Session 11:

Today was the first day of presentation. With no more official lessons today we saw our fellow classmates websites.

The first one was the website about Technology and the Arts. It itself was an intriguing topic to me as technology we always relate to science. So seeing it in view of arts was very fascinating. The group went through three art types namely: Film, Visual Art and Music. My view on art is that it is something that should come naturally to us. I personally think that artists should not use technology while showcasing their talent. However, if I was an artist myself, I would also use technology because the competition out there in the world is so stiff that it is necessary for us to use technology to enhance our talents.

Moving on another presentation was on technology and its role and impact on physically disabled. Frankly speaking, this is a very important aspect of technology. This is because technology has really improved the lifestyle of those disabled. Furthermore, with technology we are also able to spread messages that help to integrate the disabled into the society.

Lastly, was the presentation on social media and us. This is of course a topic that everyone is interested about because social media is something that has become a part of our daily life. For me, I know of friends who do not use facebook because they believe that its disadvantages outweighs its advantages. I beg to differ as social media for me does not only helps me to relax but I have been able to connect with my friends from India after 8 years because when I first came to Singapore, internet was not so commonly used in India. So facebook is something that I’ll always cherish as it helped me to find out about my friends whom I had lost touch with! That being said, of course facebook is a hindrance! The first thing I do when I log onto my computer is open facebook and I keep looking at it again and again as updates keep coming constantly.

With that being said, today’s lesson was very interesting as my classmates talked about what they have been working on for the past 10 or so weeks!

Session 10:

The session started with two interesting quotes and videos. The video on Microsoft was very exciting. It shows what Microsoft has been working towards and the future that we see in the video is imaginable. It is interesting how people from all over the world will be able to contact and communicate with each other even if they have language barriers. Furthermore, the use of technology for communication for business as well as on newspaper is inspiring. With newspaper being digital but still in the shape of a printed one, we can have the same feeling of reading a newspaper. Furthermore, the usage of augmented reality in the study of plants will be very useful for all researchers too!

With that we were shown two more quotes:

1.      “Look before, or you'll find yourself behind”

Benjamin Franklin

It is very true in this modern society. We have to be aware of the things around us because they are changing constantly. And if we do not adapt to them by not knowing about them then we will find ourselves behind others.

2.      “The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”

- Winston Churchill –

This quote for me means that when we are able to think and imagine, we can make it happen. If we do not imagine it, we cannot make it happen. Hence, we have to know what our mind is wondering!

We then watched the video of Top 3 Inventions of the future. First invention was Nokia Morph whereby the Nokia cell phone can be converted from a big keypad to a wrist watch to a headset to a mobile phone. That is something I would very much love to own! Next was the Google Earth as seen in 2020. This invention is actually present now which shows that we are ahead of the “schedule” predicted by the people in the past. The number 1 invention was the salt-water fuel. If salt-water can indeed be used as fuel for industry purposes as well as for vehicles, there is a high possibility that oil era will soon come to an end!

Another interesting part of this session was the “Tracking the Future – Global Trends” video. This video showed an interesting view of the future as well as future is an abbreviation to what for the speaker.

F – Fast

U – Urban

T – Tribal

U – Universal

R – Radical

E – Ethics

The speaker talks about how there will be rise in power in non-western societies and how ethics in business namely Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) will play a huge role in the future.

Then we discussed some commonly used foresights methods by companies. I agree with the Prof when he says that forecasting using past/historical data is not a very good strategy. This is because, the world is now continuously changing and hence, it is no point to keep predicting what will happen based on past. It is rather more effective if we are able to think what will be needed in the future and hence predict what will happen according to this.  

Being the last “lecture” for the seminar, I liked that we ended on the note whereby we discussed issues of how to forecast. I would rate this session 8/10. 

Session 9:

I looked forward to today’s session mainly because of the topic: Emerging and Future Technologies. This is something that each and everyone of us are waiting for. To see what new technologies are being produced out there to make our life easier as well as to make it more entertaining. Just take for example SIRI from iphone 4S. SIRI is not only a helpful tool but it also provides us with much entertainment. This can be seen from the millions of messages posted online based on it.

With that in my mind, the session started with two very interesting quotes:

1.      “You see things; and you say, 'Why?'

But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'”

- George Bernard Shaw -

2.       “Imagination is more important than knowledge.

For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Albert Einstein –

The first quote is interesting in the sense that it shows how different people think. It is because of the people who pursue their dreams that we are now able to enjoy so many new technologies. Without such thinkers, we would still have been life like the nomads. Even then there were people who dreamt that they could kill a wild animal and thus came up with tools from wood and stones.

The second quote tells us that imaginative people have more potential than the ones who have all the knowledge. But without knowledge we may not be able to make the imagination a success. Yet, when we combine knowledge with imagination, we can get much more out of ourselves. So we should strive for a balance.

With that in mind, we moved on to look at the drivers for emerging and future technologies. Some of them are: unmet market opportunity and need, supply driven markets, making new technologies because of growing body of scientific and technological know-how and mass media. There is also because of the 4 Smarts: Smart people, smart ideas, smart money and smart alliances and partnerships.

Then we saw the video of the lady robot. It was an amusing as well as scary video for me. Amusing because the robot can speak, move around like any other human being. It is scary to see how people love this idea of robot as a company. In my opinion, no matter how realistic the robot is, it will still be a machine. It cannot feel what we feel and thus it cannot really understand us. The horrifying part will come when people come to depend on these robots and think of them as their companion. This can lead to many problems as people may not be able to communicate with each other because they will likely be comfortable with how a robot works rather than a human. I have this scary vision that if we continue to produce such robots for consumer use, soon there will be a world with only robots!

The augmented reality video that followed was very interesting. It would be very cool when such devices become a common product. When we go travelling on our won, we will get to know everything about a place without having to refer to a book or ask a person. It is like getting knowledge on road. Although this is already in place in many smartphones, having it on glasses or contacts can make life so much easier. Yet, as with all positives, there will also be negative impacts of such innovations. With augmented reality on our glasses, it can lead to many problems too. What if you are driving when suddenly information appears on your contacts or glasses? You may become distracted and it can cause accident. Hence, it is important that safety systems should be installed and augmented vision only come on when prompted by the user.

Then prof went through many different emerging technologies. One interesting discussion was on robotics. It will be true that when robots take over the working industry, we will be out of jobs. So how do we survive? The prof gave a very interesting solution: pay everyone in the society a minimum wage but those who work, they will earn higher. This will mean that children will feel that there is no need to be educated as they get the money with or without a job. Furthermore, this situation seems like communism whereby everyone gets equal proportion regardless of who they are. The big question however is: Will people who are now used to such extensive competition be ready to accept such a situation?

Today’s lesson lived up to my expectation about emerging and future technologies. There are so many things to look forward to such as smart homes! But we also have to be apprehensive of them and ensure that it does not end up whereby instead of we controlling the machines, the machines start controlling us!

I would rate today’s session: 9/10

Session 8:

Today was a very interesting topic as Energy is something that has been talked about for a very long long time. It caused me great amusement when prof showed the following quote to the class:

“IF EVERYONE CONSUMED AS MUCH ENERGY AS THE AVERAGE SINGAPOREAN AND U.S. RESIDENT, THE WORLD’S OIL RESERVES WOULD BE DEPLETED IN 9 YEARS”

-The energy report by WWF.

Many of us in Singapore think that USA people are consuming a lot of energy. So being quoted along with US citizen came as a shock to many people including me at first. Then I realised that it is in fact true that we, Singaporeans are consuming much more energy than people in other south-east Asian countries or even from Asia. Just take a look at SMU, although it has many energy consuming practices such as the elevator slows down when no one uses it, or the lights are switched off when they do not sense motion in the room, yet, during all the seven days of the week you see students preferring to sit in GSR rather than outside. There are also many students who book an entire GSR just for themselves. This means that one person uses the same amount of energy as do 5-6 people when they sit in a group in a GSR. So its not really that shocking that Singapore is also compared to USA for energy consumption.

Well moving on prof provided an insight to how society is now moving towards environmentally friendly and sustainable clean and green approach from the past unsustainable fossil fuel-based energy intensive economy.

Then we looked at some of the drivers for global energy change. Energy change is occurring due to many reasons such as:

1.      Rising energy consumption

2.      Need for sustainability

3.      New technologies and approaches.

Governments are also taking a keen interest in energy change because of international pressures as well as need for sustainability. For instance, Europe has banned all conventional light bulbs. This means that in entire Europe, one can only find Led lights used. These lights help to save a lot of energy as less energy is wasted because they produce less amount of heat.

Prof also mentioned that there have been rumours that the next Steve Jobs, that is a person who can change the world we live in, is very likely to come from the energy sector. In my opinion, this is can become true. This is because energy is required for all our daily chores and without energy we will suffer immensely. Thus, new, innovative ideas are required urgently to ensure sustainability and there is likely possibility that when we find a solution to the energy problem, world we see in the future will no longer be the same.

One interesting idea is that the sun provides us with the most amount of energy. It “provides more energy to the Earth in one hour then humankind currently uses in an entire year!” This means that we only have to tap less than 1% of the sun’s energy for our daily use. So imagine if we can tap around 2% daily the energy provided will be more than sufficient for the entire world! Well in my opinion, the next Steve Jobs just might be the person who will come up with an idea to tap the sun’s energy.

The lecture then turned towards solar energy usage. Germany is the world’s largest investor in solar energy. It is ironic that Germany has taken such a big interest in solar energy because the country does not get as much sun time as many other countries do. Some ways in which Germany has encouraged the usage of solar energy is that it has given cash incentives to the people who install solar panels. They also pay less for the electricity and the electricity price will remain the same for the next 20 years for the people who use solar panels. This means that when the price of electricity goes up, they will not be charged according to that new price.

As per normal when there are new innovations, people tend to be apprehensive of the new innovations and do not take willingly to them. It is the same for green technology too and thus it is important that measures are taken by government to encourage the usage of green technology. Some measures which were brought forward by the prof were education, subsidies, tax credits, compulsory standards etc. These measures will help to facilitate the change towards green technology.

My personal rating for this session is 8.5/10

Session 7:

Today’s session was on the second part of BioBusiness namely, the Agribiology, Enironmental Life Sciences and Industrial Life Sciences.

Under Agribiology, we looked at the difference between Agribiology and Agribiotechnology. For me the difference was such:

Agribiology: when we modify our seeds and plants such that they can adapt to different soil conditions

Agri biotechnology: when technology uses living organisms to modify a product or even make a new one.

So Agribiology is the process of changing the basics of a plant to make it adapt to different conditions while agri biotechnology is when we use technology to make the new basic of a plant.

Then we also looked at GM food. Personally, I do not consume GM food at home as my parents are not too inclined towards eating something which has chemicals that can make a difference to your body. But personally, I have no preference. I mean when we eat McDonalds or in any fast food restaurants, we are bound to consume GM food. But, I believe that in the future it might be necessary for us to shift towards GM food because with the increasing world population, we need to apply agribiology and agri biotechnology to ensure that the world has sufficient food.

Moving on the we looked at Environmental Life sciences. I believe that biodiversity is one thing that is the most important part of the nature we must preserve. This is because without the biodiversity, humans will no longer be able to survive. Even with the extinction of a small beetle we have never seen or heard of can bring a huge trouble to us. Imagine if the beetle is a very important part in the life cycle. It’s extinction will mean that there is a change in the way nature will work and we will face problems.

One of the interesting takeaways was the quote by Mahatma Gandhi: “There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.” In my opinion, solving this problem can be the solution to scarcity. But solving this problem is impossible. Everyone wants to have everything. It is because of this that businesses thrive as people compete among themselves to earn more so that they can afford to get more. But with such greed comes a hell of a price to pay. In my opinion, people have been made aware of the plight of the poor in the African countries and even other parts of the world. But its human nature that prevents them from letting go off their greed so that other people’s needs can be met. The only way that the problem of poverty can be solved is when everyone (meaning each and every individual down to the baby) takes only what they need and not what they desire.

For me this session was very insightful as I was exposed to the new concept of Food Security. Food security is when everyone gets enough nutrition for leading a healthy life. Achieving such a state is nearly impossible. As seen from the diagram below, the basic context for this includes many conditions which can only be achieved in an ideal situation. Furthermore, even if the basic conditions are met, there are many different and complex paths towards food security and thus, it is nearly impossible to achieve such a situation.

I would rate this session 9/10

Session 6:

Today’s session was about the Biobusiness with focus on healthcare and biomedical sciences. The session started with a great Greek proverb: “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” This is an inspiring proverb especially in the 21^st century whereby businesses and society has been looking for sustainable technology. Hence, with the usage of sustainable technology now, our future generation can gain benefits which we may have never experienced.

With this in mind, we moved on to knowing more about bio businesses. BioBusiness makes about quarter of the world’s GDP and also employees a little less than half the workforce. This shows the extent to which BioBusiness is present in our world today. Furthermore, even these figures are under estimates because many businesses like beauty, skincare, sex trade which constitutes of BioBusiness are not included in the figures. Currently however, most BioBusinesses are to do with low-value added activities yet, with biotechnology, these low value added technologies can be converted to high value added technologies and I believe that this is what we should strive for because with biotechnology now, our future generation is bound to enjoy better products and services.

With Biobusiness comes healthcare. It is ironic that in the past when many people did not move about, most people used to die due to communicable diseases. Yet, in the world of globalization, people are now dying due to non-communicable diseases. By 2020, it is estimated that countries will focus more on non-communicable diseases which will again lead to increase in deaths from communicable diseases. In my opinion, it is important for medical businesses and governments to strike a balance and not just focus on one type of disease.

Some of the main key takeaways for this lesson were through the video: Microsoft Vision: Future of Healthcare.  Microsoft believes that in the future, doctors will be able to communicate with other doctors in any part of the world regarding some patients illness. Furthermore, they can also use new technologies for diagnosis. Although it is sure to make the life of doctors easy, there is also a very scary part. What happens then to patients privacy? How about if the machines are wrong? Will the doctors who depend so much on them be able to adapt in such a situation? Hence, I believe that nothing should be left entirely on machines but we as humans should also be careful and should know much more than machines.

With this in mind, I would like to have further discussions on the negative impacts of using technology in the medical sector.

My personal rating for this session would be 8. I am not particularly interested in medical sciences but this lesson really helped me see medical in a very different perspective like the Greek Poverb. 

Individual report outline (new one)

Innovation: The invention of global positioning system (GPS). It has transformed how people move from one place to another. This disruptive change has made our lives easier by making our transportation faster, efficient and less tiring

Rationale for selecting this Innovation: In my opinion, GPS is going to replace all the paper maps very soon and there are a lot more varieties of GPS that can be made. Like ones which are pocket size so a person hiking can also take it along. Hence, I believe that there is a lot more to GPS than just using them in car!

Proposed approach to development of paper


Executive summary: (will be written at the end of report) it will focus on the change from navigation map to GPS and future possibilities of GPS and other systems.

Background/ Introduction: In this section I will be explaining the brief outline of my report.
Historical Perspective: In this section I would focus on the old navigation methods like a compass and the sun direction. (very short part of the report)

Current situation: This section would be on current methods like paper maps and GPS. IT will focus on how paper maps are now in decline and how GPS is becoming more and more possibilities.

Future situation: In this section, I will speculate on the possible changes to the GPS itself like having holographic vision of the map. I will also speculate on the usage of mobile GPS in other areas like for hiking, in theme parks or nature parks etc. I will also speculate on how in future the GPS may or may not play a role when driverless transportation is possible for automobiles. Tis will be my main focus.