Robert Plana has been Professor at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse and at the Institut Universitaire de France in the field of Internet of Things Technologies. He has occupied numerous top management positions at CNRS, National Research Agency and Ministry of higher education and research. In the private sector, he has been working with a startup (SiGe Microsystems) as Senior Technology Leader, with Alstom as Open Innovation Director and with GE as the CTO and Ecosystem Director of the GE Digital Services for Europe. He is now the Chief Technology Officer of ASSYSTEM Group in charge of the Innovation strategy and leading the program “Engineering Powered by digital services”. He is pioneering the convergence between Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Advanced System Engineering for mission critical Infrastructures.