Systems-engineer to chair the new IEC Syc on Bio-digital convergence

François Coallier, Professor of Software and IT Engineering at the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), has been appointed the chair of the new IEC Systems Committee on Bio-digital convergence.

As a systems engineer with a formal background in biology, engineering physics and IT engineering, he is an ideal lead for the committee. He'll be bringing his extensive experience in standards development, a field in which he has been involved since 1984 initially starting off with information technologies engineering and, more recently, bio-digital convergence. Of this, he has spent three decades in IEC leadership positions.

He was the International Secretary, and then the International Chair of the ISO/IEC/JTC 1/SC 7 Software and Systems Engineering. Since its creation more than six years ago, he has also been the Chair of JTC 1/SC 41 Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Twin.

Throughout his industrial and academic career, he has held various positions in engineering, management, and academic management. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

For the past three years, he has been leading the Standardization Evaluation Group (SEG) 12 on Bio-digital convergence (BDC).

BDC involves the convergence of several different streams of scientific exploration like engineering, nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive sciences. Separate working groups within SEG 12 have been looking into different areas for standardization opportunities like genomics, neuroscience, biosensors, drug discovery, brain-machine interfaces and biohacking.

He promoted the approach to consider bio-digital convergence as a systems engineering challenge. This approach would aim to tackle the challenges and needs that emerge when these traditionally separate streams depend on each other, as they often do in real-life applications across various fields.

"The committee will enable a systems approach, bringing together experts from different specialities to work together, and thinking in terms of collaborative and multidisciplinary work. Such an approach is vital in today's world where innovations hinge on several emerging technologies working in synergy." says Professor Coallier.

The committee aims to identify and assess potential new forthcoming bio-digital convergence topics and anticipate challenges that may become relevant to IEC activities.

One of the key outcomes of this committee would be to provide standards developers a clarity about how their work interlinks to a wider array of standards, identify new opportunities and, in doing so, contribute to an efficient and productive development process.

According to Coallier, the Systems Committee should serve as a means for National Committees to identify and internally organize or monitor their standardization activities. It can be a tool to let them identify and offer relevant standards to industry to boost innovation or growth in a particular domain.

To address modern innovation challenges, a holistic approach is essential. François Coallier has enthusiastically embraced the role and expressed his excitement to drive this transformation.

Learn more:

• A standard journey for bio-digital convergence
• Understanding bio-digital-convergence

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