Future lies in Internet of Things, says Oz academic Dr Mohan Jacob

KOCHI: He is the associate professor with the James Cook University (JCU) in Australia and heads the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department at the varsity and a leading researcher worldwide in the field of plasma polymerization. Dr Mohan Jacob, hailing from Kanjirappalli in Kottayam, has published over 150 papers and is into the 20th year Down Under.

As part of establishing networks with the colleges and universities back home and engage in student exchange programmes and also to help students get enrolled in his varsity, Dr Mohan Jacob says that the dynamics of campuses back in Australia is fast changing and new courses related to latest developments in technology are fast emerging.

“The most fancied of them today is the BE(Hons) in Electronic systems and Internet of Things (IoT) which deals with the many new developments related to the Internet. These developments have become so vast and so important so as to be encompassed in a separate engineering course,” Mr Mohan Jacob said. “The developments in technology enable consultation and treatment via the web in telemedicine. The doctor need not be physically present to treat a patient,” he said.

Dr Russell Joshua, Director, Future Students and International, who is with Dr Mohan Jacob on his tour of Kerala campuses, said that the time is arriving when Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags or chips attached to the body could predict an impending heart attack or stroke by analyzing certain enzymes in the body and help the patient reach his doctor and save his/her life.

“By the year 2020, a total of 50 billion electronic devices will be conversing with each other and will change business models as well. Technology is not far off when in the supermarkets, all the bar codes in different objects that a customer brings to the cash counter could be read in one go and thus save time,” he said.