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François Coallier leads the newly formed IEC and ISO joint system committee on bio-digital convergence (IEC/ISO JSyC BDC). He tells us about the first steps of the JSyC and what challenges lie ahead, notably when it comes to engaging with the bio-ethics community.
Chair of JSyC bio-digital convergence
How is the work of JSyC BDC progressing?
It’s been a slow start, but establishing governance is key to ensure the effectiveness of the JSyC. As of today, all the leadership positions are now filled and we have started to work in earnest. One of the first steps we took was to agree on the initial deliverables. Nine preliminary work items (PWIs) are currently registered in different areas including human augmentation.
On the foundational side, we are working on the terminology required for standards in this field. If the initial work in this area is approved, we will start with a draft document that includes already, in addition to a definition of bio-digital convergence, 99 selected bioengineering terms and 53 selected IT and engineering supporting definitions.
Are you working with other technical committees?
Since system committee work is based on a cooperative approach to address multidisciplinary standardization challenges, invitations have been sent for registered memberships and liaisons to many IEC and ISO technical committees. At its last virtual plenary, the SyC has approved seven registered members and approved or initiated 27 liaisons with various TCs and subcommittees (SCs) in ISO and the IEC. We already have a wide number of liaisons, notably with IEC TC 65, which prepares standards for smart manufacturing and we will notably be looking at bio-manufacturing, a type of manufacturing that utilizes biological systems to produce commercially available biomaterials. We have already formed a joint working group with ISO/IEC SC 41, which prepares standards for the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital twin. The experts there will be looking at a specific aspects of body-centered computing.
What are the challenges?
There are two main challenges. The first one relates to the understanding of what a system committee does. It appears, from the result of a workshop organized in December 2023 by the IEC, that many IEC national committees – and even more so ISO members – are still getting used to a “systems approach” for standards development. There is still a tendency in some quarters to sometimes manage system committees like technical committees, instead of viewing the committees as a mean to govern and manage standardization in a larger sector. The ideal system committee experts should have an understanding, and also interest in, the wider strategic and multidisciplinary challenges in a given sector or wider technology area. SyCs develop standardization landscapes and strategies as well as cross-functional standards that span the work areas of several technical committees and they should thus attract the interest of people who are focused on how standards will be used in specific sectors and the market for these standards. The second challenges relates to the width of topics covered by the JSyC. Through the work of the JSyC, the success of standardization in the field of BDC will rest on our ability to foster integration across multiple domains and ensure we are able to timely deliver standards that meet the needs of the market.
Will the first deliverable be the work on terminology?
Yes, it is such a fundamental aspect. We need to agree on the terminology before anything else. The first level of interoperability between standards is the vocabulary. A common terminology is also an enabler for collaborative work. We expect to publish something in 2027. My idea is always to publish a first edition as fast as possible and then make changes in future editions. It is imperative to move fast, especially in this systems committee, where the technology and the market are evolving so rapidly.
Will the JSyC be taking part in the IEC General Meeting?
Yes, we have a plenary session and we also will have a half-day workshop, which will be open to the public, to present some aspects of the work involved in the bio-digital convergence. It will be a joint session with ISO/IEC SC 43, which prepares standards for brain-computer interfaces and it will focus on the work required on human augmentation. I plan to organize at least one webinar a year to explain the different technologies we are working on. The one we are organizing at the General Meeting was initiated by the Chair of SC 43, Ms Yuntao Yu from China, who is also the Vice-Chair of the JSyC for human augmentation.
Which area would you say is the one where standards are required the fastest?
There are many, but I would argue that human augmentation, notably in the medical domain, is moving fast. What I want is for bio-digital convergence areas to be addressed. In the context of the JSyC, I am not attached to any specific process or ways of doing things: I am interested in the outcomes. We have to do this work in the most efficient and pragmatic way possible and this could involve us subcontracting it to different TCs, if it makes better sense to do so.
How about ethical considerations? Will you be looking at those aspects?
Yes, the IEC Standardization Management Board (SMB) has requested that we do a more detailed assessment of the challenges in this area before deciding if it should stay within the JSyC BDC mandate. I am taking the leadership on that. We need to engage with the bio-ethics community, without which we won’t be able to do any credible work. We would ideally like several experts from the community to join the JSyC BDC and take part in the group dedicated to this topic. It will be a lot of work for me, as I am also (hopefully temporarily) leading the group on agricultural bio-engineering, but I am winding down my activities in SC 41, as my chairmanship comes to an end, to totally dedicate myself to the work of the JSyC.
François Coallier is professor at the Department of Software and IT Engineering at the Ecole de Technologie Supérieure (ETS), one of Canada's leading engineering schools, affiliated to the Université du Québec network. He was CIO of ETS between 2010 and 2016 and the founding chair of ETS' Department of Software and IT Engineering from its creation in 2004 till 2010.
He has nearly twenty-two years of industrial experience in one of Canada's largest companies, where he held various engineering and managerial positions in quality engineering, IT procurement, IT infrastructure deployment and operation and Enterprise Architecture Management. He has a B.Sc. in Environmental Biology from McGill University, a B. Eng. in Engineering Physics and an M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Montréal's Ecole Polytechnique. He is a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS).