It has been almost 2 years since I met Mr. Hwaiyu Geng for the first time at the
SmartAmerica Expo in Washington D.C., a program I established with Geoff
Mulligan when we were serving as White House Presidential Innovation Fellows.
I still have a vivid memory of Mr. Geng then, as he was one of the few in the audience
who sat through more than 8h of presentations, from 24 teams, without pausing for
lunch. At the event, I could see his deep passion for the new technologies—Internet
of things (IoT) and cyber–physical systems (CPS)—and his desire to understand how
they can help improve everyone’s quality of life. Now, I am glad to see his passion
for IoT and CPS bear fruit through this book.
IoT is an emerging concept and enabler that has the potential to completely
reshape the future of industry. To be exact, IoT is not a completely new concept.
It has been around for decades, as can be found in many traditional centralized
building?control systems dating back to the 1980s. However, its significance was
rediscovered with the emergence of big data analytics, low?cost sensors, and ubiqui-
tous connectivity powered by many modern?age communication technologies. Most
importantly, businesses started to realize that new revenue models can be created by
adding the IoT concept to their existing product lines, an approach that has fueled the
adoption of IoT technologies.