Artificial intelligence (AI) systems today are already transforming industries and becoming an indispensable part of our daily lives. Such systems, which leverage machines to process and analyze large amounts of data, have vastly changed how humans work and play, and are being used today in many sectors, from banking to energy to agriculture. But AI systems can be energy-intensive, and there is a pressing need for those working in the field of AI to address the potentially large environmental impacts. This is especially as demand for data and intelligent devices continues to proliferate. Singapore has committed itself to environmental sustainability, underlined by its ratification of the Paris Agreement and recent plans to reach net-zero by or around mid-century. Environmental criteria have also become a crucial performance measure for companies and industries. Rising interest in sustainable investing is a strong signal that corporations – including AI-dependent ones – will soon be held accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions.
The environmental impact of AI
The field of AI is progressing by leaps and bounds, driven by advances in hardware and an exponential increase in computing power. But the massive computation required to obtain these impressive technological feats comes at a price. Training AI models can incur substantial financial and environmental costs due to the energy needed to perform such computations. On top of the monetary costs of hardware, electricity and cloud compute time, powering such hardware for weeks and months at a time could also leave a huge carbon footprint.
Continue reading: https://sustainabilitymag.com/sustainability/sustainability-applications-for-artificial-intelligence

"How can I scale my business?"
This is an age-old question that every business owner has faced. You might have even wondered and read blogs on the subject but couldn't quite seem to come up with a definitive solution.
But here's the new, awesome kid on the block: AI. While scaling an entire business is a challenging endeavor, using artificial intelligence has proven to be the solution to that problem and many others.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic idea. It's everywhere these days—in our phones, homes and cars. It's in the products we use and the places we visit. And it's about to become a part of our jobs, too.
But AI isn't just changing the world around us—it's changing how businesses function as well. Eighty-four percent of business leaders believe that AI will allow them to obtain and sustain a competitive advantage in the future.
That brings us to the question: How can AI help your business grow?
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/03/16/how-to-scale-your-business-with-ai/?sh=28aff14342bc

Dubai Police is taking the lead as far as autonomous vehicles are concerned — a self-driving patrol car, drones to monitor the roads, and skies are all on display at the World Police Summit.
To ensure the Emirate remains the safest city in the world, Dubai Police is introducing the latest technologies at the four-day World Police Summit, which commenced at Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo 2020 Dubai on March 14.
Governments and private groups from the UAE and other countries are showcasing the best of their innovations to make their cities safer.
Continue reading: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/transport/dubai-autonomous-vehicles-drones-set-to-scan-emirates-roads-skies

The sound of several small propellers buzz from above. You spot the drone in the sky. At first glance, it’s like any drone you’ve seen before. But with a double take, you realize this isn’t the DJI Mavic mini your roommate takes on vacation. 
It’s called the hexacopter, and it plays a pivotal role in the military-funded undergraduate research on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) being done at UP. 
“It started in the summer of 2019,” assistant professor of engineering and former U.S. military engineer Christina Ivler said. “I had four students working with me and we started to develop infrastructure for allowing us to do testing. I have a small unmanned aerial helicopter, a hexacopter, that I fly.” 
That infrastructure is what Ivler’s research with senior mechanical engineering major Kate Russell has been building on. Ivler and Russell are working on designing and developing requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) — put simply, drones — similar in function to the requirements established by the Federal Aviation Administration for aircraft and helicopters. 
Continue reading: https://www.upbeacon.com/article/2022/03/drones-science-and-women-in-stem

From buying a house to managing your health, blockchain could help transform almost every aspect of customer experience (CX). Danny Bluestone, founder and chief executive officer of digital transformation agency Cyber-Duck, looks at why blockchain has such CX potential – and why it’s not yet always the answer.
CX in 2022 is a game of two halves.
On one hand, we have a cashless society where you can shop and travel just using a mobile.
On the other, some banks still require mortgage forms by fax; pregnant women carry around antenatal notes folders; house buying involves never-ending paper trails; and it’s almost impossible for environmentally-conscious consumers to understand what’s in the things they buy.
For many of these experiences, blockchain could provide an answer.
What is blockchain anyway?
Blockchain is a distributed digital ledger of data in which account transactions or activities are recorded. Every time a new piece of information is added to the ledger, it’s recorded, locked by encryption and saved as a ‘block.’
The block contains the cryptographic hash – data translated into a string of letters and numbers (like Bit.ly does to long URLs) and a timestamp. Through this hash, each block contains information about the previous block, ‘chained’ together. Typically, the encryption uses a public/private key model, with the public key freely available, but only the blockchain owner’s private key can access it all. Only the latest version can added to (not altered).
Blockchain is decentralized across user devices or ‘nodes.’ Everyone in the blockchain has a copy of the same encrypted data. If someone tries to alter the data, or it gets corrupted, it automatically shows up in the hash.
Continue reading: https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2022/03/15/blockchain-could-transform-cx-here-s-why-people-aren-t-using-it-yet

According to Tech Nation’s Diversity and Inclusion in UK Tech research, 50 per cent of workers in the labor market as a whole are women
However, within tech they only account for 26 percent, meaning that women are well under-represented across the industry and typically find themselves outnumbered in workplaces by 3:1.
The further up the ladder you go, the picture becomes even more bleak. Of the companies Tech Nation gathered research from, fewer than one in 10 of C-Suite leaders were women, and only three per cent of chief technology officers or technical director roles were held by women.
Throughout my career, I have encountered several roadblocks and challenges that could have been hard to overcome. Initially, I blamed myself for not being ‘good enough’ and other external factors. However, after spending more time in the industry and seeing numerous reports that demonstrate the long-standing gulf between men and women in the sector and how unfair that really is, I have realized that there is a continuous challenge related directly to being a woman in this field and I am not the one to blame.
Continue reading: https://technative.io/overcoming-the-gender-disparity-in-tech/

CINCINNATI — It was 2014 when Candice Matthews Brackeen developed the idea for her first tech company — a cellphone app called Hello Parent that aimed to help parents better connect with their children’s schools.
To get her app off the ground, Brackeen took part in a series of meetings with prospective investors to secure funding and other support for the project.  Such venture capital pitch meetings were far less common for startup companies in the Midwest than in Silicon Valley.
Brackeen, herself a young mother eight years ago, ended up getting a meeting with UpTech, a startup accelerator in Northern Kentucky.
The meeting went well — the app became a national safety technology partner of the Brady Campaign to Reduce Gun Violence — and provided Brackeen with enough money to fund her company. But something didn’t sit well with her.
She was one of the few women of color in the tech field in Cincinnati. In fact, one of the few people of color period regardless of gender.
Brackeen, who’s currently the CEO of Lightship Capital, said less than 1% of all venture capital goes to Black-led companies. Those numbers are “just as abysmal” for other “minority groups” and women overall.
“It's lonely being the ‘only,’ so I wanted to do something about that,” said Brackeen. She created the Cincinnati Chapter of the Black Founders Network in 2015, a group that met monthly to connect and share their respective networks.
They also hit the road as a group, heading to the major tech events such as CES and South by Southwest but also Black Tech Week and Afro Tech, as well.  
Continue reading: https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/cincinnati/news/2022/03/10/local-venture-capitalist-aims-to-help-women--people-of-color-get-seat-at-tech-table

Better flexible working practices could solve many of the challenges around recruiting and retaining women in technology, according to an expert panel speaking at a recent Levelling Up Women event hosted by Supermums.
There is also a disconnect between what attracts women to technology careers initially, and their subsequent experiences working in the sector that needs to be overcome. This became clear to Alana Karen, Director of Search Platforms at Google, during the process of researching her book ‘Adventures of Women in Tech’.
One of the questions Karen asked the 80 women she interviewed was what they liked about working in tech. Their answers were broadly similar and fit into four themes:

• The opportunity to change the world and make a difference.
• The opportunity to grow, thrive and progress in their career.
• A culture that matched their values and how they wanted to experience the world.
• Financial circumstances, with jobs in tech tending to be more lucrative.

However, as the women progressed through their career, typically where they struggled was the jobs or organizations weren't supporting those things that drew them to tech in the first place. This was for various reasons - the jobs started to stagnate and the growth opportunities weren't there; managers didn’t foster a great culture leading to a bad experience; over time, the work didn’t give them a feeling they were making a difference; or some of the pay raises had stopped. Karen added:
Continue reading: https://diginomica.com/letting-women-be-leaders-own-calendar-will-keep-more-women-tech

The use of artificial intelligence in the company is fundamentally altering the way firms operate.
AI will transform how work is done in an enterprise; but firms must overcome a number of difficulties in order to reap the benefits of this powerful and constantly expanding technology.
The use of artificial intelligence in the company is fundamentally altering the way firms operate. Companies are implementing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into their company processes in order to save money, increase efficiency, provide insights, and create new markets.
Why is AI important for an enterprise?
According to IDC, the amount of data generated globally by 2025 would reach 175 zettabytes (~ 175 billion terabytes), a staggering 430 percent growth over the 33 zettabytes generated in 2018.
The explosion in data will be a windfall for organizations committed to data-driven decision-making. Large data sets provide the raw material for producing in-depth business insights that drive enhancements in existing company operations and open up new business lines.
Organizations cannot profit from these massive data stores unless they use AI. Deep learning, a subfield of AI and machine learning, analyzes enormous data sets to uncover subtle patterns and connections in big data that might provide businesses with a competitive advantage.
Continue reading: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/why-is-artificial-intelligence-important-for-an-enterprise/

In recent years, the debates surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) have grown at a pace that’s arguably been surpassed only by advances in the tech itself. In business, for example, there is a lack of consensus around the most impactful use-cases for AI. It’s therefore not surprising that more than three out of four businesses say they’re barely breaking even from their AI investments, even as a supermajority consider it a mainstream technology—according to research from PWC.
Discussions in the social sciences focus on even greater stakes, from the impact of bias in AI, to concerns about safety and security, to the question of whether the tech could have dire consequences for humanity.
The common thread across these debates is the question of humanity’s role in AI’s future. Some see AI’s greatest promise in areas where AI replaces human beings and human endeavor. At Adobe, we see things differently. We take a people-centric approach to AI, viewing it as something to help people, not replace them.
From this people-centered perspective, AI is “augmented” intelligence that empowers people to do things faster, cheaper, and better both at work and in their day-to-day lives.
Continue reading: https://www.fastcompany.com/90731678/a-people-centered-approach-to-ai

In 2022, global anxiety feels unavoidable. From climate change to the continued impact of Covid-19, we are experiencing challenges affecting everyone across the globe. Business leaders are not exempt from this fear. They are expected to build strong and resilient businesses despite adversity, so the weight of responsibility is ever-present.
It will come as no shock then, that financial anxiety and stress have increased 213% among business leaders in the UK in the last two years, with nearly nine in ten people having reported feeling greater financial fear and sadness.
Nearly a third of business leaders have been worried about bankruptcy during the pandemic, which undoubtedly leads to anxiety and fear. To conquer this and remain resilient and well-positioned for growth, leaders must focus on what they can control. When it comes to money, greater financial control means keeping on top of digital transformation. Leaders are aware that precious time is being wasted on repetitive finance tasks, taking away these resources from the strategic problem-solving issues that need attention.
So, what avenues in technology should they invest in to help ease pressure?
Technology for intelligent decision making
Robotics, AI and machine learning are key to relieving leaders of the burden of operational anxiety. In fact, 81% of UK business leaders believe organizations that don’t rethink finance processes will face more risks, including falling behind competitors, increasing stress on workers and inaccurate reporting.
When being asked to make high-level financial decisions in response to crisis, business leaders cannot afford to waste time bogged down in operational detail or process-heavy decision-making. By taking control of where energy and precious human resource is invested, more intelligent decisions can be made, alleviating fear and strengthening resilience.
Continue reading: https://internationalbanker.com/technology/easing-financial-nerves-with-artificial-intelligence/

What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of a machine or computer that enables it to imitate or mimic human capabilities.
AI uses multiple technologies that equip machines to sense, comprehend, plan, act, and learn with human-like levels of intelligence. Fundamentally, AI systems perceive environments, recognize objects, contribute to decision making, solve complex problems, learn from past experiences, and imitate patterns. These abilities are combined to accomplish tasks like driving a car or recognizing faces to unlock device screens.
The AI landscape spreads across a constellation of technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and others. Such cutting-edge technologies allow computer systems to understand human language, learn from examples, and make predictions. 
Although each technology is evolving independently, when applied in combination with other technologies, data, analytics, and automation, it can revolutionize businesses and help them achieve their goals, be it optimizing supply chains or enhancing customer service.
Continue reading: https://www.toolbox.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/articles/what-is-ai/

We are gravitating towards technological singularity. Futurists like Louis Rosenberg, Ray Kurzweil, and Patrick Winston have predicted the timeframe for ‘super intelligence’ (between 2030-2045). But are these timelines realistic? And what approaches (supervised, semi-supervised, or unsupervised learning) will get us there?
Andrew Ng, founder and CEO of Landing AI, swears by smart-sized, “data-centric” AI, whereas Meta’s VP & Chief AI Scientist, Yann LeCun thinks “the revolution will not be supervised”. Instead, he proposes using self-supervised learning to build AI systems with common sense, taking us a step closer to human-level intelligence.
Data
Supervised learning uses a labelled dataset to teach models how to map inputs to desired outputs. The algorithm gauges its accuracy through the loss function, adjusting until the error has been minimized. Supervised learning is currently the most prevalent machine learning approach, with applications in fraud detection, sales forecasting, and inventory optimization.
According to a recent O’Reilly research, 82% of respondents claimed their company prefers supervised learning over unsupervised or semi-supervised learning. As per Gartner, supervised learning will continue to be the most popular type of machine learning in 2022.
“The last decade saw a leap towards deep learning. This decade, it may be towards data-centric AI,” Andrew Ng has said. Deep learning networks have made huge strides in the last decade. He believes the way forward is to improve the dataset while keeping the neural network architecture fixed.
Continue reading: https://analyticsindiamag.com/is-the-future-of-ai-supervised%EF%BF%BC/

The idea of blockchain came into existence when Bitcoin was launched in order to have a completely decentralized electronic cash system, one which would allow users to transfer money without the need of any financial institution.
This decentralized nature of bitcoin led many companies into exploring blockchain technology for their respective industries. Beyond finance, blockchain technology is used in the fields of marketing, as well as logistics, and supply chain.
How many types of blockchains are there?
Blockchains have been classified in three types. The first one is the permissionless public blockchain, the second one is the permissioned private blockchain and last but not least come the hybrid blockchains.
Continue reading: 
https://www.marca.com/en/technology/2022/03/14/622f7cd1ca47417c628b45cc.html

The tech world is excited about blockchain, NFTs and cryptocurrencies, with these terms being heard more and more often, making their way into workplace discussions and mainstream conversations, but what do they actually mean? And how can they benefit you, your work or your company?
In the first video in our series, Luke Jackson, Senior Associate in the Technology & Digital Group, sits down and discusses what a blockchain is and its associated benefits.
Continue reading: https://www.walkermorris.co.uk/publications/what-is-a-blockchain/

When most people think about blockchain technology, they automatically associate it with cryptocurrency such at bitcoin. The reality is that blockchain is so much more than a component of this and other decentralized currencies. It is a protocol that describes how transactions are defined, connected, transmitted, and collected. Inherent to its design are the processes needed to establish consensus when updating a data store in a way that guarantees its non-repudiation.
As the blockchain technology breaks free from its early beginnings, companies are finding new and innovative ways to put it to work to enable business processing. The realm of data and analytics is no different. These teams are also looking for ways to integrate blockchain into their processes to further support their businesses.
Three ways data and analytics teams are using blockchain are in data monetization, data and document integrity, and fraud prevention.
Smart Contracts and Data Monetization
When a company recognizes that it has data valuable to others, it looks for ways to monetize that data. This requires establishing a relationship between the seller of the data and the potential consumer.
As part of the blockchain concept, there has arisen the notion of a smart contract -- an entry in a blockchain that contains a snippet of code. When an action occurs in the blockchain, that code is executed. These code snippets are limited to reading from the blockchain and writing to the blockchain, but with these two features, complete transactions between parties can be automated. If the smart contract needs to interact with information from the physical world, a blockchain oracle can be used. A blockchain oracle is a third-party intermediary that provides information that can be connected to the smart contract, providing knowledge about activity in the physical world.
Continue reading: https://tdwi.org/Articles/2022/03/14/ADV-ALL-3-Ways-Blockchain-is-Impacting-Analytics.aspx?Page=1

This article will explore the ways in which data protection can benefit from artificial intelligence, as cyber attacks continue to grow and evolve
As the attack surfaces of organizations has grown since lockdown took hold and employees migrated to remote devices, pre-pandemic data protection practices have since needed a revamp of methods. Increasingly, this has entailed the automation of processes, powered by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), which is capable of making data protection more efficient if implemented properly.
With this in mind, we take a look at some of the most valuable ways in which artificial intelligence lends itself towards data protection.
Looking past the stigma
Because AI relies heavily on data algorithms, organizations may feel hesitant about using the technology to aid data protection practices. There is a fine balance to be struck between efficiency of threat mitigation and privacy of user data.
“There seems to be a stigma associated with AI and data protection. But, when implemented correctly, AI is very well placed to improve data protection across any industry,” said Stuart Hubbard, global AI services director at Zebra Technologies.
Continue reading: https://www.information-age.com/how-data-protection-can-benefit-from-artificial-intelligence-123498945/

An array of new, autonomous technologies is abetting food’s move from farm to table.  In the fields, tractors, sprayers and other equipment.
The pandemic has retarded some growth in the global autonomous agriculture equipment market. “Equipment manufacturers were unable to provide the required equipment due to lockdown and other restrictions imposed by the government to prevent the spread of…COVID-19,” as Research and Markets noted in its “Global Autonomous Agriculture Equipment Markets…2021-2026” report. As Forbes magazine added, “The coronavirus pandemic will continue to have an impact on autonomous delivery technology.”
But, Forbes reported, “Businesses expect greater societal acceptance of autonomous tech as the demand for delivery has continued to increase rapidly, and the trends seem to be sticky even as lockdowns come and go.”

In what’s known as the “middle mile,” TuSimple of San Diego is combatting spoilage with what it calls “the world’s first autonomous freight network.” Last May, the trucking company employed its Level 4 driver-monitored technology to transport a load of watermelons from Tucson to Dallas—900 miles—42% faster than a human driver would have done. “We believe the food industry is one of many that will greatly benefit from the use of TuSimple’s autonomous trucking technology,” Jim Mullen, the company’s chief administrative officer, said. “…that autonomous trucks can operate continuously without taking a break means fresh produce can be moved from origin to destinations faster, resulting in fresher food and less waste.”
Continue reading: https://insideunmannedsystems.com/adding-value-from-field-to-fork/

A report issued last week takes aim at rules that have been holding back the burgeoning $58.4 billion commercial drone market. The much anticipated Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) Final Report recommends an overhaul of existing regulations, and the creation of new ones, to enable industry scalability.
Current rules require commercial drone operators to fly their aircraft within their visual line of sight. They also limit remote pilots to operating one drone at a time. In practice, this translates into shorter drone flights, monitored by visual observers either on foot or in chase cars.
To bolster efficiencies, businesses must obtain time-consuming and rarely granted waivers. Since 2018, the FAA has issued only 86 BVLOS waivers out of the almost four thousand total granted. Many of these apply in the context of research and development (R&D) programs, as opposed to real world applications.
Yet, over the past few years, the benefits of BVLOS drone operations have been repeatedly proven. Improved effectiveness, cost avoidance and increased safety rank high among them. Estimates indicate that BVLOS drone bridge inspections alone could save state departments of transportation $560 million annually. Drones alleviate the need for dangerous manual high-altitude operations that employ heavy and accident-prone ground vehicles. Manual inspections shut down highways for, on average, 8 hours at a time; a comparable drone inspection takes about an hour.
Recognizing the need for change, in June 2021, the FAA chartered the BVLOS ARC “to make recommendations to the FAA for performance-based regulatory requirements to normalize safe, scalable, economically viable, and environmentally advantageous UAS BVLOS operations that are not under positive air traffic control (ATC).”
The ARC membership list reads like a who’s who of key stakeholders. Aviation leaders Airbus, Wing and Skydio made the cut. Special interest groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Women in Aviation International and the African American Mayors Association had a seat at the table. State, local, tribal and territorial governments also provided representatives, including the high tech Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (Previous Forbes coverage of the Choctaw Nation here).
Jon Damush, ARC member and CEO of Iris Automation, creators of Casia 360, the leading detect-and-avoid system for safe beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight operations, explained, "The BVLOS ARC was an amazing compilation of the industry leaders from all corners of aviation, from new entrants to our industry to legacy household names to community advocacy groups and labor unions. The ARC was divided into several working groups. These groups were dynamic and active. A great deal of time and effort was put in by everyone involved.”
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnzoldi/2022/03/14/this-report-could-unleash-the-potential-of-commercial-drones/?sh=1ec81253f219

For all the hard work and big talk, the IoT market has struggled to deliver on its grand promise of ‘massive’-scale industrial change. Make no mistake; IoT sensing, married with AI sense-making, is the means to digital transformation – and the way to industrial revolution. IoT was supposed to be the tech movement that changed the world, by connecting machines, processes and people, and making enterprises smarter, greener and richer.
It was supposed to make the world better, in other words. And it was supposed to be easy – cheap to connect and quick to scale. Ericsson and Cisco said a decade ago the IoT market would reach 50 billion connected devices by 2020. That deadline has come and gone; the Swedish vendor’s last state-of-the-market review said there were a quarter of that number (12.4 billion) at the end of 2020, and there will be about half (26.4 billion) by 2026. 
But the lion’s share in the period – as much as three quarters – will use shorter-range tech like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, not optimized for the kinds of battery-operated fit-and-forget solutions the IoT industry is supposed to stand-up. To work, these solutions require low power wide-area (LPWA) connectivity; to scale, they need ready coverage, available everywhere, and also available cheap – so the business case for digital change becomes a ‘no-brainer’.
However, despite progress in lots of areas, there is a disconnect between the capability and availability of IoT-native tech solutions – and specifically of the LPWA candidates on which the market has placed its bets. The model is broken; building national IoT networks has failed, so far, as made clear by new headlines about the sale of Sigfox and the reduction of public LoRaWAN (in France), as well as the interminable cold-start that has slowed cellular IoT. 
Enter companies like Emrit, who are pushing mass deployments of Helium, the fastest-growing IoT network on the planet, and a proof of concept for a distributed, crowd-sourced infrastructure model – which will, in time, underpin the way all manner of edge infrastructure is built and managed. Its network is constructed of privately-owned LoRaWAN hotspots, providing global LPWA connectivity for IoT tracking and monitoring sensors in homes and offices, ports and factories, cities and states, and all points between. 
But its disruptive nature is in its commercial business architecture, rather than its IoT tech roots; Helium uses blockchain as a distributed exchange ledger for IoT data transactions, as well as a reward ledger for carrying the IoT traffic. In other words, hotspots owners are ‘paid’ in crypto credits – specifically in HNTs (Helium native tokens) – for mining crypto data on their network infrastructure. Helium has hit upon the best commercial use case for blockchain.
Continue reading: https://www.rcrwireless.com/20220314/internet-of-things/how-blockchain-is-revolutionizing-iot

The Internet of Things (IoT) has ushered in a new era of access, bringing with it both opportunities and potential vulnerabilities across the whole technology stack. IoT has already reached beyond two hundred known applications in enterprise settings and IoT devices are projected to increase to 43 billion by 2023.
In addition, research suggests that there will be more than 75 billion devices connected to the internet by 2025, which equals around 10 IoT devices for every human on earth.
Various industries are using IoT for a more connected experience across their businesses. For example, manufacturing providers have increased IoT spending significantly over the past few years.
During the pandemic, manufacturers leveraged IoT to monitor and maintain equipment without a full team of staff, for tasks such as temperature and usage monitoring.
Gartner estimates that installed IoT endpoints for manufacturing and natural resources industries are forecast to grow 1.9 billion units in 2028. This foreseen estimate is fivefold the size of 331.5 million units in 2018.
As Singapore continues to roll out smart business initiatives such as the Networked Trade Platform to position itself as a leader in trade and supply chain, IoT devices will play a role in fulfilling said initiatives.
But, as IoT expands across the globe to offer a more connected experience, security undoubtedly takes a hit. IoT technology creates a broader attack surface, leaving businesses exposed to threats of attack.
The increasing attack surface of IoT devices
IoT devices are notoriously hard to monitor and secure, as most of them utilise legacy systems and infrequently connect to the internet, making them hard to track. This beckons a frustrating question for many CISOs and security teams; How can security experts secure and patch IoT devices if they don't know the device is there?
This is especially so when employees bring their devices to work (BYOD) which results in the issue of shadow IT. It refers to the use of technology without the knowledge of IT departments and this contributes to the lack of visibility on IoT devices.
As the office disruptions brought about by the pandemic are slowly diminishing, plenty of employees surveyed by EY expect to return to the office, whereas others look to a hybrid work model. This could spell an influx of vulnerable devices being brought back to the office as people return to work post-pandemic.
Furthermore, the endpoint can be deployed but with these small, unadvanced IoT devices, normal security telemetry can’t be. This poses additional threats to devices. Systems are left vulnerable when vital updates and device inventory are lacking.
Continue reading: https://futureiot.tech/iot-growth-a-gateway-to-opportunity-threats/

When founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, coined the phrase “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he had in mind a vision of the future marked by massive technological breakthroughs. Robotics, AI, extended reality, nanotech, decentralized decision-making and autonomous machines would fast become the buzzwords of Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0, and the pursuit of greater efficiency, automation and autonomy at scale, popularized a previously little-known architectural model called Internet of Things, or IoT. Tied to IoT is the plethora of devices connecting to the internet, currently estimated to reach a trillion by 2025, according to SoftBank Group. As capabilities evolve and new thinking occurs in IoT, we will arrive at IoT 2.0.
What Is the IoT Architecture Framework?
There are different ways to describe the IoT architecture framework, but I like to break it into three logical steps:

1. Sensor
2. Processor
3. Actuator
   [/LIST=1]
   The IoT framework begins with sensors and devices such as radar, lidar, cameras, and weather or thermal instruments that each produce raw data.
   The processor element has been the subject of industry fervor in recent years. This is also referred to as edge computing. Computing power needs to be as close as possible to the things generating the data to satisfy ultra-low latency requirements and to save cost on data backhaul and needless storage. Software and related algorithms then process this data to create actionable information. Algorithms infer a present state and yield a decision or course of action.
   Finally, that decision set is used by the actuator in the framework. The actuator could be a machine or the thing taking the prescribed action, such as braking a car that is about to collide with an object, or powering down a factory machine that is overheating.
   Sounds easy enough, right? Well, not exactly.
   Continue reading: https://www.iotforall.com/what-will-iot-2-0-look-like

New resources on drone safety are now available for parents, schools and children across Australia to access.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) partnered Education Services Australia to develop the program that is both aligned to the Australian curriculum and tailored to build awareness across entire school communities.
There has been a growing push to improve awareness and understanding of drones as this technology becomes more widely used among young people.
Most drones are recommended for use by children over 12 years, however some are designed specifically for younger children aged from 8 years.
Education Services Australia CEO Andrew Smith said children and young people represent a growing proportion of the record numbers of Australians flying drones, and because of this, it’s imperative that they understand drone technology and how to use it safely.
“In our research, it became clear that students generally had a limited understanding, or were unaware, of the rules about flying a drone,” Smith told The Educator.
“Drones provide an engaging, hands-on way for schools to deliver aspects of the curriculum, which offers an opportunity to push home the message about drone safety – and teachers need the tools to help them address drone safety in an accessible, fun and engaging way.”
Smith said the initiative provides school leaders with free age-appropriate resources to include in their lessons.
“These resources aim to help young people learn about drone safety in a variety of ways, and include a quiz for students to self-assess their knowledge of the rules around flying drones.”
‘An innovative opportunity to inspire students’
CASA’s acting branch manager of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Services, Sharon Marshall-Keeffe, said CASA sees education as an important part of its remit to oversee drone safety and promote innovation in Australia.
“Drones offer an innovative opportunity to inspire students to develop their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills in a fun and engaging way,” Marshall-Keeffe told The Educator.
“Given the expanding role of drones in STEM education, we recognise the need to support education providers to teach students about drone safety.”
Continue reading: https://www.theeducatoronline.com/k12/news/australian-schools-to-teach-kids-about-drone-safety/279770

The release of the FAA’s BVLOS (drone flight beyond visual line of sight) ARC (Aviation Rulemaking Committee) recommendations last week has led to many responses and comments from the commercial drone industry.  DRONELIFE spoke to Lisa Ellman, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Commercial Drone Alliance, on BVLOS ARC recommendations.
Lisa Ellman is a global authority on drone law and policy and a tireless advocate for the industry.  Ellman says that BVLOS flight – and the adoption of the advanced operations that BVLOS flight will enable – is critical to helping the US drone industry compete in the global arena and bringing services to communities across the country.
The more than 200 page BVLOS ARC report lays out a framework of priorities for a rulemaking on BVLOS flight (see the summary here, and the complete report here.)  The Aviation Rulemaking Committee that created it, says Ellman, included representatives from manned and unmanned aviation as well as research institutions and stakeholder industries.  While in some respect the report represents a compromise, all parties worked towards opening the skies for commercial drone applications  “This is about bringing the benefit of drones to the American people,” says Ellman.
“[The ARC] was a very diverse group from more than 80 different organizations – a real cross section of American society were represented on this ARC.”
The report calls for regulators to establish a framework of regulations that aims to ensure safety, while not prescribing a particular technology approach to solving the challenges of BVLOS flight.  The report also calls for different levels of training and certification for remote pilots operating BVLOS.
“It’s a performance-based, risk-based approach,”  says Ellman.  About the recommendation for new licensing requirements, Ellman says it’s a natural progression as commercial operations advance.  “From our perspective, the report appropriately tailors training requirements to the complexity of drone operations to ensure safe outcomes.  Essentially, the report recommended better aligning pilot requirements with the level of system autonomy,” she explains.
Continue reading: https://dronelife.com/2022/03/13/dl-exclusive-commercial-drone-alliance-on-bvlos-arc-report-and-why-bvlos-flight-is-critical-for-the-industry/

India’s drone manufacturing capability gets a leg-up through a mix of supportive policy and technological breakthroughs
The war in Ukraine, where armed drones have been targeting Russian convoys, has brought focus back to these unmanned aerial vehicles. The question that leaps to mind is, how good is India in drone technology?
While armed forces’ plans are generally a secret, we do know that India has ordered 100 Kamikaze drones, which were used with notable success by Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia. More interestingly, India has scrapped its $3-billion plan of buying Predator drones from the US, choosing instead to ‘make in India’. It is tempting to interpret that as an indication of India’s growing confidence in making quality drones.
India’s drone manufacturing capabilities are indeed rising. You see the coming together of a domestic ‘drone ecosystem’ (armed or otherwise), like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.
Industry insiders say it all started with the government coming out with the more liberal Drones Rules, in August 2021, replacing the previous UAS (unmanned aerial systems) Rules. The new rules re-define red, yellow and green zones and ease permission requirements. They essentially concern themselves with determining which type of drone can fly where, at which height, and which are the flights that require prior permission. Writing in Mondaq, a content aggregating platform, Dipak Rao and Prerna Kapur, advocates with Singhania & Partners, note that over 25 types of permissions under the UAS Rules were condensed into five under the Drones Rules. For example, unlike the UAS Rules, the Drones Rules do not demand a ‘real-time tracking beacon’ or permission for take-off.
“These rules made testing of drones much easier,” observes Subhashis Banerjee, co-founder and CIO of Bengaluru-based AI & Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK), a not-for-profit company set up by the governments of India and Karnataka to facilitate start-ups in AI and robotics.
The drone ecosystem was taking root even earlier, but the easier rules have gingered things up. “For a start-up,” says Banerjee, “three things are required — talent, capital and ecosystem.” While there is no dearth of talent, and ‘capital’ is now more accessible, it is the ecosystem that is still deficient. ARTPARK’s mission is to plug this gap.
Continue reading: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/business-tech/the-coming-together-of-the-drone-ecosystem-in-india/article65214981.ece