Connecting the dots

The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the way we connect our physical world to the virtual world. IoT refers to the network of billions of physical devices that can connect to the internet and to each other. Leveraging this networked revolution is what keeps Kenneth Loparo PhD ’77 up at night.

In 2016, Case Western Reserve University launched the Institute for Smart, Secure and Connected Systems, known as ISSACS, to lead specific IoT initiatives, data science, cybersecurity, networks and more. The concept for ISSACS grew out of the strategic plan for the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science – of which Loparo is chair.

“The motivation for ISSACS was to find a disruptive technology or set of disruptive technologies that are very forward-looking, that would capture the market, the interest and the attention of people long into the future,” said Loparo, who now is intent on finding a way to make the vision of the new institute a reality. “The EECS department as a foundation for this digital initiative fits the bill well.”

Loparo linked electrical engineering with its focus on the design and application of sensors, device and interface

electronics and instrumentation, with a computer engineering focus on embedded systems, computer architectures, and wireless and wearable devices and systems. Computer science provides expertise in databases, algorithms and networks, and systems and control provides the systems perspective including computational modeling and communications, feedback control, optimization and decision-making.

“If I put all of these together and ask what disruptive technologies will likely have the greatest impact on the Internet of Things, it just sort of pops out at you,” Loparo said. “The entire department is all about devices and technologies and connectedness, communication and control. It’s about data and algorithms. It’s about being smart and secure, and it’s about managing connected systems so that the total is greater than the sum of the parts. That’s ISSACS in a nutshell.”

Turning the vision into reality – going from a virtual institute to a physical institute – will, of course, require funding. Other universities are starting to realize the importance of IoT, and they are starting to invest in their own initiatives, Loparo stated.

“What concerns me most is I’m afraid that we’re going to be ‘too little, too late,’” Loparo replied. “We were early to have this vision, and we do not want to be last to execute it. The time to act is now.”

The idea is to ultimately create laboratories within ISSACS. While the new institute will be EECS-centric, the need is great to partner with other engineering departments, other schools on campus such as business, law, management, nursing and medicine as well as creating strategic regional and industry partnerships such as

healthcare, manufacturing, energy and infrastructure. The reach-out both internally and across the region is already underway. One such partnership involves Intwine Connect, LLC, which started leasing lab space on campus through the university’s Technology Transfer Office in 2014 to develop hardware, software, data analytics and other services enabling IoT.

“I think ISSACS is great for the region, and for Case to be in the forefront of what is emerging as the next major technology trend in the industry is exciting,” said Dave Martin (WSM ’85), founder, president and CEO of Intwine Connect. “It offers a tremendous employment opportunity and overall momentum to the region. To see this vision come to life would certainly be a highlight of my career.”

In order for the full picture to emerge, said Loparo, there also has to be an educational piece, a research piece, a development piece, and a translational piece of ISSACS that takes the research and development into practice. Perhaps the most critical piece, according to Loparo, is the infrastructure. In order to have smart cities and smart roads, smart hospitals and smart manufacturing, smart infrastructure is the next step.

With a $200,000 planning grant from the Cleveland Foundation, taking the next step in the process just got a boost. Case Western Reserve and Cleveland State University will partner to build an operational foundation for academic collaboration, focused mainly on economic development and partnership. As part of the Cleveland Foundation’s broader digital economic strategy called the Digital Excellence Initiative, the goal is to transform Northeast Ohio into a national model of collaboration, research, technology transfer, workforce development and community infrastructure in the emerging area of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

“This funding provides a focused opportunity for … leveraging our complementary assets and identifying critical needs for the future,” Loparo said. The grant will support a six-month planning effort to help create a more connected community. That’s just a drop in the bucket of the estimated millions of dollars in seed money needed to put the organizational structure of ISSACS and the Cleveland academic IoT collaborative in place, said Loparo, but is certainly a step in the right direction.