three delegates gave me invaluable directions as to what is to be done as groundworks to get an energetic start for my first travel abroad alone.
I was fortunate to get the bookings all got done online instantaneously – the event, the flights to and fro, the Entrivisa, the hotel bookings all done and now just was the wait for the D-day! The WhatsApp HardTech Group which was formed at the initiative of Malaysia IEEE was a great help on travel queries for us. My friend Keerthana who was my colleague at my company, Baker Hughes GE as well as at IEEE, was an expert in all the travel matters who provided me with all the necessary information required regarding what is to be expected from the journey, how emergency situations could be handled, the exchange of currency information, the international SIM card usage, the best modes of transport in Malaysia and last but not the least how to make the best use of my trip as a delegate.
Finally the much anticipated day of journey arrived on November 3rd when I boarded the AirAsia flight at the Cochin International Airport in Nedumbassery. I heaved a sigh of relief as everything was working according to my chalked out plan. The air travel was comfortable as far as I was concerned and I reached Kuala Lumpur by 4 PM Malaysian time. I got checked out hassle-free to my relief. The next step for me was to activate my SIM and book the Uber ride to my hotel. I was all excited to jump into my Uber (I thought at that instant – well, the Apps are the best thing that can happen to this generation of humans!).
I reached my destination Mandarin Hotel exactly one hour later. Well, this place was called Jalan Maharajalela. Mapping the various places through Google Maps, I, in fact, fell headlong in love with the names of the places in Kuala Lumpur. I had my Uber driver narrating the history of Malaysia and its close relationship with India and the Indian kings, especially which explained the closely resembling Indian names of places and people in Malaysia. To my utter surprise, I found that Malaysians could pronounce my hardcore Indian name very well with clarity unlike many of those from western countries! Somehow this created in me an instant bonding with the friendly people of this part of the world.
The hotel room was all comfortable and fully automated and I could see the high rising Menara Tower of Kuala Lumpur fully lighted up. Well, I kept the curtains open as the panoramic view of the city was simply awesome! I refreshed myself and went off to sleep since I was a bit tired of the long travel. Whew, had to get up early in the morning since it’s the Malaysian time!
I had informed my other IEEE delegates that I would meet them in the morning who promised to join me for breakfast. We had a fantastic Continental breakfast and left for the venue.
Wow! Now here comes the exciting phase. But before that it is worth mentioning the importance of the event venue as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia in English) or UKM located in Bangi, Selangor south of Kuala Lumpur - is well-known as an international University par knowledge hub emanating excellence in education in Asia. It is one of five research universities in the country. Ranked number 259th in the world by QS World University Rankings in 2014 and many more laurels to its credit. At the venue we were joined by other delegates from across Asia Pacific; we were in for a warm and cordial welcome by the UKM hosts.
The HardTech Summit was declared open by the UKM Vice Chancellor, Dr. Noor Azlan Ghazali who welcomed the delegates and the invitees. He spoke at length about how UKM played a key role in integrating technology with the hardware world.
CEO & President – IEEE, Ms. Karen Bartleson, who was the Chief Guest for the event enlightened the delegates on IEEE’s commitment to the highest level of standards – integrity, ethics, responsible behavior – which helped it move technology forward and ensure better tomorrow for humanity.
She described in details the process followed by IEEE in developing standards from project approvals to building and maintaining the standards. As a matter of fact, Karen's book on ‘The Ten Commandments for Effective Standards’ is an eye-opener on standards developed in the technology world. It provides you with a list of procedural imperatives about what works and what doesn’t work when developing effective technical standards. The Golden Rule of effective standards – ‘cooperate on standards, compete on products’ -- which points to the essence of standardization, to the tenth commandment – ‘know that standards have technical and business aspects’ - declares the importance of a standard's commercial implications. She enumerated the IEEE achievements in terms of the international standards developed spanning across continents enabling Green Buildings, Smart Cities, Healthcare, Transport networks, IOTs. She quietly reminded the delegates that in 2017, IEEE had over 1100 active standards, with over 600 standards under development - One of the more notable are the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN group of standards, with the widely used computer networking standards for both wired (ethernet, aka IEEE 802.3) and wireless (IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.16) networks. Well, IEEE could be proud of these accomplishments indeed!
A series of talks ensued soon after to find the audience encapsulated. There was an interesting presentation by Somnath Meher, CEO & Co-Founder –Blink Watch, on the next generation of Inter-Operable Connected Devices in which he emphasized the blurring happening between the software and hardware worlds as he revealed the technological features and what went into the process in the development of the smartwatch. The devices being connected to the integrated sensors, it holistically was the amalgamation of various designs – mechanical, electronic, electrical, software, AI and so on. To interact intelligently with the user these technologies helped. Its applications involve both visual and even voice-based AI in terms of converting speech to text, text to intent, intent to action and so on.
Yeong Che Fai, Founder DF Automation & Robotics, presented his views on Automated Guided Vehicle in Smart Manufacturing in which he spoke with the real world learnings he had made with his robotics company. He revealed the secret formula he followed in winning competitions right from childhood as to owning a determined mindset, strategist thinking and believing in team efforts. He believed in smart manufacturing and applied Internet of Things (IOTs) in his robotic company.
Dr. Lianqing Liu, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also talked on Robotics with focus on its standardization progress. He spoke of the advances that China made in Robotics in space and underwater. He stated that while Machine Age released humans from the hard-core labor work, the Information Age released humans from meticulous mental work. The future belonged to Robotics which would release humans from both labor and mental work simultaneously. He went into details of how the Robots could be categorized into industrial robots and to those yielding professional services which would find increasing usability in the coming years. He said 70 percent of the two main industries impacted would be automotive and electronics. Service Robots would find an increasing application and may even replace humans in exploration, military applications, agriculture, public service, medical field and also rehabilitation sector. Soon it would be a boom time for service robots!
Gibran Huzaifah, CEO –eFishery presented his experience with hacking the growth of farmers with eFishery. He developed a machine using the IoT technology and applied the eFishery App to get fish feeding data, data on weather and water quality which helped in making predictions and credit scores. He also presented the challenges he had faced in the whole process including changing the mindset of the farmers in adopting these technologies.
Ko Chuan Zhen, CEO – Plus Solar, shared his invaluable learnings on the impact and trends of the solar industry in which he stressed on the shifting dynamics in the power industry towards clean energy and how it could be converted into profitable ventures. The inefficiencies in the working of the power-grids were enough reason for driving towards the goal of finding sustainable energy sources like solar. He said solar energy was finding increasing usage in agriculture, commercial, industrial, educational areas and even in residential buildings.
While How Yong Guan, CTO - Poladrone spoke of the empowering of heavy industries through drone based technology, Mark Yong, CEO – Garuda Robotics, underscored its relevance to the enterprises and agriculture citing examples from his ventures. Forecasted industries for the drone application included infrastructure and agriculture. Yong described how the palm oil industry in Malaysia benefitted from drone technologies through its remote monitoring and inspection.
Darween Reza bin Sabri, Founder – Mycro3D, enlightened the audience with his in-depth knowledge of 3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping and went on to debate on whether it was a future or fad. I found the video demonstration really amazing which highlighted its application to consumer industry specifically the fashion design industry.
Last but not the least, Bilal Javed Ghummam of Car Chabi spoke on the topic ‘Early Stage Hardware Pitch’ with video demonstrations of this product. The technology involved opening and closing of cars without keys simply by using remote controls.
As delegates, we got a fabulous opportunity to interact with the speakers and among each other. Photo sessions were held with the Chief Invitees which was commendable and I was lucky enough to get snapped with Ms. Karen herself!
The reporting wouldn’t be satisfactory without a special mention of the Malaysian delicacies served during Lunch and other breaks. It was just amazing!
All praise goes to Nivas Ravichandran, Chair – IEEE HardTech Summit 2017 and Hussain Falih Mahdi, Chair – Malaysian Section –IEEE and their team who left no stones unturned in making the guests feel at home and comfortable; and for having organised such a wonderful event in which the end result was all invaluable takeaways as learnings, interaction, a great experience with our Malaysian hosts and not to leave out the boost to our careers in entrepreneurial, technical and socio-technical fields.
I boarded the AirAsia flight next morning back to India with a mind full of contentment for having taken the right decision in making use of this priceless opportunity and hoping that much more would come in my way in the future!
Authored By:
Kasturi Das C P
IEEE Young Professionals – Kerala Section