Dean's Colloquia Series
The Dean's Colloquium Series was established in 2014 to celebrate distinguished scientists and engineers. This series is set to inspire current and future engineers and scientists, with a particular emphasis on contributions that bridge different areas in science and engineering and cross discipline boundaries.
These events are open to the public, and are of interest to current staff, students, alumni and other researchers in the community.
Inaugural Colloquium: 29 July 2014, 10:00am
The Internet of Things
Professor Sanjay Sarma, MIT
Seminar Room N101, CSIT Building 108, North Road
There has been much talk about the Internet of Things. Networking companies are excited about the possibilities of selling more plumbing. Device companies are champing at the bit to create new classes of higher margin smart things, such as IoT light bulbs. Companies that monetise information are salivating over the new sources of big data. What is getting lost, however, is the why and the what of the Internet of Things. Prof. Sarma will talk about our history of RFID and the lessons we learned. He will then talk about the Internet of Things and what it means, and what is meaningless about many discussions on the topic. Finally, he will describe their view of an architecture: Cloud Think. In particular, he will talk about their project on connected cars.
Brief Biography
Sanjay Sarma is the Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers professor of mechanical engineering and newly appointed Director of Digital Learning at MIT. Sarma was one of the founders of the Auto-ID Center at MIT, which, along with a number of partner companies and its "spin-off," EPCglobal, developed the technical concepts and standards of modern RFID. He also chaired the Auto-ID Research Council consisting of six labs worldwide, which he helped to establish. Today, the suite of standards developed by the Auto-ID Center, commonly referred to as the EPC, are utilized by over a thousand companies on five continents. Between 2004 and 2006, Sarma took a leave of absence from MIT to found the software company OATSystems, which was acquired by Checkpoint Systems in 2008. He is a consultant and board member at several companies, including EPC Global, and also serves as a permanent guest of the board of GS1 and a member of the board of governors of GS1US. Sarma also serves on the City of Boston's Complete Streets Advisory Group. Sarma received his bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, his master's from Carnegie Mellon University, and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. In between degrees, Sarma worked at Schlumberger Oilfield Services in Aberdeen, UK. Sarma's master's thesis was in the area of operations research, and his PhD was in the area of automation.
For more information, please contact the Dean's Office T: 02 6125 8807
