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In this two part talk, we first briefly discuss the fundamentals of intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS), in terms of the channel modeling, use cases, practical developments and technical challenges. Next, we highlight the connection between IRS and MIMO ambient backscatter communications (ABC), which is envisioned to be useful in B5G and 6G communications. Later in the second part, we briefly present the fundamentals of MIMO ABC in terms of (i) theoretical analysis, where we characterize the pairwise error probability, diversity and other asymptotic results, and (ii) practical utility through a simple prototype developed using a light source, photoresistor, mirrors and servo motors.