IEEE-SA has submitted a series of panels for the 2013 South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Interactive Festival, taking place 8 – 12 March in Austin, TX, and we need your help!

The SXSW Interactive Festival will feature five days of presentations from top experts in emerging technology, networking events hosted by industry leaders, the SXSW Trade Show and an lineup of special programs showcasing the best new digital works and innovative ideas the international community has to offer.

With over 3500 speaking panels submitted this year, the PanelPicker process is more competitive than ever. Unfortunately there is only room to accommodate for a few panels- that’s where you come in! We need your votes!

Public voting (that’s you!) counts for 30% of the decision-making. Even though the rest of the votes are made by the SXSW Advisory Board (40%) and the SXSW staff (30%), your votes still play a very important part! Voting is free, easy, and only takes a few moments to do.

Below are brief descriptions of the panels submitted by IEEE-SA (click on the link below each description for all the info). Voting ends 31 August.

Omnipresent: When Virtual Meets Reality

Today, augmented reality is moving beyond the virtual dimension to enhance real world experiences, meshing actively with interactive training, real-world simulation, design, manufacturing and even medicine. This panel explores new advancements in Virtual / Augmented Reality and the very real impacts AR has today as well as the not-so-distant future, highlighting the creative opportunities that exist for the development of new AR solutions, standards and enabling technologies.

Hack you: The Human Body is the Next Interface

Today’s breakthroughs in “Bodytech” include a host of incredible innovations that will to transform our bodies, communication, society, and even the human psyche. This presentation will address emerging “smart medicines,” medical technologies, synthetic biology, robotics and organic body part replacements. It will also highlight new, mobile-enabled biofeedback apps and “spray-on” micro sensors. A whole new range of body-embedded products is emerging, each carry deep cultural, health, moral, and privacy implications.

Digital Telepathy: When Every Thing Connects

Once upon a time, our phone, the fridge, and TV were distinct devices, manufactured in distinctly different environments. Not anymore. Convergence and interconnection are the new name of the game. Along with apps and wireless networking, several revolutionary interconnection technologies will soon change every detail of our lives forever. This is the Internet of Things – a future where people and objects communicate in unprecedented ways. This panel will explore the dynamics of interconnection and convergence and address the need for a more interdisciplinary approach to design, engineering, development, communication and privacy.