Week 6

In this week's session of TWC, the topic discussed was biobusiness revolution: healthcare and biomedical sciences(past, present and future). Throughout the past sessions of twc, there have been many quotes but some how i particularly liked and remembered the quotes. One of them is a greek proverb:'A society grows great when old men plat trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.'. This describes a scenario where the elders are selfless and would do things for the people without consideration for one's self. Another one was by Albert Einstein:'There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.' I believe that if one has a positive outlook of life, one can live life to its fullest and that everything would seem like miracles, but if there are nothing that seems like a miracle, one would be living life very dreadfully and miserably.

Some ares the biobusiness comvers is the biomedical, agri-veterinary and environmental and industrial. Biobusiness consitues over 25% of the global GDP and employs as much as 40% of the worlds labour force. A particular point in this session interests me. It has been clearly stated that a large proportion of america's gdp has been spend on the last year of a man's life. This to me seems very ironic as it seems to be dumping money in the ocean to me. Why instead has the money not been spend on the children with many years of life left, with a future, with the ability to make a difference in the world.

I would rate this session a 7 out of 10 as there can be more discussion in areas of the past and the traditional. I have an interest in the past medicines especially that of traditional chinese medicines. I'm greatly fascinated by how the simple reading of one's pulse, a chinese physician is able to deduce the illnesses that one may have. Many of the class's discussions were of the future and impressive medical means. Maybe a greater study on the roots of medicines can be conducted.

Week 5

The topic for this week's TWC session was ICT and World Change(Mass Media, the Internet, Wireless, Interactive Telecommunications) Past, Present and Future. We talked about how infocomm technology progressed throughout the times, some areas of interest were mass media, internet, gaming, wireless technologies, cloud computing and knowledge management. the 3 areas which stood out to me were internet, gaming and knowledge management. I've always been using the internet and thinking that the only thing that changed about it over the years was the connection speed and the type of information. But it had actually changed from web 1.0 to 2.0 and now 3.0. Content on 1.0 was contributed by corporations, 2.0 by users via blogs and social networking sites while 3.0 is a system where the computers cleverly put together information about the user to let the user enjoy a more customized experience. Gaming refers the change in interaction between the user and the games(microsoft now has the kinect which does not have any controllers). Knowledge management describes the flow from data to becoming information to becoming knowledge(mixed with experience) to becoming wisdom.

The thing about moving into the ICT age, there is need for companies to change their way of managing people to that of post industrial. Instead of treating people as a cog in a big machines, employers are now expected to treat employees as individuals who 'can make a difference', who have ' excellent ideas'(empowering employees). Another interesting discussion in class was about green knowledge, managing knowledge and ensuring that expertise and knowledge is kept within the company. I feel that humans being selfish and wanting to feel indispensable might lead to chief knowledge officers having a hard job. The concept of CKO is also a new concept to me but seems like a necessary introduction to companies, but it doesn't seem that many companies have this position. Another interesting takeaway for me would be that of project natal and the possibilities this could bring. Project natal is the idea of capturing knowledge in the virtual form, and you can interact with this form. An imagination would be that your family members of 5 generations are captured into this virtual form whereby you can consult them for their individual expertise whenever you need. This aptly reminds me of the portraits of wizards and witches in the Harry Potter series.

Presentations include the 'Future of Television', 'Intelligent Nation 2015(Singapore)', 'Cloud Computing' and 'Free Economy and digital markets'. I preferred the last presentation most as it discusses the idea of free vs freemium, enabled by ICT. With ICT, data and software can be made infinitely many, reaching out to the masses across many parts of the world to create awareness among consumers, creating a market for your own product. Consumers only pay for the extra stuff(exclusive content). Being an information systems student myself, this and ICT appeals to me so i would rate this session a good 9.5 out of 10:) 9.5 because there always has to be room for improvement or people would be complacent and stay stagnant.

Individual Topical Review Paper Outline

i. Specific Innovation of Interest: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's(DARPA) Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Arm

ii. Rationale for Selecting this Innovation: This innovation is likely to change the world in the future as it is still being researched and fine-tuned. Expected to be out in the market in 4-5 years time. What is interesting is that you can resume bodily functions with this. Before this, prosthetics always had an end there was either for display or at most pinching mechanism or a hook. But this actually restores everything that your arm(including hand) can do. It has the ability to bend, rotate and twist in 27 different ways, very much like an ordinary arm.

iii. Proposed Approach to Development of Paper:

Executive Summary

Background/Introduction

• Uses of prosthetics.
• The need for prosthetic arms.
• Who worked to invent this information.

Historical Perspective

• History of prosthetics.
• How different the models were in the past.
• How from very simple designs, it has become more complexed.
• In the past just hooks or clamp grips. Static additions to replace lost arms.

Current Situation

• How prosthetics have helped many individuals lead a regular life.
• Yet how the current technology is limited by the design and functionality of the prosthetic arms.

Future Considerations

• The drastic improvements in terms of convenience to victims without arms.
• Regaining the ability not only to hold, but to grab, twist and roll with prosthetic hand(with fingers).
• How given the functionality, useability and feasibility(determined in the future) of such a mind-controlled prosthetic arm can be a borrowed technology to prosthetics for other parts of the body.

Conclusions

References

Week 4

Yet another week has past. In this week's TWC session, we discussed 2 topics which are Drivers of World Change and Change Management and Change Leadership. Drivers of World Change deals with anything and everything that causes a change in the world( the way we think, the way we behave, the way we do things). These drivers can be environmental, social or commonly globalization. What jumped out at me was competition as I had not had that in mind. The example given for competition as a driver was the space race. The different countries racing to be the first to send a man onto the moon actually led to man walking on the surface of the moon much sooner than expected. I guess in this way, competition actually motivates a higher degree of innovation,research and development that would lead to world change. An interesting way to classify change would be to consider if the change was revolutionary or evolutionary. Revolutionary describes the change to be disruptive and sudden with a large impact. Whereas evolutionary describes the change to be slow,blending into everyday life with continuous improvement. A key takeaway for me would be that no matter how great an innovation or invention, no matter how world changing it can be, ultimately if the leaders do not recognize this as being useful and beneficial, more often than not, that project is swept under the carpet. Only when someone recognizes the benefits of certain things will it be further developed and appreciated. I would rate this session a 8.5/10 as more students seems to begin to voice their thoughts, there can be more sharing and more things to learn.

Week 3

In this week's session of technology and world change, the two topics we had discussed were industrial development and innovation management. I learned that the concept behind sustainable industrial development is cyclical and not linear. If our production process is a linear one, at no parts of the process is materials recycled and 'given' back to the environment. We should all aim to have processes cyclical in nature so that it is sustainable and we would not impede use of these resources by future generations. On the other hand, managing innovation change involves determining rate of advancement in the different technologies. I'd like to keep in mind that non-sustainable technology is slowing losing its place in the world. Replacing it is green technology. However,there are 2 types of green technology, there's clean technology and cleaning technology. Cleaning technology refers to technologies that clean up waste and reduce pollution. On the other hand, clean technology refers to technology that does not produce pollution or waste. To a large extent i think that the technology we further invest in should be clean technology as it seems more logical to follow the very cliche saying of "prevention is better than cure".

i feel that maybe more discussion could be done to know how or what to invest in terms of technology. How do we decide what to have research and development in? Overall, this session was 7.2 out of 10 as it seemed rather rushed when the students were reluctant to share on certain articles.