Emerging technologies are those technical innovations which represent progressive developments within a field and are characterized by radical novelty, relatively fast growth, prominent impact, and uncertainty. Their most prominent impact lies in the future and they may represent a significant, competitive advantage over the next five to 10 years.

In this two hour talk Dr. Kao will first introduce the Gartner Hype Cycle, which provides a cross-industry perspective on the technologies and trends that business strategists, R&D leaders, entrepreneurs, global market developers and chief innovation officers should consider in developing emerging-technology portfolios. Dr. Kao will explain the five phases of the Hype Cycle: technology trigger, peak of inflated expectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment, and plateau of productivity.

The speaker will then present a brief overview of current emerging technologies including AI, machine learning, deep and reinforcement learning, new types of new computing: quantum, edge, cognitive, affecting; smart dust, 4 - D printing, augmented reality, virtual reality, human augmentation, connected homes, autonomous cars, digital twin, 5G, volumetric displays, brain- computer interface, conversational user interface, robotics, nanotube electronics, software defined security, etc.

Finally he will discuss the currently exponential growth rate of technology and the impact of its compounding effect for the rest of the 21st Century

Speaker Bio: Dr. William Kao

Dr. Kao received his BSEE, MSEE and PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He worked in the Semiconductor and Electronic Design Automation industries for more than 30 years holding several senior and executive engineering management positions at Texas Instruments, Xerox Corporation, Cadence Design Systems.

Dr. Kao has authored more than 40 technical papers at IEEE Journals and Conferences, and holds eight US software and IC design patents. He was an Adjunct Professor at UCLA Electrical Engineering Department where he taught courses in computer aided IC design.

Dr. Kao is a Senior Member of IEEE, and was one of the founding members of IEEE-Circuits and Systems - Silicon Valley Chapter, where he was Chapter Chair in 2005 and 2006.

Dr. Kao currently teaches Renewable Energy, Clean Technology and Business Sustainability courses at the University of California Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley Extension.

Dr. Kao current interests include the subjects of Energy, Environment and Education.

He teaches and is a frequent lecturer on various Emerging Technologies. In the past five years he has given over 50 talks and seminars on various emerging technology topics such as Clean Technology, Renewable Energy, Big Data, IoT, Smart Cities, Sensor Networks, Innovation, AR/VR, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and 3D Printing.

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