Over 560 delegates from 47 countries, 14 hours of content from 20 talks, and one 3D platform. At the fifth (but first virtual!) Arm Research Summit, we welcomed academics, researchers and industry experts for three days of collaboration and innovation. Delegates discussed solutions to global technology challenges across sustainability, security and society. From keynotes to panel discussions, we look at some of the best bits, including talk recordings and slides from each day.
Just interested in the talks? Jump to the content from each day:
The 3D platform truly immersed delegates into the Summit. Dr Emily Shuckburgh was the first speaker of the virtual experience, giving delegates insight into how we can create a resilient, sustainable future. Her talk was incredibly insightful, discussing the role that computer science and technology has in combating the risk of climate change, and transforming our behaviors/lifestyles. Emily highlighted the example of the smartphone, and how it has replaced many other devices. But, technology isn’t just immediately beneficial or convenient to users, it can also play an key role in protecting our environment. We’re breathing in more CO2 every day than ever before, and are seeing increasingly extreme weather across the world. How can technology help?
Emily emphasized that drastic global transformation is needed now to ensure we are meeting our net zero carbon targets. The technology industry has a huge part to play in finding and implementing solutions – engineer or not. Everyone’s thoughts and ideas make a difference, and it’s what individuals do to drive change that matters.
Our multi-track talks were held in pods named after some of our Arm founders. We heard that we can take advantage of our knowledge and experience, and help those in less developed countries. Samer Kurdi and colleagues spoke about water purification solutions and low-power dispensing kiosks for sub-Saharan Africa – a rather niche topic, but with incredible potential for impact.
We heard from multiple perspectives during our panel discussion; ‘Building Back Better for a Sustainable Future’. Ciira Maina highlighted that when solving a problem, the user must be at the center. If we’re developing technology without considering who will benefit, and what their requirements are, how is this sustainable? Instead of creating brand new technologies, can we re-purpose existing ones? Ciira gave a great example of how smart packaging does not benefit the Kenyan economy. However, re-purposing this technology for healthcare in the region could be incredibly beneficial.
Catch up on the first day of the virtual Arm Research Summit 2020 following the links below.
Every action has a reaction. On the second day of the Summit we learnt from keynote speaker, Dr Ciira Maina how training data science practitioners can build a robust community. Ciira is one of the founders of Data Science Africa, a grassroots initiative aimed at increasing data science expertise in Africa. Ciira touched on the skills gap in the continent, in data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. The organization has launched several initiatives to help plug the gap, including summer schools and workshops, giving students the opportunity to learn from experts.
In our second day of multi-track talks, we heard about genome sequence analysis and its ability to advance personalized medicine, outbreak tracing and evolution. We are seeing increasing interest in this area in the current climate. Understanding the pivotal nature of genome sequencing in outbreak tracing, personalized medicine, forensics and evolution is incredibly valuable. However, here lies a challenge - rapid genome sequencing is currently bottlenecked by the computational power and memory bandwidth limitations of existing systems. How can we fix it? View the talk below presented by Damla Senol Cali, to explore this thought-provoking work.
Technology that empowers people – a seemingly simple goal, but with complex thought behind it. Matt Mattina, Distinguished Engineer and Senior Director of ML in Research, Pete Warden, Technical Lead of TensorFlow Lite for Microcontrollers at Google, and and Associate Professor at Harvard University, shared their thoughts on the statement. Among other topics, our panelists discussed the use of speech command in devices, and how that has the potential to replace touch. Hear more from the experts in the recording below.
Maria Markstedter gave the final keynote of the Summit, on the day we dedicated to security – an increasingly prevalent global technology challenge. IoT attacks have become increasingly common over the past few years. Maria’s talk gave an introduction into how hackers exploit corruption vulnerabilities in C/C++ software to compromise vulnerable IoT devices
Morello, an experimental new high-performance Armv8-A CPU, SoC, and board implementing the Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI) protection model, was a topic of conversation on the final day of the Summit. Morello is part of our valuable collaboration with the University of Cambridge, demonstrating the benefit of close links between academia and industry.
Catch up on the final day of the virtual Arm Research Summit 2020!
Although different in format, the virtual Arm Research Summit 2020 showcased just as much innovation as previous years. We hope those who were able to join us enjoyed it as much as we did! During his closing remarks, our Conference Chair announced the Arm Research Summit 2021. Wherever it may be – virtual or physical – be the first to know the latest updates, and register your interest now.
Register Interest