e-AGE 2014, International Connectivity of the Pan Arab Network
10-11 December 2014, Muscat, Oman
NREN: Towards Creating
Prosperous & Smarter Societies
December 10, 2014
Strategic Vision After Oil…
Strategic Vision for UAE
“To achieve a long-term sustainable,
prosperous & productive lifestyle after
oil for UAE’s next generations”
My Speech…
Introduction & Vision
Requirements for Achieving Smarter
Cities
A. Leadership & Innovation
B. Smarter Society Eco-System
1. Education: UD as an Example
2. Research & Business Development (R&BD)Innovation & Entrepreneurship
3. ICT Infrastructure: NREN (Ankabut: A Project for
R&E)
C. Future Trends
Leadership & Innovation…
Leadership for Innovation…
“I want you, young leaders, to be
lions and work towards leading lions,
who initiate, suggest, debate and
achieve.”
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Leadership for Innovation…
“Thinking is progress. Non-thinking is
stagnation of the individual, organization
and the country.”
“Thinking leads to action. Knowledge
without action is useless and irrelevant.
Knowledge with action, converts adversity
into prosperity.”
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Former President of India
Leadership for Innovation…
“We choose to go to the moon in this
decade and do the other things not
because they are easy but because they
are hard.”
- John F. Kennedy
Leadership Skills…
"Leadership is a function of knowing
yourself, having a vision that is well
communicated, building trust among
colleagues, and taking effective action to
realize your own leadership potential."
Prof. Warren Bennis
Source: Jon Boyes, Employability and Graduate Development, University of Exeter
Warren
Bennis
Leadership for Innovation…
Peter
Drucker
“Management is doing things right,
leadership is doing the right things”
(Warren Bennis and Peter Drucker)
“Leadership is the capacity to translate
vision into reality”
Warren Bennis
Warren Bennis, Author of: On Becoming a Leader
Peter Drucker: Author of: Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Leadership for Innovation…
“The job of the leader today is not
to create followers. It is to create
more leaders”
Ralph Nader
In a Smart City Citizens are placing increasing
demands on leaders…..
Leaders must innovate across services to
meet and exceed citizen expectations
For the first time in human history the majority of the world’s population
lives in urban areas.
WorldBank.org
3 billion people – half the world’s
population – live in cities
Source: IBM
Almost 180,000 people
move into cities each day
Two-thirds of all people
will live in cities by 2050
Leadership Characteristics…
 A leader should have a vision…
 A leader should know how to plan to reach the
vision…
 A leader should be ambitious and innovative…
 A leader should lead by example…
 A leader should empower…
 A leader should enable (provide necessary tools)…
 A leader should produce leaders…
 A leader should be bold…
 A leader should think out of the box…
Education Towards Innovation…
Innovation Eco-System Meeting the Trends
Education
A Trained Workforce
• Instill a love of subject
in the young students
• Ease them towards
subject related higher
education
• Encourage pursuit of
advanced degrees in
subject related fields
Incubation &
Startups
Basic & Applied
R&BD
Innovative Breakthroughs
• Enable Academic and Private
sector research institutions
• Create an environment that
facilitates breakthrough
thinking applied to realworld issues
• Encourage Government,
Academia & Industry
Collaboration in UAE
• Fund Applied and Basic
Research in the subject area
Bold – Imaginative – Action
Made Locally
Sold Globally
Commercial Success
• Fund Govt. and Private
incubators, incubatees
and startups
• Create a framework of
support for
transforming ideas to
commercial success
• Ensure “Home Grown”
knowledge creation and
market acceptance
Knowledge creation is not restricted to technology:
 Book: to be sold globally
 Literature: global standards
 Art: performed or done in UAE exported abroad
 Technology: made in UAE as per global standards
Oriented
– produced
Creative
 Cinema:
in UAE watched globally
 Medicine: produced locally & treated globally
 Industry: innovating in UAE competing globally
 Franchising: Boutique, Restaurant, etc…
University of Dubai…
An Example of Quality Education…
College of Laws
College of Business
Administration
Center of Executive
Development
www.ud.ac.ae
College of IT
Research & Business DevelopmentInnovation & Entrepreneurship…
R&BD: A Value-Added Concept Towards Innovation
R&BD Constituents
Culture
Element One
Identify the
constituents
•
• Plan for
activities and
events to change
& adapt the
R&BD culture
Academia
Element Two
•Find research areas
applicable to all the
constituents
• Collaborate with local
& international
institutes for technical
creation
Industry
Element Three
•Identify
industrial needs
& requirements
• Link them with
the academia
Government
Element Four
•Government is
a very essential
constituent to
initiate funds
and create the
culture
• Set mechanisms for
knowledge transfer
initiatives (e.g labs,
R&BD, BTIC, etc)
• Create the R&BD Culture: Through well prepared Strategic plans & actions
Private
Element Five
•The private
sector should play
the role of what is
known in the
industry as:
Partner, VC or
CSR, (Corporate
Social
Responsibility)
Innovation & Entrepreneurship…
"Never underestimate the value of
an idea… Every positive idea has
within it potential for success if it is
managed properly”
Innovation & Entrepreneurship…
“The biggest risk is not to take
the risk”
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid
“You miss 100% of the shots
you didn’t take”
Innovation & Entrepreneurship…
“The greatest danger for most of
us is not that our aim is too high
and we miss it, but that it is too
low and we reach it”
Innovation & Entrepreneurship…
“Try not to become a man of
success but rather to become a
man of value.”
-Albert Einstein
Understanding A Success Story…
The Success Recipe of Silicon Valley:
1. Universities and R&BD: Stanford University & UC Berkeley
2. Skilled Knowledge Workers: Graduates of the aforementioned
universities
3. Early Adopters: US military were too willing to buy new and
unproven products
4. Service Infrastructure: Interconnected network of firms such as
law firms, investment banks, recruitment agencies, marketing
agencies, accountancy firms and other highly specialized
service providers
5. Available Venture Capital: By 1974 there were more than 150
VC firms in Silicon Valley
6. Complementary Organizations: Outsourcing is easy & possible
Source: “Sand to Silicon,” Jeffrey Sampler & Saeb Eigner
ICT Infrastructure…
Ankabut: An NREN Project…
Idea & Concept Design:
By Eesa Bastaki
Ankabut – an NREN Project…
Idea & Concept Design: Eesa Bastaki
 Vision:
“Create an opportunity for the UAE to be a
global leader in Research and Education.”
 Mission:
 Provide Leading Edge Network Infrastructure to centers of
Learning and Research within the UAE to foster
collaboration and co-operation between them.
 Provide for connectivity with peers at the international level
to effectively participate and collaborate in research
activities.
 The Name: The name proposed for the UAE
Research and Education Network is ANKABUT.
 ANKABUT means Spider in Arabic.
Ankabut – an NREN Project
Ankabut has 26
institutional members
and applicants with
connections to over 70
campuses throughout
the UAE.
Advisory Board Members
ANCHOR
Ankabut: Possible R&BD Areas of Interest
BASN
 Wireless Technology
 Security and Encryption
 Broadband Technology
 Satellite Communications
 Wireless Sensor Networks
 Body Area Sensor Networks (BASN)*
 Next Generation Wireless Communications
 Next Generation Internetworking
 Software Engineering
 E-Health Applications
 Areas of vital National Interest
*Source: University of Virginia-Engineering
Anakbut: ICT R&BD in Medicine…
Internet of Medicine (A Special Case of IoT)
Healthcare Telematics (ICT)
Medical Records & Archiving
Medical Warehousing (Reporting & Data
Analysis)
Digital Imaging
Telemedicine
Medical Virtual Reality (Ankabut)
Mobile Medicine
Smart Medicine (MEMS & NEMS)
BASN (Body Area Sensor Network)
Ankabut… Virtual Reality
Future Technologies…
“The technology that is miniaturizing,
converging, integrating, going beyond
the imaginative boundaries,
penetrating the unknowns and
emerging to unprecedented scientific
innovations”
Eesa Mohammed Bastaki
Mobile Towards 5G…
1. Design of radio networks taking into account
both energy efficiency and spectral efficiency
2. Base station processing is moved to the Internet
cloud (C-RAN approach)
3. Moving from cell-centric toward device-centric
(cognitive) and focus on the needs of user
terminal
4. More intelligent terminals that are capable of
mitigating interference and communicating
directly with other devices without network
assistance
5. The adoption of new technologies such as
massive MIMO, full duplex technology and
machine-to-machine communications
Source: IEEE Communications Magazine, February 2014, Volume 52, No, 2
Machine IQ…
Machine Intelligent Quotient
1. Thinking humanly, i.e. to be conscious of
thinking
2. Acting humanly, i.e. to make decisions and
take actions by applying evolved moral
reasoning, as well as appear to be “humanlike” in the action
3. Thinking rationally, i.e. processing
information in a rational manner
4. Acting rationally, i.e. producing outcomes
that comply with rational reasoning
Source: Turing Dreams
Machine IQ…
Machine Intelligent Quotient
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Television
Coffee Maker
Refrigerator
Air Condition
House
Car
Road Navigator
Phones
Any Device
Improved Connectivity
35
Source: Dr. Khaled Ben Letaief, HKUST, 2012
Communications:
From Person-to-Person to Machine-to-Machine
36
Source: Dr. Khaled Ben Letaief, HKUST, 2012
I have Ambitions For Innovations…
“Fortune Favors the Bold”
By Lester Thurow
 The Future Favors the Bold
 The Future is what our imagination Leads us to
 The Future is What We Create Now
 And the Imagination of the Future is Limitless
I have great knowledge towards innovation
 Who are the learned? They who practice what they know.
The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr.
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
...ً‫شكرا‬
THANK YOU…
‫الدكتورًعيسىًالبستكي‬
Dr. Eesa Bastaki
‫رئيسًجامعةًدبي‬
President, University of Dubai
eesa@ud.ac.ae
eesa@bastaki.ae