v2.1
We introduced themes, the event centering on IoT viability
On the 18th of February, 2017 Hardware Lagos held her fourth meetup at WebCoupers in Yaba. Compared to previous editions of the meetups, this one had a central theme which guided the selection of the topics and speakers.
The theme was Internet of Things and the event was to discuss the viability of developing solutions of the kind in Nigeria. Yen Choi, EVP & CTO of Netcom Africa and Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Lead Industrial Designer at TECNO spoke at the event, leaving us with their insights and other gems.
Yen spoke on Infrastructure for IoT. In his comprehensive talk he took us through the length and breadth of IoT, starting from the basic definition of the term, exploring subtopics like IoT characteristics, enabling technologies, stages of maturity, security, current and future states of infrastructure among other things.
His presentation had very descriptive charts and stattistics to back many of the claims and projections he made about the subject. A data advocate himself, Yen spent some time explaining how important data is in the whole IoT picture. A lot of data will be aggregated via IoT networks hence making sense of it will crucial to the success and adoption of the technology. He rounded up his talk by stating the challenges IoT adoption faces in Nigeria shortly before he dropped a list of predictions.
‘Connected devices will become the norm; devices will integrate with and into humans...’
This interesting list can be viewed on his presentation on SpeakerDeck.
Nifemi Marcus-Bello led the second talk. The lead designer at TECNO spent about a half-hour speaking on Product Design for IoT solutions. His talk was actually not peculiar to IoT solutions as he generally talked about applying design principles to industrial design. The talk began with humorous yet witty pictures of products made to solve unusual problems like controlling bus driver over-speeding in an Asian country.
With those pictures he explained the goal of product design: problem solving; and how important it is in the whole design workflow. He went ahead to enlist and discuss in detail each of the 5 steps involved in IDEO’s Human-Centered Design giving real life examples of some popular cases and a few of his personal experiences at TECNO and other places he had worked. His talk was particularly awash with follow up questions which he did justice to.
‘Even if it’s your final idea, you will never know it is correct if you do not test’
Be sure to take a look at his presentation here.
At the end of the talks, an informal networking session ensued. Attendees had a chance to ask more questions from the speakers and share ideas.
There was a live-stream of the entire event by the good guys at WebCoupers.
Our next event promises to be even more interesting. We will be focusing on solar systems and renewable energy solutions in Nigeria.
Until then…
