The first virtual edition of EmTech Asia, an event co-organised by MIT Technology Review and Koelnmesse Pte Ltd, was held from 4 to 6 August 2020. A resounding success, the three-day online conference was attended by close to 800 industry professionals representing 24 countries.
EmTech Asia 2020 presented an accelerated schedule to enable participants to experience the entire program curated for the virtual event, which spanned several international time zones.
Forty-five of the world’s most influential leaders and innovators participated in EmTech Asia. They discussed how emerging technologies will influence industries related to artificial intelligence, robotics, sustainability, healthcare, immersive media, and more.
Speakers included representatives from Google, Autodesk Robotics Lab, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), Microsoft Research, and spokespersons from universities including UNSW, the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, and IMRE at A*STAR, among others.
“EmTech Asia brings together technical experts from all over the world and connect them with industry people. I am greatly amazed and inspired by all the breakthrough technology presented,” said Simon Lui, director and expert AI Scientist, QQ Music, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), who spoke about how AI could be utilised to leverage to handle challenges in the music industry, through the latest Deep Learning and Music Information Retrieval (MIR) techniques.
“In the face of a pandemic, EmTech Asia pivoted effectively to create a wonderfully engaging online experience. The broad range of speakers from across the globe kept the conference exciting, making it a pleasure to stay connected throughout,” said Graham Ruby, principal investigator, Calico, who walked us through a statistical framework that connects mortality statistics with the biology of ageing in his session.
A key session, Emerging Technologies and Innovations in a Time of Crisis, saw presenter Bob Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT and academic cofounder of Moderna, speak about COVID-19 research and how advances in nanotechnology and healthcare can address the current crisis. Another key theme at the conference was artificial intelligence and its impact on ethics, finance, and drug design.
Other key sessions included How Wearable Technology Empowers Cancer Prevention by Steven Tucker, cofounder, Re:Mission Health; and Saving Lives the Microbiome Way by Jeremy Lim, CEO, Asian Microbiome Library. Lim discussed how the microbiome is implicated in numerous diseases and can be used to save lives, thanks to advances in modern genetic sequencing and computing tools.
“Although this is the first-ever virtual EmTech Asia, I felt like I was physically present for all the talks. Excellent job on ensuring that all talks went on smoothly, and that attendees are well engaged in the live chat,” said Wong Wei Ru, researcher, the department of electrical engineering at the University of Malaysia.
The virtual edition of EmTech Asia could not have happened without the support of Deep Tech Partner, SGInnovate; Innovation Partners; Hong Kong Baptist University; Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology; and many other sponsors and partners. The organisers express their deep gratitude to all parties involved.
Access to the event platform and live presentations will be available to registered attendees on-demand until June 2021 here: https://emtechasia.delegateconnect.co/
