The goal of IEEE future development projects - reliability

During the AWE symposium in SAN jose, calif., Dan Feinberg spoke with Kathy Grise, IEEE's senior program director for future directions.In the interview, Dan and Kathy discussed the importance of reliability, blockchain, and recruiting the younger generation.

Dan Feinberg: Kathy, thank you for taking the time to be here today to share the latest IEEE news.As you know, I also participate in the technical exchange activities of IPC.We see some standards that may have to be tightened.Reliability must be improved.It used to be that if your phone broke after 10,000 hours of use, it was acceptable and you needed to buy a new one.But if we're talking about autonomous driving, the reliability requirements are much tougher, because it's about life.

One of the many topics I heard at IPC APEX EXPO 2019 was reliability.I'm a member of the IPC hall of fame committee, which is preparing the next senior management BBS, and one of the topics being considered is reliability standards and so on.Of course, the IPC standard is very important to the industry, but I know that the IEEE does quite a bit of work on reliability as well.

Kathy Grise: I totally agree with you from a reliability perspective.It's always been the most important topic, and if you think back to the IBM era, reliability was the key to chips and chip redundancy.But reliability now goes well beyond that.

Feinberg: yeah, a lot more than that.The reliability of electronic devices, not just those associated with phone calls, is now critical to saving lives.

Grise: reliability is really the mainstream.I think the most significant difference compared to a few years ago is the cars and autonomous driving we have today.

Feinberg: yes, the era of autonomous driving is coming.

Grise: I have a tesla.To be honest, I'm still not that confident.I still have to keep my hands on the steering wheel and watch the road.Now reliability is not very high because there are still human factors that you can't control.

Feinberg: yeah.You can't predict or control what other people are going to do.

Grise: at IEEE, we're trying to solve the whole connectivity problem of everything.Because when we started moving in the direction of the future, I felt like we were alone.So we start with a smart grid project, like the power grid and its impact.

Feinberg: I didn't realize that.

Grise: if you look at it again, different people are solving the same problem.Then, another project is cloud computing.They only focus on issues related to cloud computing, but if you look at both projects, they are solving the same problem.A project can be implemented with the consideration of industry insiders, users and consumers, instead of being limited to a limited group of people.Over the past year, we've learned that we need to work better together, and that's exactly what the IEEE is trying to break down.This year, for the future direction, we have a Blockchain Initiative, a Brain Initiative, some work on Blockchain, a Digital Reality Initiative and so on.

Feinberg: obviously, blockchain is not just cryptocurrency, it's a lot of things, but the public thinks it's just cryptocurrency.

Grise: it really pushes privacy and even moral and social implications.It's a whole new blockchain model.It's not just about bitcoin, it's about protecting data.With that in mind, we realize that what we're doing is not just about blockchain.For example, we now work closely with people from logical thinking projects, because a lot of neuroscience, machine interfaces, and so on May depend on blockchain.

It all goes back to reliability, because in this day and age, without protection, without privacy, they can modify the real thing to make it fake, which is very disturbing.It's also important to think about the human dimension, because we need humans to stand up and say they accept this technology.It is a facilitator, it makes my life easier, but we must have control and our own responsibility.It's important to have this redundancy and technology and people involved.

Feinberg: over the last few years, I've seen IEEE reconsolidation and dramatic changes.

Grise: this year you also saw how we're really trying to reach out to the younger generation, because we realized that our IEEE membership is aging.The PCB assembly manufacturer's workforce is ageing.We need to consider and develop the coming generation.