IEEE 5th World Forum on Internet of Things
15-18 April 2019 – Limerick, Ireland

TOP5-Green Technologies – Environment, Sustainability and the Circular Economy

Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2019
Time: 11:00-18:30
Room: C1061

Track Description

The engineering community of researchers, and innovators around the world are actively working on developing and applying solutions to the wide number of global environmental and sustainability problems that we face in the 21st century and beyond.

The World Forum provides us with an opportunity through an open forum to come together with a range of end users, academics, industry and the public sector to examine how the interconnection of objects via the Internet of Things is already playing a role in tackling these problems and to explore what future role it could or should play specifically in the environment, sustainability and circular economy spheres.

In tackling climate change, the development, adoption and deployment of large scale wind turbines, solar photovoltaic and solar thermal farms around the world are converting the wind and solar energy into electrical energy and displacing conventional electrical generation.  The variability of these intermittent sources requires applying numerous IoT solutions to enable real-time responses in both the supply and demand of electricity to meet the current and projected load of electric grids while at the same time providing the grid customers highly reliable energy. This need will only grow as the penetration rate of renewable sources increase and our grids move from a relatively small number of synchronous generators to a relatively large number of asynchronous generators.

In addressing resource efficiency, the linear economy where we take, use and dispose of materials, many of which are now considered to be critical due to their economic importance and supply risk is forcing us to re-think how our business models operate. The circular economy, which aims to slow, close and narrow resource loops, is emerging as a natural response to this predicament and the Internet of Things can and will play a role in managing resource flow throughout the life cycle of the products we use in daily life. In providing location and usage data it can enable greater adoption of leasing or pay per use business models. Life consumption monitoring can help to optimise service cycles and prolong product lifetimes. Through auto-identification it can increase the reuse and recovery rates of products at end of life and promote greater recycling efficiency.

These are only some of examples of the tremendous impact that the Internet of Things can bring to the challenges facing the environment, sustainability and circular economy in the coming years. This track will contain a high calibre set of presentations from industry and academia to introduce the ground breaking work that they are conducting. Each session will also include a panel discussion to enable a full participation between the audience and our invited experts.

 

Schedule

11:00-13:00 Session 1, IoT & Smart Energy
Talk 1 “IoT: Solution to the Challenges of Distributed Power Generation?”, Dr Paddy Finn, Electricity Exchange
Talk 2 “IoT in Energy Monitoring: Old Requirements and Emerging Trends”, Liam Relihan, Resourcekraft
Talk 3 “Leveraging IoT & ICT in Reducing the Planets Carbon Footprint- Creating a Paradox”, Kishor N. Narang
Panel Discussion

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-16:00 Session 2, The Circular Economy & IoT
Talk 4  “Extracting Value from IoT Technologies in the Recycling and Waste Management Industry”, Eamon Hynes, AMCS
Talk 5 “From Returns Management to Circular Models – Every Cycle Is a Business Case on Its Own”, Patrick Wiedemann, Reverse Logistics Group
Talk 6 “How Can IoT and Circular Business Model Innovation Lead to a Sustainable and Attractive Value Proposition?”, Paul Dekker, Homie
Panel Discussion

16:00-16:30 Coffee Break

16:30-18:30 Session 3, IoT Enabling New Business Models in Green Tech
Talk 7 “IoT Applications for Honey Bee Colony Condition – What’s the Buzz All About?”, Fiona Edwards Murphy, ApisProtect
Talk 8 “Pay-As-You-Cook Technology for LPG Accessibility”, Oluwatobi Oyinlola, Affiliation
Talk 9 “Energy Efficiency in Smart Buildings: A User Centric Approach”, Michele Nitti, Unica
Panel Discussion
Wrap-up and Summary

 

Track Co-Chairs

Fawzi Behmann, Power.org

Fawzi BehmannPresident, TelNet Management Consulting, Inc.
Vice-Chair, IEEE NA Communications Society

Fawzi is a visionary, thought leader, author, and entrepreneur in technology positioning, advancing the adoption of technology in serving key markets.

Fawzi spent over 35 years in the industry and held various executive and leadership positions with Tier 1 companies in the areas of communications and networks spanning service provider, equipment vendor, and semiconductor in US and Canada. Core competencies include strategic planning, Telecom Network Management based on ITU TMN, multiservice edge product release, and strategic marketing for SoC Multi-core-Multi-engine product roadmap.

Being passionate about technology & automation, Fawzi founded TelNet Management Consulting Inc. in 2009 offering professional services in the areas of technology trends, IoT/AI/5G technology positioning, and smart networking solutions development for key markets such as healthcare, mobility, energy, public safety and smart cities.

Fawzi has been a keynote & distinguished speaker, at several domestic and international conferences. He has several publications including a recent book on “Collaborative Internet of Things for Future Smart Connected Life and Business “ published by Wiley.

Fawzi has organized several domestic and international conferences and summits. The most recent GreenTech international conference of Smart City.

Fawzi is currently the vice–chair of IEEE ComSoc for NA, chair of IEEE Central Texas and Region 5 Conference Committee chair. He received several awards form Indsutry and IEEE. Most recently is 2017 IEEE Communications Society Chapter of the Year award and 2018 IEEE USA Regional Leadership Award.

Fawzi holds a Bachelor of Science with honors and distinction from Concordia University, Montreal; Masters in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, Ontario and Executive MBA from Queen’s University, Ontario Canada.

Colin Fitzpatrick, University of Limerick

Colin Fitzpatrick

Dr. Colin Fitzpatrick is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering at the University of Limerick, Ireland where he is the course director for the BE/ME in Electronic & Computer Engineering. He teaches Energy Management, Electronics & the Environment, Analogue Circuit Design and Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering.
Colin’s research interests cover a range of topics in the area of technology and sustainability including the Circular Economy, WEEE, Electricity Demand Management, Planned Obsolescence & Environmental Sensing and he has published widely in these areas.

He has been a member of the International Program Committee for Care Innovation in 2014 and in 2018 and for Electronics Goes Green in 2016. Colin was a member of the organizing committee for the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology from 2012 to 2015 and he hosted the UNU E-Waste Academy for Scientists in Limerick in 2016. Colin is an active member of the Step (Solving the E-Waste Problem) Initiative and currently leads their work on E-Waste & Jobs and is. He has also served as a member of the Ethiopian E-Waste Management Advisory Group.

Colin chairs the National Standards Committee of Ireland Technical Committee 22 “Environmental Standardization for Electrical and Electronic Products and Systems” the national mirror committee for European and International Standardisation bodies in this area. Colin holds a BE in Electronic & Computer Engineering and a PhD in Sensor Design both from the University of Limerick.

Track Speakers

Paul Dekker

Paul DekkerPaul Dekker is an Amsterdam University economist with a corporate as well as an entrepreneurial background. He held executive and supervisory positions in various logistic services companies in Europe and Asia. As an entrepreneur, he pioneered the introduction of modular wastewater treatment systems in developing markets. Paul is keen on developments in the circular economy and matters related to the societal impact of technology and the energy transition.

At present Paul is involved in various start- and scale-ups introducing Products-as-a-Service, inevitably enabled by IoT technology. Within the ecosystem of The Hague Tech he fulfills the role of acceleration manager of two World Startup Factory protégés, focusing on the control of sensors within smart cities and setting up an investment platform for solar panels respectively.

For Homie Pay-Per-Use Paul fulfills the role of director partnerships, creating an impact group of like-minded partners, co-makers and influencers around the company. Homie wishes the global white goods sector to migrate towards a circular business system. Therefore, as a first step, a Pay-Pay-Use service model has been successfully test-marketed and is now being upscaled in the Netherlands.

Talk Title: How Can IoT and Circular Business Model Innovation Lead to a Sustainable and Attractive Value Proposition?

Homie is a spin-off from TU Delft, pursuing a ‘Pay-Per-Use business model’ as to create a circular and sustainable business. It is now in the phase of scaling up this model. Starting with washing machines Homie’s offering aims to steer its customers towards sustainable water and energy consumption, to stimulate shared use of appliances and to encourage a circular model in which products/materials are reused, repaired and recycled. The model also challenges OEM’s to make Total Costs of Ownership over the lifetime of appliances a prime parameter. This talk discusses the circular business model pursued, the role of IoT, some early ‘business experiments’ and evidence on the positive environmental impact of the Pay-Per-Use business model.

Paddy Finn

Dr. Paddy Finn established Electricity Exchange DAC with his business partner, Duncan O’Toole and began trading in the Irish electricity market in 2014. Born in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, Paddy studied Electronic Engineering at the University of Limerick and holds a Ph.D. in renewable energy.

Paddy is responsible for the strategic direction of Electricity Exchange, including the company’s research and development activities, as well as the day to day running of the business. He is a prominent thought leader in the Smart Grid technology industry and works closely with relevant regulatory bodies as an elected industry representative.

Electricity Exchange has doubled in size year on year and will begin exporting its technologies in 2018. Paddy and Duncan pride themselves on pushing boundaries every day and whilst ensuring that their growing company remains an exceptionally happy and motivating workplace.

Paddy lives on the shores of Lough Derg in Ballina, Co. Tipperary, with his wife, Deborah. He is a qualified scuba diving instructor and when he’s not working, he volunteers with the University of Limerick Sub Aqua Club and Killaloe/Ballina Search & Recovery Unit.

Talk Title: IoT: Solution to the Challenges of Distributed Power Generation?

For almost 100 years, electricity systems have been designed on the basis of large-scale, centrally controlled power generation. The growing prevalence of renewable generation in recent years has required grid operators to manage an increasing number of distributed assets in order to ensure the stable supply of electricity throughout the system. The emerging presence of ‘prosumers’ connecting generation from micro-wind and photovoltaics is forcing grid operators to account for the variability of generation that is out of their control. We will look at the threat this poses to power systems and how this challenge can be turned into a solution.

Eamon Hynes

Dr. Eamon Hynes serves as Head of Product Management of Advanced Manufacturing Control Systems Ltd. Prior to joining AMCS, Dr. Hynes spent 20 years in the Electronics Industry where he held wide variety of Product Development, Engineering Management and Project Leadership roles in the United States, Ireland, Japan and Taiwan. Dr. Hynes holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Trinity College, Dublin along with an MS and PhD in Electronics and Sensor Technology, from University College Cork. Dr. Hynes is an inventor on 14 granted patents in the USA and Europe.

Fiona Edwards Murphy

Fiona Edwards MurphyDr Fiona Edwards Murphy is the CEO and co- founder of ApisProtect Limited. She completed her PhD in October 2017 with the School of Engineering, and the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at University College Cork in the area of Internet of Things applications for honey bee health.

Fiona is a 2013 graduate of the Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (BE) Honours at UCC. She was recently awarded the Women Mean Business Sodexo Newcomer of the Year Award 2018.

Founded by preeminent researchers in the use of sensors in beehives, ApisProtect provides real-time hive monitoring powered by satellite-enabled sensors that are retrofitted to existing beehives. Dr. Edwards Murphy’s work on the topic of hive monitoring has received many national and international awards from the Irish Research Council, The IEEE, IBM, The Irish Laboratory Awards, Google, and the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Visit www.apisprotect.com.

Talk Title: IoT Applications for Honey Bee Colony Condition – What’s the Buzz All About?

Contributing €153 billion worth of pollination to the agri-food industry annually, honey bees play an essential role in global food production. One third of all food that we eat depends on pollinators, and there are 91 million managed beehives worldwide. Founded by preeminent researchers in the use of sensors in beehives, ApisProtect provides an in-hive sensor network with long-range, cellular and satellite-powered communication to proactively monitor honey bee colonies, aiming to create a technology solution to improve the yield of commercial beekeeping. ApisProtect’s first platform, the ApisMonitor uses machine learning and big data techniques to extract valuable information about hive condition, activities, and productivity levels for honey bee colonies. Smart alerts, with actionable insights, are provided to the beekeeper, allowing them to improve production and reduce losses.

Kishor N. Narang

Kishor NarangMentor & principal design architect, Narnix Technolabs

Kishor is currently leading the Smart Cities Standardization Globally as “Convener of Reference Architecture Work Group in IEC Systems Committee on Smart Cities” and Project Leader of IEC Standards – IEC TS 63188 ED1 – Smart Cities Reference Architecture Methodology & IEC 63205 ED1 – Smart Cities Reference Architecture; and also, as Co-editor of a few ISO Standards in ISO/IEC JTC1 Committees. At the National level, he is leading the Smart Cities Standardization work in ICT & Electrotechnology domains as the Chairman of LITD 28 – Sectional Committee on Smart Infrastructure at BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards), where the main focus is on Standards development for Unified & Secure ICT Architecture for Smart Cities/ Infrastructure.

Professionally, Kishor is Technology Consultant, Mentor & Design Architect in Electrical, Electronics & ICT with over 40 years of professional experience in education, research, design and consulting. Over 30 years of hardcore Research and Design Development Experience in Solutions, Systems, Products, Hardware, Software & Firmware (Embedded Software) in fields of Industrial, Power, IT, Telecom, Medical, Energy and Environment, and over 10 years of Consultancy Experience to different segments of business & industry.  He has over 200 Research & Design Mentees in the Electronics, ICT & STI Ecosystems. Professionally, he is an Electronics Design Engineer practicing design & development of a wide spectrum of Products, Systems & Solutions as an Independent Design House – NARNIX since 1981.

Talk Title: Leveraging IoT & ICT in Reducing the Planets Carbon Footprint- Creating a Paradox

The initiatives to make buildings, cities and/or our planet earth – Green or Sustainable are extensively leveraging the IoT & ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) solutions to manage various aspects of O&M of any infrastructure and services. While, intervention of IoT & ICT tools can help achieve major optimization in the Energy Consumption and Environment Contamination including but not limiting to GHG Emission; the Carbon Footprint of the IoT/ICT Infrastructure itself needs to be kept in Check. In the gold rush of getting buildings and cities certified as Green/Sustainable, a plethora of SCADA, Automation and IoT systems are being added. In any Smart Building or Smart City, every service & utility is being automated and being re-enforced with IoT & ICT backbone to monitor and control its operation in a most optimized manner. While the attending benefits of IoT/ICT backbone for any service/utility are quite commendable, yet there is little focus to optimize the design of the IoT/ICT infrastructure itself. The talk deliberates this crucial aspect of the way IoT/ICT Infrastructure is being designed and deployed today, and advocates Systems Thinking Approach to bring comprehensive & Genuine Sustainability in leveraging the IoT & ICT Technologies. The talk proposes a green & sustainable Architecture for the IoT/ICT infrastructure along with a Low Carbon Footprint Material for the networking, which may alter the future of Smart Infrastructure design & deployments. It attempts to share a few mature approaches that INDIA is adopting to fulfill the imperatives of “smart (truly) Sustainable Deployments” for the IoT/ICT Infrastructure to support the global initiatives.

Michele Nitti

Michele NittiMichele Nitti is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cagliari, Italy since 2015. He received a M.Sc. degree in Telecommunication Engineering with full marks in 2009 and his Ph.D. in Electronic and Computer Engineering in 2014. In 2010 he worked for a year as a researcher at the National Interuniversity Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT) at Cagliari, on the development of models for network connectivity in mobile ad hoc network. In 2013, he has been a visited student at the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. He has been technical program co-chair for the IEEE International Symposium on Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting 2017 and invited keynote speaker at the International Workshop of Trends and Challenges in Social Internet of Things (TC-SIoT’2018) at PIMRC 2018. Currently, he is a member of the editorial board for the Computer Networks Journal. His main research interests are in architecture and services for the Internet of Things (IoT), particularly in the creation of a network infrastructure to allow the objects to organize themselves according to a social structure.

Talk Title: Energy Efficiency in Smart Building: A User-Centric Approach

“Efficient energy usage inside buildings is a critical problem, particularly for high loads such as the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems: over 30% of the global energy consumption resides in HVAC usage inside buildings. Usage awareness and efficient management of HVAC have the potential to significantly reduce related costs. Nevertheless, strict saving policies may contrast with users’ comfort: people will accept changes in their habits only if these changes do not vary their comfort. We will look to a user-centric approach, which takes advantage of the Social Internet of Things (SIoT) paradigm to augment real world objects with a virtual counterpart that leverages social consciousness to interact with other objects. Accordingly, a building thermal profile is characterized to drive the selection of the most appropriate working times for the HVAC.”

Oluwatobi Oyinlola

Oluwatobi OyinlolaOluwatobi Oyinlola is an Experience Embedded Systems Engineer, Inventor, IoT Evangelist. He is currently implementing Pay-As-You-Cook technology to promote use of affordable LPG in Africa, Intel Awarded him as “Intel Software Innovator” representing Africa in various spotlights of innovative solutions. A passionate member of IoT Europe where he was featured representing Africa on World IoT day explaining how he uses IoT to solve some critical Africa Challenges. Oluwatobi also represented Africa in a competition organized by Hackaday in San Francisco, USA where he built a Lightning Sensor which automatically check for Thunder strike and can be logged remotely.

Recently he has been working in the avionics sector with rLoop Incorporated (a company sharing the dream of realizing the fifth mode of transportation initiated by Elon Musk, i.e. the Hyperloop) applying some of his experience in Robotics. Oluwatobi was recognized as one of the Most Influential Young Nigerians Award.

Talk Title: Pay-As-You-Cook Technology for LPG Accessibility

The African population are still using charcoal and firewood to cook due to high cost of LPG, how about it if we make them pay as they cook? Yes LPG adoption has traditionally been difficult for customers who live in regions lacking modern energy infrastructure where cash flow is constrained. Because of this, most households make small, daily purchases of wood or charcoal for cooking. Through our SIM/GPS enabled Smart Meter, families can use their phones to pre-pay for gas as needed using mobile money, that is the power of Internet of Things. This transaction activates the valve to supply the purchased amount of gas, thus allowing customers to pay-as-you-cook with clean LPG with the flexibility of an incremental purchase. This compliments household earnings volatility common among low-income households, especially those who work in the informal sector. Constant monitoring of the data received by our team allows us to schedule the delivery of a new cylinder before the customer ever runs out, assuring a consistent supply of quality LPG gas.

Liam Relihan

Liam is the CEO and CTO of ResourceKraft, an Ireland-based provider of energy monitoring and management technology that has been an IoT leader in the energy space for over 10 years. He has worked in a series of senior roles with multinationals and startups. He has extensive experience in the development of complex technology projects, the management of intellectual property and international outsourcing. He continues to personally develop hardware and software products and his current interests include IoT security, fog computing and grid protection using networks of low-cost, secure, reliable devices. Liam has a MSc in Computer Systems from the University of Limerick.

Talk Title: IoT in Energy Monitoring: Old Requirements and Emerging Trends

ResourceKraft has deployed IoT-based energy monitoring systems for commercial and industrial customers for over 12 years – every day, many thousands of devices report to ResourceKraft’s servers with data on energy usage, environmental factors and production. This has provided ResourceKraft with exposure to many of the key IoT trends and concerns such as narrowband wireless, IoT security standards, long term reliability of field devices. It has allowed ResourceKraft to observe changing attitudes amongst commercial and industrial customers to IoT security, big data and Total Cost of Ownership.

Patrick Wiedemann

Patrick WiedemannPatrick Wiedemann is holding the position as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Reverse Logistics Group (RLG) since 1st January 2012. He counts responsible for the entire Group and its global subsidiaries, while being CEO both of Reverse Logistics GmbH and CCR Logistics Systems AG. The industrial engineering graduate joined RLG as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in June 2010. Within his time at RLG he has formed the Group into its present structure as a global player and innovative solution provider for reverse processes along the whole product lifecycle. Prior to his engagement at RLG, he was CFO at Data Modul AG for nearly 10 years, holding responsibility for all Finance, Controlling and Administrative related activities with additional responsibility for the international business. Before this he was active for 5 years with the Hilti Group at their subsidiaries in Germany, Lichtenstein and China, where he held various management positions in Finance and Controlling.

Talk Title: From Returns Management to Circular Models – Every cycle is a business case on its own

The talk will include:  How After Market Returns build the base to smart data for Circular Business; Today’s technology giving us the basis for smarter process management with better customer experience, more efficient product handling and higher value returns; Why next generation product Returns Management builds the basis for future Circular Models like Product as a Service in connection with IoT.