Latest in IT innovation at Cork Tech Summit
Leading figures from the world of tech and artificial intelligence (AI) will be in Cork for the seventh Tech Summit next month to explore the latest advances in the rapidly changing sector.
Organised by regional voluntary tech group IT@Cork, this year’s Tech Summit in the City Hall on May 3 will be the first to have a cyborg, cyberpsychologist and robot on stage.
Themes for the one-day event, which has the Irish Examiner as a media partner, include AI and emerging tech. It will explore how technologies, along with cryptocurrencies, can reduce business costs and finance business in new ways.
In the future technologies segment, attendees will observe a live cyborg to see first-hand how humans can be augmented by so-called “biohacking” with the next generation of embedded sensors and non-medical implants.
Biohacking is said to be the practice of improving human health and performance using tech-related inventions.
This year’s speakers will also discuss how digital and genomic technologies, 3D-printed organs and facial-recognition therapies are converging to make healthcare and treatments more personalised and precise.
Speakers include chief cyborg officer and bio-hacker at VivoKey, Patrick Kramer; cyberpsychologist Berni Good; chief technology officer at Ryanair, John Hurley; founding director at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics in University College Cork (UCC), Professor Barry O’Sullivan; and head of EU operations and Ireland country lead at Stripe, Don O’Leary.
Mr Kramer founded Digiwell — Upgraded Humans in 2014, the largest biohacking platform in Europe. He is a founding member of Vivokey Technologies, a company to augment the human body with the next generation of non-medical implants.
Chair of IT@Cork, Caroline O’Driscoll, said the Tech Summit was an opportunity to hear from world-renowned speakers to give a “glimpse of the future, who push the envelope and who show how technology can and will transform our lives”, as well as pushing Cork as a leading region for IT.
“The calibre of speakers lined-up is a testament to how well-regarded the event is, and to how the region is widely perceived as an established and growing tech hub. I am excited to see this level of innovation on display in the region,” she said.
Cork is already home to over 60 international technology companies covering integrated circuit (IC) design, manufacturing, software development and cybersecurity.
IT@Cork, which represents over 200 companies in the tech sector in the region, is made up of indigenous and international IT professionals, multinationals, government figures, academics, entrepreneurs, investors, and the legal and financial professional services community.
Co-chair of the event and senior director of automation and AI software labs at McKesson, Denis Canty, said: “We are at a unique point in history, accelerating toward an era of ubiquitous intelligence, where robotics, artificial intelligence and mankind are on a voyage to singularity.
“It may seem like us and them now, but our trust and acceptance will evolve the relationship to one which will seem normal to future generations.”
Other organisations speaking on the day include axial3D, TechIreland, KPMG, Stripe, 8West, CIT, Trinity and OpenLitterMap.
Tickets are now on sale at www.techsummit.ie.
