Four established Knoxville companies unveil major innovations in the workplace
The annual KTech Pulse Summit gives a glimpse into the technical innovations of companies in Knoxville.
Speakers from Knoxville-based organizations discussed projects featuring new and emerging technologies and the impact they’re making locally and worldwide. At the beginning of the KTech Pulse Summit, four company leaders presented those solutions to the audience.
Chris Skinner, the Vice President of Informatics at Covenant Health took the stage first to discuss real-time data collection and its impact on hospital systems.
Covenant is one of the largest hospital systems in the state and also one of the most innovative. During the 2023 KTech Pulse Summit, Tiffany Cross discussed the hospital’s ‘Advanced Care at Home’ program, which is the first virtual hospital initiative in Knoxville. At the 2024 Summit, Skinner shared how real-time data is making that program so successful.
Real-time data helps hospitals use artificial intelligence (AI) systems to do predictive analysis for patient outcomes. Skinner said it is “revolutionizing the healthcare industry” because AI may be able to draw parallels between data points that physicians can’t while they’re tending to patients.
As an example, Skinner shared how he applied the principles of real-life data collection and predictive analysis to his son’s Little League team. As the games would go on, he could enter batting averages, batting order, stats, and other conditions. Then, the software may recommend an order for the next game, placement of outfielders, etcetera.
“Once we implemented this system into my son’s Little League team, we won 11 out of 12 games,” Skinner said. He said the same type of technology, though more complex, is being used to implement virtual intensive care unit (ICU) solutions.
Skinner ended his presentation by asking the crowd – “How do you set up your workplace environment for low-friction, real-time data capture?”
Next, Slade Griffin, the President of Contextual Security Solutions shared how AI is enhancing penetration testing and risk assessment in cyber security. It is helping businesses navigate complex cyber threats.
He showed a realistic example of how bad actors using AI technologies can generate and mimic voices to swindle employees into sending over their personal information and company data.
“You may believe that you would never fall for this, but I guarantee you that several members of your team would,” Griffin said. “With AI, previously low-level threats now have big-level access to phishing tools.”
He shared how Contextual Security Solutions is innovating new types of penetration testing to ultra-guard companies from these new types of threats.
Steven Watson, an engineer with the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) discussed a relatively new innovation for visualizing wastewater pipes. He shared how the utilities company has created a full map of the waste-water pipe system color coded by priority levels for maintenance.
KUB sends a robotic AI camera into a pipe, and as it rolls through the line it will highlight or identify potential maintenance projects. Then, a team of skilled waste-water management professionals can look at the video, and decipher priorities based on human analyzation of the data.
Last but not least, Travis Howerton, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer with RegScale took the stage to share how AI-driven automation in compliance management is saving time and resources, making risk management faster and more precise.
These are just four featured companies out of dozens that are pushing the needle when it comes to technology innovation in Knoxville.
Like what you've read?
Forward to a friend!