Research & Discovery:
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Technologies Today for
Solving Problems
Tomorrow
Limsoon Wong
Institute for Infocomm Research
Plan
• Making Research Exciting
– Have long-term vision
– Knowing what counts
• Looking for Emerging Opportunities
– Misconceptions
– Advice for increasing probability of success
– Sources of opportunity for innovation
• A role model
• Reasons for Optimism in R&D
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Making Research
Exciting
Have Long-Term Vision
• By 2010, quality of life will be improved by an
ICT technology-based product of ours
• By 2015, at least one Singapore company will
become a successful MNC based on our
technology-based product
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
What Really Counts…10X Impact
• Good (practical) research should have a story
like this at the end
– produced a technology used by millions
– produced a technology earning millions of dollars
– produced a technology that makes a difference to
the Singapore ICT industry
– first to identify an important problem and solve it
– first to solve an important existing problem
– make a 10x improvement to the solution of an
existing problem
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
• muvee Technologies’
Automatic Video
Production Software
Adopted by Sony’s
Digital Imaging Devices
• muvee’s pioneering
technology will
dramatically simplify
creative photo and video
production for millions of
consumers.
• Toppan has developed
an original RFID chip,
and peripheral devices,
including tags and
reader/writers, through
collaboration with I2R
• Annual sales of the
system in Japan will
reach 2 billion yen
(S$31M) in 2005
• Some speculative tech for
transforming sports editorial
content production industry
30%
18%
Enhanced Tennis TV
• Vaccines are often the only
solution for viral diseases
• Finding & developing
effective vaccine targets
(epitopes) is slow and
expensive process
• Enabled MOM’s
Occupational Hazards
Dept to automate
checking chemical safety
info from Material Safety
Data Sheets and
verifying standards
conformance
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Looking for
Opportunity
Misconceptions
•
•
•
•
Innovation must big
Innovations are the works of geniuses
Innovations depend on novel ideas
Innovations occur only in commercial markets
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Practical Advice to
Increase Probability of 10X
• Look for a clear need where
–
–
–
–
solution is not expected for several years
not at a big disadvantage to arrive before competition
have or can build strength
partner to move ahead faster in a win-win way
In short, start from our strongest point, target for
maximum impact, and attack competitor's
weakest point. Also collaborate to gain
advantage over "us"-only effort
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Practical Advice to
Increase Probability of 10X
•
•
•
•
Carry out what we set out to do
Improve quality & rigor of our work
Improve quality & passion of our people
Evangelize our ideas & projects to the world
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Sources of Opportunity for
Innovation
• Unexpected
success/failure in our
work & outside event
• Gap betw reality &
common belief
• Bottleneck in processes
• Change of industry
struct---new biz model,
distribution channels,
modes of business, etc.
• Change in
demographics---age,
religion, income, etc.
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
• Change of mood &
perception---terrorism,
fashion, etc.
• Fringe practices that
may solve persistence
breakdown in current
central practices, ie.
value innovation
• New knowledge &
scientific advances
• Man-made barriers--legislation & regulation
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
A Role Model:
Li Jinyan
Jinyan’s Vision
• No human will fall sick unexpectedly
• No machine will fail unexpectedly
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Jinyan’s Aim for 10X
• Diagnosis of diseases and optimization of
treatments  sufferings are reduced and
chance of cure is increased
• Prediction of faults in engineering systems and
optimization of industrial systems  safety is
improved, cost is reduced, and quality is raised
• Analysis of computer and network logs to
detect intrusion and other threats  cyber
struct is strengthened, and assets are guarded
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Childhood ALL
• Major subtypes: T-ALL,
E2A-PBX, TEL-AML,
BCR-ABL, MLL genome
rearrangements,
Hyperdiploid>50,
• Diff subtypes respond
differently to same Tx
• Over-intensive Tx
• The subtypes look
similar
• Conventional diagnosis
– Immunophenotyping
– Cytogenetics
– Molecular diagnostics
– Development of
secondary cancers
– Reduction of IQ
• Under-intensiveTx
– Relapse
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
•
Unavailable in most
ASEAN countries
Single-Test Platform of
Microarray & Knowledge Discovery
training data collection
feature integration
Image credit: Affymetrix
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Impact
Conventional Tx:
• intermediate intensity to all
 10% suffers relapse
 50% suffers side effects
 costs US$150m/yr
Jinyan’s optimized Tx:
• high intensity to 10%
• intermediate intensity to 40%
• low intensity to 50%
• costs US$100m/yr
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
•High cure rate of 80%
• Less relapse
• Less side effects
• Save US$51.6m/yr
An Important Ingredient in Jinyan’s
Success: Collaborations
He designs the
dry expts &
interprets betw
the dry & wet
He invents
the algo’s
She implements
the algo’s
He does the wet expts
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Reasons for Optimism
in ICT R&D
High-Level Drivers
• Physical needs
– nourishment,
– health, ...
• Security needs
–
–
–
–
privacy
protection
stability
ownership
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
• Socializing needs
–
–
–
–
collaboration
sharing
be understood
be informed
• Entertainment needs
–
–
–
–
novelty
belonging
communicating
mobility
Major Trends
The use of info mgmt & tech
has become
• more complex
• more “self-service”
• more personalization
• more embedded
• more distributed
• more pervasive
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Major Apps
• “Traditional” Apps
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
E-learning
E-govt
E-health
E-traffic
EAI
SCM
PDA
Knowledge mgmt, ...
• “Trans-disciplinary” Apps
– Lifestyle & entertainment
•
organizing data, narrowing human-digital, virtual
gaming, realistic immersive user experience,
entertainment on demand, digital rights, asset
mgmt, IP protection, ...
– Tech in healthcare
•
pervasive digital media, adaptive syst, decision
syst, …
– Ubiquitous systems
•
privacy, security, monitoring of trans, image
processing, lang translation, voice recognition,
adaptive syst, decision syst
– Smart sensors & intelligent syst
•
signal processing, pattern recognition, security,
privacy, adaptive syst, decision syst, ...
– Physical & digital security
•
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
privacy, surveillance, authentication, access
control, audit, behaviour analysis, abnormal event
diagnostic, multimedia crytographic algo, ...
Engines of Growth
• Business intelligence
–
–
–
–
–
ontology & metadata tech
adaptive tech
human language tech
collaboration tech
decision tech
• Information security
–
–
–
–
security infrastructure
cyber terrorism
biometrics tech
privacy & identity mgmt
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
• Native media processing
& analysis
–
–
–
–
production tech
analysis tech
distribution tech
intuitive user interfaces
protect
video,
audio, &
image
analysis
decision
tech
Broad
Band
Grid
Int Syst Engg Sci
& Sensor
in
Networks Medicine
Integrative
Manufact Env Tech
Enabled by
Info Mgmt
Energy
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong
Thank You
•
•
•
•
Pre-Horizon 2004 Seminar
1st Nov 2004
2:15pm-2:45pm
BIG ONE
Copyright © 2004 by Limsoon Wong