CDAIT engages in a variety of collaborative, research, policy and outreach activities. A key component of efforts are program activities designed to support ongoing, relevant efforts to increase IoT awareness. These include 1) Capacity and Collaboration Interest Groups focused on building capacity and new approaches to learning (educational and networking activities), 2) IoT Research and Development Working Groups that provide technical details, research opportunities, and the output of IoT-related architectures, applications, and policies, and 3) Innovation Acceleration Activities that explore innovation approaches and activities to advance the IoT and ancillary industries.
Capacity and Collaboration Building Interest Groups:
Start-up Ecosystem: Led by the Georgia Tech Venture Labs Jonathan Goldman, this activity group will coordinate CDAIT efforts to support promising new Internet of Things (IoT) entrepreneurial ventures (startups) and the venture firms that are active in IoT. This Program will act as an effective bridge and a vetting mechanism for all CDAIT Partners to be aware the technology innovation in the IoT space happening across the Georgia Tech/Atlanta startup community as well as explore emerging opportunities. It connects closely with the CDAIT Research Working group and invites input from all CDAIT partners.
Education and Training: Recognizing that the Internet of Things is a fast-paced and rapidly changing industry that requires a wide range of knowledge and expertise, CDAIT realizes that related skills and competencies needed by IoT workforces must be tightly aligned with the evolving demands of industry. The objective for this activity will be to determine industry needs and help develop IoT related educational and training content in scientific, technological, social and other non-technological domains, and in varying formats of course material. The effort will explore best practices for education and training of STEM, technical, scientific and other IoT-linked workforces in partnership with Georgia Tech faculty and researchers and related campus programs.
IoT Research and Development Working Groups:
IoT Security and Privacy
The possibilities offered by Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are numerous and have the potential to bring about a positive economic and social change. However, the adoption of these technologies will be hindered if security and privacy issues are not addressed in a proactive inclusive manner. Given the sensitivity of individual and group data, and the contiguously connectivity of devices, IoT Security and Privacy are widely recognized as critical building blocks of any IoT-focused undertaking. The purpose of the Georgia Tech CDAIT Working Group (WG) on IoT Security & Privacy is to monitor efforts around the world that aim to identify, manage, and mitigate related risks, and to provide useful and actionable perspectives and recommendations to both CDAIT members and interested industry stakeholders. Monitored efforts may take, without limitation, the form of policy and regulation discussion and implementation, and/or standardization and research work. While essentially an observatory of the IoT Security and Privacy global landscape, the WG may decide to contribute technical specifications to the field. The WG’s output will be embodied in position papers, articles and other similar relevant contributions to the industry. The success of the WG will rest on active participation from the CDAIT members and close liaison with the Georgia Tech Institute for Information Security & Privacy (IISP), which assembles and coordinates across Georgia Tech strong, innovative, and multi-disciplinary teams to address contemporary and future cybersecurity or privacy challenges. More Broadly, it can be expected that working groups efforts will include collaboration with other industry and external stakeholders. Recent reports include:
- Driving New Modes of IoT-Facilitated Citizen/User Engagement”
- Digital Transformation and the Internet of Things
IoT Standards and Management
Given the many links that are integral to the IoT value chain, there is a plethora of related standards, which, albeit helpful, adds another layer of confusion in an already complicated space. The WG aims to help the CDAIT members sort out the flood of possibilities (including from open source communities) and fill in possible information gaps. As a result, while in a non-standard-forming capacity, its main task is to monitor the global IoT standards picture and provide meaningful observations, perspectives, and recommendations to the CDAIT members with an eye on the all-important connection between standards and business performance. In addition, the WG has the potential to become a venue for voicing concerns and issues, making recommendations to existing standards bodies, and suggesting specifications that are not being developed by IoT-centered standards groups. The Working Group’s output should consist of reports to the CDAIT members, conferences, seminars, and workshops, as well as communications to standards bodies and general media.
IoT Technology Research
IoT research is constantly evolving with rapidly emerging sensors, capabilities, and multiple, often heterogeneous network architectures, each supporting a myriad of application demands and development opportunities. CDAIT research will integrated three key components that focus on investigation use cases, technical and non-technical challenges, and is impactful to the further development of IoT capabilities. The research could take the form of IoT testbed collaborations reflecting common interest among CDAIT members, and broader collaborative research efforts that might involve multiple industry members and/or academic partners. This working group in conjunction with other working groups will support review of CDAIT supported technology related projects, broader IoT ecosystem concepts and testbeds, attending or judging Georgia Tech campus-related competitions that address CDAIT areas of interest, and external research initiatives where collaboration opportunities exist to the mutual benefit of CDAIT partners.
Innovation Acceleration Activities:
IoT Thought Leadership Working Group:
While there are many technological challenges that are inherently tied to the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), there are also a number of critical social, economic, and organizational, issues that must be addressed for IoT to succeed at any level. The CDAIT IoT Thought Leadership Working Group focuses on exploring pertinent challenges and opportunities rooted in the radical business, economic and societal transformation the Internet of Things is bringing about. Technology awareness, usability, and accessibility; ethical, legal, policy and regulatory frameworks, as well as new business models and use cases, are only a few examples of target research areas. This is a multidisciplinary undertaking encompassing a range of perspectives, especially those found in social sciences and the humanities. By focusing on these crucial issues, the IoT Thought Leadership Working Group strives to ensure IoT is able to contribute not only in an economic sense but can enhance larger social engagement, participation and well-being objectives. Group outputs include position papers, research briefs, and articles, and other dissemination activities.
CDAIT Student IoT Innovation Capacity Building Challenge
A major source of innovative ideas comes from students and the academy. CDAIT is planning on initiating the inaugural CDAIT Student IoT Innovation Capacity Building Challenge running during the Spring 2021 semester. The goal of the competition is to stimulate rapid response innovative/exploratory research or projects in the field of IoT and associated domains. The competition, starting in the Fall of 2020, will initially be open to small teams of Georgia Tech students and faculty working together. The proposed projects, papers, apps or devices need to be realized by the end of the Spring 2021 semester, and will be presented to CDAIT members in early summer. We especially seek proposals from underserved populations, and from the social sciences, humanities and multidisciplinary teams. We expect to provide up to $3,000 in research support (materials and supplies) to as many as eight (8) Challenge teams.
For more information please see our competition information page.
IoT Research Innovation Network
The IoT should not only be thought of as a collection of technologies, but also include societal impacts and benefits as well as social outcomes that can be advanced, enhanced and simplified by the use of “smart” technologies. Through data capturing, sharing and processing, both the private and public sectors can devise specific, data-driven solutions integrating social, economic, policy and contextual inputs. Engaging multiple stakeholder will generate a more inclusive and responsive output.
Given the complexities of understanding and advancing the complex a complex set of industries and uses as IoT, CDAIT has started to develop a network of related academic and industry related centers that are working with IoT technologies. We believe that collaborative research and sharing of insights will work to enrich not just technological deployment, but the understanding of larger social and economic change related to IoT and wireless information flow.