Successful Collaboration for Systems of the Future Embedded Systems for Future Digital Lifestyles EKTN University of Essex 23 September 2008 Keith Everard.

Successful Collaboration for Systems of the Future

Embedded Systems for Future Digital Lifestyles EKTNUniversity of Essex23 September 2008

Keith EverardBT Strategic University Research

[email protected]

Context….the world we live in…

Moore’s Law – 1965 - the number of transistors on a chip doubles about every two years…

But what does this really mean?

• In general terms..– The power of electronic devices doubles every 2 years– The cost of devices halves every 2 years

• Example Flash Memory – cost per gigabyte – 2002 ~$260– 2005 ~$35– 2006 ~$16– 2007 ~$7 – close to ‘tipping point’– 2008 ~$2

• The Guardian Thursday August 24 2006 - Flash memory is getting cheaper all the time. Does this mean the end of the hard drive as we know it?

the change in our world…

At the last count nearly one and a half billion people (1,407,724,920 - 21.1 %) were connected to the internet, with 73 per cent of North Americans and 48 per cent of Europeans having access to a connection. And these numbers are accelerating every year. (Jun08)

Peruvian student Justo Miguel Común is in the fifth grade. He got his XO laptop in late April 08

In 2008 the UK has nearly 41 million (66 per cent) of people with Internet access.

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

and now the ELONEX too...

Living in a world of exponential change

With technology moving at an exponential rate and the web becoming the knowledge repository of the planet, how do we design services in the future?

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We are entering a time of unprecedented change in terms of both technology and the way we work.

BT at the Forefront of R&D

• BT is the fourth largest R&D investor in the UK (behind GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and BAE Systems)

• BT is the largest R&D investor in the UK Fixed Line Telecoms sector (£1,119m in 2006, 5.5% of sales)

• BT is the second largest R&D investor in the Fixed Line Telecoms sector in the world (behind NTT Japan @£1,323M)

• BT is the 52nd largest R&D investor in the world (all sectors – 73rd in 2005)

Source : Department of Trade and Industry seventeenth annual R&D Scoreboard, published October 2007

http://www.innovation.gov.uk/rd_scoreboard/

Why External Research?

“The world of technology and science has expanded so much that it is no longer possible, even for the largest companies, to sustain a research effort that can cover all the disciplines used in their products. Leading research is going on all over the world and it is less and less likely that the important new ideas will emerge in a company's own laboratory. It is better to put in place mechanisms that draw on the global research output.”

Lord Broers, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee – Reith Lectures April 2005

Matt Bross – CTO BT

“The pace of technological change is relentless and traditional innovation models are becoming outdated. They simply can't deliver results fast enough to keep up with market demand. I believe that in order to succeed today, companies need to innovate at the speed of life - there should never be a gap between what is possible and what a company delivers in the markets it chooses to serve.”

Innovation at the Speed of Life?

• Electricity to majority of homes – 50 years

• Broadband to majority of homes – <10 years

• Cyworld social networking – 5 years (2005)(to “almost every Korean in their 20s”)

• Innovation Big Bang (Chain reaction)

Managing Complexity – Soft Computing

The University Research Programme

Engaging with the global science basePublic Science/Scientists - There are more scientists alive today than the total number of deceased scientists

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n73/ai_11692017/pg_2

University Research Programme The Objectives

Research..

Support our internal Research through a portfolio of university relationships which provide us with access to basic research, knowledge and thought leadership which underpins, enhances and challenges our research activities

World Awareness..

Provide access to global thought leadership, knowledge and information in both technology and business thinking which support our strategic objectives

A Partnership Platform..

Provide a platform to transform our market presence and enhance our value. Build partnerships with the best in the world which reinforce our leadership in both ICT and innovation.

The role of the University Research Programme in the business

Research Development Deployment Marketing Sales

Old model

Research Development Deployment Marketing Sales

New model

Academic partnersResearch World Awareness Partnership Platform

UNIVERSITIES CUSTOMERS

CUSTOMERS

EXTERNAL = Longer Term

driven byKnowledge Generation

INTERNAL = Shorter Term

driven byBusiness

Needs

Exploits and maintains internal expertise in a wide range of topics

Internal and External Research

BT Research & Venturing

University & Science

Partnerships

Industry & Technology Partnerships

Years to realisation

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ple

no’s

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Internal & External ResearchOpen Innovation Time-line

University Research Programme

Key PartnershipsCambridge University and Judge Business SchoolMIT and Sloan School of ManagementUCL and London Business School

Oxford UniversityEssex UniversityImperial College

• Managed by URP Team(Establish Framework agreements etc.)• Managed by URP Team(Establish Framework agreements etc.)

30 Research Relationships

UK – 18 UniversitiesInternational – 12 Universities

• Managed by Research Teams• Managed by Research Teams

MIT, Boston

Columbia, NY

IMD

Stanford Jiao Tong, Shanghai

Tsinghua, Beijing

Santa Fe Inst

Monash, Melbourne

ICS Forth Hellas

Magdeburg

MilanUniversity Of California,Berkeley

Braunschweig

Context - BT University Research Partners (2006/2007)

BT’s Presence at MIT & University of California, Berkeley

• To facilitate close collaboration, we have placed a permanent person at MIT and visiting researchers at UCB and MIT.

• We also encourage our business people to spend time at both locations.

Berkeley, Sather Tower, known as the Campanile

Andrea Soppera & Gabriele Corliano

The MIT Media Lab

Dave Chatting

As well as putting our people into Universities we also invite Universities to put their departments on our campus.

We have...

Adastral Park Model

 Science % of Funding

Technology/ Engineering 64%

Human/Social Science 20%

Business/ Management Science 16%

The Science split

From Selling Technology to Selling Services…

From having a deep understanding of Technology

To also having a deep understanding of societal and cultural change

Understanding people is at the heart of what we do…

• Social Science – Essex, Digital Lifestyles Centre (Vic Callaghan et al.)

• Social Anthropology – UCL (Daniel Miller) and University of Cambridge (Alan McFarland)

• Computer Science – MIT

Web morphing…TRUST

(Glen Urban)

A Taste of Our Engagement With Essex

Technology • Access Networks

– PAEAN: Powering Active Electronics in Access Networks – A study of alternative methods for street equipment powering, Stuart Walker, April 2008

• Home Networks• Fibre to the home

Human Science• Technology and Society (Institute for social and technical research)

– UK Market Model provides a bottom-up view of potential consumer spending– Census-based, looking out to 2016– Spending boundary cases, not product forecasts

• User Experience

Business Science• Workforce Management

– to develop a simulation environment that models and simulates in detail the dynamics between BT OpenReach workforce and BT work allocation systems.

• Business Process Design• Centre for Computational Finance and Economic Agents (Member of City Associates Board)

Our key needs?

• Enormous amounts of information and knowledge…– Watch trends so that we can act quickly

– Spot early signals of disruptive change

• Access to world leading academics (very clever people who are not bounded by our business issues), to discuss what is happening so that we can make sense of it and put it into context for our business leaders

• Really bright graduates…

much more than just ‘research’…

US

US

US

US

US

UK

UK

People

TechnologyApproach

InteractionThinking

Collaboration

Flexibility

Vision

Insight UK

UK

Students

Jimmy Wales

UK

Simon Blackburn

Malia Kilpinen

Jia-Yan Gu

Strategy

US