“From Morse Codes to the Internet of Things” Invitation to POLE Project 2015 In Cooperation with the International Telecommunication Union of the UNO The Internet of Things (IoT) envisages a society shaped by smart “things” which can communicate with each other, directly or through a network. IoT is the realization of the idea that anything can be connected at any time from any place. It will enable forms of collaboration and communication between people and things, and between things themselves, hitherto unknown and unimagined. The Internet of Things is likely to have a huge impact on our daily lives, by allowing devices, appliances, vehicles, wearable material, and sensor-laden parts of the environment to connect to each other and feed data back and forth, and become an inherent part of areas such as electricity, transportation, industrial control, retail, utilities management, healthcare, water resources management, and petroleum. Despite the concerns on data security and privacy, IoT has been widely regarded as one of the key driver in the ICT sector to develop social and economic growth. Therefore it will be important to envision our future lives by tacking some questions such as: What impact will the IoT make on our daily lives - health, education, business, public service, etc - in the future? What kind of technologies, services and products will be introduced and transform our lives? How will human behaviors be affected by IoT? Students with disciplinary backgrounds of Computer Science, iCompetence, Engineering, Product Design, Sociology, Psychology, Design Management, Scenography, Film Sciences and others coming from a network of partner universities (Aalborg University DK, Tecnológico de Monterrey MX, Northumbria University UK, Windesheim University NL, Merz Akademie Stuttgart, BTK Berlin DE, Universitá di Bologna IT, Technical University of Lodz PL, Illinois Institute of Technology and Minnesota State University, both USA and University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland as leading house), participating in the POLE 2015 will be invited to tackle these challenges and propose their ideas and visions how to make our daily lives smarter through IoT applications and technologies. The project takes place between February and May 2015 – incl. a one week physical kick-off in Switzerland (with a visit to the United Nations in Genève) – and thereafter using video conferencing technologies. The multi-disciplinary teams will develop th prototypes of IoT to be displayed in an interactive exhibition in Genève for the celebration of the 150 anniversary of the International Telecommunication Union ITU of the UNO. Applications (including a CV and a Letter of Motivation) must be sent to Prof. Dr. Christoph Holliger before January 4, 2015 Mail to christoph.holliger@fhnw.ch University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland For earlier projects cf.: www.pole-project.ch