- June 29, 2022
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Digital Society: Revisit the morning session of ICT Spring Day 2
How we can shape tomorrow's society through digital technology was the topic at the top of day two of the ICT Spring Digital Summit, which took place September 15th. Experts in the field from around the world discussed how to build smarter cities and improve access to eGovernment, among other topics.
“This event is one of Luxembourg’s finest.” This is how
Master of Ceremony Christopher Ponterotto (Communications Specialist,
Docler Holding Luxembourg) opened the second day of ICT Spring’s Digital
Summit. He then invited Gabriel Paal (CEO, Docler Services) to the stage
to offer some welcome words from Docler Holding. “We at Docler are proud to be
an active member of this community and to support this conference,” the
executive said. “You will have the opportunity to cultivate your understanding
and point of view on how tomorrow’s society is shaped by digital technology.”
An introduction talk was delivered by Marc Hansen
(Luxembourg Minister Delegate for Digitalisation) who spoke of Luxembourg’s
goals to become one of the most advanced digital societies in the world. He
then outlined some of the steps the government is taking to get there,
including a joint strategy to promote the use of digital technologies in public
administration, a TrustMyData initiative to help citizens get official
documents in a secure and digital way, and the development of a European
Blockchain Partnership. “These projects are important for providing solutions
and creating an infrastructure to share data between public and private
sectors,” Hansen said. “We must build our digital society all while ensuring
the protection and inclusion of all citizens. Together we have a lot to
do—let’s do it.”
The session topics then kicked off with Jean Lancrenon
(Head of the Standardization Department, ANEC GIE) who discussed “Technical Standardization for a Digital
Society”. He underscored the importance of creating international technical
standards for a variety of industries, including health, manufacturing, and
security—the result of which will be efficiency and the establishment of a more
common language. He said Luxembourg, ranking 10th in the EU’s digital society
index, has a strong voice in this process. The county’s standards bodies ILNAS
and ANEC are working to create standardization strategies to support this
vibrant digital ecosystem. “But we’re missing a piece of the puzzle. Who are we
missing? We are missing you,” Lancrenon said. He invited the participants to
get involved in the process by becoming national delegates to these standards
bodies, with the option to join committees on topics such as software
engineering, AI, cybersecurity, and more. Getting businesses involved in the
application of these technical standards is another key avenue for involvement.
“Using a standard should not be viewed as some monolithic affair,” he said, adding
that companies can cherry pick a few good requirements to start with.
How to create smart cities for a more sustainable future was
the theme of the next talk presented remotely from France by Clotilde
Cochinaire (IOT solutions and smart territories expert for Western Europe,
Huawei Technologies). “Half of the world’s population lives in cities and
issues start to rise,” she said, calling out problems with traffic, food
safety, and healthcare. She explained that better connectivity can help smart cities
to address these issues, sharing Huawei’s successful projects in Goaquing and
Weifang, China and Amsterdam, as well as Duisberg, Germany, and Lyon
France. “The ultimate goal is to set up
a benchmark for smart cities,” she said. In Goaquing, for example, they
assessed the project based on three categories: Better governance, better
livelihood, and better industries. In Duisberg, the city reinvented itself with
a smart city project based on the cloud platform, and the main goal of the Lyon
project was energy consumption reduction. Creating common shared goals for
sustainability provides “a foundation for growth,” Cochinaire said.
A tour of how Dubai has positioned itself as one of the most
future-based cities in the world was delivered by Dr. Patrick Noack
(Director of Future Foresight, Dubai Future Foundation). Presenting live from
Dubai, Noack described the city as a global test bed for emerging technologies.
“Dubai is a lab to get the city and the world more broadly onto a firm footing
to the future,” he said. His organization, a government-based entity, is
helping to shape Dubai’s future based on this experimentation, with the goal of
making “the most future ready and forward-looking city in the world,” he said.
A key element is the flow of data between public and private entities, allowing
for forward-thinking initiatives such as the tokenization of digital assets, 3D
printing, and driverless transportation. “The future belongs to those who can
imagine design and execute,” he concluded.
A session on ideas for connecting with startuppers worldwide
was led by Nelson Pinto (Project Manager, Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy).
He began by introducing the work of the Luxembourg Trade & Investment
Offices, a network of 9 offices spread all over the world established to
attract foreign investment in Luxembourg. He then introduced three startups who
had the opportunity to present their company, starting with Shiho Tanahashi
(Global Marketing Lead, HACARUS), who spoke of his Japanese startup’s ability
to provide big insights from small data. Tanahashi said HACARUS is ready to
enter the international market with their unique AI tool using sparse modeling
technology. Gaurav Mittal (Co-Founder and CEO, GingerMind.ai) went next,
presenting an AI application which allows people with visual impairment to be
more independent in their daily tasks. Using just a smart phone, a person with
no vision can walk safely without the use of a white cane. Mittal said
GingerMind leverages technology to increase the quality of living for people
with vision impairment. The final startup presentation came from Paulette
Amthauer C. (Founder, Serland Data Análisis) who explained how her Chilean
startup, Data Análisis, uses machine learning to make decision-making more
efficient, processing data so that it can be easily accessed in only place.
“Congratulations! You have all chosen to be born at the best
moment in human history.” This is how Calum Chace (Best-selling writer
on artificial intelligence) opened his talk on how to survive the digital
transformation. The author of techno thrillers like Pandora’s Brain, Chace took
the audience on a tour of the history of AI as a science and showed how it will
continue to improve our quality of life. “The roaring 20s will be a very
impressive decade,” he said, referencing advancements like talking machines and
self-driving cars. “At the end of the decade, Siri is going to be smart and
sexy. You will have conversations with your digital assistance and will send
them off to the Internet to do errands for you,” he predicted. This will bring
about the need for companies to rethink how they operate, with a focus on
automation and lateral thinking. Chace thinks optimistically about this shift,
seeing it as neither an unattainable utopia nor a Hollywood-inspired dystopia,
but rather a society which is always improving itself. “A world in which
machines do all the jobs is a world in which humans have all the fun,” he said.
His advice for thriving during in a digital world? Get R.E.A.L (resilient,
excited, agile, lifelong learner) and “watch a lot less TV.”
“Towards Explainable AI: Gaps and Perspectives” was the
title of the talk delivered by Benoit Otjacques (Head of Data Science
and Analytics Unit, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology). He went
into detail on the reasons we need AI that is trustworthy. First, he said, new
technologies need to be trustworthy or they will be under-utilized or rejected.
Also, the regulatory frameworks of the future will require trustworthiness in
the systems being deployed, and it will be key to providing risk mitigation.
The EU has started to set up groups to consider issues such as privacy,
transparency, diversity, and environmental sustainability. These issues will
continue to evolve along with our society’s values and priorities, he said, but
the bottom line is that trustworthiness is not an option for AI. Companies in
the digital society of the future “will be trustworthy or they will more than
likely be out of the market,” Otjacques concluded.
Emmanuel Libeau (photo) (Data Practice Lead
Luxembourg, Accenture) added his expertise on digital society in his talk
“Mirrored World: The Power of Massive, Intelligent, Digital Twins.” He
explained the concept of digital twins in this way: “Whatever we do, we are
producing data and leaving traces in the digital world that are mirroring the
way we are behaving and interacting in the real world.” This mirroring can
provide valuable insights and predictions as long as “the problem statement
that this is meant to be solved is well-designed,” Libeau said. To extract
value from your data, he advised, a robust data strategy should be established.
“We all agree that the world is changing. It’s time for your company to embrace
the change, and consider data an asset.”
The morning ended with a discussion on how disruptive
technologies may shape the future of sports, delivered by Viktor Huszár
(Co-founder of Teqball, Chairman of the International Teqball Federation).
Huszár is one of the inventors of Teqball, the world’s fastest growing sport,
which is essentially football played on a curved ping pong table. He described
how Teqball, like many sports, is being revolutionized by goal line technology,
which uses computer vision and object detection to ensure fair decisions. The
future of sport, he said, will also see more hybrid versions which combine
human activity with virtual sport. Huszár said he hopes this will renew an
interest in physical education for kids, showing the audience how new ball
technology detection will allow kids to compare their skills to famous football
players. In response to skeptics of virtual sports for kids, he said, “Do you
want your kid to play first-person shooters or to do an activity? Is it going
to replace playing sport? I hope not. This is for pandemic time…so that kids
can do sports at home using their smart phone.”
Article by Johanna Sorrentino
Read more about the Digital Summit:
Reconciling Tech & Education: Re-live the first morning of ICT Spring’s Digital Summit
Digital Supply Chain Europe: Challenges and solutions
Solving Healthcare's Greatest Challenges: The essential wrap-up of ICT Spring Day 2