​Cisco, SAS, UTS launch IoT data-focused innovation lab in Sydney

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has announced the launch of a new Internet of Things (IoT) research and teaching facility expected to help businesses improve decision-making, build organisational capacity, and apply streaming data analytics at the edge.

In partnership with SAS and Cisco, the IoT Innovation Lab will combine SAS analytics, Cisco hardware and software, and the university's expertise in data engineering to explore how to gather, store, and analyse the data potentially billions of IoT devices are going to generate.

Early research conducted in the UTS-SAS-Cisco IoT Innovation Lab will be in the areas of advanced manufacturing, agribusiness, and healthcare.

Initially, users of the lab will be researchers and students, where UTS academics will design and verify data processing models using machine learning and artificial intelligence.

It is expected industry partners will eventually jump on board to help Cisco, SAS, and UTS address the IoT-related challenges of problems they are experiencing, bringing their own data into the lab for processing and analysis, and to test solutions.

One of the first projects the lab will explore is centred on energy conservation and cost-reduction, with the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT to process the real-time data generated by the more than 3,000 IoT sensors throughout the faculty building and its Microgrid.

"The IoT Innovation Lab will be an exciting local and global IoT hub, where IoT innovation will deliver positive technological impacts on the environment, society, people, governments, and industries," Dr Gengfa Fang, Director of UTS-SAS-Cisco IoT Innovation Lab, Faculty of Engineering and IT, said.

"The volume of data already being generated will only increase but its value to society can only be fully realised if we are able to use it productively."

Launched earlier this month, the Cisco SAS Edge-to-Enterprise IoT Analytics Platform helps enterprises apply analytics at various layers of the network based on their volume, velocity, and latency requirements. It also offers a platform that negates the need for businesses to piece together their own IoT platform.

"By working together, Cisco and SAS enhance the value of streaming data for all kinds of applications including customer experience, asset performance, and fraud scenarios. The combination gives our customers control and helps them remain agile," Raghunath Nambiar, CTO of Cisco's Unified Computing Systems Group, said last week.

The UTS initiative is the first global deployment utilising the Cisco and SAS Edge-To-Enterprise IoT Analytics Platform, which is underpinned by the Cisco Kinetic IoT Data Fabric.

Cisco in February announced the investment of AU$1 million in a pilot of smart city technology in Adelaide under a partnership with the South Australian government and the City of Adelaide.

The pilot used Cisco Kinetic for Cities, and involved installing six sensors at the Grenfell-Pulteney intersection in Adelaide in order to measure "dwell time and queue length" of traffic.

The project also follows Cisco last year forming a smart cities "alliance" with KPMG Australia in order to accelerate the adoption of IoT solutions across the country.

Under that alliance, Cisco said it would meld its technology and solutions with KPMG's IoT capabilities to provide an end-to-end open framework including the provision of advisory, technology, platform, support, and operations services.

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