Demo will be starting two weeks from today. I am looking forward to seeing all the new gadgets, software, hardware and business ideas and catching up with many friends from the press, consultant, and investing communities. The product introductions that take place will reveal key technology trends over the coming 12 to 18 months. A new twist will be added to Demo this year called FutureScan.
Chris Shipley, executive producer of Demo, asked me to moderate two panels to explore the more distant future. The idea behind FutureScan is to find some clues, not about what is hot today or next year, but about the next, next big thing. I’ll share my own perspective on the future in the first few minutes of the panels but 90% of my effort will be to help bring out the depth and breadth of the incredibly knowledgeable experts on the panels and facilitate Q&A with the audience.
The first panel will be on the afternoon of February 7th and it will focus on "Computational Biology". Not an everyday topic for most of us, computational biology — often called bioinformatics — combines techniques from applied mathematics, informatics, statistics, and computer science to solve problems of life. Some of the topics we will be discussing include genome assembly, protein folding, and perhaps even the modeling of evolution. No doubt we will get some insight about major breakthroughs in health and science, such as personalized medicine. The panelists will be Ajay Royyuru, Senior Manager, Computational Biology Center at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Colin Hill, CEO, President, & Co-Founder of Gene Network Sciences and Steve Mayo, Associate Professor of Biology and Chemistry in the Divisions of Biology and Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology.
On the following afternoon, the FutureScan panel will explore "The Future of Security". Most of us are aware of current day security threats, but what about down the road? Will the good guys be able to stay ahead of the bad guys? Will we be able to trust the Internet for commerce and communication? Those are the key areas we will discuss. The panelists will be Charles Palmer, manager of the Security, Networking, and Privacy departments at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center and Partha Dasgupta, Associate Professor, Arizona State University, Fulton School of Engineering.
Take a look at the panelists’ links and you will see why I am humbled and excited about FutureScan.