This year we launched the first annualResearch Symposium at the IoT World Forumin Chicago. This Symposium brought together scholars, industry leaders and visionaries from across the world to discuss how academia and industry can partner to address the challenges and the opportunities that IoT presents.

We were delighted to be joined by impressive speakers. CEO of Enduring Hydro and former Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Energy Dr. Kristina Johnson,  Stanford University Professor Balaji Prabakar, and World Bank Senior Transport Specialist Dr. Shomik Mehndiratta offered their perspectives on how IoT can improve our cities and societies by transforming how we approach everything from transportation to energy. Purdue University Professor Douglas Comer helped us understand what is required to make IoT interoperable.

Stanford Professor Thomas Lee reminded us thatwireless has evolved within three distinct eras: first, with the station-to-station wireless telegraph; second with station-to-people broadcasting and finally into person-to-person cellular technology as we know it today.

The Internet of Things is more than a technology shift.It represents a cultural and business revolution with profound impact on every human and the way we interact with each other and our communities. We need change agents from every facet of industry, government, academia and healthcare to harness the full potential of IoT and to define what's possible.

Responsible transformation will be ushered through an alliance of industry and academia. The success of the Research and Innovation Symposium and the dialogue that we started compel us to continue it again next year.  I, for one, can't wait.