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7th ANNUAL INDUSTRY DAY: SHOW AND TELL
CNSE
/ Lee Center
Fall
2001
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CALTECH'S
CENTER FOR NEUROMORPHIC SYSTEMS ENGINEERING (CNSE),
a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, directed
by Professor Pietro Perona, held its 7th Annual Industry Day May
16-17, 2001 in Beckman Institute Auditorium. For the first time,
the conference was held in conjunction with the LEE
CENTER FOR ADVANCED NETWORKING, directed by David Rutledge,
the Kiyo and Eiko Tomiyasu Professor of Electrical Engineering.
The theme of the conference was "Sensor Networks" with faculty
from the two centers presenting their research on smart sensors,
wireless networks, optical components, communications, collective
robotics, and learning in networks, among other topics.
Caltech President David Baltimore providing opening remarks
for the conference. |
On
each day, a panel of representatives from industry--composed mainly
CEOs and Chief Technologists--focused on how sensor networks operate
in various industries, such as the automotive, defense, aerospace,
infrastructure, and medical-care sectors. Invited presenters and
the two keynote speakers, Dr. Charles Elachi, the Director of
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Dr. Paul Jacobs, Executive
Vice President of Qualcomm, explored the opportunities that can
be achieved by having a multitude of sensors networked together
as well as the challenges of making sense of the data these networks
produce.
The
audience of over 250 people, representing more than
60 companies
as well as Caltech faculty and students, heard the reflections
of executives from such companies as Air Fiber, Graviton Systems,
IBM, idealab!, Invensys Controls, Qualcomm, Sensoria, TRW Space
and Electronics, VivoMetrics, and Wingcast. Speakers from DARPA
and the NSF indicated that various government programs are also
geared toward tying together various sensors creating what will
eventually become a sensor web analogous to the computer networks
that form the Internet.
Pietro Perona, Professor of Electrical Engineering, and
Director of the Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering
with Yaser S. Abu-Mostafa, Professor of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science. |
In
response to this description of the future, a constant refrain
from the audience questioned how such a sensor web will deal with
problems of privacy and security. Although the panelists did not
have specific answers, it was evident that industry and government
are aware of the issue and that a mixture of technical and legislative
means will be needed to address them. Another challenge that surfaced
was how to prevent total, catastrophic failure when sensors are
networked and tie everything together from home appliances to
telephones, computers, and traffic signals. The danger of a software
glitch bringing life back to a "stone age" was mentioned
and the answer seems to be a mixture of redundant sensors, developing
logical programming environments, and new mathematical tools for
assessing complex networks.
David Lee (PhD '74), Caltech Trustee and Honorary Chair
of the David and Ellen Lee Foundation. |
Industry
members in the audience were also interested in how to make better
use of the sensor networks that exist today. In the presence of
large streams of data, the question is how to extract the maximum
information from this data
with potential applications that range from condition-based maintenance
to attention-based diagnostics. The audience also benefited from
discussions with students from both Centers, as approximately
40 students presented posters.
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