Embedded Technology and Internet of Things Industry Development Seminar

— Shenzhen, China, April 2017

Embedded technology and Internet of Things (IoT) are booming. On the foundation of traditional application, embedded technology is once again booming with new goals on IoT. Southern China is one of the critical strongholds of information technology industry of China, within which Shenzhen is well known as “Silicon Valley of China”. Embedded System Beijing Forum, China Electronic Appliance Corporation and China Electronics Conference and Information Corporation successfully held “Southern Region Embedded Technology and IoT Industry Development Forum” during 2017 China Information Technology Expo (www.citexpo.org). The forum was hosted by Allan He, ESBF Chief Secretary, China Software Industry Association committee member and embedded system branch vice chairman. Domain experts, scholars and industry representatives shared their thoughts and experiences on embedded technology and IoT with more than 60 attendees.

Assoc. Prof. Jianqiang Li, Assistant to the Chairman, Shenzhen University Computer Science School

Currently, maternity health is an outstanding issue in China, especially on birth defect and screening. Prof. Jianqiang Li shared his report titiled “IoT Based Maternal/Children Healthcare and Medical Management Platform”. Li is the lead of development of the Maker award winner “Maternity Health Management and Fetus Monitoring System”, which dynamically link patient, doctor and hostpital/clinic with multi-purpose devices and a management software.

In order for IoT to truly take off, data collected need to be analyzed effectively for further use. Li thinks their product did exactly that. For patients, the platform can provide necessary management and information; for doctors, they are able to communicate with patients and peers online; for hospitals/clinics, the platform offers a chance for remote monitoring and care.

Although the product is of very small footprint, the accuracy is on par with conventional devices. Doctors from more than 60 facilities are using the device directly for diagnosis. For example, Shenzhen Maternal and Child Healthcare Center adopted the product in March 2015, and now have more than 300 thousand active users. Meanwhile, cooperation with ZTE and other companies has pushed the adoption even further. Currently, the team is researching into hierarchical medical service recommendation and non-invasive blood sugar test, aiming to benefit more patients.

Prof. Cheng Xu, Hunan University Information Science and Engineering School

China’s own high-speed railway has become extremely successful, having followed the “Import, Digest, Innovate and Surpass” roadmap. How to maintain high standards of safety, dependability, efficiency and service quality are the main tasks today. Prof. Cheng Xu introduced us the world of high-speed railway maintenance and operation with the speech titled “High Speed Railway Electric Network Diagnosis and Issues in Today’s Railway”.

Compared to regular railway, high-speed railway is much tougher on safety. Today’s operation and maintenance work still rely on limited manpower and outdated device, where technology can do a lot to help to shorten maintenance window, improve efficiency and service quality while upholding high safety standards.

Prof. Xu spent 5 years on smart electronic network diagnosis system, and won Railway Department’s bid with his radar-based solution. The diagnosis car can gather all needed parameters in one quick run, improving efficiency dramatically. During his report, he analyzed technical difficulties and his work in details.

Railway department has many practical requirements and is in need of help from embedded technology. Xu shared some further directions, for example cloud computing for connection point monitoring, IoT based operation system, smart wearables for field workers etc. Xu hopes more embedded industry practitioners will take part in solving these problems.

Wenkai Huang, Guangzhou University Mechanical and Electronic Engineering School / President of Guangzhou Maker Association

Maker is already the flag of the inoovation era. Does one born with the ability to innovate? Or can we cultivate innovation skills? In Huang’s report “Education for Maker 2.0 – The Last Mile of Entrepreneurship Education for College Graduates“, we know the latter is true. In 2008, Huang organized Maker teaching team in Guangzhou University and started Maker education. Each project team consists of freshmen from various schools and majors. After years or efforts, the experiment start to become fruitful: 12 models of interactive education robot and platforms, guide sticks for children in need, smart coffee mug, dressing helper for the disabled etc. Students from the Maker class have also help trained more than 1200 technology class teachers for primary and secondary schools.

Maker Education 2.0 is the most recent concept from Guangzhou University Maker Project, which focus on the transformation from “make it happen” (quick prototyping) to “make it with quality” (test and optimization, respond to feebacks). Maker 2.0 addresses the critical step to turn ideas into product, which is the last mile problem for college technology innovation.

Prof. Xin’an Wang, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School Information Engineering School  / Shenzhen Semiconductor Industry Association Vice President

Pollution, population aging and shortage of medical resource are contributing to the rising issue of healthcare. How to monitor body health, treat illness timely and improve life quality are the core problems. Prof. Wang’s speech was “ Technical Challenge of Continuous Healthcare Monitoring and Treatment”, where he call for more attention to the area of health monitoring, human health modeling, sensor data analysis and deep learning.

Designing a proper model is the first step for health monitoring in both Chinese or Western medicine theory. Wang analyzed the major factors of health monitoring under the roof of continuous monitoring and treatment. He stressed that smartphone serves as an irreplaceable information terminal, where the integration of embedded and sensor technology is an important aspect.

Dr. Wei Wu, CEO of Jiangsu Cynoware Electronic Technology Co. / Distinguished Prof. of Hangzhou Dianzi University / China 1000 Expert Plan

As a distinguished expert in China 1000 Expert Plan, Dr. Wu has rich experience of innovation and a deep understanding of the industry. His keynote “ Internet+: From Embedded to IoT (Case Study of Smart Healthcare and Public Transportation)” was in-depth and thought-provoking.

Internet+ era, characterized by big data, is going to reform the industry to an optimized structure by utilizing internet thinking and technology. China is leading the trend to enter IoT era, which is an extension of embedded system development. With IoT, embedded system is the backbone from cloud computing all the way down to sensors, and it will naturally grow into smart system.

Dr. Wu suggested that there are five key elements for embedded architecture: smart sensing, smart terminal, APP, cloud and data mining. With examples of smart healthcare and smart public transportation, he analyzed how to integrate these elements to promote the application of embedded technology.

IoT cannot live without cloud, but data storage cannot keep up with the rising need, thus data processing on terminals is becoming more important, which is the area of embedded technology. Embedded technology is the base for IoT era, and it is where efforts have to be made.

Dr. Guoqi Xie, Hunan University Information Science and Engineering School

Since 2009, Hunan University Computer Engineering Department, where Dr. Xie works, has been researching automobile embedded system, and has formed a longtime releationship with Topper Operating System Research Center in Nagoya University. Dr. Xie delivered his speech “Embedded System Functional Safety and Information Security in Automobiles”, where he intrucudec the architecture and standard of automobile embedded system security and what he has done in research.

As automobile electronic system grows in both functionality and complexity, the cost and weight of wiring has also increased dramatically. From the standpoint of computing, automobile embedded system is of heterogeneous structure.
Automobile safety and security is a top focus, Dr. Xie analyzed auto functional safety standard, auto information security standard and AUTOSAR adaptive platform standard. He also mentioned risk of functional failure and information security breach.

Bright Future of Embedded Industry

Participants voiced their opinions and thoughts on embedded system development in IoT era. Tiancheng Zhu from Chuanchu Technology talked about the need of talents in industry upgrade and iteration, Keqiang Xie from Ceprei Lab shared his view on embedded security with IoT, Guobin Zhang from eetrend.com discussed medical monitoring under traditional medicine with Dr. Wang. Finally, Limin He, editor in chief of Microcontroller and Embedded System Application Journal summarized the discussion: embedded industry is heading into a new transformation in IoT era, while traditional embedded system has limitation, the industry practitioner will have a great opportunity in hand to create new legacy.

Agenda

Date: Sunday, April 9th 2017

Location: Shenzhen Conference Center Conference Room 310

Hosted by: Embedded System Beijing Forum, China Electronics Information and Conference Corporation

Supported by: Beihang University Press

TimeItem/SpeechSpeaker
1:00pm-1:20pmRegistration
1:20pm-1:25pmOpening SpeechLeader from China Electronics Group
1:25pm-1:30pmGuest Introduction and ESBF InformationAllan He, ESBF Chief Secretary / China Software Industry Association Member of Board and Embedded System Branch Vice Director
1:30pm-2:00pmIoT Based Maternal/Children Healthcare and Medical Management platformAssoc. Prof. Jianqiang Li, Assistant to the Chairman, Shenzhen University Computer Science School
2:00pm-2:30pmHigh Speed Railway Electric Network Diagnosis and Issues in Today’s RailwayProf. Cheng Xu, Hunan University Information Science and Engineering School
2:30pm-3:00pmEducation for Maker 2.0 – The Last Mile of Entrepreneurship Education for College GraduateWenkai Huang, Guangzhou University Mechanical and Electronic Engineering School / President of Guangzhou Maker Association
3:00pm-3:10pmBreak
3:10pm-3:40pmTechnical Challenge of Continuous Healthcare Monitoring and TreatmentProf. Xin’an Wang, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School Information Engineering School / Shenzhen Semiconductor Industry Association Vice President
3:40pm-4:10pmInternet+: From Embedded to IoT (Case Study of Smart Healthcare and Public Transportation)Dr. Wei Wu, CEO of Jiangsu Cynoware Electronic Technology Co. / Distinguished Prof. of Hangzhou Dianzi University / China 1000 Expert Plan
4:10pm-4:30pmEmbedded System Functional Safety and Information Security in AutosDr. Guoqi Xie, Hunan University Information Science and Engineering School
4:30pm-5:00pmDiscussion