To the Edge and Beyond

Open-Source technologies are quickly becoming an essential component in analyzing data, and “To the Edge and Beyond” covers insights on how edge computing is bringing data processing as close to the data source as possible. Host James Kent discusses the topic with Intel’s Brad Corrion, Director of Strategic Software Architecture, and TIBCO Software’s Jesús Centeno, Chief of Staff and Innovation Strategy for the office of the CTO. The two guests define the edge and how it compares to cloud computing.   

“The main aspect is always contrasting with cloud computing,” Centeno added. “And how much more costly it is to send the data to the cloud, to do the processing, the inferencing, and get the insights that you need, and then send back those insights to the edge device to take action.” Centeno said people want instant access to that information, so they make decisions right away. But if edge computing is to catch up to the flexibility and scalability of cloud computing, tools are needed to make mass deployment a reality, and open-source projects are one way to help accelerate innovation at the edge.

Intel and TIBCO Software are both focusing on propelling open-source technology in new and exciting ways. One such example is Project AIR, an IOT platform for collecting, processing and visualizing IOT data. “Project AIR specifically focuses on edge computing. You can think of project AIR as your IoT platform that is going to help you connect the edge to the rest of your ecosystem.” Centeno said. Through the collaboration between Intel and TIBCO, the teams have created a whole suite of tools that allow developers to experiment, innovate and have access to hardware and data quicker.

Corrion says there’s one final hurdle for companies preparing to adopt Edge computing. “Company teams need to start playing with these technologies. That’s because when we talk about MLAPs, deep learning, collecting data, using containers, and using orchestration we are referring to Cloud practices that are brand new to this environment. Teams need to start playing with the tech, developing practices and muscle memory so they become natural for them. If a company doesn’t start now, that learning curve is going to hurt them later.” 

Subscribe to this channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts to hear more from the Intel Internet of Things Group.

To learn more about Project AIR please check out the below:

• Check out the open source versions of TIBCO's project air at https://www.tibco.com/resources/demand-webinar/project-air-how-collect-process-and-visualize-iot-data-right-way
• Go and download today to try for yourself at https://tibcosoftware.github.io/labs-air/

Hybrid learning, meaning the use of technology to make alternatives to standard, in-classroom learning available, is nothing new. However, the pandemic has created an urgent need for more and more diverse hybrid learning options that work for both teachers and students. According to Duncan Peberdy of Learn From Anywhere, many colleges and universities have long recognized the need for hybrid options but are unsure where investments should be made. “Hybrid learning isn’t just the acquisition of ed tech,” says Peberdy. “It’s how that tech gets used – how staff and students are trained. There are lots of aspects around the technology that are crucial to getting it embedded and brought into everyday use.”

One solution to the complex and evolving needs of hybrid learning is The Visual Learning Lab (VLL). The VLL is a partnership between ViewSonic, Kramer, AVer, and Intel that seeks to democratize and improve hybrid learning using “standard kit,” meaning readily available products and services. “The great thing about the partnership we’ve got,” says Pebody, “is that those companies could’ve fathomed something out on their own, but we decided that by coming together we could potentially create something far greater.” The VLL has been working with Glasgow University to deploy and test a variety of hybrid learning options including remote conferencing, large screen collaboration, movement tracking, air quality, lighting, temperature control, and digital signage.

Another, and equally vital part of the hybrid learning puzzle is data. “For me, collecting and analyzing data from all sensors in our kit to see how effective our solutions have been is the key to moving towards a Smart Campus,” says Frost. Smart Campuses collect and make use of data from all sensors deployed in a building with a goal of better understanding and improving the educational environment and experience. “That research side is something we need to explore more,” says Claxton, “because we’re going to gain a lot of data, and we don’t want to slip back to pre-COVID days. We want to actually change what future classrooms will look like.”

Frost, Claxton, and Peberdy welcome feedback and communication via LinkedIn.

Subscribe to this channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts to hear more from the Intel Internet of Things Group.

In the second part of “Store as a Media: How can brands and retailers truly engage shoppers?” host Maroun Ishac, Director of Business Development at Intel’s Internet of Things Group, talked with David Roth, CEO of The Store WPP and Chairman of the BAV Group, and Jay Hutton, CEO of VSBLTY. The Store tracks emerging technologies, purchase platforms, and physical formats that are changing shopping rituals around the globe. VSBLTY offers state-of-the-art software driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning. Together, the trio explored the concept of stores as media and the many and diverse partners and abilities it will take to make that concept a reality.

More and more retailers and store owners are taking an omnichannel approach that reimagines the in-store experience by harnessing the capabilities of multiple partners. David Roth refers to these partnerships as a consortium. “When we bring a consortium of people with different perspectives and skillsets together, then things can be done very fast and at scale. But there isn’t one particular organization that has the skills and ability to pull all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together. It takes a collective of skills and disciplines to really make this technology work.”

Jay Hutton agrees saying, “There are a lot of players. It takes leadership – technology leadership, but more importantly concept leadership.” The overall take away of the conversation centers around the importance of what David Roth calls, ecosystem brands.

“Each element in the ecosystem plays a vital role in ensuring that the customer proposition is developed and delivered well,” says Roth. Equally importantly, however, is the need for an ecosystem to have a center of gravity around which all the partners can revolve and find balance. “I think Intel provides that center of gravity so that the ecosystem can then move around in what should be perfect equilibrium,” Roth concludes.

“The center of gravity is a great way to describe the role for Intel,” Hutton says. “But I have a point of view that suggests that new ecosystems are most quickly advanced by small companies that are agile and innovative aligning with big companies. That’s what we have on our hands now. I think Intel plays a critical role in the creation and delivery of thought leadership.”

Connect with Maroun Ishac, David Roth, and Jay Hutton on LinkedIn

David Roth: [email protected]

Jay Hutton: https://VSBLTY.net

Subscribe to this channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts to hear more from the Intel Internet of Things Group.

The intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and edge computing is resulting in a fundamental change in how we perceive, access, learn from, and employ data across a wide range of industries. The need for edge computing, or using a distributed computing architecture to shift data processing and storage closer to where the data is created to provide faster access to insights, is critical for low latency, privacy, and cost-effective movement of data.

Advances in AI have been fueled by compute becoming more sophisticated, powerful, and able to deliver very complex computations in a short amount of time. “The fuel that feeds AI is data,” says Wouhaybi. “We have a lot of data we’ve collected across domains. But we can’t scale unless we can collect more data. It’s become a snowball effect in which the more value you get out of AI, the more motivated you are to collect data. And the more data you collect the more value you get.”

Wouhaybi discussed the four ways AI learning is being used to solve challenges in a variety of industries:

• Continuous Learning: A single AI looks for ways to improve without input from other AIs.

• Distributed Learning: Groups of AI are deployed together, in the cell of a manufacturing facility for example, where they learn from and share what they learn with one another.

• Transfer Learning: AI watches, monitors, and mimics what human beings are doing, then seeks to improve on the process.

• Federated Learning: Massive amounts of data from multiple data sets is pooled, and AI is employed to study, learn from, and deliver outcomes without compromising privacy.

Despite what she describes as “remarkable advances in technology and innovation” that have occurred in both edge computing and AI, Wouhaybi feels that AI at the Edge is still in its infancy. “The more people play with AI, the better AI will be,” she says, “and the better we will be both as professionals and as human beings. I can’t wait to see what else AI at the edge will accomplish going forward.”

To learn more about Rita Wouhaybi:

• Connect with her on LinkedIn

• Visit http://www.intel.com/oneAPI

Subscribe to this channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts to hear more from the Intel Internet of Things Group.

The role of the store is changing. For success, differentiation and emotional connection with consumers is crucial.

In this episode of “To the Edge and Beyond,” host Maroun Ishac, Director of Business Development at Intel’s Internet of Things Group, talked with David Roth, CEO of The Store WPP and Chairman of the BAV Group, and Jay Hutton, CEO of VSBLTY. The Store tracks emerging technologies, purchase platforms, and physical formats that are changing shopping rituals around the globe. VSBLTY offers state-of-the-art software driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning. The trio explored the notion of the store as an advertising medium, branding use cases, and the many diverse partners and abilities it will take to make that concept a reality.

The pandemic has forced retailers and store owners to examine how they did business in the past and reimagine how it will be done in the future. Key concerns include how to creatively engage consumers and how to collect, analyze, and use data about their in-store shopping experiences. Ishac, Roth, and Hutton believe that the disruptions and changes brought about by COVID have paved the way for the new and faster adoption of technologies that will make creative engagement and broadscale data collection possible.

What used to be simply a distribution channel is slowly becoming a media channel, with the primary role of a store not being to sell products but rather to deliver the most emotionally engaging and interactive experiences possible, to develop and strengthen brand affinity and trust. Consumers can expect to see significant investment in digitizing traditional store elements like shelves, fridge, endcaps and displays.

But there’s still a long way to go, Ishac, Hutton and Roth talked about some of the infrastructure needed including alignment of technology with appropriate messaging, the right analytics engines to make sense of data and derive insights and staff that are wholly engaged in the process.

Stay tuned next week for part 2 where the trio discuss the ecosystem of partners and infrastructure needed to establish the store as a medium.

Connect with Maroun Ishac, David Roth and Jay Hutton on LinkedIn

Subscribe to this channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts to hear more from the Intel Internet of Things Group.

The use of Artificial Intelligence and other new technologies is becoming essential for manufacturers working to build resilience and remain competitive in an ever-changing marketplace. According to a recent survey from The Manufacturer, 65 percent of leaders in the manufacturing sector are working to adopt AI. In this episode of To The Edge and Beyond, Host Tyler Kern talked with Tara Thimmanaik, Systems Architect and Dave Austin, Senior Principal Engineer for the Industrial Solutions Division at Intel about adopting industrial AI for smarter manufacturing.

More and more manufacturers are seeing AI as the way of the future, so much so that its adoption is expected to grow at a rate of 57.2 percent CAGR over the next five years within warehouses. However, implementation can be challenging and there are barriers to entry. "The barriers are everywhere. “They usually start with the fact that there’s never enough data,” says Austin. “You’ve also got to have enough of the right kinds of data. AI needs context, labels, and quality to create viable solutions.”

Thimmanaik agrees adding, “It’s not just about getting AI training right. It’s about taking the environment in which the AI performs into consideration. That’s what Industry 4.0 is all about – the digital transformation of manufacturing.”

Thanks to the COVID pandemic, companies are realizing they need to innovate and shift their focus. “As a system architect, I like to understand what it takes to make those 4.0 transformations happen on factory floors,” Thimmanaik says. “There are LOTS of technologies which must come together and play well. We must realize that only those technologies that make business sense will be adopted.”

"AI is very good at giving us insight into what it's trained to do,” said Austin, “but once we start getting into that space of asking it to give us an answer for something it isn't trained to do, or outside of that data space, it's actually not so great."

Thimmanaik stresses that what is needed is an ecosystem of solutions. “Intel has a whole range of market-ready solutions, and we partner with some of the best players in this industry. It’s about identifying business problems and developing end-to-end solutions that are easily scalable.”

To learn more about Tara Thimmanaik and Dave Austin:

• Connect with them on LinkedIn

• Visit www.intel.com/manufacturing

Subscribe to this channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts to hear more from the Intel Internet of Things Group.

In this episode of To The Edge and Beyond, Host Courtney Echerd talked with Ron Eccleston, Global Market Strategist for the Internet of Things (IoT) Group at Intel, and Cole Baker, Senior Global Alliance Manager at LogiTech, the world leader in products that connect people in naturally intuitive ways to the digital experiences they care about. They discussed the many challenges facing companies and their remote workforces during the pandemic, as well as how technology companies have stepped up to meet the demand for solutions that replicate in-person experiences.

The global pandemic has forced companies to rethink how and where their employees work. One of the biggest challenges has been finding ways to ensure that meetings and collaborations can continue without in-person interactions. Thankfully, enterprise IT companies, such as Intel and LogiTech, have been able to anticipate and meet the technology requirements of remote workplaces. “There really aren’t a lot of heavy lifts at this point,” said Eccleston. “You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in IT or IT Support available. It’s really the easy button at this point. It’s plug-and-play. Anyone can do it, and it’s affordable.”

Looking to the future, neither Eccleston nor Baker feel workplaces will return to the way they were prior to the pandemic. “I don’t believe we’ll ever go back to everyone being in the office,” said Baker. “This hybrid work environment is here to stay. We need to have a flexible, work-from-anywhere mindset as we continue to adjust to this whole new world.”

Learn more about solving work-from-home challenges by connecting with Ron Eccleston on LinkedIn or visit https://www.intel.com.

Subscribe to this channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts to hear more from the Intel Internet of Things Group.

On the second part of a two-part episode of To the Edge and Beyond by Intel with Voice of B2B Daniel Litwin is Maria Meow, APAC Hospitality Vertical Marketing Manager for Intel's Internet of Things Group, and Ankur Jain, Founder, and CEO of UdyogYantra Technologies, a company focused on bringing Industry 4.0 and its associated ecosystem of technologies to various industries, including Restaurants.

As consumer demands for convenience accelerated post-COVID, the need for scaled food delivery accelerated as well, turning many restaurant operations to consider implementing ghost kitchens, remote third-party food prep hubs as a solution. Innovative technologies like computer vision, IoT, data analytics, and artificial intelligence support this push in food and beverage, and strategies are leading to quality implementation and offering new business opportunities.

But, it's not all roses, as some restaurateurs have been hesitant to adopt these technologies at scale. Third-party delivery apps and ghost kitchens have led to some food quality issues that have led to consumer hesitancy. This hesitancy stems from consumer expectations that focused on dine-in quality, as opposed to delivery quality, according to Jain.

But, the industry will have to try to reap the benefits of AI and IoT though, according to Meow, as restaurants try to meet consumer demand for food safety, such as contactless payment, while also drawing new customers.

"We need to know how to use the technologies that we have right now, especially in AI and IoT, to streamline the operations, or even to create a better experience for customers," Meow said.

Subscribe to this channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts to hear more from the Intel Internet of Things Group.

In the third installment of Christine Boles’ treatise on the intelligent edge's power to help transform industrial businesses to meet future challenges, Christine explores the emerging role of 5G to accelerate the acquisition of connectivity improvements and speed of sharing data. While the full potential of a move to 5G will take time, Christine lays out the tangible benefits for why industrial firms should now engage in planning and testing wireless solutions that will allow incremental adoption of 5G solutions as they become viable. She shares how Intel and its partners have already completed 5G proof of concepts that demonstrate great promise for achieving real-time value and competitive advantages over firms who are reticent to act.

Learn more about Intel’s Internet of Things solutions by connecting with Christine Boles on LinkedIn or visit www.intel.com/industrial

Subscribe to this channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts to hear more from the Intel Internet of Things Group.

On this first part of a two-part episode of To the Edge and Beyond by Intel with Voice of B2B Daniel Litwin is Maria Meow, APAC Hospitality Vertical Marketing Manager for Intel's Internet of Things Group, and Ankur Jain, Founder, and CEO of UdyogYantra Technologies, a company focused on bringing Industry 4.0 and its associated ecosystem of technologies to various industries, including the Restaurant industry.

When it comes to IoT, Meow has been at the intersection for over ten years at Intel. One thing she's noticed is that as technology has evolved, so has knowledge. In her role she is regularly relying on IoT to help improve food operations and to help ensure the trust and quality of food, which addresses a lot of consumer concerns.

With population is expected to increase globally by 10 billion in 2050, this creates a demand for creative food solutions, according to Jain. "There is a need to have a safe, predictable, and stable food supply chain," Jain said. "Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and data analytics can play a big role in creating these safe, predictable, and sustainable food supply chains."

Intel technology is at the forefront of these IoT innovations, powering AI and analytics solutions like UdyogYantra’s to address these concerns for both consumers and restaurant brands.

The wheels of ghost kitchens were already in motion before COVID-19. But, their viability increased during the pandemic, as restaurants pivoted to meet consumer demand for BOPIS and third-party delivery. Now that things have settled a bit, restaurants are still sticking with some or all of the models developed during the pandemic.

"Digital transformations have been accelerated ever since the pandemic began and have pivoted to delivery, pick up and drive through," Meow said. "Digitally transformed brands will reap the benefits.”