David Gascón - Career Milestones

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David GascónCo-Founder & Libelium CTO

d.gascon@libelium.comMob: +34 654182554Tlf: +34 976547492

Online biography: http://www.libelium.com/david-gascon

David Gascón, Computer Engineer by the Polytechnic Center of Zaragoza is the Libelium’s Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer. He also worked as professor at the Engineering University of Zaragoza (Spain).

His main research areas are the Wireless Sensor Networks (now commonly named as the “Internet of Things”), Mesh Networks and the Self Emergent and Autoorganizational Complex Systems as shows his development in the creation of two protocols for the Internet based on the ant colony and other swarm insects behaviors (Marabunta, Enjambre).

He has been awarded by the MIT with the TR35 prize as the most important innovator under 35 in Spain (2012). In 2013, he launched into Space the Libelium technology inside the first open source satellite “Ardusat”. In 2014 the Libelium Co-founders (David Gascón and Alicia Asín) won the National Young Entrepreneur Award given by their Royal Highnesses the King and Queen of Spain.

Libelium works in the Internet of Things sector by designing and manufacturing hardware for wireless sensor networks to deliver reliable IoT solutions. David Gascón leads IT an R&D departments working with 35 engineers to research and develop current and future Libelium products for IoT market. The key product of the company is Waspmote, the Internet of Things sensors platform that allows to connect any type of sensor to the Internet in seconds in order to digitalize the real world.

One of the main achievements of David Gascón’s team has been the recent development of an IoT platform that will revolutionize eHealth sector, MySignals. The device is able to monitor the same parameters as an Emergency Observation Unit with a cost 100 times lower.

In 2016, David Gascón participated along with General Electric and QWake in an amazing project to monitor the Masaya Volcano (Nicaragua) in order to predict eruptions. It was named as the first volcano in the World connected to the Internet. More than 80 sensors deployed in the active crater allowed to monitor in real time the volcano conditions and create and emergency system for near villages.

Waspmote: the tiny sensor node to monitor the real world developed by David Gascón and his team

BIOGRAPHY

David Gascón - Career Milestones

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION AWARDS

In 2012, David Gascón was named one of the most important innovators under 35 in Spain - (MIT Technology Review).

In 2017, MySignals received the Gold Level of the Application Award of the 2017 Best of Sensors Expo recognitions from Sensors Expo & Conference and Sensors Online Magazine.

In 2017, Libelium got Aragonese of the Year Award in Science and Technology category from El Periódico de Aragón for its contribution and innovative approach to improve the world.

In 2016, MySignals, Libelium eHealth platform, got “TAD Innovation Award” from The APP Date at Telefonica Foundation.

In 2016, MySignals also received “Gifted Citizen Prize” at Ciudad de las Ideas conference in México for supporting positive changes in the lives of millions of people around the world in the next years.

In 2016, Libelium eHealth platform, MySignals, was awarded with “Tercer Milenio” prize given by the media group, Heraldo de Aragón.

In 2016, MySignals also received eHealth Award at “Boehringer Ingelheim” category given by Research Association of eHealth (AIES).

In 2016, Libelium was finalist at “Best of Sensors Expo Awards” with Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Parking solution and Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment PRO for Air Quality Index.

In 2015, Libelium received “National Award of Computer Science” given by Spanish Scientific Computer Society for its career, improvements and internationalization in ten years of life.

In 2015, Libelium was awarded with “Iberdrola Internet of Things Prize” by Expansión Economía Digital media.

In 2013, Libelium obtained the “Open Innovation Award” given by the cluster of Biotechnology companies Bioaratec.

In 2012, Libelium received the “Energy Harvesting & Storage and WSN & RTLS” prize (Berlin, Germany), for the deployment of a 1,000 sensor network in “Smart Santander” project.

In 2011, Libelium got “Best Sensor Expo Award” in the most important event in the world related to Wireless Sensor Networks in Chicago making Libelium the first Spanish company to receive it.

In 2010 Libelium received the first international award at the “Wireless Sensors - Sensing Technology” conference (Birmingham, UK).

In 2009, Libelium got Aragon Information Society Prize given by Telecommunication Engineers of Aragon Association (AITAR).

In 2009, Libelium was awarded with “EIBT” (Innovation Company with Technological Base) by ANCES and CDTI.

In 2008, David Gascón received the “Research Excellence Award” from the Telecommunication Association of Aragón (Spain) for the technological innovations in the Wireless Sensor Networks field and their interaction with the Cloud.

In 2007, David Gascón was named “Researcher of the Year” from the Economic and Social Council of Aragón (CESA) for his research in the wireless communications field and the impact in society.

In 2007, David Gascón was granted with the “Best Business Plan Award” (IDEA) by the innovation and market perspectives of the recently created company Libelium.

David Gascón - Career Milestones

David Gascón - Career Milestones

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In 2005, David Gascón received a grant from the Biocomputer and Physics Institute of the University of Zaragoza (BIFI) for the idea “Using the grid to parallelize DNA molecules”.

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION AWARDS

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

BUSINESS AWARDS

In 2014, Libelium received the “National Young Entrepreneur Award” from the hands of the Royal Highnesses the King and Queen of Spain.

In 2009, David Gascón was distinguished with the “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” of the ESIC Marketing and Business School, by the exportation growth of the technology developed in Libelium which included more than 50 countries in less than 3 years.

In 2017, Libelium was awarded with Internationalization prize at III Aragon, Business and Future Awards given by Ibercaja and Heraldo.

In 2016, Libelium received “CEPYME Award” from one of the most important business organizations in the country.

In 2016, Libelium got “Character Empresa Award” from Caixabank and CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations).

In 2015, Libelium was named “Must-follow IoT Company” at IoT Awards given by Postscapes.

In 2014, Libelium received “Export Award from DHL Express” given by DHL.

In 2013, Libelium was awarded with the “I Consolida Prize” from the Association of Young Entrepreneurs of Aragón (AJE) and Bantierra.

In 2013, Libelium received the “Export Award” from the Spanish Chamber of Commerce.

In 2010, Libelium got “Young Innovation Prize” from Zaragoza Ciudad de Conocimiento.

In 2009, Libelium received “Bancaja Prize” for its entrepreneurial activity given by Bancaja.

In 2009, Libelium was awarded as “Emprendedor XXI” by La Caixa.

In 2007, Libelium got “Bancaja Young Innovators” prize given by Bancaja for its contribution to the socioeconomic development.

In 2006, Libelium received “Idea Award” from Aragon Government. The organization awarded the best business initiatives with innovator nature.

David Gascón - Career Milestones

Download high resolution photos for media and press coverage

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In October 2016, David Gascón and his R&D team released MySignals, the most complete eHealth development platform with 15 different sensors that measures the most important body parameters (ECG, glucose, airflow, pulse, oxygen in blood, blood pressure…). All the biometric data is encrypted and sent to the Cloud in real-time.

MySignals includes the key parameters that are usually measured in a hospital monitoring room, fits in a small suitcase and costs 100 times lower than an Emergency Observation Unit. MySignals improves the future of health services to cover one of the main challenges of the century: enhancing the universal accessibility to a healthcare system for more than 2 billion people worldwide.

This is the first eHealth platform able to measure the most important biometrical parameters in just one device. The information gathered by the sensors is stored in Libelium Cloud platform where doctors have a holistic view of the entire patient historical in just one point. With this information data mining studies can be performed launching artificial intelligence engines looking for diseases patterns to correlate information coming from different body parameters. More information

MySignals: the revolutionary eHealth platform

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

The world’s most complete Internet of Things platformWe are currently living in a connected world. People is demanding each day more online possibilities and the need to monitor anything to get real-time information is a reality. Libelium technology has powered this connected world through the Internet of Things worldwide along more than ten years.

The IoT provides countless solutions for any sector such as smart traffic management, searching for parking slots, environmental control to meet international regulations, water quality monitoring, optimizing processes in industry or improving yields and reducing costs in agriculture sector.

Waspmote is the open-source IoT sensor platform of Libelium that was developed 10 years ago by the company. This sensor platform can work up to 10 years with a battery similar to the ones of mobile pho-nes by developing unique algorithms from low power technologies. Waspmote allows to monitor different parameters with more than 120 wireless sensors making possible to gather data from the air, water, soil or any other environment. In order to store all this information, David Gascón and his R&D team developed Meshlium, the IoT Gateway for the Internet of Things, which is able to connect any sensor to any Cloud platform.

Real-time data collected from sensors is transformed into valuable information to help public authorities, organizations or private companies to make better decisions based on real facts and give immediate response. Libelium summarized in the Smart World infographic the idea of connected world showing a wide range of applications for wireless sensor networks. Thousands of Libelium sensor platforms have been deployed all over the world thanks to more than 10.000 developers that have trusted in our technology with projects in 120 countries. Our technology impacts in the world powering the Internet of Things revolution.

Click here to see the 50 Applications IoT infographic in high resolution.

Discover the real projects people are doing with the Libelium Technology.

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IoT Platform to measure autonomously Nuclear Radiation

After 2011 tsunami in Japan that affected Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, R&D Libelium team lead by David Gascón developed a device as small as a credit card that allows to measure autonomously Beta particles and Gamma waves with no need to any human control.

The devices, which have a battery and wireless communication with 3G mobile cells, were deployed from vehicles and helicopters and measured periodically the radiation levels and sent the information to a control center without needing any worker to handle them, avoiding the danger for people to access to a contaminate area. More information.

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

According to a research carried out by UCLA University, people spend up to 14 minutes searching for a parking slot each time they have to park in large cities such as San Francisco, Sydney, New York or London. This means that if we move our car four times a day and in all of them we have to search for a parking slot, we will spend 14 days yearly searching for a place.

This not only supposes a waste of time for us, this also impacts on environmental pollution and an car traffic. Moreover, People that often have to search for a parking slot suffer more from stress. The European Society of Cardiology has evidenced in a recent study the existence of an association between noise and environmental pollution provoked by city traffic with cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

Most of the sensor platforms in the IoT market work with just one radio technology to send data from the device. However, Waspmote allows to connect through different communication technologies. Libelium R&D team lead by David Gascón, worked during several years in a project to develop a Smart Parking solution thinking in a device that adapts specifically to customers’ interoperability needs.

For all these reasons, R&D team carried out a Smart Parking device to allow citizens to detect available parking spots. This solution was developed with the feedback of the market: developing a cheap and small solution, accurate and reliable, with quick installation time directly on the road surface and an easy maintenance.

The key difference of these sensor system is that it is fully compatible with LPWAN radio technologies -LoRaWAN and Sigfox- to enable long range and low power consumption. This is a unique device in the market because it can be connected with both radios for the European 868 MHz band and for the 900-930 MHz band (US/Canada). It allows to use both radio technologies at the same time or change from one to another easily from the Cloud. More information.

Smart Parking solution with wireless sensors

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

Smart Water Sensor Platform to control water quality

Water is a unique resource and its demand grows as fast as the population in urban areas so it would become scarcer with the pass of the years. A Technavio report states that the use of smart water management technologies such as Big Data, sensoring and monitoring in real-time can help save more than USD 12 billion revenues for utilities annually.

Water pollution is also a worldwide worry because it is a real danger for any kind of use: human and animal consumption, industry, agriculture, fishing or even leisure activities. A great part of this pollution come from human activities.

To deal with these main problems, in 2014 Libelium released a new device of smart sensors developed by David Gascón and his team to monitor critic parameters in river water (pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, etc). The Smart Water device allows for the first time to distribute hundreds of sensors along a river course and measure simultaneously the water quality in each point, being able to infer for example in the exact area where there is a major discharge of contaminating substances.

This technology was deployed in many worlwide projects such as the one in Zaragoza’s Aquarium or in Vietnamese fish farms. In this last project, real-time monitoring helped fihs farms managers to be aware of preventable diseases in order to save costs in diseases treatment and keep fish in good health before harvesting job as well as mange fish loss to the minimum rate.

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Libelium Sensors Launch into Space in the First Open Source SatelliteIn January 2014, the satellite Ardusat was brought into operation. Previously it orbited around the Earth after its launch in August 2013. Specifically, its a device for nuclear measurement for Beta particles and Gamma waves to study solar storms and the impact they have in terrestrial systems of communication. The satellite also performs photonic spectrum measurements in UV frequency bands.

David Gascón and his team considered the keypoint of the development the creation of the measuring system with a weight of 40gr and that was able to withstand extreme vacuum and vibration conditions.

The project was carried out within the America company NanoSatisfi and NASA (USA) and JAXA (Japan) aerospace agencies. More information.

David Gascón - Career Milestones

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

During 2016 summer, David Gascón participated in a project to deploy Libelium’s Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform in one of the most hardest scenarios: the lava lake of an active volcano. He experienced in first person the extreme conditions in the crater and also areas near to the vocano.

There were installed more than 80 wireless sensors in the Mouth of Hell, Masaya volcano in Nicaragua, to monitor in real-time everything that happened inside and outside the crater to predict eruptions. Different parameters such as CO2, H2S, temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure were monitored to control conditions in Volcano Masaya area.

The main aim of the project has been building a digital early warning system to predict volcano eruptions. This information will be used by researchers and data scientists to build a family of “digital twins” to simulate digitally what is happening inside the cater.

The volcano represents a real danger for inhabitants from villages next to the volcano, so controlling what happens inside the crater would help save lives. The ultimate goal of the project is providing a public service by giving access to the general population and decision makers enabling them to experience an active volcano in real-time.

The final idea of the project was to create a digital early warning system to predict volcano eruptions. More information.

Predicting eruptions in the Masaya Volcano

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

In the first month of 2016, R&D team lead by David Gascón worked in the development of a wireless sensor network in one of the most impressive nature reserves in the world and home for a great biological diversity, National Park of Manu in Peru. Researchers and municipalities have been worried for a long time about the climate change threats’ for plants and animals. Libelium focused on this project to preserve these and others species by monitoring nature and habitat real-time behavior.

The project consist in several cameras and 25 wireless sensors which, through an aerial, emit the information about what was happenning in at least 30 kilometres of the nature reserve via Internet to anywhere. All the devices work with solar energy supplied by a solar panel installed in each platform. By this application, the project do not disturb the environment of the rain-forest and neither local people’s lifes.

Libelium worked with RFID Radical Solutions to install Libelium’s Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment and Smart Agriculture solution to provide real-time information related to the environment and soil conditions for researchers. With this two wireless sensor platforms different parametres from water, air and soil were collected.

National Park of Manu is the first natural reserve in being real-time monitored and Libelium is proud to contribute to help scientists and researchers to combat against climate chage. More information.

Amazonas forest monitoring for climate change control in Peru

David Gascón - Career Milestones

David Gascón - Career Milestones

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

Development of an IoT Platform to detect Forest Fires

During 2014 summer, Libelium R&D team lead by David Gascón participated in two projects, one in Asturias and other in Gerona (Spain), to prevent and detect forest fires.

Sensors were deployed in several trees and devices were solar powered. They measured combustion gases’ concentrations (CO, CO2) to detect possible increases caused by combustion of organic matter originated by the fire.

The devices installed also allow to create fire probability maps by means of the study of temperature and humidity parameters in each of the points. More information at Gerona project and Asturias case study.

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David Gascón - Career MilestonesDavid Gascón - Career Milestones

At the end of 2014, David Gascón and his R&D team worked in a project in the Fluvial Aquarium of Zaragoza to automate the measurement of physical and chemical parameters in the tanks, improve the reliability and frequency of the data collected, and simplify the tasks of the staff.

This Aquarium is the largest of its kind in Europe with more than 2.5 million litres of water in 70 aquariums and aqua-terrariums. It houses the largest freshwater tank in Europe, with 1.7 million litres of water and a depth of 9 meters, and contains species of freshwater fish from five continents.

The majority of animals that live in the aquarium are extremely sensitive to changes in environmental conditions. For this reason, it was essential to develop a smart water wireless sensor system able to give parameters in real-time to have a thorough control of the conditions in the tanks.

The Piranhas Aquarium

In the freshwater aquarium there is a recreation of the Amazon River with more than 20 piranhas (Pygocentrus nattereri) and 3 false piranhas or pacús (Colossoma macropomum) that live in 13,300 L of water. The physico-chemical properties of this tank are soft and acid waters, typical of this great river.

Libelium team deployed a device with sensors able to measure parameters related to water quality such as temperature, pH, electroconductivity or Dissolved Oxygen. Controlling these parameters helps aquarium technicians ensure animal welfare.

The Anaconda Tank

In the terrarium, also located in the Amazon River area of the aquarium, live an Anaconda and seven different fish species offspring. For this snake weighing over 25 kilograms and nearly 3 meters in length, a specific measurement of humidity, temperature and luminosity is required.

David Gascón and his team developed a smart solution known as Ambient Control to monitor basic environment parameters using temperature, humidity and luminosity sensors.

One of the main requirements that Aquarium managers asked Libelium team was developing the wireless sensor networks without disturbing the animals, trying to affect the animals’ environments as little as possible. More information.

Water Quality Monitoring in Europe’s Largest Fluvial Aquarium

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

Monitoring platform development for Koalas in Australia

In collaboration with Brisban Park in Australia, David Gascón and his R&D team worked in developing a necklace to control and study koalas behavior.

The device allows knowing the GPS location in real-time and also any movement made by the animals. This information is provide by measuring inertial parameters with accelerometers and gyroscopes. (Confidential information because the project has not been made public yet).

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David Gascón - Career MilestonesDavid Gascón - Career Milestones

Joint development with IBM of the first Smart Sensors Platform that connect to the Internet through IPv6 protocol

During 2014 spring Libelium announced the research that the team leaded by David Gascón carried out with IBM Research area. The result was releasing the first embedded devices platform called Smart Sensors. It was able to connect to the Internet and send data packages through the new IPv6 protocol, which substituted the current IPv4 years ago.

The breakthrough allows to advance in about 5 years other competitors and transforms wireless devices communications to a model with the most interoperability until the moment. More information.

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Development of Encryption Algorithms for Embedded Devices

One of the specialties of the researched carried out along 2016 by R&D team has been the development and optimization of strong encryption algorithms (> 128b) that allow execution in low performance architectures (MCU’s ~ 8MHz). This allows providing complete security for any embedded device, ensuring the Internet of Things applications to have the same privacy, authenticity and integrity capabilities as Internet communications.

In particular, in this development there were deployed AES symmetrical encryption algorithms if 256b and RSA 1024b public-key encryption. More information.

David Gascón - Career Milestones

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David Gascón - Career MilestonesDavid Gascón - Career Milestones

Marabunta: algorithm to send data through the Internet based on ants’ behaviour

With just 21 years, David Gascón designed an algorithm to optimize the data sending through Internet based on the techniques used by ants to get the shortest path between two points when they tried to find food.

Ants leave traces of pheromones when they walk, so the most traveled paths will be the most fragrant ones, which means they are the shortest to go from one point to another. Drawing from this premise was used to find on the Internet optimal routes for data packages when they have to travel through thousands of kilometers and along different countries.

All the information about the project can be found at Marabunta.

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VIDEOS AND CONFERENCES

David Gascón - Career Milestones

MySignals - eHealth Platform Presentation - 2016

Libelium sensors in Masaya Volvano to predict lava eruptions (IoT Wireless Network in Nicaragua)

Entrevista para Mundo Hacker (TV 2) - 2016

El Mundo ¿Podrá Internet oír, tocar y ver a través de sensores? - 2016

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

Internet of Things: Sensors Architecture / IBM Outthink in Chile - 2016

Emtech Brasil 2015 - Wireless Sensors to Prevent Natural Disasters

Entrevista a David Gascón - Versión Beta [TV Colombia] -2015

Keynote talk in DevOSS Azure Days - 2014

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Talk in EmTech España - 2014

Smart Cities Forum - IoT Asia - 2014

Libelium Sensors Launch into Space in Ardusat - the First Open Source Satellite

RTVE – tres14: “David Gascón: Sensors”

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David Gascón - Career Milestones

INTERVIEWS

Interview at Pulse Magazine

Interview at Jot Down Magazine

Interview at MIT TR35

David Gascón - Career Milestones