This document provides a summary of emerging technology trends in the post-COVID world by Vincent Lau. It discusses trends across several areas including cloud/edge computing, information access and flow, data ownership and cybersecurity, the internet of things, cognitive computing, sustainability, decentralization, mixed reality, space/quantum computing, and industry use cases in healthcare, transportation, logistics, finance and marketing. It also covers essential skills, aptitude, and attitude for staying relevant in a changing technological landscape.

1. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends in
the Post-COVID World
a sharing by Vincent Lau
IoT Chapter EXCO and Digital Resources
Committee Member of SCS

2. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Scope
Emerging Technology Trends 4
Industry Use Cases 18
Skills, Aptitude & Attitude 24
Q&A 28
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3. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
What to expect in the Post-COVID World
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4. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
From Cloud to Edge Computing
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Now: Containerization, Serverless, Infrastructure as Code
● Docker, Kubernetes = better utilization of VM resources + greater
interoperability
● Serverless = Enhanced scalability, lower costs and flexible consumption
● Infrastructure as Code (e.g. Terraform) = automation friendly + easily
evolve infrastructure + no vendor lock-in
Upcoming: Edge Compute, IoT Hubs
● AWS IoT Core and Greengrass: local lambda, containers and messaging
● SPTel IoT-as-a-Service and Multi-access Edge Computing: Processing your
data at the edge means only a minimal subset of data is sent back

5. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
Information Access & Flow
Now: REST API, Webhooks & API Integration Platforms
● Decreased time to market
● More time can be spent on UX and design
● WebHook is an HTTP callback
● Zapier, IFTTT = Process automation and no-code API integrations
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Upcoming: Streaming, Realtime Web & WebRTC
● Zoom is now worth more than top 7 airlines combined;
Integrate with Zoom API and put your app on its Marketplace
● WebRTC supports video, voice, and generic data to be sent
between peers; create the next TikTok

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7. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
Data Ownership & Cybersecurity
Now: data privacy is now many Govt’s focus; secured
protocols are now mainstream
● Most connection protocols (e.g. HTTPS, SFTP) are now
secured by a Transport Layer Security certificate
● Proliferation of free TLS certs
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Upcoming: More focus on IoT / device security
● Device security usually overlooked; with the
proliferation of IoT, this is now a crucial area
● Cybersecurity Labelling Scheme

8. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau 9
31 billion
IoT devices installed and connected
by 2020
127
New IoT devices connected every
second
3.5 billion
Cellular IoT connections will be
established
$1.29 trillion
Global spending on IoT devices and
technology
$124 billion
Market size for Industrial IoT by 2021
$14 billion
Market size for Healthcare IoT by
2024
93%
Enterprises worldwide will adopt IoT
technology
80%
Industrial manufacturing companies
will adopt IoT
90%
New cars will be connected via IoT
technology
IoT in 2020
Source: https://securitytoday.com/Articles/2020/01/13/The-IoT-Rundown-for-2020.aspx?Page=2

9. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
The Internet of Things
Now: More things connected on the Internet than people
• Modern component devices work with high-level programming
• Nearly everything can be connected via an API
• Components are much cheaper, and easily obtainable (or even
printable via a 3D Printer)
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Upcoming: Smarter things and AV/Drones Revolution
● AI + IoT = Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT)
● Autonomous Vehicles, eMobility and Drones
● Adapting to 5G

10. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
Age of Cognitive Computing
Now: collect everything and machine learn
● More readily available ML tools
● Advances in AI models: easily utilized machine
learned insights (e.g. usage in chatbots)
● Chatbots and natural language understanding
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Upcoming: deep learning and the AI marketplace
● Create Alexa Skills, sell ML Models and use them
for transfer learning (e.g. Modzy, Model Depot)
● Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) and
Deepfakes

11. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
A Green Recovery & Sustainability
Now: Urban farming, Waste management, Smart grids &
green infrastructure
● Edible Garden City, Sustenir Agriculture (vertical farm)
● Tria Sustainable Food Packaging, Digesters and Composting
● Building a smart grid at Punggol Digital District
● Mycelium construction materials and BCA Green Mark
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Upcoming: Circular economy, Virtual power plants &
Internet of energy
● 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (17 SDGs)
● Development of first VPP in SG and the dawn of IoE

12. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
Trust, Identity & Decentralization
Now: Blockchain is disrupting authority
● Beyond proliferation of cryptocurrencies, smart contracts
and dApps will change every industry
● Immutability and transparency of Blockchain
● Bitcoin’s rally and the launch of Libra in Jan 2021
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Upcoming: DeFi and non-fungible tokens
● Decentralized Finance platforms offer financial
services to anyone without discrimination of any kind
and without having to ask for authorization
● NFTs are unique and not interchangeable

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Reference:
https://media.consensys.net/i-made-over-600-in-3-hours-with-non-fungible-tokens-on-the-blockchain-cryptoartwork-
4954bc52b354

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Reference: https://peakd.com/hive-167922/@cryptosimplify/what-are-the-differences-between-defi-and-cefi

15. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
Mixed Reality
Now: Real, and easily accessible
● AR is now intrinsic in all iOS/Android phones
● High-fi VR (e.g. Oculus, Hive), and Low-fi
(smart phone-based goggles) have made
VR readily accessible to the masses
● More ways to use AR (e.g. Hololens), and an
explosion of AR Games (e.g. Pokemon Go)
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Upcoming: Immersive Computing
● Form factor of a goggles will be reduced to a light and simple eyewear, fueled by the
proliferation of 5G and edge computing
● Magic Leap vs Facebook Glasses (releasing in 2021) vs Apple Glasses (rumoured)

16. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Emerging Technology Trends
Space & Quantum Computing
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Upcoming: Quantum apps and communication
● The Quantum App Store
● Unhackable encryption based on the laws of physics,
and not complex mathematical algorithms
● Achieving Quantum Supremacy
Now: Dawn of commercial space apps
● GPS revolution made modern apps like
Uber/Grab possible
● Satellite imagery unlocks new applications
(e.g. Google Project Sunroof, Agrivi)
● 41% of World has no Internet; that will soon change

17. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Industry Use Cases
Impact on major industries
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18. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Industry Use Cases
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5 Types of IoT Applications
Commercial IoT
Consumer IoT
Industrial IoT
Infrastructure IoT
Military IoT
Healthcare Transport Logistics Finance Marketing
Lighting Home Appliances Voice Assistants Wearables Toys
Smart Factories Smart Agriculture Smart PLCs SCADA
Smart Cities Building Management Systems Smart Facilities Smart Assets
Surveillance Drones ExoskeletonsCombat Wearables

19. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Industry Use Cases
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Utilities IoT (Energy Monitoring) Use Case
IPC Logger tracks solar
energy generated
LoRa meter tracks
energy consumed
Edge compute aggregates
data from LoRa gateway
Factory owner monitors
energy generation and
consumption on mobile
Source: https://pylon.city/

20. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Industry Use Cases
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Industrial IoT (Manufacturing) Use Case
Sensors are installed on the
production line
Sensors are connected to nodes
Data from nodes are
aggregated at the
gateway and sent to
the cloud
Factory owner monitors production line
metrics on a Dashboard
Source: https://www.auk.industries/

21. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Industry Use Cases
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Infrastructure IoT (Smart Parking) Use Case
Carpark bookings are
displayed on the lot screen,
which will display
unauthorized parking when
there is a violation
Camera detects car plate of
incoming car at the lot
Video feeds are processed
at the edge compute, and
the processed data is sent to
the cloud
Building manager monitors carpark utilization and
reservations on the Dashboard
Source: https://www.allocatespace.co/

22. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Industry Use Cases
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Retail IoT (People Monitoring) Use Case
Source: https://www.trakomatic.com/
Heat-mapping analytics allows organisations to have a
better understanding of the shopper and visitor trails
within the physical area.
Trakomatic heat mapping provides an immediate visual
summary of the hot zone and cold zone. Allow you to
identify the best performing places in-store.

23. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Skills, Aptitude & Attitude
Set a goal and learn to know yourself
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24. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Essential Skills
The ‘Hard’ Skills
Coding is the new literacy
• Don’t limit yourself to just 1 programming language
• Codes need not be mere syntaxes (e.g. visual programming, voice commands, actions)
• Human-machine interaction will only increase
Apply computational thinking
• Analytically and logically organize data
• Automate solutions via algorithms
• Formulate problems in a way that a solution can be obtained with computer assistance
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25. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Essential Skills
The ‘Soft’ Skills
Communication & Teamwork
• Be confident, and express your ideas clearly
• Work with, not against, your team members
• Write clear documentations with proper diagrams
Initiative & Flexibility
• Adapt to changing situations and environment
• Identify opportunities & be proactive in suggesting ideas & solutions
• Do not be afraid to make your own decisions
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26. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Aptitude & Attitude
How to be good at something you don’t like?
1. Pursuing your passion as a career is a sure way to kill
your passion (Bad Career Advice, Forbes, 09/2010)
2. Get other people to do the stuffs that you are not
passionate about (Tan Min Liang, Razer CEO)
3. People who don’t like their career are unhappy
because they’re not using their best abilities
(Bernard Haldane, pioneer in career counselling)
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27. Copyright 2020 Vincent Lau
Q & A
Thank you
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