ATLANTA - Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology hosts its annual People & Technology Forum on November 11-12, 2014 at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.  The 2014 Forum will focus on “Connected Life” with keynotes and panel discussions providing thought-provoking discussions with insightful business leaders, brilliant researchers, and entrepreneurs examining how emerging technologies will shape the future of our society.

Keynotes this year include:

• Kwanza Hall, District 2 City Councilman, City of Atlanta

• Jia Chen, Director, Health Solutions for Smarter Cities, IBM
• Bill Stead, Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Chief Strategy Officer, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• Jeff Leddy, Chief Executive Officer, Verizon Telematics

Kwanza Hall represents District 2, the heart of Atlanta and the city’s most diverse council district. Before his election to the Atlanta City Council, Hall served on the Atlanta Board of Education. He currently serves on the boards of Leadership Atlanta, the Metro Atlanta Arts Fund, Atlanta Medical Center, and the Downtown and Midtown Improvement Districts.

MIT’s Technology Review Magazine honored Jia Chen as one of 35 leading worldwide technology innovators under the age of 35 in 2005. In 2006, Small Times magazine honored her as Best Researcher of the Year, and NASA’s Nanotech Briefs recognized her as one of the top 15 innovators of Nano50.

Bill Stead is a Founding Fellow of both the American College of Medical Informatics and the American Institute for Engineering in Biology and Medicine. He is also the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. His awards include the Collen Award for Excellence in Medical Informatics and the Lindberg Award for Innovation in Informatics. Most recently, the American Medical Informatics Association named the Award for Thought Leadership in Informatics in his honor.

Jeff Leddy was the founder of Hughes Telematics in 2006 and provided executive leadership in the development of the company’s strategic vision and implementation of its connected car services. He presently serves on the board of Global Eagle Entertainment, the leading full service platform offering both content and connectivity for the worldwide airline industry.

2014 panels will include:

• Smart Cities in a World of Big Data and Ubiquitous Connectivity
• Technology for Patients at Home: A Global, Current Health Informatics Perspective
•  Smart and Autonomous Transportation

In addition to keynote and panel sessions, attendees will have the opportunity to interact with over 100 student, faculty and startup demos including a showcase of student innovations from the Convergence Innovation Competition’s (CIC) GT Journey competition. The Fall CIC is aligned with the GT Journey project, which supports students and the entire campus community in the creation of applications, immersive experiences, and crowd sourced campus information. Entries will be working end-to-end prototypes with a strong emphasis on a user experience that enhances or improves campus life.

For more information about the event and to register please visit ipatforum.gatech.edu