Technology Innovations for the Aging Roundtable

IEEE Future Tech Forum

Technology Innovations for the Aging Roundtable 

This complimentary live, special 90-minute event was held virtually on 14 September 2023. During this event, Joseph Wei, Technology Ventures Group, LLC, served as the moderator, and a panel of subject matter experts joined.

This panel aimed to explore the theme of “Innovations for the Aging Population,” with a focus on the key technologies that enable the development of such innovations and examining their impact on the aging population worldwide. This panel connected experts from various fields, including healthcare, technology, policy, and academia. They shed light on the challenges faced by aging populations and the role of innovation in addressing these challenges. The topics of discussion included a variety of groundbreaking technologies such as assistive devices, telehealth, smart homes, wearable devices, and artificial intelligence, among others.

Moderator: Joseph Wei, Technology Ventures Group, LLC

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Furthermore, the panel explored the importance of collaboration between stakeholders, including governments, NGOs, healthcare providers, and technology companies, in fostering an ecosystem conducive to innovation for the aging population. By identifying barriers, discussing regulatory frameworks, and examining funding opportunities, the discussion encouraged a holistic approach to address the needs and aspirations of older adults.

Ultimately, this panel discussion provided valuable insights into the transformative potential of innovation for the aging population. Participants gained a deeper understanding of the key technologies driving innovation, the challenges and opportunities associated with their implementation, and the importance of collaboration in creating a future where older adults can lead fulfilling and healthy lives.

Organized and Moderated by:

Featured Panelists:

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Event Organizer/Moderator:

Celia Desmond, President of World Class – Telecommunications,

Celia Desmond is resident of World Class – Telecommunications, providing telecommunications management training. Celia established and ran the PMO for Echologics. Her team managed all proposals, contracts and project management processes, She has lectured internationally on programs for success in today’s changing environment. As Director at Stentor Resource Center Inc., she was instrumental in establishing governance, culture and service/product development processes. At Bell Canada, Celia provided strategic direction to corporate planners, ran technology/service trials, standardized equipment, and supported large business clients.

Celia was 2016-1017 IEEE Division III Director. She has held numerous IEEE positions including, Secretary, IEEE VP – Technical Activities, ComSoc President, IEEE Canada President, VP Technology and Engineering Management Society and Project Director for ComSoc’s Wireless Engineering Certification.

Celia holds MSc. Engineering, B.Sc. Mathematics & Psychology, Ontario Teaching Certificate and PMP certification. Celia has taught kindergarten, high school, and at 5 universities. She is author of 2 Project Management books.

 

Joseph Wei, Technology Ventures Group, LLC

Joseph Wei, an accomplished Silicon Valley entrepreneur is the founder of Technology Ventures Group (TVG), LLC established in 2011. With extensive experience, Joseph has spearheaded innovative products that generated billion dollars in revenue. Additionally, Joseph co-founded Lab360 Hardware Incubator that has invested and accelerated startups focusing on AI/ML, IoT, Wearables, AR/VR, Robotics for healthcare, consumer, and enterprise markets. Previously, Joseph held executive positions with Inventec Corp., SGI, NEC, and DEC responsible for Sales and Marketing, Engineering and Investments.

Recognized for his expertise, Joseph serves as an advisor for multiple startups, he mentors at esteemed startup accelerators such as the Alchemist Accelerator, Plug and Play Tech Center, and Entrepreneurship Hatchery at the University of Toronto. He is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and the latest technologies for wearables and IoT devices. Currently, Joseph’s primary focus revolves around collaborating with startups I “Tech Innovations for the Elderly”, recognizing the significant and potential impact of this

Joseph is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Region 6 Director-Elect, Chair of Entrepreneurship, Chair of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Treasurer of Consumer Technology Society of IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section.

Joseph holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University and completed entrepreneurship courses at Stanford University

 

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Ms. Keren Etkin is the author of The AgeTech Revolution – a book about the intersection of tech and aging, and founder of TheGerontechnologist.com – a media platform that covers the global AgeTech ecosystem and offers AgeTech education through the AgeTech Academy. She is also the founder-director of AgeLabIL at Shenkar Institute for Design, Engineering and Art.

Named one of the most influential people in aging by Next Avenue, Ms. Etkin, works with startups, big tech companies, elder-care providers, public sector organizations and NGOs on the development and adoption of AgeTech solutions.

Previously, she was the first employee at Intuition Robotics, the startup behind ElliQ – the world’s first social robot designed with and for older adults, and co-founder & VP of Product at Sensi.Ai, a startup that developed the first and only AI solution for remote care monitoring.

She holds an M.A. in Gerontology and a B.Sc. in Life Sciences from Ben-Gurion University.

 

Ester Martinez-Martin is Tenured Professor at University of Alicante and Director Assistant of the University Institute for Computing Research (IUII) at the same university. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science Engineering (2004), a Master’s degree in Mobile and Video Games Programming (2017), a Master’s degree for Secondary Education, Vocational Training and Language Teaching (2011), and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering (2011), all of them from the Jaume-I University.

Her research is focused on the development of vision systems for robotic tasks and, more specifically, on assistive robotics aimed at promoting the autonomy and independence of the elderly and/or people with functional diversity, guaranteeing their safety and dignity. She has participated in several regional, national, and European projects related to the previously mentioned lines of research, as a main researcher in one regional project. As a result, she has published more than 20 JCR-indexed articles as well as 5 articles in non-JCR-indexed journals (scopus-indexed), a research book (Springer), several book chapters, three research books (as a co-editor), and more than 25 articles in congresses, both national and international. She has supervised 1 PhD thesis and she is currently supervising 2 PhD theses.

The relevance in the research area has led her to be awarded with the MUY Young Scientists Award (2019) (without public call), Impulse Award (2019), New Business Ideas Award (2019), the Young Researchers Award in the field of engineering and architecture (2015) and the PAAMS Award of Scientific Excellence (2012 and 2013). She has also given invited lectures at prestigious international centers (German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Universidade do Minho) and conferences (IEEE SWYP19: Students, Women in Engineering and Young Professionals).

She has also done 4 research stays in prestigious foreign centers with a total duration of 18 months: Università degli Studi di Genova (Pr. Silvio Sabatini), SungKyunKwan University (Pr. Suthan Lee), Universidade do Minho (Pr. Paulo Novais) and the Technische Universitat (TU) Wien (Pr. Markus Vincze), all of which are financed in competitive public calls. In addition, she has been the Organization Chair for IEEE-RAS Summer School on Experimental Methodology, Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking in Robotics (2015), 13th International conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB 2014), 12th International AERFAI/UJI Robotics School on Perceptual Robotics for Humanoids (IURS 2012). She was also co-organizer of some tutorials in international conferences (HRI, 2017; ICINCO, 2014; IAS-13, 2014; IEEE RO-MAN, 2013). She has been member of the programme committee and organization committee in several national and international conferences. She is senior member of IEEE and member of AERFAI.

 

Dr. Ronjon Nag is an Adjunct Professor in Genetics, Stanford School of Medicine; Visiting Fellow, Stanford Center for the Study of Language and Information; President, R42 Group

Ronjon Nag has been building AI systems for 40 years and sold companies he cofounded or advised to Motorola, RIM/Blackberry and Apple. He became a Stanford Interdisciplinary Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow in 2016, and teaches Longevity Science, AI, Genes and Ethics in the Stanford School of Medicine. He received a PhD from Cambridge, an MS from MIT, the IET Mountbatten Medal, the $1 million Verizon Powerful Answers Award, and the 2021 IEEE-SCV Outstanding Engineer Award. He is a co-founder and part-owner of some 100 AI and biotech startups.

 

Sumit Kumar Nagpal is a serial entrepreneur with a focus on disruptive digital health innovation at scale. Over the past 25 years, he cofounded and grew five companies that tackle progressively bolder systemic challenges in healthcare experience, cost and access.

Nagpal currently serves as CEO and board director at Cherish Health, Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company that he cofounded. Cherish Health develops advanced sensors and AI combined with medical evidence and human touch, focusing on the elderly, the frail, and those living with chronic conditions to improve their lives and proactively enable supported self-care.

Nagpal began his career working with Steve Jobs at NeXT, Inc., who taught him how to abstract complex problems and systems down to their essence. Trained as a software developer, Nagpal also learned how to architect large-scale systems to meet the needs of Fortune 100 clients.

In 1993, Nagpal launched Wellogic, where he created one of the industry’s earliest longitudinal health records for hospitals. The next generation of his work fused workflows and patient information across multiple organizations and enabled remote consultations—all before broadband and before internet was ubiquitous.

As his vision grew, Nagpal aimed at more complex new challenges—creating regional health information sharing networks by integrating patient information from laboratories, pharmacies, imaging centers and others involved in care delivery with records from health and social care providers—all to enable safer patient care. Nagpal sold this company to diagnostics supplier Alere (now a part of Abbott) to bring connected health solutions to market that integrated medical records with medical device data in community and patient home settings to proactively predict risk and intervene early to avoid cost and higher acuity.

After Alere’s acquisition of Wellogic, Nagpal started LumiraDx, where he worked with his partners to launch a portable diagnostic device and platform that brings reference lab precision testing into ambulances, physician offices, emergency rooms, remote village clinics and more.

Nagpal’s next startup was Carefully, where he focused on the vision of a hospital alternative at home. While incubating Carefully, he joined Accenture as managing director and global lead for digital health strategy. Afterward, he joined Comcast NBCUniversal as senior vice president and global general manager for health Iinovation. Nagpal then formed his next high-growth startup, Cherish Health—merging Carefully into the company to focus on enabling safety, wellbeing and care in the home.

Cherish Health’s first innovation is a low-cost, connected, wearable biosensor patch that is now being used to help mitigate COVID-19, enabling people with the virus to recover—socially distanced— where they live with 24/7 support from their care teams.

 

Click here to access the event recording.