In
our March event I presented a somewhat negative, glass half empty, view
of IoT and the hype and confusion surrounding it. I am still not
entirely convinced any two people actually mean the same thing when they
say IoT ...
There
is of course a positive, glass half full, side to IoT and Wearables,
with a plethora of novel devices and capabilities capable of being put
into the world around us or around our person. This is opening up a huge
range of new possibilities which the creative entrepreneur can take
advantage of. Our view of what is “normal” in the world is on the move
again and that always creates opportunities!
To
explore this we are delighted to have three speakers who are very much
active in the space to share their views, experiences and challenges of
working in the IoT and Wearables space:
Security
and trust are obviously major concerns in IoT and David’s initial work
in that area led him to become aware of, and inspired by, the huge range
of new opportunities that smart connected devices in the world around
us can provide. He is currently in the process of developing IoT
equipment for disaster relief using drones and is in the early stages of
a startup for that. David will talk about challenges and opportunities
in IoT development as well as security and privacy aspects.
Simon will focus on current trends & the future of wearable tech. He will provide an overview of the market landscape as it currently is, and will share his insights into how he believes the landscape will evolve over the next few years. He will also share where he thinks the greatest opportunities lie, in order to help tech entrepreneurs understand where unmet needs currently exist within both the consumers market, and the enterprise.
* Dr Tim Willis, Founder at Nautilus Beam
In
January 2015 Tim took an idea for a text input system for smartwatches
to an event at Dundee University, combining a novel, elegant User
Interface with his system, which he believes has a perfect
niche on these small devices. A team of 6 were persuaded to come
together and pitch the idea, winning £30k funding (out of £40k) against
teams of professors, lecturers, researchers and a surgeon. The new
company, Nautilus Beam, with two programmers now on board too, will be
unveiling their wearable tech as soon as IP protection has been
performed.
As usual we will finish with an open discussion session followed by a networking reception with wine.
We are delighted to be hosted by the Entrepreneurship Club at the Business School once again, and we will kick off there at 6.30pm:
This is a free event but places are limited so pre-registration is required via the Business School site:
Speaker Bios:
David
Rogers is a mobile phone security expert who runs Copper Horse
Solutions Ltd, a software and security company currently focusing on IoT
security research and products, based in Windsor, UK. He also chairs
the Device Security Group at the GSM Association and teaches the Mobile
Systems Security course at the University of Oxford. He has worked in
the mobile industry for over 16 years in security and engineering
roles. Prior to this he worked in the semiconductor industry. His book
‘Mobile Security: A Guide for Users’ was published in 2013. He blogs from http://blog.mobilephonesecurity.org and tweets @drogersuk
Simon
Montford founded WEB3//IOT to explore opportunities in the IoT sector.
This is because he believes that a perfect storm of innovation is coming
our way that will finally make the Internet of Things (IoT) a
reality in the home, business, and across many diverse industry sectors.
Unlimited low-cost storage, processing power, and ubiquitous
connectivity coupled with robust, accurate, low-cost sensors will drive
the proliferation of smart connected devices. He's organising an event
in Edinburgh (UK) on 29 May. The provisional agenda, and other details,
can be viewed online: WWW.IOTEDI.COM
Dr
Tim Willis has a background in Natural Language Processing. After a BA in
Linguistics & Phonetics and two research posts at Leeds University,
and another post at Lancaster University, he did an MSc and PhD at
Edinburgh in Cognitive Science and Informatics respectively. He founded
Flexpansion (Flexible Text Expansion) in 2008 to commercialise his
research on how abbreviated text could be intelligently re-expanded into
full, to help people with motor disabilities. He realised
the wider application with phones and tablets and built a word
prediction / abbreviation expansion app (see Google Play).