The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a research-driven graduate-level institution focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, today announced that it is hosting the 2017 IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Very Large Scale Integration-System on Chips (VLSI-SoC) on the theme of ‘The Internet of Things: SoC Opportunities and Challenges’. Masdar Institute is part of the Khalifa University of Science and Technology.

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the interconnection of sensing devices embedded in everyday objects to networks that allow them to send and receive data for analysis and subsequent informed actions by the people or systems that receive the data. IoT is a rapidly growing area of technology innovation. that research firm IDC recently predicted would receive $800 billion in global spending in 2017 and $1.4 trillion by 2021.

More than 100 engineers, scientists, and electrical and computer sciences professionals will be gathering to discuss IoT and other important topics at the 2017 IFIP/IEEE International Conference on VLSI-SoC, which is to be held in Abu Dhabi from 23-25 October. The conference program includes two special IoT events -- IoT@UAE, featuring presentations on IoT-related research in the UAE, and IoT demos contributed by graduate students from UAE universities.

Dr. Steve Griffiths, Interim Executive Vice President of Research at Khalifa University of Science and Technology, said: “IoT is a key research focus of the Khalifa University of Science and Technology, as we know it plays a key role in connecting the physical world of materials, machines and living things to a world of information. Consequently, IoT will be integral to many industries of relevance to the UAE’s development and economic prosperity, like transportation, healthcare, and advanced energy. That is why we are especially pleased to sponsor this event, where experts in this new and growing field can share insights, and dynamic local research can be showcased, leading to potentially even greater innovations.”

Three of the 16 papers from the UAE that have been selected to be presented at the conference were authored by the Khalifa University of Science and Technology students and faculty, out of the 41 papers in total that were accepted for presentations by the conference’s technical committee. A poster session and a PhD forum highlighting the work of budding researchers, will also give students the opportunity to discuss their theses and research with specialists within the system and design automation communities. The conference will feature five keynotes and 14 sessions of oral presentations, including three special sessions and one embedded tutorial.

The keynote addresses will be given by industry and academy leaders from Mubadala, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM, Synopsys, and Columbia University. They will present visionary outlooks on IoT from various perspectives, including design automation, robustness, Big Data, and security.

Khalifa University of Science and Technology postdoctoral researcher Solomon Serunjogi is the lead author on a paper dealing with a circuit innovation of direct relevance to the wireless communication used in IoT. PhD student Shahzad Muzaffar is the lead author of another paper addressing IoT communication issues, namely, the need for low-power, dynamic signaling protocols that are insensitive to clock variations between sender and receiver. Further, Yonatan Kifle, a research associate at the university, is the lead author on a paper dealing with a programmable data acquisition interface that is especially useful for wearable biomedical devices.

Dr. Ibrahim Elfadel, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and General Co-chair of this year’s conference, said: “We are proud that the UAE capital Abu Dhabi has been selected to host the 25th version of VLSI-SoC. This selection is both a testimony and a recognition of how far Abu Dhabi has become a vibrant hub of research and innovation in areas related to highly integrated circuits and semiconductors.”

The 2017 IFIP/IEEE International Conference on VLSI-SoC is the 25th in a series of international conferences sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing Technical Committee (IFIP TC), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA) and the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS), which explore the state-of-the-art in the areas of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) and System-on-Chip (SoC) design.

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