Wahab Almuhtadi, Past President IEEE CTSoc (left); Gary Shapiro, President and CEO CTA (on screen); Saifur Rahman, IEEE President; Wen-Chung Kao, President IEEE CTSoc; Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO TELUS (right)

CES 2023 THE GLOBAL STAGE FOR INNOVATION: IEEE CTSoc THE GLOBAL DRIVER FOR INNOVATION

Interview with Wen-Chung Kao (WCK), President IEEE Consumer Technology Society (CTSoc) at the International Conference on Consumer Technology (ICCE) on January 06, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. By Christian Gross (CG), Regional Director EMEA, IEEE CTSoc.

CG: Wen-Chung, the Consumer Electronics Show is the most influential tech event in the world, known as the proving ground for breakthrough technologies and global innovators. Today we talk in Las Vegas with each other during the International Conference on Consumer Technology (ICCE), the flagship conference of the IEEE Consumer Technology Society.

WCK: Yes, the IEEE CTSoc is proud to be part of this world’s biggest CT event. Here in Las Vegas is a perfect place for our society to connect business and academia. Here it is easy to meet new partners and bring the sharpest innovators to the stage.

CG: You just started being President of the IEEE Consumer Technology Society (CTSoc). What are your goals?

WCK: First of all, I will support CTSoc’s ongoing activities. That means helping our volunteers in their engagement for conferences, publication, standardization and education. In this context I like to thank all IEEE members who are doing the very worthwhile work through 15 CTSoc committees … and CTSoc also cooperates with other IEEE societies and with technical-scientific associations like VDE (German Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies). A lot of talks in the

last days have shown to me that our society has a very positive image and is globally well known as innovator, coordinator, networker, publisher and driver of consumer technology. I feel that this is a very good base for increasing our activities, membership and the success of our international conferences.

CG: Today, the first session of the Industry Program took place as part of the ICCE. What do you think about this activity?

WCK: I think, that the Industry Program is an important part of ICCE. The topics “Consumer Technology Standards”, “IT Security with Emphasis on Consumer IoT (CIoT)” and “How Megatrends Drive Innovations in Consumer Technology” brought leading practitioner and IEEE experts on stage and gave our participants and members the possibility to discuss with them. That activity should be extended … and I would like to use this interview to thank Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO of Telus, for his wonderful support of ICCE. We need more patrons like him. They mean well for our conferences content and financial health and we remain reliable partners for them. But first of all, their patronage allows for added value to the participant experience - we invest back in our members.

CG: Thank you for this Interview.

WCK: I thank you for this interview, for your support as chair of the ICCE Industry Program and your willingness to be the next Executive Chair of the ICCE-Berlin from September 2-5, 2023, in Germany, at IFA.