Victor Bahl
Technical Fellow & Chief Technology Officer, Azure for Operators
Strategic Missions & Technologies, Microsoft Corporation, USA
Title: Telecommunications meets the Cloud: Science, Technology & Future
Abstract: 5G has created an unprecedented opportunity for information
technology startups and the established cloud industry to become a part of the next
generation telecommunications infrastructure - to radically change it through
softwarization, AI and edge computing. I will describe the scientific advances and
business needs for bringing us to where we are today and then cast an eye to the future
in sharing with the audience a vision for where things are going with
telecommunications, including key enablers and potential surprises on the horizon. This
will set the context for describing the opportunity ahead for the engineering and
research community in the next several years, and beyond, as we stay at the forefront of
the modernization that will enable ubiquitous computing via telecommunication networks
propelled by innovations in the cloud and edge. I will next move into near-term strategy
with Microsoft standing up of a new business division called Azure for Operators (AFO).
AFO products are aimed at bringing telecommunications industry into the cloud, as an
integral component of Microsoft’s global infrastructure. I will describe the motivation
and vision that led to the creation of AFO, its mission, and the significant technical
and scientific challenges, which when overcome will lead to the inevitable convergence
of two massive industries and new opportunities for established companies, startups,
universities and research institutes.
Bio: Victor Bahl is a technical fellow and chief technology officer in
Microsoft’s newly formed Strategic Missions & Technologies division. Prior to this, he
was the founding director of networking research in Microsoft and a member of the senior
leadership team in Microsoft Research. With over 30 years of industry experience. Dr.
Bahl advises Microsoft’s CEO and senior leadership team on long-term strategy related to
5G, edge computing, cloud infrastructures, networked systems, mobile computing &
wireless systems. He is the original inventor of the edge computing architecture and
thought leader behind Microsoft’s edge computing products. He is also the architect of
the strategy that led to the creation of Azure for Operators business.
Dr. Bahl has delivered numerous foundational technologies to Azure, XBOX and Windows
that span industry shaping new datacenter architectures, new networking protocols and
optimizations, new network management systems and new consumer experiences. His
evangelism and technical contribution and advocacy of dynamic spectrum access led to the
United States FCC opening up 180 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use. He has published
over 125 papers with over 57,000 citations; he is the author/co-author of over 200
patents, and has won three test of time and four best paper awards. For his professional
and research leadership he has received numerous prestigious awards including four
lifetime achievement awards. He is the founder/co-founder of ACM SIGMOBILE, MobiSys,
GetMobile and several other important conferences and journals. Dr. Bahl is a Fellow of
ACM, IEEE, and AAAS.
Hari Balakrishnan
Computer Science & AI
MIT, USA
Title: Mobile Sensing and Road Safety: The Road Traveled and the Road
Ahead
Abstract: The world's roads see over 50 million injuries and 1.35
million fatalities every year. This talk will describe how mobile sensing, signal
processing, machine learning, and behavioral science can improve road safety by making
people better drivers. I'll discuss several challenges in achieving this goal, as well
as learnings from successful deployments in multiple countries. I will also talk about
our journey from academic research to commercial practice, in going from the CarTel
research project at MIT to Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the leading telematics and
analytics provider in the world today.
Bio: Hari Balakrishnan is the Fujitsu Professor of Computer Science &
AI at MIT. His research is in networked and mobile computing systems, with current
interests in networking, sensing, and perception for sensor-equipped mobile devices
connected to cloud or edge services. In 2010, based on the CarTel mobile sensing
project, he co-founded Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT). CMT's mission is to make the
world's roads and drivers safer. Using mobile sensing and IoT, signal processing,
machine learning, and behavioral science, CMT's platform measures driving behavior to
improve driving behavior and reduce risk, provides crash alerts and roadside assistance,
and creates a smooth connected claims process. Today, CMT is the world's leading
telematics and analytics provider, serving millions of users in 17 countries by
partnering with insurers (including powering telematics programs at 21 of the top 25 US
insurers), rideshares, automotive manufacturers, personal safety providers, and more.
Balakrishnan received his PhD in 1998 from the EECS Department at UC Berkeley, which
named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 2021, and a BTech in Computer Science in 1993 from
IIT Madras, which named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 2013. He was inducted into the US
National Academy of Engineering (2015) and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
(2017). His honors include the ACM SIGCOMM Award for lifetime contributions (2021), the
IEEE Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award (2021), the Infosys Prize for
Engineering and Computer Science (2020), and the ACM doctoral dissertation award for
Computer Science (1998). He has received several best-paper awards including six
test-of-time awards for papers with long-term impact. He has graduated 26 PhD students
and 10 postdocs, who have made their mark in research and industry at leading
universities and companies.
James A. Landay
Computer Science
Department
Stanford University, USA
Title: “AI For Good” Isn’t Good Enough: A Call for Human-Centered
AI
Abstract: The growing awareness of AI’s impact on humans and societies
has led to a proliferation of “AI
for Good” initiatives. I argue that simply recognizing the potential impacts of AI
systems is only
table stakes for developing and guiding societally positive AI. Blindly applying AI
techniques to a
problem in an important societal area, such as healthcare, often leads to solving the
wrong
problem. In this talk, I will advance the idea that to be truly Human-Centered, the
development
of AI must change in three ways: it must be user-centered, community-centered, and
societally-
centered. First, user-centered design integrates well-known techniques to account for
the needs
and abilities of a system’s end users while rapidly improving a design through rigorous
iterative
user testing. Combined with creative new ideas and technologies, user-centered design
helps
move from designing systems that try to replicate humans to AI systems that work for
humans.
Second, AI systems also have impacts on communities beyond the direct users—Human-
Centered AI must be community-centered and engage communities, e.g., with participatory
techniques, at the earliest stages of design. Third, these impacts can reverberate at a
societal
level, requiring forecasting and mediating potential impacts throughout a project as
well. To
accomplish these three changes, successful Human-Centered AI requires the early
engagement of multidisciplinary teams beyond technologists, including experts in design,
the
social sciences and humanities, and domains of interest such as medicine or law, as well
as
community members. In this talk I will elaborate on my argument for an authentic Human-
Centered AI by showing both negative and positive examples. I will also illustrate how
my own
group’s research in health, wellness, and behavior change is both living up to and
failing in
meeting the needs of a Human-Centered AI design process.
Bio:
James Landay is a Professor of Computer Science and the Anand Rajaraman and Venky
Harinarayan Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University. He
specializes in
human-computer interaction. Landay is the co-founder and Vice Director of the Stanford
Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). Prior to joining Stanford,
Landay was a
Professor of Information Science at Cornell Tech in New York City for one year and a
Professor
of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington for 10 years. From
2003-
2006, he also served as the Director of Intel Labs Seattle, a leading research lab that
explored
various aspects of ubiquitous computing. Landay was also the chief scientist and
co-founder of
NetRaker, which was acquired by KeyNote Systems in 2004. Before that he was an Associate
Professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley. Landay received his BS in EECS from UC
Berkeley in 1990, and MS and PhD in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in
1993 and 1996, respectively. His PhD dissertation was the first to demonstrate the use
of sketching in user interface design tools. He is a member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy
and an
ACM Fellow. He served for six years on the NSF CISE Advisory Committee.
Shyam Gollakota
Paul G. Allen
School of Computer Science & Engineering
University of Washington, USA
Title: Creating intelligent mobile systems: From melding bits and
biology to democratizing healthcare
Abstract: This is an exciting time to be a wireless and mobile systems
researcher where we are not only blurring the boundaries between reality and science
fiction but also creating technology that can positively impact society. In this talk, I
will first show how we can create futuristic technology where bits and biology meld by
designing the Internet of biological and bio-inspired things. Specifically, inspired by
dandelion seeds, I will present battery-free wireless sensors that can be dispersed in
the wind to create a large-scale sensor network. I will also show how to integrate
embedded systems with living organisms (e.g., bees) and have real-world impact by
helping find the nests of invasive "murder" hornets. I will then shift gears and make a
case for how our community has an incredible opportunity to thoughtfully impact society
by creating intelligent mobile systems that democratize healthcare. I will provide
examples where we can use smartphones and smart speakers to detect sleep apnea, opioid
overdoses, irregular heart rhythms and cardiac arrests by running software on devices
that already exist in millions of homes. Finally, I will demonstrate how mobile
technology has the potential to bring healthcare to millions of people in middle and
low-income countries by creating screening tools for ear infections, new-born hearing
loss as well as performing blood clot testing at a fraction of the cost.
Bio: Shyam Gollakota is a Washington Research Foundation endowed
Professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering in the
University of Washington. His work has been licensed and acquired by multiple companies
and is in use by millions of users. His lab also worked closely with the Washington
Department of Agriculture to wireless track the invasive "murder" hornets, which
resulted in the destruction of the first nest in the United States. He is the recipient
of the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award in 2020 and recently named as a Moore Inventor
Fellow in 2021. He was also named in MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35,
Popular Science ‘brilliant 10’ and twice to the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. His group’s
research has earned Best Paper awards at MOBICOM, SIGCOMM, UbiComp, SenSys, NSDI and
CHI, appeared in interdisciplinary journals like Nature, Nature Communications, Nature
Biomedical Engineering, Science Translational Medicine and Science Robotics as well as
named as a MIT Technology Review Breakthrough technology of 2016 as well as Popular
Science top innovations in 2015. He is an alumni of MIT (Ph.D., 2013, winner of ACM
doctoral dissertation award) and IIT Madras.
Tony Tilbrook
CTO/COO
National Narrowband Network Communications (NNNCo), Australia
Title: For the First Time: LoRaWAN is enabling sensing at scale
Abstract:
The age of data is here. We are at an unprecedented time in history with the need and
ability to empirically measure and understand our environment. The explosion of IoT is
leading to a broad range of opportunities in business, research, and the environment.
For the first time, low-cost sensing technologies embedded with wireless communications
facilitate data-driven decision capability at scale. Communication technologies come in
multiple flavours and we will examine LoRaWAN as a protocol of choice for IoT. Starting
with an understanding of the importance of selecting the ideal communications solution
for a given application we will contrast and compare the benefits of various
communications technologies. It will become clear how open standards and an alliance
approach are helping to drive adoption, scale and global access to technology to solve
real-world problems. Further, we will dive into examples of specific use cases that have
been deployed at both a micro-level and a macro-scale, demonstrating the flexibility of
LoRaWAN for a wide range of applications. We will then delve into some of the
complexities of deployment and the obstacles to scale while understanding the importance
of data and device management. Finally, we will expose and highlight the importance of
standardisation and harmonisation of data and integration layers as ways to deliver the
desired outcome.
Bio:
Tony is the CTO and COO of National Narrowband Network Communications (NNNCo),
Australia’s leading 100% IoT operator and network provider. He is also the Smart Cities
Workgroup Lead, Regional Vice Chair for APAC, and LoRaWAN Ambassador for the LoRa
Alliance. A highly strategic, visionary technical and operations leader, Tony has over
25 years of experience in the design and implementation of wireless systems. Currently
specialiasing in the use of LoRaWAN and IoT for sensing, data management and sharing.
Tony is working to produce methods for the monetisation and democratisation of IoT data
across the globe, recognising the need to remove barriers to scale to enhance
empirically based data-driven decisions.
Previously, Tony was the CTO of wireless for Superloop being responsible for the design
and operation of the largest Wireless ISP across Australia. Before this, he worked to
deliver extensive core wireless networks for government, and industry across Wireless
Lan, Microwave, mmWave and Laser-based wireless systems. Tony’s experience allows him to
understand the right wireless technology choices for a given communications requirement.