Dr. Radu Vieriu is a researcher at the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Trento, Italy. His research interests include Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms.
He will serve as General Co-Chair at the 2nd International Conference on Cognitive Internet of Things Technologies (COIOTE 2015), co-located with IOT 360 Summit. We talked to him about the future of the IoT and the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in this field.
How will the main focus of COIOTE 2015 reflect the status quo of research within the field of cognitive IoT technologies?
Despite recent developments in both Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, very few successful stories can be told about the synergy between the two domains. COIOTE 2015 mitigates for the development of innovative ideas that explore this intersection, by promoting state of the art technologies from both areas towards bringing intelligence into connected objects.
What are the main challenges arising from the cognitive aspect of IoT?
If it is to refer just to computer science, as one of the cognitive branches, IoT could definitely benefit from intelligence, reasoning capabilities, data management, learning and others. All these “skills” could potentially enhance the way devices communicate with each other and improve the quality of the services they were designed for. However, if some technologies could potentially be ported directly to enhance IoT devices, others still need to mature in order to be useful.
Why is an interdisciplinary approach important for the future of this field?
Well, in few words, I would say that there is a lot to learn from all cognitive science branches, while attempting to enhance connected objects with human-like thinking, acting and behaving. Of course, leveraging decades, if not hundreds of years of research from various disciplines, is one way of bringing objects closer to human nature. I am wondering, though, if this is the only way. After all, we tend to appreciate a dog for being honest and loyal, qualities which are rarely found in human beings.
