Internet of things | Steve Stathis Tzikakis | TEDxAcademy

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

Steve Tzikakis joined SAP in early January 2008, and is currently the Head for the Premier Customers (PCN) in EMEA, and a member of EMEA's Regional Leadership Team. The PCN customers in EMEA include some of the largest and most strategic clients for SAP globally.

When you're invited
to a TEDx presentation,

the first thing that you feel
is you feel honored.

But when they tell you're going
to be the first presentation up,

then the excitement disappears.

(Laughter)

Today, when I looked at
many of my fellow speakers,

and I had the pleasure of meeting
a few just as we're warming up,

I realized that quite a few
of my fellow presenters work for NASA,

are associated with NASA,
or with the European Space Agency.

So, I decided to put this up
as my first slide.

This is Apollo 17, the spacecraft used
for the last manned mission to the Moon.

I had to put it up

because that was the only piece
of technology within my presentation

in a technology evolution event.

The second reason is
because I personally feel

that this is the start
of the digitalization era.

Among the numerous innovations
within that mission,

there are two that stand out,

and have somehow found a way
back to our lives today.

The first one is the in-memory computer.

That spacecraft had a 24-KB computer

that navigated the vehicle
from Earth to the Moon.

To put things into perspective,
24 KB is what it takes

for a birthday singing card
to play a singing song today.

The second piece of innovation
was the world's first hand-held device.

That was a calculator called HP-35,

it was made by Hewlett-Packard,

and the 35 stood for
the 35 buttons it had on it.

The name wasn't innovative,

but the innovation is now something

that all of us
carry into our pockets today,

a hand-held device.

Twenty years from then, in June 1991,

my father woke me up abruptly
one morning to take me to work.

That was my first day at work,
right after school.

He had laid out everything:

samples, price list, order book,
my new briefcase, two bus tickets.

He explained to me

that I would never take money
from him again.

I had to earn my living.

And he gave me
the only piece of technology

that was available at the time
for a new sales guy.

That was a hand-held calculator by Casio.

So, 20 years, between the last
manned mission to the Moon

and my first day at work,
technology had barely evolved.

Now, fast forward two decades
from that in today's world,

just think of the technology

that a young person that comes
to work for my business has with him.

They have an iPad,
they have an iPhone, a smart watch,

they are connected to social media,

they can procure from business networks,
they can make video calls,

which was unprecedented
at the time of the last manned mission,

or at the time
that my first day at work was.

Try to put all of this into perspective

and think of all the things
that have happened in our life.

In the last two decades,
I have traveled the world extensively.

I'm honored to lead,
across three continents,

one of the most innovative
technology firms.

And I see technology evolution
on a day-to-day basis,

how it affects us, how it affects
our customers, the societies we live in.

That one thing that stands out,
for which I'm here to talk to you today,

is how our DNA evolves.

Our lives evolve, our brain changes
and our DNA is evolving,

and we have to take notice of it.

Alongside this innovation,

we also have the evolution of the senses.

Think about a smartphone, we touch it.

And then think about a wearable device,
that's attached to a T-shirt,

that feels over all
of our vital statistics.

And then feel of the technology
that is on a smart watch

that gives us notifications
and vibrations,

so that we understand
that something interesting is happening:

a friend of us is nearby,

we've exceeded the heart rates
when running,

or we've just completed
a purchase in iTunes.

Then, think about sound.

Most of the people in this room
use Shazam.

And in a few years from now,

the devices we carry on us
will be listening to the environment,

and will be able to recognize,
based on our preferences and behaviors,

the things that are of interest to us.

We will be able to procure
through a television set at home

something that is of interest to us,

simply because an advertisement played,
and our smartphone listened to it.

Think about Google Glasses,
and how pioneering this was.

Think about the life
of an architect or an engineer.

Think about digital or analogical reality,

how I can put together my plans in reality

and wearing smart glasses I can see
exactly my deviations from the plan.

And then taking it a step further,
think about blind people.

Think how their life can change,

when they have a drone flying over them
with facial recognition,

understanding who they are
and giving them directions

as to how they can walk
via infrared or high-definition cameras.

Think the impact we make
into these people's life,

simply by having a drone,
which costs 100 euros, following them.

Then think about 3-dimensional printing.

We can print food,
you can print a dessert,

you can print any dish you want,
pasta, you can print meat.

And imagine the behavioral differences

we are going to have
in a day-to-day dietary.

No different from
what has happened in manufacturing;

manufacturing has had
an unprecedented change.

We moved from mass-producing goods
to custom-printed goods.

Think about smell.

Devices that sense gas have been
around for more than three decades.

Initially in mines, now in workplaces,
most recently in every home.

Now think about a plug-in in your iPhone
that can emit senses

so that you have

an unprecedented experience
alongside your video call.

You can smell the flower

the other person is holding
on the other side of the line.

Our brain receives
an amazing number of data

which comes from our senses,
predominantly from our senses.

Our brain has
a fantastic ability to evolve.

This is called [plasticity].

This is something
that we need to use however.

We have two choices:

to stay idle

- for instance, just enjoy
the friendships we have on Facebook -

or to be dynamic and proactive,

in other words, to take advantage
of the Facebook technology,

of the social media,
the business networks,

and the technology that is out there.

Now, the impact that comes to our lives
goes of course way beyond the senses.

It changes our life.

Think about smart cities of tomorrow.

We've been involved
in a couple of very interesting projects,

landmark projects,
because they were the first.

One was in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil,

whereby there were millions
of sensors, and cameras,

and points that could receive data

that were all fed in
a single in-memory computer;

similar technology to the Apollo 17.

And that analyzes all the events,
whether it's data, power outage,

traffic, material changes
in the social environment we live in

through what people twit
or write on Facebook or LinkedIn.

And all of this can be analyzed
in a single computer

so that the city can prevent things,

can manage the aftermath
of accidents, or big events.

Another life changing project has happened

in Istanbul, in Turkey.

There, using again in-memory technology,

but also pieces of hand-held devices,

we've managed to put together a system
that compares images from satellites

so that we know exactly what has happened
before and after a major earthquake.

This way, the security services
know exactly

where they have to attend
and focus on the areas

where they have to attend
before and after the earthquake.

But despite all of these evolutions,

and the ones that my fellow presenters
will explain to you momentarily,

you look at
the unemployment rate in Europe

and the unemployment
between the young remains at 50%

in most European countries.

And then you hear that the IT sector
in Europe has 100,000 vacancies.

And this is the biggest oxymoron
we have in the society.

There is a major disconnect

between the opportunities
that lie ahead with technology,

the changes that this evolution
has brought to our life,

and particularly to our DNA,

and the reality, our ability
to capitalize on those opportunities.

And now, we hear a lot of people
talking about the lost generation.

I am here today to help
the young understand

that the evolution does not go together
with a lost generation.

There is no such thing
as a lost generation.

Think about 1972: the hand-held device;

two decades later, my first day at work;

two decades later - this is today -
all the technology we have in our hands;

and the difference in the opportunity

that a person
on their first day at work has

versus the opportunity that I had
on my first day at work.

Think how I evolved

and then think how you can take advantage
of what is out there

and make your life different,
make your life better.

There is no such thing
as a lost generation

because this generation
is full of opportunity.

There is a lot of innovation
and a lot of technology

that opens up new horizons.

For the first time, this country
has entrepreneurs after many, many years.

For the first time, this country
has technology startups

which is something that couldn't have
been possible a few years ago.

Now imagine! Imagine what you can do.

You've made the first day today,
ladies and gentlemen,

you have come here,
you've come here to hear about evolution.

Grasp the opportunity.

There is a lot of opportunity out there

and convert [it]
into a brighter future for you.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)