GOT a clever idea for an Internet of Things (IoT) solution or product? Want to develop it but don’t know where to start?

Well, there’s now a place you can go to.

Penang-based Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology (CREST) has just launched its IoT Cloud Data Centre and Research Laboratory (ICDC Research Lab).

CREST is a platform for government agencies, academia and industry players to collaborate on research, design and development activities related to Malaysia’s electrical and electronics industry, and the ICDC Research Lab is a result of the collaboration.

For this initiative, CREST has brought together Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and industry leaders such as Cisco, Dell, IBM, Intel and Kontron.

CREST CEO Jaffri Ibrahim says the ICDC Research Lab will focus on developing commercialisable IoT products and solutions through research and integration of big data sciences, embedded systems, advanced wireless, sensors and energy-efficient systems.

“Here, we can have multinational corporations work with local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and academia to develop IoT products and solutions,” he says.

The lab is located at Sains@USM in Bukit Jambul, Penang, and is part of a larger, 10,000 sq ft facility called CREST Place, an incubator and co-working space for companies working with rapidly emerging technologies. It welcomes individuals and companies to come with ideas and develop IoT solutions.

“Individuals or companies with IoT ideas can write in to CREST. We require that you collaborate with academia and CREST can help with funding,” Jaffri says.

“If you have your own funding and want to work alone, you can come to CREST Place too. It has a start-up-friendly fee.”

Start-ups typically have a grace period of six months of free usage at CREST Place, followed by a minimal fee. Jaffri says the charges are not for profit but for CREST to recover its cost of operating the facility.

At the ICDC Research Lab, companies and individuals will have access to state-of-the-art equipment, the industry and research-driven know-how to develop prototypes for market-driven IoT products and solutions.

Christopher Kelly, general manager of Intel’s Malaysia Design Centre, says the lab is a good place for start-ups and small businesses to experiment and nurture ideas.

“The new currency of IoT is data. ‘Things’ are part of it but cloud, connectivity and data are what’ll make it go.

“Here, the industry has provided state-of-the-art infrastructure to allow small businesses in Malaysia to prototype ideas without having to fork out the initial outlay. This will create new SMEs and foster new innovations,” he says.

Healthcare, transport and other things

Among the key industries to benefit from the facility are healthcare and transport, although ideas for other industries are welcomed too, Jaffri says.

For starters, a new initiative that will utilise the ICDC Research Lab is a telematics pilot project involving 50 cars and buses from USM. The project — jointly undertaken by CREST, USM and Intel — focuses on vehicle safety and driving behaviour analytics by collecting real-time data on the vehicles.

Intel’s Kelly notes that there are good opportunities to develop IoT solutions for the retail and manufacturing sectors by using sensors to improve productivity.

The ICDC Research Lab will also host events such as hackathons and invention challenges, Jaffri says. They include the upcoming Telemedicine Innovation Challenge in conjunction with the first Malaysia Telemedicine Conference in August.

According to Jaffri, another key priority of the lab is to nurture local talent for the IoT ecosystem, and there are also plans to incubate local technopreneurs via the existing partner platforms, such as the Cisco Networking Academy and IBM Global Entrepreneur programmes.

“Gartner predicts that there will be 30 billion connected devices by 2020. More interestingly, by 2070, half of IoT solution providers are expected to be start-ups that have been in business for three years or less,” says Jaffri.

“We can help to accelerate innovation.”

This article first appeared in #edGY, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on February 9 - 15, 2015.

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