INGESTIBLE THINGS™ REFLECTIONS
PARTICIPANT THOUGHTS AND WANTS FOR THE 2021 INTERNET-OF-INGESTIBLE-THINGS™
The Internet-of-Ingestible-Things™
As co-founder of Enteromics and PhD in Cyber-biosecurity, I launch the very first Internet-of-Ingestible-Things™, sponsored by the Dawes Centre for Future Crime, as a series of workshops bringing together experts from cybersecurity with medical device regulatory bodies and makers, to help design security for the new generation “Ingestible-Things™” or secure smart gut-sensing pills.
What a time it’s been! Now exactly one month later, I share participant thoughts and wants for the 2021 Internet-of-Ingestible-Things™ series. With more than 200 attendees at our pre-hackathon talks, 27 individual applicants and 7 team applicants, from a diverse set of backgrounds including pharma, security intelligence and neuroscience, the finalist teams engaged with more than 4,000 people through their pitch videos and publics’ vote raising security awareness for the emerging smart pill tech!
So how did we do?
Here is what some participants had to say!
“I learnt so much, especially in cybersecurity, which I had not thought about before; the importance of cybersecurity regulations and how mainstream the internet of ingestible things will become”
Here is some more!
“Having attended a hackathon in-person before, I was unsure how well a virtual one will be, especially as the teams are randomly allocated. This event exceeded all expectations. The opportunity to actually 3D print our design and see our vision in reality was a great experience”
Overall, how would you rate the event?
Our participants gave us an overall 4.5 average rating and when asked about that remaining .5 for the next series, they were eager for an:
“in-person series!”
What about our Speakers?
A 4.4 rating was given to our invited speakers, with special kudos going to learning how to Red-Team (Ed Chung, BioBright) and how to communicate complex topics such as security (Mark Corbett, Mayor’s Entrepreneur Programme).
“I particularly liked Ed Chung’s session, so more sessions around those topics”
“My favourite session was the session with Mark improving our communication as I think that drastically improved it.”
How would you rate our Workshops?
An outstanding 4.6 rating was given to our workshops with a lot of excitement around turning an idea into a physical prototype thanks to our partnership with the Institute of Making:
“Great opportunity to build a real prototype and bring your idea to life.”
What about our Staff?
Extremely humbled by this one — 100% of participants gave a 5.0 rating to our staff!
“Thank you for the opportunity to take part in this Hackathon, it has opened my eyes to the importance of cybersecurity regulations and I am looking forward to getting involved in any other events you organise”
Would you be likely to recommend us to a friend or colleague?
When we asked how likely it is that our participants would recommend the IoiT series to a friend, our average rating was “extremely likely” with a 9.2 out of 10!
And when we asked why?
“Very valuable experience and I learnt so much with the videos, workshops and especially working with the other members of my team”
“I found the course to be a very valuable and worthwhile experience that taught me a great deal about an area of research I knew little about previously”
How likely are you to attend another one of our events?
An average rating of 4.9 was given to how likely they would attend our future events, with 87.5% of our participants saying extremely likely!
“It was my first Hackathon but it has put me on the path of doing many more.”
OUTCOMES AND, WHATS NEXT?
In addition to the hackathon, all teams have participated in a Security-by-design Think Tank to produce a policy briefing on smart pill technology and the set of security principles that will be required— read more about it here. Here are some of our participants’[ thoughts regarding our study:
“With covid and vaccines the world has realised the power of disinformation. IoiT is still in the early stages for public understanding. We have been given the opportunity to make sure the same doesn’t happen to our industry and make sure people are well informed on the new technology, or know at least where to go”
“Reinforced the importance of proper cybersecurity for medical devices.
The policy briefing and results of the study will be published by the end of this Summer, but for a sneak peak, join me in two conferences this month where I will be sharing some preliminary results.
DEFCON 29
I have been invited by the Biohacking Village (BHV) to speak at DEFCON 29 which will be running Aug 5-8, register here: https://defcon.org/
Cybercrime Conference: fake news, legislative responses, and women in cyber
I have been invited by the Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science (JDI), UCL to speak at the Cybercrime Conference: fake news, legislative responses, and women in cyber on the 21 July, register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cybercrime-conference-fake-news-legislative-responses-and-women-in-cyber-tickets-159999315259
Now, for our next one you may ask?
We have already identified our collaborators for next year, and have some exciting news to share soon, so stay tuned!
INTERNET-OF-INGESTIBLE-THINGS™: WHY NOW?
Watch a 3-min video explaining why we have launched the very first Internet-of-Ingestible-Things™ series!
WATCH HERE: https://lnkd.in/dMgXd5X
Were you eager to take part in the Internet-of-Ingestible-Things #IoiTHack but didn’t get a chance to this year?
Fill in this quick form to be the first to know for the next one! https://vcx1vh0xjld.typeform.com/to/Zmw7ZuB1
Are you interested in the digital biosecurity or cyber-biosecurity space? Do you want to keep track of news, events and developments within the community?
Join bronic, a membership club focused on designing a secure future: https://vcx1vh0xjld.typeform.com/to/W4NOEzXN
The Internet-of-Ingestible-Things™ series and hackathon is led by Mariam Elgabry, Co-founder and Director of Enteromics, a MedTech start-up that builds smart gut-sensing pills that once swallowed connect to a smart phone via an App to deliver AI-powered gut health insights; moving healthcare to the comfort of the home.
Mariam’s background is in deep-tech and bioengineering, holding a MSc in Bioinformatics & Theoretical Systems Biology from Imperial College London, as well as a MRes in Security & Crime Science from the University College London (UCL). Alongside her role at Enteromics, she researches Bio-crime, the Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT), and Cyber-biosecurity as part of her PhD research at the Dawes Centre for Future Crime, UCL. Her most recent work discusses the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on Cyber-biosecurity in the UK and abroad; published by the UK Parliament Joint Committee on National Security.
Mariam’s experience lies at the intersection of industry and research, focusing on tech, health and security. At AstraZeneca, She led an award winning technology for early detection systems in drug testing. Later, as a Lead Microsoft Student Partner, she had the opportunity to help translate technology and innovative tools, from hackathons into start-ups. Alongside her studying, her work as a Sergeant at the London Metropolitan Police exposed her to operations on the field, including risk mitigation — from managing policing activity, to effective deployment of resources to incidents; skills later applied in her work as a Security Design Consultant.
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