Report: What Trump Needs to Do About Connected Devices

President-elect Donald Trump needs to prioritize the connected technology known as the internet of things, because the current administration won't have time to, according to one tech-focused think tank.

Over the past several years, federal agencies including the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control have worked on disparate projects related to the internet of things, but they're "small scale and one-off," according to a report from the Center for Data Innovation. Without coordination across government, "these projects are likely insufficient to grow the technology ... resulting in the United States losing out on considerable economic and social benefits."

The government needs a top-down national strategy to propel U.S. companies into becoming leaders in the market, the CDI report said. There's already congressional support: Last year, the Senate passed an internet of things resolution calling for a national strategy that would "incentivize the development" of the technology to "empower consumers, foster future economic growth and improve our collective social well-being."

This year, a Senate committee introduced the Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things Act, or the DIGIT Act, which would create a working group to propose policy to help agencies collaborate on the technology.

Still, in the final weeks of the Obama administration, "it is unlikely the federal government will make significant additional progress toward a national strategy," the report said. So the Trump administration needs to "establish the federal government not only as a lead adopter of the internet of things, but also as a champion for the technology and a valuable partner for the private sector.”

Here's a look at some of the federal projects aimed at promoting the internet of things:

• The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently released a framework for cyber-physical systems, designed to define technical terms related to the cybersecurity of the internet of things for manufacturers.
• NIST's Engineering Lab's Sensing and Perception Systems Group is researching how connected technology can be applied to manufacturing, including smart meters.
• FDA published draft cybersecurity guidance for digitally-enabled medical devices, exempting low-risk devices like fitness trackers from overregulation.
• CDC has a pilot project examining the role of the internet of things in observing miners' health in underground mining environments.
• The Federal Communications Commission has been trying to open up more wireless spectrum that could be used for devices connected to the internet of things.