Speaker: Antonio Mondragon, R&D Manager at Latch
Title: Embedded Systems, Wireless Communications, Internet of Things, Cloud and Fog computing, Machine Learning and the Future of an Interconnected World
Abstract: Today there is a revolution, the “Makers Revolution.” Several years ago it was unthinkable for a small company to come up with a proof of concept product without relying on very expensive processes to design the electronics as well as all the mechanical and physical aspects of the product. The connected world allows interaction with small, medium and large companies to be able to get access to the most efficient and cost effective technologies for product development. At the moment, embedded systems play a critical role in the vision of a connected world where the explosion of devices connected to the internet is in the process of becoming a reality. This involves battery operated low power devices with wireless communications that will interface with the internet to communicate simple variables such as e.g. temperature, movement and human presence, and as complex as e.g. two way audio and video communications. What is important is the simplicity and amount of data that will be provided to be able to come up with analytics and learning that we were not able to achieve in the past. Sensor technologies have evolved through the MEMS where there is a plethora of parameters that can be measured at a very low cost and with amazing precision. Including accelerometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes, pressure, and humidity among a large number of available sensors. These technologies have together with embedded control have made drones and 3D printers a reality for end users together with audio/video processing and wireless communications to enhance the ability to communicate, supervise, remote manage and increase security. Wireless communications today are available as low power wide area networks (ISM subGHz e.g. SigFox & Lora), personal area networks (ISM 2.4GHz e.g. Bluetooth & Zigbee), wireless local area networking (ISM 2.4 & 5 GHz e.g. Wi-Fi based on IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac) and cellular networks (e.g. LTE-M and NB-IOT). Cloud computing and machine learning technologies have also exploded giving easy and powerful access to analytics tools, as well as features and patterns recognition to be easily available for developers at a very convenient cost and accessibility. All this with a much accelerated learning curve. On top of this, cybersecurity has become a must requirements from the point of view of hardware design, embedded and apps software design, as well as secure wired and wireless communications to communicate to local, fog and cloud software applications all connected to the internet. In this presentation we will give a wide overview of product design from the point of view of a small company that has to ideate, evaluate, prototype, design for manufacture and design for testability.
Bio: Mondragon has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University on Integrated Circuit Design and Digital Communications. Has 15+ years of industrial experience on embedded systems, digital and analog circuit design, signal processing and digital communications and has 10+ years of teaching experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition, Mondragon has an MBA with concentration on technology management which he has leveraged to complement and guide students on capstone projects to emulate startup companies and has also organized university wide innovation design contests including semiconductor companies’ sponsorship and mentoring. Mondragon is currently working as the R&D Manager for Latch, an access control startup company. His responsibilities have included the development of the next generation technologies, including embedded systems, wireless technologies to enable IoT as well as sensors integration and data analytics and pattern recognition. Mondragon worked as an assistant professor at the Electrical, Computer and Telecommunication Engineering Technology department in the College of Applied Science and Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He taught undergraduate courses especially in the areas of digital and embedded systems design. In addition, he collaborated with faculty from his college, other colleges and other universities as well as with graduate students in novel research in the areas of hardware implementation of signal processing and communications on FPGA and ASIC. Another aspect of his research has been on undergraduate education, innovation and entrepreneurship. Mondragon has worked at different tech companies such as Intel as a validation manager for graphics processors and at Texas Instruments as member of technical staff and the DSPS R&D center. While at RIT, for several years he was the founder and organizer of the “ARM Developer Day,” and held student design engineering competitions during the “Imagine RIT” innovation festival which became one of the most visited exhibits.