This was Future Summits 2022
Mission Lucidity participated in the tech event of the year, organized by imec: Future Summits 2022. An impressive line-up of visionary speakers and more than 60 inspiring demo booths illustrated how technology will change the society of tomorrow. We summarize some highlights of the event below.
Thousands of researchers, technology developers, company representatives and other stakeholders got connected to discuss the latest revolutions in technology and its various applications.
Some of the fascinating latest innovations in health tech include brain-machine interfaces, photoacoustic imaging, small ingestible sensors that can measure gut microbiome parameters and AI-driven data sciences.
Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, talked about how our entire economy relies on chip technology and more importantly, that also the future of our economy depends on chips. With the European Chips Act, the EU wants to strengthen its role in global value chains for semiconductors.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger made a powerful case that collaboration between policymakers and industry is essential to sustain Europe’s digital future.
An important recurring topic was sustainability: the semiconductor industry has a huge environmental impact and new common standards need to be set to ensure an industry-level change.
Mission Lucidity & brain-on-a-chip booth
The impressive hall of demo booths offered visitors a glimpse into the technologies of the future. A personal highlight for Mission Lucidity was our very own booth with a demo on the brain-on-a-chip platform, together with the team of Dr. Dries Braeken.
One of the applications of our brain on a chip is to collect huge amounts of data from human cells and use these to stratify patients with Parkinson’s disease
Lifetime Innovation Award
Bill Gates received imec’s Lifetime Innovation Award 2022 for his exceptional impact on the computer software revolution. In an online interview, he talked about the role of technologies and innovation in today’s society.
Imec CEO Luc Van den Hove highlighted imec’s rapid response to the COVID pandemic (including development of breathalyzer technology), but emphasis was also given to another, more slow-burning type of pandemic: neurodegenerative diseases. When asked whether technologies can help us decipher brain diseases, Bill Gates said: