Internet-of-things (IoT) has great promise and immense potential in positively transforming the society for a better tomorrow. We can broadly approach the IoT system design from two perspectives, one from the basic research perspective and another from the applications perspective. Two panels have been organized on these topics to explore the relevant issues and challenges. The first panel entitled “IoT applications,” with three panelists and the second panel entitled “IoT research,” were organized as part of the IFIP IoT 2021 conference. Leading researchers participated in these panels sharing their research results, their views on the state-of-the-art, and promising future directions. In this article, we summarize the proceedings of the two panel discussions.