MobiQuitous 2005 Keynote Speaker Information

 

Time:

Monday, July 18, 2005, 9am - 10am

 

Speaker Name:

Robert Hecht-Nielsen

 

Bio:

Professor Hecht-Nielsen is an expert on brain theory, associative memory neural networks and perceptron theory. His theory of thalamocortex is currently being promulgated and integrated into research worldwide. Hecht-Nielsen is also the co-founder of HNC Software, and is currently vice president of R&D at Fair Isaac, which acquired HNC. He has been adjunct professor at UCSD since 1986. He teaches the popular ECE 270 three-quarter graduate course Neurocomputing, which focuses on the basic constructs of his theory of thalamocortex and their applications. He is a member of the UCSD Institute for Neural Computation and is a founder of the UCSD Graduate Program in Computational Neurobiology. An IEEE Fellow, he has received the IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award and the ECE Graduate Teaching Award. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Arizona State University in 1974.

 

Talk Title:

The Fundamental Mechanism of Cognition

 

Abstract:

This talk describes the recently announced (Hecht-Nielsen, R., 2005, “Cogent confabulation” Neural Networks 18:111-115) comprehensive confabulation theory of vertebrate cognition, including: the fundamental mathematical principles involved and an illustrative example of a computer implementation of these principles. Cognition is starkly alien in comparison with existing neuroscience, computer science, and AI concepts. For example, cognitive functions (seeing, hearing, speaking, planning, origination and control of movement and thought processes, etc.) lack any algorithm. Instead, all cognitive functions are implemented as learned spatiotemporal ensembles of simple, mutually interacting, optimizations (called confabulations). The interactions take place via knowledge links (of which humans have billions) established in response to meaningful pairwise co-occurrences; essentially as postulated by Donald Hebb in 1949. Whenever any confabulation yields a decisive conclusion, an associated behavior is triggered. Thus, the theory also offers an explanation for the almost continual emergence of behaviors during wakefulness. The impact of mechanized cognition on mobiquitous systems will be enormous; as highly effective verbal human-machine communication (carried out over existing infrastructure) will enable delivery of a vast array of new services – some formally packaged, and some user-defined on the spur of the moment. Suddenly everyone will have an executive assistant (who knows that person’s every preference and who has a working experience with that person going back years) available to efficiently and effectively do tasks for them whenever, wherever.  The perquisites of royalty for all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MobiQuitous 2005 Keynote Speaker Information

 

Time:

Tuesday, July 19, 2005, 9am - 10am

 

Speaker Name:

Martin Cooper

Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, ArrayComm, Inc.

 

Bio:

A pioneer in the wireless communications industry, Martin conceived the first portable cellular phone in 1973 and led the 10-year process of bringing it to market.

 

During 29 years with Motorola, Martin built and managed both its paging and cellular businesses and served as Corporate Director of Research and Development. Products he introduced have had cumulative sales volume of more than $80 billion.

 

Upon leaving Motorola, Martin co-founded Cellular Business Systems, Inc. and led it to dominate the cellular billing industry with a 75 percent market share before selling it to Cincinnati Bell. He has been granted eight patents in the communications field and has been widely published.

 

Under Martin's leadership since its founding in 1992, ArrayComm, Inc. has grown from a seed-funded startup in San Jose, Calif., into the world leader in smart antenna technology with 300 patents issued or pending worldwide.

 

Martin received the American Computer Museum's George R. Stibitz Computer and Communications Pioneer Award in 2002, he was an inaugural member of RCR's Wireless Hall of Fame, Red Herring magazine named him one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs of 2000, and Wireless Systems Design provided him with the 2002 Industry Leader award He holds a B.S. and an M. S. in Electrical Engineering and an Honorary Doctorate from Illinois Institute of Technology, where he also serves on the Board of Trustees.

 

Talk Title:

Mobility and Ubiquity – A Perspective

 

Abstract:

How refreshing it is to attend a conference whose theme is services rather than technology; whose emphasis is knowledge rather than devices. Good technology is, in fact, invisible and good devices are intuitive and non-intrusive. Digital convergence is revolutionary but it will require much more than devices and technology; it will require a new way of thinking.  People do not buy either technology or devices; they buy services and applications that make their lives more pleasant; that improve their productivity; that educate or entertain them, that make them safer. 

 

And people have a wide variety of needs.  No one application, no single device, no service will have universal appeal.

 

We talk about a convergence of the information technology and the telecommunications industries but it is the world of information technology that must lead the way.  The telecommunications industry carries the baggage of a 120 years of a culture based upon monopoly practices.  These practices have become obsolete in the modern competitive economies but ingrained habits are hard to change.  We are dealing with an industry whose underpinnings are based upon a single application – delivery of voice, and of a single business model, maximum integration of transport, services and sometimes even manufacturing under the umbrella of one company.  This model will simply not work in a world where consumers demand many applications customized to the needs of relatively small constituencies.

 

The information technology world is, in contrast inherently competitive, and highly attuned to the need for many applications services and devices.  To see this principle in action in the wireless business, where I have spent virtually my entire long career, it is only necessary to compare the offerings of the wireless carriers with those of the “computing” industry.  While there are differences between handsets, they all fall into a limited number of categories with a limited number of features. It is difficult to tell the offerings of one manufacture from those of another.

 

Now look at the counters of a typical electronic computing store.  The I.T. industry understands marketing and zeroes in on narrow markets that allow manufacturers to differentiate themselves from other manufacturers.

 

So, in the wireless industry, the digital convergence will be driven by new players who are receptive to new services, applications and new ways of doing business.

 

Notwithstanding the efforts of the telecommunications establishment to limit the wireless technologies available to the public, the free market will ultimately prevail.   Competition is a crucial element of any telecommunications environment but this is especially true in the case of the emerging wireless Internet. It is the applications that consumers buy, not “data” or “the Internet”.  There is a potential for a myriad of new ways of dong things but these new ways require the original thinking and entrepreneurial drive that characterize competitive businesses.  And they require a marketing orientation that seeks to improve the lives of people. 

 

We in the telecom industry have got to stop trying to jam our new technologies down the throats of consumers. If nothing else, let us hope we learned that from the 3G debacle.