10th Annual
Emerging Technologies Update Day
Theme: "The Future of Connectivity"

The Mack Center was especially proud to host the 10th Annual Emerging Technologies Update Day - our most popular annual event.  This is the day each year when we feature radical innovations looming on the near horizon, that have the potential to transform industries and markets. This year we chose "The Future of Connectivity" as our theme.  A distinguished group of technology champions shared their vision of how technology will connect us in the future.  More than 100 senior executives attended. 

Michael Tomczyk, Managing Director of the Mack Center, originated and hosted the event.  He provided a glimpse of some "eyecatching" innovations that were introduced in 2007, including a paper battery developed at M.I.T. using carbon nanotubes and cellulose "grown" on a silicon substrate.  He also noted that some consumer batteries have finally achieved a 10 year lifespan, while others are claiming a 10 year shelf life, which is essential in storing batteries for disaster kits and other critical applications.  He also described how far nanotechnology has come.  "In 2003 I started asking the audience for examples of commercially available nanotech products and the first few years I received zero responses, despite a very technology-savvy audience.  Fast forward to this year and we find websites listing more than 600 consumer products that incorporate nanomaterials.  Still, most of these products are fairly mundane such as coatings for microfiber jeans and nanoparticles used in sunscreens.  The truly radical innovations are still on the near horizon." 

Michael reminded the audience that the purpose of the day is to learn about technologies looming on the near horizon that should be on our collective radar screens.  "Connectivity" is an area where most people do not know as much as they think they know since this area has so many forms, from the Internet, to knowledge networks to wireless networks and more.  The entire field is still evolving and faces a variety of opportunities as well as obstacles.

Dr. Scott Snyder, senior fellow in the Mack Center, Adj. Professor at UPENN and President of DSI, co-organized the event and moderated the lunch panel.  Scott described an original concept called "The Digital Swarm" that he is developing into a book project, and detailed efforts to develop the next generation "4G" wireless infrastructure that will offer a variety of broadband applications not currently available.  He discussed "early signs of 4G" and described what he calls the "convoluted path to 4G."

Speakers included senior executives from Cisco, Intel and RIM, as well as EMS Technologies and Strategic Radar. Dr. Guido Jouret, Chief Technology Officer at Cisco, Keynoted the event.

Dr. Guido Jouret described the landscape for emerging technologies and trends from Cisco's perspective.  He predicted that IP traffic will quintuple from 2006 to 2011 and said much of this growth will come from consumer Internet data and Internet video in North America, as well as IPTV/CATV and Business IP/Internet activities.  "Video already generates mroe traffic than the entire U.S. backbone did in 2000," he said.  He also described Cisco's proprietary "Telepresence" technology which enables state of the art, real time video conferencing to create the illusion of everyone being in the same room.  He said Cisco's mission going forward covered a broad spectrum of innovation and cited the "Cisco I-Prize" that offers development opportunities to anyone with the best "billion dollar idea" that Cisco can develop - this initiative has generated more than 500 ideas - the winner receives $250,000 and works with Cisco to create a billion dollar business.

Chris Johannessen, Knowledge Theorist from NBC/GE discussed the "Future of Knowledge Networks" - he described GE's internal knowledge system, called "SupportCentral" which GE may offer as a commercially available knowledge network system.  Chris commented on the current state of "blogging" and discussed the use of internal blogs to foster knowledge networks inside companies such as GE where it is essential to communicate to vast numbers of employees, as well as customers, vendors and other critical audiences, while maintaining focus and delivering information in the right context without swamping the network.

Dr. Hod Lipson from Cornell University provided an update on recent developments in 3D Printing.  He showed several videos of items such as batteries, prototypes and even robots, being fabricated from computer specifications in small transportable devices called "3D Printers."  This technology is extremely "seminal" and is at the point where conventional photocopiers were in their early development stage.  Dr. Lipson has made his designs available for public use, to help jump-start the market and involve more developers, similar to how software was developed around operating systems in the early stages of the computer.

Mark Pecen from Research in Motion described the intricate technologies being developed in the next wave of wireless infrastructure--highlighting the many decisions that need to be made to pave the way for the next generation of portable wireless communication devices.   He indicated that it took 12 years for GSM/EDGE to reach one billion subscribers, and only 3.5 years to add another 1.65 billion, indicating the recent and ongoing growth of global subscriber market share for the dominant telecom standard.  He said the primary technological constraints for wireless going forward includes spectrum availability and growing processing and application demands which are in conflict with the slow development of battery technology.  The greatest challenge is that mobile users are mobile, and uncontrolled, which challenges the infrastructure to provide responsive technologies.  The research challenge is to move from a single antenna at both ends, to multiple antennas at both ends.

Paul Domorski, a Wharton grad. and CEO of EMS Technologies, described a variety of intriguing wireless technologies from technologies used to deliver wireless access on airplanes to technologies used in military and defense applications.  "We're one of the few companies that can say we have technology being used to explore three planets," Paul said.  EMS communication technologies were used in the 2001 Mars Odyssey project and will be used in the Mars Science Laboratory in 2009, as well as in the Cassini-Huygens Saturn project, and the Stardust project studying comets.  EMS provides antenna technology for accessing XM and Sirius satellite broadcasts, and also provides technologies used in Defense/Aerospace for secure communications on Air Force One and other aircraft.  The company is pioneering next generation mobile phones (Inmarsat/IsatPhone) with special focus on in-flight connectivity for passengers on civilian and military aircraft.