Sasken's Focus Areas

AI And Machine Learning

The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for decades and has considerably improved. The term AI was coined by John McCarthy in 1956 with a goal to develop machines that are intelligent and are useful in the real world scenario. But ever since IBM’s Deep Blue defeated the chess wizard, Garry Kasparov in 1997, AI has played a much more genuine and beneficial role in technology. A lot has changed from then to now. Technology is much more easily available and we see people skillfully applying different technologies, using toolkits and frameworks, to a wide variety of problems in the industry from design to quality control to manufacturing to customer service.

The thought process employed to arrive at certain deductions and conclusions have been kept in intangible form for centuries. A change in man’s resolve to somehow imprint those steps into the tangible world has led to the creations of tools. Subsequently, tools led to machines and machines paved the way for instruments to look into the microcosm and the macrocosm. And finally, the insights from these worlds led to the revolution witnessed by mankind over the last five decades – The Computing Revolution!

Now the GPS is smarter than human beings in spatial navigation. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Echo are some household names of AI. However, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that we are merely in the first hour of the AI revolution. Also, AI alone will never emerge as an industry inclination as it is not a single type of technology. Artificial Intelligence paired with Machine Learning is predicted to be the most sought after technology trend in the near future.

IoT

Our world is fast changing with revolutionary technologies and disruptive ideas emerging in the whole new connected space. Amidst this mesh/network of connected devices, Internet of Things is changing our lives through many applications in many vertical markets.

IoT is the interface between the individuals and the connected environment that they are in. It can be thought of as a natural progression towards the individual with the individual becoming the center of things. From smart home to smart cars to wearable devices, many concepts have been born and are blooming under this idea. The Internet of Things (IoT) has catalyzed the tapping of existing data faster and in significant volumes. IoT is one of the key factors that have pushed the adoption of digital transformation.

Increasing adoption of IoT in the industrial set up presents manufacturers with tremendous business opportunities. Through a connected factory setup, manufacturers can effectively gather and apply insights to monetize these opportunities. Today, the IoT-driven Industry 4.0 solutions are helping businesses to improve productivity, reduce operating costs, and enhance worker safety. Reduced cost of ownership is one of the major benefits linked to IIoT. The introduction of IoT in the Industrial space heralded the advent of expanding connectivity, more digitalization, utilizing cloud infrastructure, and newer business models. The implementation of IoT and AI in the Industrial landscape is giving rise to technologies such as machine vision, machine learning, sensor automation, mesh networking with short range communication protocols, and wearable technology such as smart helmet.

V2X

A decade ago, industry leaders pioneered security (eCall features, etc.) for the connected car. Since then, based on consumer demands, concierge services and user-experience started to drive how the next-gen of telematics and connected car would look like. Advances in autonomy are being driven to reduce accidents, driver/passenger safety, etc. This will then lend itself to user-experiences as newer business models evolve when more and more content gets into the vehicle (for e.g. retail/digital-shopping experiences merging with the connected car).

Finally, smart mobility will have a huge play here. In order to have a seamless experience inside/outside the car while interacting with mobile devices, V2X (vehicle-to-infrastructure) will pave the way for smarter ways to interact with infrastructure outside the car. Cellular V2X has the advantage of enabling more use-cases (vehicle-to-pedestrian, vehicle-to-device, etc.), longer range, higher message throughput, existing network infrastructure but it also has the disadvantage of being an evolving standard. In the next decade or so, V2X is expected to grow particularly for its use in the autonomous car where it can enable the car to make informed decisions.

Blockchain

Bitcoin invention by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 brought about a cryptocurrency wave over the decade. While Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies evolved, it was not until a few years later that Bitcoin’s underlying technology, Blockchain, was recognized as a technology in-itself. Blockchain is seen as a revolutionary technology and is likely to become disruptive with an enormous potential across many different verticals bringing in speed, efficiency, and transparency. Several forums are active in developing block chain standards for different application domains.

Ease of tracking, transparency, data authenticity and integrity brings in cost reduction, increased operational efficiency and increased productivity to enterprises.

Sasken has developed many components of blockchain framework, which is light-weight with a focus on achieving data authenticity at the origin. It includes a new patent pending consensus algorithm for permissioned Blockchain framework called Proof-of-Coordinated-Wait-Time (PoCWT). Our solutions and capabilities in blockchain can be customized to different requirements and will help our customers reach their next level of automation, integration and service availability. Sasken is involved in developing a block chain solution for supply chain with a leading industry partner.

5G

Digital transformation in all walks of life will disrupt our ways of working and bring in new demands on connectivity or communication requirements in the future. Such transformations, in every industry and walk of life demands very efficient communication infrastructure in terms of high data rates and high quality service with low latency. Human and machine interactions will be more demanding in the all-digital world in the future. Towards that end, Fifth Generation (5G) communication systems promise Gigabit data rates, sub millisecond latency and consistent user experience.  5G systems are expected to provide very efficient connectivity in highly heterogeneous networks all over the world. Such networks will be spectrally more efficient than 4G services, support more users and achieve higher device connectivity and wider network coverage with low latency and longer battery lives.  

An interesting use case of 5G can be found in autonomous or self-driving vehicle moving at a very high speed, with humans or machines inside it, interacting with other similar vehicles as well as the Internet and other networks. Smart cities, wireless sensor or IoT networks, 3D/4D video streaming and interactive services, augmented reality applications, high bandwidth cloud services are some areas which will demand such high communication services.