BRIGHTEST EU EXPLORER

Interview
Roberto Medina Bujalance

 
 

INNOVATOR

Soluciones Sosteco SL
SPAIN
 
 


Introduce yourself
to the reader

Your name

Roberto Medina Bujalance

Your professional background

Electronics, Hardware design consultant, innovator, and creator

Your passion for what you do

I love electronics, and since the beginning, my passion has been the IoT field and radio communication.

Did you apply as a Researcher or Innovator?

I did as an Innovator, but I consider myself both types.

A company you represent

My company, Sosteco. It is focused on the design and creation of electronic devices primarily for IoT aka Hardware. We guide them for the entire life cycle of a product or development of their devices.

 
 

Why was collaboration with the US your interest in the first place?

As an innovator and an entrepreneur working with technology, the US is the perfect fit for me. I was looking to work closely and meet more industry leaders from America. Why did you apply to the NGI Explorers program? It was a fantastic opportunity to work with a US Node and do some research and innovation. I have to add that the traveling always helps you to learn from other people and their way of living and thinking. Meeting people from all over the world, growing my career, and comparing the American way of doing things vs. the
European.

 

In what way did your US node help you throughout the project development?
(e.g., Methodology, machinery, test beds, market, networks, ... you name it).
Please elaborate on the support and the benefits.

I want to thank my US Node Director, Ph.D. Farid Farahmand for the invaluable help, his time, and for making me feel at home.

  • To begin with my US Node, help me establish myself in the USA and live for almost three months.

  • Networking, they provided a lot of contacts, companies, and events to meet people from the US.

  • Methodology, we were able to test and do some work in the Sonoma State laboratories with the help of different students, researchers, and professors.

  • Work, we started to work with a startup in the medical health sector to apply the technology and demonstrate the use of the LoRa technology.

  • Traveling, we visited other Universities like Berkeley or Santa Clara and met with different academic people from San Francisco.

  • Equipment, we deployed different gateways and tested them for improving the devices' coverage and power consumption.

  • Machinery, as part of our work, tested different antennas and devices in their laboratories.

 

How do you see your project development in the future?

What impact will the results have on society or environment?

It directly impacts obtaining the data from the field in areas with low coverage or not many investments where the potential of LoRa could be used—having long-range and ultra-low-power
devices that can send information of different use cases will help the mass deployment of IoT devices around all the use cases.

What impact do you foresee on your further development/ research/
career/ product or service growth

These questions mix my work with the US Node and the medical startup.
Further development could help us achieve a better range by improving the antenna part and the design while maintaining a better power consumption to last longer using batteries. In the medical device we were able to create, we are focused now on improving some functionalities while having the power of radio communication that works in a real hospital environment, helping the patients do their treatment and giving the nurses and doctors a way to visualize the data to have more information for their decisions.
My career helped me demonstrate my capabilities and versatility, which acquired by participating in different innovation projects and my expertise. I learned a lot from my director, University, and all the people I have met in the program, plus it is always a boost in your visibility and goals.

What is the ultimate result you are trying to achieve?

One of my main goals has always been to improve and manage every process that impacts natural resources like water or energy and help access the technology to everyone despite their technical
level. In the end, obtaining environmental data, agriculture, or any service will allow us to make better decisions, and IoT is here to help us.

What are your next plans? Any sustainability in collaboration with the
US Node?

My main plan is to keep working in IoT and focus on improving consumption and range plus easy access, like open hardware and open software. We will keep working together in the medical field and expanding to intelligent agriculture. We have started discussing the NGI Atlantic call, and I began to
think about doing a Ph.D. in the US.

 

What is the biggest benefit the NGI program has offered to the development of your idea/ product/ service/ career? e.g. What was possible thanks to the NGI that it wouldn’t without?

The NGI program was a fantastic opportunity to see a lot of singularities between the USA and European markets. We met with many colleagues from different fields, and despite the pandemic, it helped us establish great connections and friendships that I wish would be long-lasting.
About the idea, we were able to demonstrate the technology in a great and innovative environment like San Francisco were because of droughts and climate change; they have a lot of problems related to water-intensive applications like agriculture.
Talking about my career was a huge personal success that boosted trusting in myself, and I have learned a lot.

 

What is your reflection on the award you received from the NGI Explorers program and recognition of your efforts by external parties?

I am so thankful to all the organization’s people and everyone who has participated in this fantastic program. I need to say that pursuing a
dream is always tricky. It has been like that since I started working in my career, so being a member of the NGI program and being awarded among all my great colleagues is always a huge inspiration to keep working and improving myself.
I want to thank my family, who have always been helping me through my failure and achievements, and my mentor in this project, Farid.