Presentations(Part II)

It is the last lap of TWC presentations and also the journey of TWC itself! It is surprising how at first it just seemed like piles and piles of work to do and now we are concluding this module with so much of information, skills, knowledge from wise ones and analysis of technology and its applications. The presentations served as a conclusion to the course and this week’s presentations were relatively good.

1)      Music and Technology

This was a really interesting presentation which is something everyone is interested to find out more about. For this topic specifically, they should have put in more images than text to maintain interest of the viewers. They structured it in terms of timeline and how music has evolved across the decades. This is especially interesting as it lets the viewers see the transition however, they should have put more emphasis on how music will be in the future. This will be appealing to the audience on how the group imagined the future will be given the past applications.

2)      Vaccines

The second presentation was on vaccines for the major flus that have plagued the world. It does look real informative looking at all the statistics and facts. They also have created an appealing web page that is attractive to a reader! At the start of the presentation, the presenter mentioned that they are only going touch on the main influenza that caused a global pandemic. However, they should have included the not-so well- known flus to expose the viewers to something new.

3)      Food and Technology

The 3^rd group opted for simplicity that made the web site so easy friendly and easy to understand. It could do with more animations, but it content wise and transitions was great!

4)      Crime Tracking with technology

A very interesting website that is not known to many about technologies applications! Great job!

The very last session and for the pure knowledge we all have received, thanks to Prof, I would rate this session 10!

Presentations(Part I)

It was presentations week! It was exciting to find out how every group’s website will turn out to be and how they would present it to the class. Another factor was how every group will decide on which software platform they’ll be using to create their website. Our group was in a fix, whether to use Wix which allowed more room for animations and graphics but was utterly difficult to use or iWeb on a mac that allowed little room for making the website lively but was very user-friendly. Gideon, our group mate was one with a Mac laptop and thus to be able to use the iWeb, he was in-charge of putting all the content together and making it look good on the website while Kenny, Priya and I were in-charge of getting the content down, from facts to examples to analysis to videos. It was a group work, but felt not having a Mac limited our scope for helping Gideon out in fashioning the website. But, all in all it has passed and we have learnt plenty during our journey of TWC.

1)      E – Commerce

The website was aesthetically appealing as it resembles a typical e-commerce website where it was ‘funky’ and ‘cool’! The paragraphs were chunky and should be boxed up to make it look less wordy Other than minor changes and modifications, like the font and alignment, they have done a great job with wix! Content wise, they have covered most if what needs to be covered in e-commerce. They have put sufficient emphasis on the analysis of current applications of e-commerce and how it may evolve in the future! This is commendable as that is the crux and purpose of the website to show their imagination on how the future will be given the current state of any given technology or application.

2)      Our group(Online Dating)

Our group had come up the website after much dilemma to use either wix or other website platforms. Gideon, with agreement from the rest of us, had created the website using iWeb composing the compiled work by the other 3 three group mates. The presentation was decent enough where we had valuable feedback from our classmates. Our pages go way down and there are some buttons missing that could make the transition from one page to another easier. Other than that, the presentation was well received by our classmates, where it was a topic which everyone could relate to, that is finding a partner.

3)      Kinetic Tech

The entire site was kept simple and was user-friendly. The very intriguing part if the website is how they send a message through their pictures rather than chunks of paragraphs. This makes it really attractive to any viewer. However, they should have spent more effort in making the transition more smooth and ensuring that the videos were up and running as they faced difficulty in playing the videos. Content wise, they had brilliant ideas but it seemed to have lost focus from the initial topic that was kinetic energy. It should narrow down the scope to specifically how usage of kinetic energy has changed the dynamics of energy usage and how it can be used in more efficient ways to work in the future.

4)      GM Food

The presentation had a start with an over-exaggerated video on how GM food could lead to creating super humans. There could have been better link between the video and content. Other than that, the website was simple and to-the-point!

The presentations were great and I personally got to learnt a lot from my peers through the sessions! I would rate the session 9/10.

Final Session...

 The African proverb, “Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today” is really relevant to our generation! Future projections which we may be forecasted by us today could very different of what the reality may be. Thus, forecasting and at the same time taking precaution to wisely use current and upcoming technologies, should be on par. But firstly, why bother with foresight? Prof Shahi posed a question to us asking if we should work from the past or work backwards from the future. Working backwards from the future, is where we paint a scene where we see what we want the future to be, and use that as a final goal, destination, or motivation even to bring an organisation forward. This seems very uncertain and risky as projecting the future could be very different from what it might shape up to be. However, just one example had me change my mind immediately and that was Steve Jobs. He had a vision to create the Mac and its profound features, lo and behold, his vision has survived and thrived well.

There have been a lot of upcoming innovations and inventions, but truth be told, many are completely redundant which  are not useful for the betterment of societies as a whole but only specific in their benefits to a small groups. Thus, much of the current resources especially monetary resources are carefully being channelled to support or invest in the “right” kind of technology. This is very relevant to developing countries where the resources are already pretty much scarce. However, if everything was to be taken with so much precaution and new technologies would have been discarded, who knows, it could have been something would revolutionise the future. Nobody will know which technology ought to be encouraged or not, a difficult decisions that, managers or CEOs have to take.

Wen Cong’s presentation was truly supportive of the session’s content on future forecasting. He spoke on the 6 rules of effective forecasting technology that was valuable in providing us with an insight on importance of prediction. However, yet again, there are limitations to this where forecasting cannot be the answer to our future. Only with checks and balances in place and stringently following a procedure will forecasting bring benefits and shape a stable future.

With interesting ideas that were mentioned in the session, I would rate this class an 8/10!

Future Technology

This week’s session could be described as surreal or just pure wild imagination. It was an extrapolation of what the future might hold in terms of our progress in technology. Decades back geographical boundaries were thought to be insurmountable yet now we have communication giants such as Facebook or travel modes such as airplanes. So much has progressed and thus the possibilities and opportunities in the coming years cannot be doubted as anything can be possible.  

One very interesting technology that could be a norm is plastic technology where high-tech plastic could be embedded in anything we can imagine such as contact lens, clothes, curtains which may change the dynamics how things work in our day-to-day lives.

A throng of innovations are being introduced into the market continuously. Most die out while some become a huge success. The prof has mentioned again that the success of the product is determined whether it is market-driven or technology -driven. If there is a need for the technology, it would be widely accepted. Innovation does have its perks where, constant modification alters the application of a technology which can be used in a simpler way deeming it to be more convenient for people to use. Motion sensors in gaming is not limited to just video gaming but is applied in different sectors such as the medical field.

The prof posed a question of the difference between sales and marketing. Seems similar yet it has very stark difference in its strategies, where sales has a push force on the public while marketing has a pull force. This is really interesting where it comes back to the whether a product is market driven or technology driven. If the product is a need in society, it pulls their attraction when the product is marketed. One Singaporean company mentioned was Creative Technology where it is seeing losses due to not being able to keep up with the market needs which other companies such as Apple is able to provide.

Other two most-discussed future technologies are robotics and augmented reality. These were further analysed through the presentations. The first presentation covered the concept of trans-humanization where individuals could replace their body parts with machineries work and appear as a human hand but are of course, made to do things more efficiently, faster and go through tougher jobs and brain transplant could have us think faster. However, why not have robots or machineries that are not incorporated into our bodies, to do the jobs separately? Would we want to go beyond our human capabilities and as prof posed, at which point would we seize to be human as we adopt cyber technology with artificial intelligence.

The second presentation was on Future of aviation technology by Gideon. The presentation covered the futuristic feel on flights and their uses to be more efficient as a transportation and entertainment mode where the public could enjoy flight cruises. Most of my classmates do believe that in 40 years, such a concept will be possible. However, I feel that possible or not, it is not our priority looking at the dire needs of the world that have not been tended to yet.

The next presentation by Daryl was on the pervasiveness of robots where there has been a major shift in the industry. Would robots taking over every job of men and women while people reap their benefits? This is something I would like to see for myself in the future.

The last presentation by Michelle who spoke on augmented reality and its pervasiveness. Would information on everything be so readily available to us that accessing sites such as Google or Facebook become moot? This technology can be used in any field, education, medical, aviation to provide a better and richer experience for patrons. Again the crime of infringement of privacy crops up if one had the access to a person’s bio-data just by looking at them. However, with modifications of this technology this one will be really pervasive and prevalent in society and I would like to experience that for myself.

For the pure fun and imagination that this class brought up, I would rate this 10/10.

Energy: Past, Present and Future

The crux of this week’s topic is energy consumption. It never fails to surprise me that the magnitude at which I see people in Singapore or the States or any city consume in such magnitude and the world still seem to be operating continuously. I could be referring to food resources or electricity used daily. This goes to show just how much the Earth has in store for man’s disposal. However, this may not go on for long. Yet, some credit must be given to humans who have and are still stretching, unscrupulously rummaging for the remnants of sources of energy. Wind and solar energy which were available alternatives decades ago are becoming major components in contributing to future energy sources.

Wind energy has its limitations where it could be only harvested with the presence of wind. However, one question which stumps me and even Prof Shahi is why solar energy is under-cultivated. Is potential energy is triple times all the other sources of energy combined together. Yet, we do not see a widespread usage of this source. Harnessing this energy could supply us with unlimited energy that could sustain, maybe forever till the sun perishes. There has been a visible push to capture solar energy. However, from http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/19/markets/global_energy_use/index.htm, it can be seen that the projected world energy mix, contains only 14% of renewables. This is mainly due to the expenses that the country incurs investing in this type of energy. Every technology, when first introduced into the market is costly due to lack of competitors. However, organizations are still not ready to invest in this technology and thus costs will still be high and this vicious cycle may not be broken at least in the coming few decades.

Also the global energy consumption is expected to rise by 53% largely driven by demand from India and China. China currently uses 25% in a global scale. Energy is also a source of income and how energy is harvested and is used in each country is influenced by the clout of politics. The more hardworking government would pass in laws that may implement greener technologies. However, some are plain corrupt where people from the grass roots level work to produce energy for the state do not even get their income. Suresh has kindly put up a very intriguing article on Nigeria and its impoverishment due its corruption.

The presentations were intriguing; especially Avijit’s topic on the consequence is governments are not cautious with their usage of their energy which evokes a sense of foreboding. Suresh also spoke of reserve power plants which will not add to the energy consumption but will be used in case of emergency. Maybe this stored energy could be the answer to future consumption in place of others perishable resources.

For an insightful class, I would date this 9/10.

Agriculture - BioBusiness

This session brought us through agricultural-biology, environment and its past present and future. Prof Shahi has mentioned the quote ‘When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability. He did explain the quote, that is, sustainability can be only attainable when we know how to renew our resources and while we are consuming them. He also mentioned that Singapore takes on a different angle in this, that is, sustainability is attainable if we use less of what we have in hand. Both have their stand in defining the word sustainability. However, as much as it sounds compelling that we start to grow our resources, it sounds too drastic and unrealistic. It might be true in the case of agriculture where we could plant and re-plant as long as the land remains fertile. Even the land runs out of its fertility and that’s when resources are put in to make the better out of the land. We are not able to grow new land but work on what we have. As much as we should embrace opportunities to grow our resources, our current path to sustainability is reducing our use.

A very interesting concept which Prof mentioned was the introduction of ‘farmists’ as opposed to farmers. Farmers are known to have a rigorous and brainless job since the start of agriculture. However, turning the job role into a smarter one, which increases the farmer’s productivity, seems like a more lucrative business in farming. This has been discussed in class and it has been mentioned the challenge is in changing and teaching these farmers to adopt a new business style. Looking at India, 60% of the land is agricultural land, which shows the magnitude of number of farmers. And going through training programs for them seems like a huge hurdle. However, this idea should not be shunned as a gradual movement into turning farmers into ‘farmists’ might just be possible and may turn the agricultural business.

Moving on to the presentations, most of them have touched the agro-biology on GM food. Many pros and cons of GM food have been discussed. I feel that we are already in the era where most of our foods are genetically modified and even if they are not direct products of genetic modification, they initial ingredient could have been tampered with. As for labeling, companies should provide information about the contents of the product. More detailed information about the process of manufacturing of the food product could be updated on the company’s website. However, even then, the truth and credibility of the information given is doubtful. As agreed by some of my class mates, what you do not know does not hurt you. And I think many of us are living by this example, where they usually ignore given labels, and even if we might chance upon the labels, we do not take the extra step to understand what our food contains. Guess we all are still leaving it upon the government and food industries to decide what is good for us and what is not.

Topic on agriculture was not my favourite one, yet this class induced and evoked so many intriguing questions. I would rate this 10/10!

Bio-Business...

As the progress of bio-business has been steep over the past 3 decades, the future of healthcare seems even more promising. The video on Microsoft’s vision for the future healthcare was brilliant on how people will have the convenient and ‘remote’ healthcare consultation. Patients will be able consult their doctors without having to physically be there in the clinic or hospital. This topic has been discussed in class. Technology always has its setbacks, where with this particular one doctors could not provide accurate reviews of the patient’s medical condition or prescriptions. Moreover, the precise amount of consultation fee cannot be determined.

From slide 8, it can be seen that the US is seen to be spending a lot in the bio-business sector, however, there are many issues with specifically the US healthcare. This is another issue which has sparked my interest.

It is yet again ironic that despite the innovations and the exciting future that bio-business holds, in the global leading causes of death and disability is major depression ranked at number 2. People are still not happy! And ranked number 1 is heart disease which is not surprising as our emotions affect our heart, and people round the globe seem depressed!

We can see that there is upward inclination to the trends in bio-business looking at the life-science patent approvals. Increasing numbers of people have entered themselves in the innovation business over the past years. As stem-cell research becomes prominent and genetic modification crops up, there research in this field seems to know no bounds. From the graph of Global Burden of Disease, we can see how communicable and non-communicable diseases are spread over the globe. The innovations have to be effective in alleviating suffering in areas with these fatal diseases as for now this the pressing problem.

Coming to presentations, Future of Healthcare done by Yu Jun was brilliantly done and it also received much applaud from the class. The presentation style was very effective as it used very few words and the message came across through interesting usage of visuals. This is a learning experience for me as I came to know what the audience looks for in a presentation.

I would rate this session an 8/10 as it brings quite a few things into perspective especially about a vast sector such as bio-business.