You can check out the Website to see who also spoke at the conference -– it's an impressive list. Some of my favorite speakers were the ones who spoke on topics relevant to MEMS (not that I have anything against nanoparticles that reflect dirt, mind you).
I was wowed by Jeff Kraws, CEO of Crystal Research Associates. Kraws is an industry expert in healthcare technologies and had just left the set of CBS for an upcoming episode on 60 Minutes to join the conference. While much of his talk was about US healthcare and healthcare spending, my eyes lit up when I heard him talk about the need for medicine/healthcare to improve quality of life and help people live longer. He talked about the need to utilize technology to help people take "back" their healthcare decisions and improve their own quality of life. Yup, and guess what? MEMS will make that happen.
I was also uber-impressed by the presentation by Andreas Schierenbeck, president of Siemens Industry, Building Technology Division. I loved the fact that he mentioned MEMS several times in his talk, and he also said he saw a need for "MEMS frickin' everywhere."
He described zero net buildings -- yes, with MEMS inside! He said Siemens is working on buildings that "could work for you" -- smart buildings that could sell, use, or store energy. He said what's missing is MEMS, integrating them with intelligence -- the building is the missing link to a smart grid.
Schierenbeck discussed how to "shift" the energy load of not just buildings, but also cities, and he gave the example of the first zero emissions city -- Masdar City, Abu Dhabi. He encouraged the room of investors to consider the market potential for energy efficiency. "It is feasible, and it makes sense." His parting words were that if you don't measure it (energy use), you can't fix the problem, change behavior, and save money.
And, in my opinion, that means more MEMS… yes… frickin' everywhere.
This story was originally posted by EE Times.
Further reading
Design News will be hosting the Sensors In Design Summit as part of Design West, March 26-29 in San Jose, Calif. More information is posted here.
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