TWC Session 12: Group Presentations (ii)

In this sessions, there were 4 group presentations: Epidemic management; Crowd sourcing; Green Urbanization; and Sports and Technology. The presentation styles were similar to the previous weeks, though the topics presented shed quite some light on various issues. The main two presentations that were most interesting to me was Sports and Technology, and Wild Green Urbanization.

Sports and Technology is a natural interest to me as i use to play squash competitively at school and club level. In this presentation, the thing that caught my attention most was the part on technology to accelerate recovery. The example given was Valencia from Manchester United who broke his leg, and within 10weeks, he was back on the pitch. Before such advanced technology, one a soccer player broke his leg, it was more or less over for his career. Applying this to all sports in general, other than precautions that a sportsman can take, the technology has given sportsmen confidence that they will be able to carry on with their careers. Simulation Training, with the aid of technology, has also been a great asset to sports. It allows people to have real like simulations of the actual game. This is especially useful for sports like Formula One. To add on further, it allows them to train even when there is no 'competitor' and it saves on costs. As far as my knowledge goes, the cost of the amount of fuel in a F1 race is substantially high. Simulations will reduce the costs, but more importantly, save fuel. Sports and technology is something to keep a constant look out for in the future!

Moving on to Green Urbanization, the concept of this is very appealing. Though government bodies have been constantly 'worried' about the environment, I have not seen much that had been done about the matter. Green concepts are not tough to come out with, but it takes tremendous commitment and resources to apply them. For example, the use of electric cars. The invention has been out for 10-15 years at least? But look at the amount of electric cars on the road currently. Only in the past few years, the Singapore government had provided subsidies for people who purchase hybrid cars. This acts as a good incentive for road users to use. Hopefully in the future, governments can use more of these policies to electric cars!

i had a good time during the TWC session. though it was the last lesson, i am thankful for the amount of insight that have been shared! (:

TWC Session 11: Group Presentations (i)

This week's TWC session had no seminar, but rather, it was a time where the groups presented their websites. The websites' topics can be based on anything, as long as it is related to technology. The topics were 1. Designer Babies 2. Nanotechnology(my group!) 3. Space Tourism 4. Plastic Vortex. This session is very different form the other sessions as the entire time is dedicated to the presentations and the discussions are from us, the students.

i found the designer babies very interesting, both in the aspect of presentation, as well as the topic. First, i am impress with the presentation style, especially in the introduction. The group introduced the topic by describing a scenario of a thirty odd year old wife who wants to have a baby, but is unable to have one despite trying very hard by natural means. Having designer babies will allow the wife to be able to have a child, as well as reduce the possible complications that a older lady might face. I felt that having such a introduction caught the attention of many of the students, and is able to relate and understand the issues of the topic.

Moving on to the topic itself, i feel that there is a certain amount of controversy. Basic human rights and moral issues are pretty much in the center of conflict. If a couple is perfectly healthy, is it right for them to have a designer baby for the reasons that they want to choose the gender of the child and his or her strengths and features? If designer babies become a common practice in the future, which i foresee, everyone will be of high IQ, good looks and almost no weaknesses. is that a good thing? what if every son looks like brad pit? on this issues, personally i feel that having designer babies to prevent diseases, deformities or problems along these lines are the right thing to do. It will prevent suffering and pain of children or loved ones. However, for esthetic or gender preference wise, i feel that this then becomes subjective. No one can really stop a couple from having a designer baby, but i feel that it is wrong to do so. Like many other technologies, only time will tell the developments of this amazing technology and how societies apply it.

The other presentation that caught my attention was plastic vortex. First, the topic presented is new to me. I did not know before the presentation about plastic vortex, or the amount of waste there is in the oceans. The group did a generally good presentation, covering the issues and possible solutions of curbing this problem. I was impressed with the solutions that the group came up with. This allows any readers that come across the website to be able to be "part of the effort". Those interested can also look up the 2 organizations whose aim is to clean up the mass thrash in the ocean, that is polluting and destroying the sea and the creatures in it. Among the solutions, Prof did offer to amend their solutions and i thought it was very helpful. The group's mentality was to stop further pollution of the sea by cutting down on plastic materials, but not to do anything about the plastic vortex. However, what prof mentioned was to put that as a mid-term goal and pen down a long-term goal to clean up the plastic vortex. This will require a lot of time, effort and expenditure by countries. Hopefully, countries will join hands to do so.

i had an enjoyable time in this TWC session and am looking forward to next week's batch of presentations! (:

jem

TWC Session 10

Session 10's main focus was on the Assessment and Forecasting of technologies. In this session, we talked about the potential fields of technology that are present today and also looked at "mega trends" that are present in the society today.

An important aspect to be discussed further is on the vitality of being proactive and imagination. Being proactive in the area of technology is to be aware of the future issues and thinking about how we can address the issues. This will cause an increase in demand for innovative technology. Being proactive is also beneficial to anyone, which will in turn let one be the forefront in that area. In addition to being proactive, imagination is also an important factor. As discussed more in-depth in the last session, pro activeness and imagination comes hand in hand. To be successful in any industry and to be ahead of your competitors, one needs both these "concepts".

An issue brought up during the session was the limited resources there are in the world, hence the need to prioritize on whether and when to implement new innovations and technologies. This is especially crucial in the developing countries. I feel that the government plays a huge role in this aspect of allocating resources. Most of them (especially developing countries), unfortunately, allocate their resources based on short term goals, meeting the present needs. However, they fail to have enough foresight to plan for the future issues and needs that their country might face. This means that they will always "be playing catch up" and not be able to break out of this cycle.

"Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today"

Perhaps what could have been discussed more is on mega-trends. Prof did show a video on it, but due to the lack of time, there was not much discussion on this. Maybe a few mega trends could have been highlighted and debate about the importance of the trend.

This session was fruitful in bringing insight about the future and the attitude one should carry to be successful! 9/10

jem

TWC Session 9

The main discussion in the TWC Session 9 was about the emerging and future technologies. The session was the most open-ended of all the previous session, allowing the class to discuss on any technologies and its future predictions. An overview of the type of drivers was also given by the prof for recap.

“You see things; and you say, 'Why?'

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

- George Bernard Shaw -

“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 –

These two quotes revolves one of the main reasons of innovation of emerging and future technologies. The keyword: IMAGINATION! Imagination is a very powerful tool, it is the cause of innovations and new inventions. Imagination can be seen as the spark of vision that makes one chase after the idea. Though imagination is very important, i feel that there should be emphasis on being "grounded to earth". 

A concept that is very interesting is The Perfect Woman. This is derived from robotics. Two scientists have been researching on building "the perfect woman", a robot. This "woman" will be able to cater to the chores of the household and even provide massages for the owners! The idea was based on the facts that there are 100,000,000 single men around and that those who are unable to find their perfect soul mate can just purchase one. The robots or "woman" will be able to be bought online and delivered to them. A broader picture of this concept can be related to the work that robots can 'take over', such as menial factory work and low-cost labors. This will enable these jobs to be done more efficiently and effectively. However, there will be a change of social unrest due to the rise in unemployments. Before such events can happen, there must be a change in the economics of the world, where people will strive for excellence, being able to contribute more than menial labour, leaving them to robots.

A revolutionary technology that can be seen to emerge in the next decade is plastic electronics / technology. The main idea is using plastics instead of silicon for electronics. This will enable the flexibility of equipment as well as the durability. For example, mobile phones can be made of plastics. The main focus is manufacturing plastic microchips. This technology can being endless opportunities! to find out more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Tv5Ox_U90 

After mentioning on the potential of the solar energy in the previous session, i went to do some research on the emerging technologies of alternative solar energies. Recently, scientists have been able to a plastic solar cell that can turn the sun's power into energy. The plastic material uses nanotechnology and contains the first solar cells able to harness the sun's invisible, infrared rays. The breakthrough has led theorists to predict that plastic solar cells could one day become five times more efficient than current solar cell technology. Like paint, the composite can be sprayed onto other materials and used as portable electricity. A sweater coated in the material could power a cell phone or other wireless devices. A hydrogen-powered car painted with the film could potentially convert enough energy into electricity to continually recharge the car's battery. Hopefully there will be faster development of this invention and that it will be used worldwide, especially with the pending energy crisis of nuclear.


the takeaway quote of the session: If you imagine it, you can make it happen.


8/10


Jeremy (:

TWC Session 8

Today in Technology and World Change, the topic of discussion was energy and world change, taking account the past, present and future. The world at present is aiming to have a transition from fossil fuel based energy intensive economy to environmentally sound and sustainable clean and green approach. To reach this target, governments and people have to inculcate new habits and come out with new ideas and technologies.

An interesting point that was brought up during the session : "the sun provides more energy to the Earth in one hour than humankind currently uses in an entire year". considering there is some truth to this quote, i wonder why most countries are not focusing the majority of their resources on solar energy, finding ways to fully utilize or harness the energy. Some countries focus on nuclear energy, natural gas, while other focus on alternative renewable energy sources like biomass, wind and water. Perhaps a reason i can think of is that solar energy requires 2 conditions : abundance of sunlight and land. in the case of sunlight, Germany (shown in lesson) is seen to have invested a lot in solar energy and has got very positive outcome in the process. Other countries, especially countries in the tropics, should follow and example of Germany and their governments should also encourage the private use of solar panels. Next is land, the presenting technology requires a large amount of land to harness enough electricity to power a town or so. hopefully in due time, technology will enable the same surface area of panel to absorb a significantly larger amount of energy.

Governments play a huge role in achieving a clean, green environment. i have to agree with prof when he stated that the "biggest stumbling block is political will for a possible energy scenario of achieving close to 100% renewable energy by the year 2050". Governments are the driving force of a nation's economy and if they all put their focus to a green economy, a lot can be achieved. i lean more towards the role of governments than "it starts with you" campaigns. why? policy tools for facilitating change to a green economy is done by the government, and if done right, the results will be tremendous. Using Germany's solar energy as an example, the government used a combination of incentive, subsidies and education. The result was that even traditional farmers care thinking of using their land for energy purposes rather than just rearing and growing crops. Such an system should be implemented all over the countries!

The Fukushima accident was tragic. BUT it has also caused several countries to focus on alternative renewable energy sources and fully stop nuclear energy.  Though nuclear energy has significantly less pollution than coal / fossil fuels, the bottom-line is that there is still pollution. Countries like Germany and Scotland had decided to totally phase out nuclear and turn to alternative energy sources. Maybe the 'new' investments can lead to greater utilization of these renewable resources.

The key takeaway is the importance of renewable resources and non-pullution. Governments should focus more on renewable energy than on how to maximize the non-renewables.

Something else that can be discussed during this seminar is the possibly of moving technology of renewable resources into the private sector. Governments should, like everything else, provide patents and incentives for the private sector to invest in renewable resources. This will lead to a much rapid rate of development.

8/10

Jeremy! (:

TWC Research Paper Draft 1- Nuclear Energy

Hi all!

here is the link to my TWC research paper draft 1!

(:

link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wtLrxhtMGJ2UW9-APsRY5ToqTcghW2mqyb0-BXF7580/edit?hl=en_US

TWC Session 7

For TWC session 7, we continued our discussion about BioBusiness Revolution. This time we mainly focused on Agriculture and the Environment, how BioBusiness has impacted the society in the aspects of agriculture and the environment. We touched on matters such as waste management, plant biotechnology and Agri-biology. 

One of the perspective of Agri-biology is the transformation of traditional farmers to what they call "farmist". The concept is to educate farmers to the extent that they are specialized. Gone were the days when farmers where termed by growing crops on lands and harvesting them. Present day "farmist" are farmers that use up to date technologies to increase productivity. Methods such as hydroponics and aerophonics are examples that famers used. Technology enables us to increase productivity of food, shorten the growth cycles of crops, hence allowing more food to be produced from the same amount of land. Hopefully in the near future, technology will have advanced to the extend that the cost of food prices will drop to enable food to be catered all around the world, even the poorer nations.

Another question that Prof posed today was "Genetically Modified Food or not?. I feel that Prof made a good point in arguing for GM food. There should not be protests against it if these food provides better nutrients and allow frequent supply of quality food. The only difference is that food nowadays can be done in a laboratory, crossing genetic properties to come out up the desired product. Back in the past, plants were also genetically modified by cross breeding! just that it was done slower and more "traditional" methods.

“There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.” 
I feel that if everyone lives by this, there will never be famine.

7/10! 

TWC Session 6

In TWC session 6, the topic of discussion was the BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare and the Biomedical Sciences.  Prof spoke about the relation between healthcare spending of a country in relation to World Ranking in Healthcare, Obesity pandemic, BioBusiness Landscape and finally, Healthcare Revolution.

An interesting point about Healthcare Revolution is the increase of participation of the private sector in the healthcare industry. The driver of this change, I feel, is due to the incentive of revenue that can be generated from the patent rights. However, there need to be a balance between healthcare costs versus innovation. In most countries, it is evident that only the rich has access to healthcare as they have the monetary resources. The aim of healthcare is to provide access to everyone, regardless of rich or poor. Ways to do this are reducing patents, putting a price ceiling on drugs like in France and other ways that lead to less revenue of companies.  This will act as a discouraging factor for companies to innovate new drugs. There have been ongoing debates to find the perfect “balance” in the two areas.  It will be interesting in the upcoming years on the outcome of this.

During the discussion, prof displayed a slide regarding the top 5 US Biotech firms and their annual revenue. On a more personal experience, I had the opportunity to do Public Relations for one the firms, Genzyme. I did an internship with a PR firm and did the promotion of 2 of the products/ medical innovation to the public. One of the products that I helped promote was Synvic, a gel that is inserted to temporary “replace” the ligament of kneecaps when it has been worn out. I realize then that the technology had advanced to an extend that this procedure does not even need an operation, just an injection every 5 years to prevent the pains caused by the wearing of kneecaps! What’s more, the cost of the injection is only about $250. From this example, it can be observed that there has been rapid innovation in the biotech industry.

The aim of Healthcare is to strike the best balance between innovation and healthcare costs.

An issue for further discussion for the session can be about the animal and human testing? Whether it is morally right for the greater good of society.

I rate this session 8/10!

TWC Group Web Report

History and Background of Space Exploration

Introduction

Motivations for Space Activity

Major Milestones

Pioneers of Space Travel

1. Johannes Kepler
2. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857 – 1935)
3. Isaac Newton
4. Building the First Rockets-Robert Goddard
5. Convincing the World-Hermann Oberth
6. Taking Man into Space-Wernher Von Braun
7. First Man into Space-Yuri Gagarin
8. First American into Space-Alan Shepard
9. First American in Orbit-John Glenn
10. First Man on Moon-Neil Armstrong
11. Second Man on the Moon-Buzz Aldrin

Also Include the Timeline- Key Dates in the History of Space Exploration 

Space Techonology

How does it work?

• Video

Rocket Propulsion

• What is a rocket?
• Different rocket propellants

Ground launch

• What is ground launch (video)
• Dragon X (Rocket Falcon 9) (video)
• Specifications of Dragon X & Falcon 9
• Statistics & Flight plans

Air launch

• What is air launch (video)
• Virgin Galactic Spaceship 2 (video)
• Brief description of its development
• Specifications
• Innovative features
• Flight plans

Pros

Cheaper in time to come for consumers to go into space

• Privatisation drives competition, Competition drives innovation

• Richard Branson setting up Virgin Galatics
• Emergence of other spaceship providers

• Consequently better, safer, cheaper technologies for space travel are created

• Spaceships that are reuseable

Improve International Ties

• “ International community together in an activity that pits man against the cosmos.”
•  Lower Cost of travelling due to cooperation
• More money for humanitarian efforts and social spendings

Life without gravity

• Weightlessness (travelling with a harness on a fixed point)
• Space hygiene (showering, cleaning, laundry, dental)
• Exercising (to reduce the effect of weightnessless)
• Space cuisine

New Travel Options

• Travellers can enjoy a 3 day suborbital flight, overseeing the curves of the Earth
•  Compare the difference to the contemporary trends of travelling

Opportunities for exploration in search of alternate resources

• The Earth is using up non-renewable resources at an increasing rate
•   Show some impact of the damage
•   Possible alternative resources found on other planets

Cons

The following issues have been discussed under the given topic:

• Health hazards
• Current astronauts
• Prospective space tourists
• Space junk
• What is it?
• Real-life examples
• Geopolitical issues
• Current regulatory framework
• Air traffic management in the future
• Ethical issues
• Competing priorities
• Non-proliferation of military technology
• Issues regarding commercializing/ claiming property in space
• References

Future Prospects

Future ways to get up there:

1.     Bloon your way up to near space(36km high) instead by 2013

Future prospects to stay up there:

1.     Stay up on space, in space hotel- room with a view (2016)

2.     Orbital flight/cruise ship

3.     Lunar resort

Satellites and planetary expeditions:

1.     Dark side of the moon

2.     Mars (by 2030)

Others:

1.     Space burial

2.     The new airport is the spaceport-proliferation of spaceports in the future

3.     Intercontinental flights at a fraction of the time

TWC Session 5

The session was mainly about Information Communication Technology (ICT) and the world. We discussed the main areas that ICT are seen in the world, such as Mass Media, Internet, Cloud Computing.  Following that was the debate whether ICT is considered a driver of world change presently and what is lacking for it became a major driver of world change in the future. Lastly, some potential risks and dangers with ICT that can also be seen as the “slowing” down of the process of it becoming a larger impact for the world.

An interesting point is the debate about ICT being a driver of world change. As discussed, ICT is not a fully driver of change at this present point. Though ICT is in many areas such as Mass Media, Internet, Cloud Computing, Information Technology , it is just skimming the surface on most of them. At the moment, ICT is only used to collect and process the information available, rather than continuing it to further develop the information into knowledge and finally, wisdom. The concept is based on the point on Knowledge Management. Hopefully, there will be more initiative to further developing ICT and not be satisfied with where it is at presently.

Perhaps another reason why ICT is not developing as fast as the other revolutions is due to the dangers or potential risks of ICT. Every new innovation definitely has downsides. For the case of ICT, the more crucial factors of concerns I feel are security and invasion of privacy.  Using the case of the innovation of Cloud Computing which is an up and coming technology, there are too many concerns that slows down the process of development. Big companies and even countries are having doubts in entering the Cloud Computing, having the fear of espionage or privacy issues, this leads to the slower development of the software. A more realistic example is the hacking of PS3, where the hackers were able to access the information of the PS3 users. This caused a big spectacle of Cloud. Operators of Cloud Computing have to develop the technology further and at the same time gain the confidence of the world that the technology is stable. These concerns need to be met before Cloud as well as ICT can further develop and be a world driver of change.

Project Natal has brought about a fruitful discussion in the session. Project Natal is a technology that allows humans to interact with an IT programme. Throughout the course of humanity, humans have humanized pets such as dogs, and other animate or inanimate objects. Soon, IT will too be humanized. Hints of this can be seen in the gaming arena. Xbox by Microsoft is a good example, with the recent launch of “Kinect”. This technology uses a camera and motion sensors to detect the movements of a participant of the game, and reflect the exact motions into the game/screen. Presently, this is the most “developed” technology in this arena and I feel that it is a “testing” platform for more to come in the future when applicable to real-life.

The key takeaway from this seminar is the fact that ICT has not reached its full potential and is still in progress to become a major world driver of change. The developments of ICT will be interesting to take note over the next 10 or 20 years.

Further discussion can be on how ICT is in the different areas of the world and how ICT can be improved in these areas.

8/10! 

TWC Topic Reviw Paper Outline

NUCLEAR ENERGY

Background/Introduction:

·          Reason why I chose this topic?

o   The incident of the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011 brought shocking news to the world

o   Nuclear emergency was declared due to the failure of cooling systems at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant

o   This incident sparked my interest on nuclear energy, something that has so much potential in solving the energy crisis in the world, but yet is such a danger to the society

o   Before the explosion of Fukushima Power Plant, everyone was very contented with the success of the plant and the future implementations more plants

o   Currently, Japan is made the center of conflict of approving Nuclear Energy. Many other countries, such as Jordon and other European countries are having heated debates on the pros and cons of continuing their nuclear energy programme

·          Background

o   Before the innovation of nuclear energy, the world mainly relied on fossil fuel as the source of energy.

o   Problems with this source of energy: pollution, non-renewable resource, reliance on countries that posses fossil fuels (political dominance)

o   Why chose nuclear energy/ viable as compared to the other alternative resources? Such as water, wind and solar

Historical Perspective

·         The reason for the cause of starting up a Nuclear Power Plant

o   pros and cons discussed before the first construction of Nuclear Power Plant

o   Pros: clean energy; provide a large amount of energy generated from this source as compared to the other alternative sources; easy disposal; reliable source

o   Cons: safety issue such as explosions and also radiation; disposal of spent fuel rods which remain radioactive for hundreds of years; possible spread of nuclear weapons to unreliable owners

·        - Personal analysis of the pros and cons and view as to why Nuclear Power Plants were given the go-ahead/ perhaps economical factors outweighed the social concerns?

Current Situation

·         - Present debates between activists and governments on the continuity of Nuclear Power Plants

·           -Case Study of Fukushima Power Plant: Look at the causes of failure to contain the radiation; failure to adhere the safety regulations (mention in Economist if I can recall); immediate measures taken by government and measures that were not taken

·        -Evaluate the case study and draw lessons to be learnt and ways to avoid mistakes and also, the role the government played

·        -Apply evaluation to other countries in debates on Nuclear Energy, considering their various geological location, political stability, pros and cons to their economical, social and political aspects of the countries (I will take 2 or 3 specific countries)

Future Considerations

·          -Measures recommended to prevent further disasters

·          - Lessons that can be drawn from research that can be applied to future Power Plants

·          -Personal Opinion if Nuclear Power Plants should be allowed to continue or other recommendations for instance, placing power plant at a geological secluded location

·           -Advances in technology can possibly curb the safety issues?

·            -Is it a waste to stop all activities concerning Nuclear energy? Opportunity?

·             -Alternative energy? For example Japan using air as a form of energy and still maintain the bulk of energy in Japan

Conclusion

·      How societies should manage the “new” resources?

·      Factors that spur the push of nuclear energy or shift of focus to another alternative energy

·      Will there be a day that nuclear energy be abandoned totally?