TWC Session 6 (Week 6)

Figure 1. DEKA arm
Reproduced from DEKA Research. (n.d.)

Brief Overview/Summary

Prof. started the lesson by emphasizing again on what is the meaning of technology, innovation and sustainable development. So for a recap from my past post, I shall list them down again

• Technology- use of knowledge to solve problems
• Innovation- the application of new technologies or inventions that meet new requirements or existing market needs. (invention is the subset of innovation) 
• Sustainable development- is to be able to maximize current resources for development while not limiting resources for the future

This session we covered the topic on BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare & Biomedical Sciences. So what is BioBusiness? It is defined as a commercial activity based on an understanding of life sciences and life science processes. The sectors of BioBusiness are Biomedical(eg. Healthcare, pharmaceuticals);agri-vetenirary(eg. Agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture);environment/industrial(eg. Waste management, bioenergy); other areas(eg. Nanotechnologies on life sciences, bioengineering). We also covered on the  percentage of total BioBusiness market that contributes to the GDP among three regions, South Asia (47.3%), East Asia excluding Japan(33.7%) & USA(32.8%) in 2001 and South Asia had almost half of the region's GDP coming from BioBusiness, from here we can see BioBusiness is emerging. Prof. Shahi's BioBusiness Landscape Model was brought up again as we discussed that the key BioBusiness opportunity areas are potential 'Summit' opportunities. Prof. showed us trends of a rise in patent figures n BioBusiness related innovation from The Coming Biotech Age, Richard Oliver; The US Patent Office, (2000) between 1977-1997 in NCE (New Chemical entity); Microbiologic Innovation (Utilizing bacteria that are useful); Multicellular Organism Innovation (eg. Cloning of animals). Figures from the 5 leading BioTech companies, we see the rise in revenues between 1980-2001 and from two cases above we conclude that new innovations in the life sciences and biotechnology will revolutionize the BioBusiness landscape. Prof. showed us a video on Microsoft's vision of future healthcare (which is under biomedical that is a sector of BioBusiness) which is very futuristic and possible(p.s. the digital wallet is so damn cool!). After that, we covered on key drivers for innovation and change in healthcare which are, demographic and epidemiological(the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health) change (from rural to urban; aging populations; changing patterns of disease);Translating the findings of R&D into clinical and commercial application; Advances in information and bioengineering technology; Changing consumer need, demand and expectations. Then we also see that in first world or well developed countries, there are more chronic diseases (diabetes, high blood pressure etc.) while third world have more communicable diseases (Respiratory infections, HIV etc.) and we see the trends in rise of chronic disease from 1990 & 2020 that Ischaemic Heart disease will be predicted to be the no.1 cause of death or disability, there is no doubt that the rise of childhood and adult obesity are related to this. Currently, India has the most I.H disease patients. Lastly we conclude that we are in the midst of revolution in healthcare and Biomedical science and in the Pharmaceutical industry we faced a challenge in finding different geno-types candidates to create drugs.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

The rise in BioBusiness, being one of the emerging markets.

Key Take Away Points

The rise in BioBusiness is due to the demographic and epidemiological change, translation of R&D findings to clinical application, advances in ICT and bioengineering technology and also the change of healthcare due to the change in consumer need eg. more consumers are now obese and they need a different type of healthcare etc.

Issues for Further Discussion

Personal Ratings for Session

Personally I rate this session 10/10 as I was convinced on how BioBusiness is rising and will become a revolution and all the presenters were well-prepared and engaging.

TWC Session 5 (Week 5)

Happy belated 90th Birthday to Mr Lee Kuan Yew, without his bold vision (can relate to last week's lesson on change leadership & management), we will not have our Singapore today and we should not take the present for granted.

Figure 1. Singapore Skyline
Reproduced from Wikipedia. (n.d.)

Brief Overview/Summary

Today, we look into the topic of ICT & World Change (Mass Media, the Internet, Wireless, Interactive Telecommunications)- Past, Present & Future. We look into how aspects in ICT such as Mass Media, Internet, Social Networking, Crowd Sourcing and Gaming are evolving from past to the present and ideas of how it will be in the future.

• Mass media is defined as using media technologies to send message across a large audience. In the past, we use smoke signals, word of mouth and drums etc, to currently through newspaper, radio, TV, internet etc. It evolved from one-way to a two-way (interactive) approach which allows feedback and comments.
• Internet revolutionized the world with the invention of WWW, messages are sent within seconds to people, information can be found within a click away (such as Wikipedia). It started from Web 1.0 to currently Web 2.0 and in the future, Web 3.0 which is not only interactive but intelligent and omnipresent (as mentioned in the video), where the web is used a tool to settle our way of life, like giving recommendations to users, building an itinerary etc. 
• With the revolutionary internet, social networking sites started with ICQ, MSN Messenger, MySpace, to now Facebook, Weibo. Social network has indeed revolutionized the way we communicate and work, eg. Police use social networking sites to tackle crimes and solve cases, social networking sites also provide hidden opportunities for business marketing to reach out quickly to friends of friends of friends and it goes on (based on the principle of word of mouth in the past)
• Crowd sourcing where users reach out to people for answers, eg. Yahoo Answers, forums etc.
• Gaming has evolved from single user experience to a MMORPG (multi-user) format where users can not only have fun, but also communicate through gaming. Interestingly, gaming technology is also used in surgery (use of joysticks), simulation of scenarios (military use, training a pilot, driving of car ,riding of bike etc) and gaming is also used to education to raise the interest of learning in young ones.
• Cloud computing evolves the way we use a computer, it depends on internet for we work in a virtual drive without the need of an operating system, big hard-drives, softwares etc. Laptops such as Google Chromebook are slowly rising and this might be the future of computers.

We also look into why ICT/Knowledge revolution productivity is so low, because we are in a very early stage and we faced challenges like job opportunities (no need for more people due to use of computers), therefore we need to start educating people on how to incorporate ICT. We also look into the risks with ICT such as security, espionage, invasion of privacy (stealing of private info and identity) and exposure to corrupting influences (that is why North Korea, China and also many other countries still limit the population access to internet). Then we ended the class with 5 presentations which are very thought-provoking and informative.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

How internet has revolutionized the world and how it has brought about ideas of social networking, another experience in gaming, and how much it is being evolved from passive to interactive to intelligent (which focuses more on the user-experience) in the future.

Key Take Away Points

• ICT is a driver of world change.
• A coin has two sides and it is so with technology, people will use it for good but also there will be people with bad intentions, therefore we must always be cautious and safeguard ourselves.

Issues for Further Discussion

• Will cloud computing (cloud storage) take over the role of hard-drives, solid state drives in the future or will it just be an evolution for a certain population of people due the risk of heavy dependent on internet? 
• Can we survive without internet? (as mentioned in the 1st presentation). I would say in Singapore, MINDEF can survive, because they run on an independent intranet (which is what Danny Hillis had suggested in his speech to solve this problem)

Personal Ratings for Session

I rate this session 10/10 as the presentations were very informative and the session gives a very clear picture on why ICT is a driver of world change.

TWC Session 4 (Week 4)

Figure 1. Maurizio Nannucci's Changing Place, Changing Time, Changing Thoughts, Changing Future
Reproduced from Guggenheim Venice. (2003)

Brief Overview/Summary

Before the session, we discussed if Singapore should also start tap onto renewable energy and that consumers i.e. us should be standing up, change our behavior and not largely the government's responsibility to change the direction. Prof. also mentioned that we should look at things at a big picture and not solely believing in one article and forget about the rest.

First part of the session, we look into the topic, Drivers of World Change. A Driver is defined as a factor that can play a direct role in bringing about change to the world, (Game Changer). We focused on the different global drivers and how they are inter-related,

• Environmental drivers - How pollution/climate change change our behavior; how diseases change our behavior; evolution of the human,how we change our expectations with time; how the intensive use then deplete of natural resources change our behavior.
• Scientific Discovery and Technology Innovation- How new ideas and knowledge change the world and how things work.
• Competition- in terms of ideology, for example, if USA & USSR did not compete in the space venture, till now no one would have landed on the moon or enter space.
• Demographics - how the increase in population and age-ing population change the world.

We also discussed the meanings behind three quotes by Charles Darwin, George Bernard Shaw and Oliver W.Holmes. Then, we look into the difference between evolution and revolutionary change, in addition we covered disruptive change which is more revolutionary than evolutionary, and it is an irreversible change, change that is unexpected in your expected future. as quoted from Doug Berger-"Disruptive change is an irreversible change in your expected future.”  

The Chasm which is illustrated by Geoffrey Moore in Crossing the Chasm, which I will discuss in the next part. Reading 4 talks about how global drivers of world change, change the construction industry in Zambia, and we conclude that a more globalized country tends to thrive more.

Second part of the session, we look into Change Management & Change Leadership. The difference between a Leader and a Manager. The way we respond to change is that we are being reactive, being pro-active by leading change and implementing the plan which is managing change, and this is related Reading 4 which tells us the 3 steps on how to lead change.

 

Interesting Observations and Ideas

• The chasm, which is believed to be the hardest line for the consumers to cross (from Early Majority Pragmatists to Early Adopters) in new technology adaptation that this is a challenge to market a product to shift the customers  from pragmatists to early adopters.
• Pessimism-Time Curve which looks pro-actively managing change and compared to dating, that how people will be optimistic at first then they are informed of the challenges (being pessimistic) then realized it is reality and finally completes the process

Key Take Away Points

• Global drivers of the world, makes a country more globalized and it will thrive more.
• If you don't embrace change you cannot lead change.
• If organizations able to adapt to change and change towards the changes, they will succeed
• Once we see a different way in doing things, we will not use the old way because we will use the new idea as it is a better way.
• Leader vs Manager, the former creates a paradigm for an organization (setting up a framework, a visionary) while the latter works well under a given paradigm (implements the framework)
• Before we lead change then manage it, we will respond to it first.

Issues for Further Discussion

Personal Ratings for Session

I rate this session 10/10 as the session was straightforward and easy to grasp and the presentations from peers were very related and insightful.

Individual Topical Review Paper Outline

Lab-Grown Food- The Future of Our Food Source?

Executive Summary

This paper seeks to explore the

•  Problems arising from the current agriculture practice (Industrial Agriculture)
• Objective of Lab-grown food
• Advantages and Disadvantages of Lab-grown food as compared to current practice

Why I chose this topic?

A drastic problem, the world is facing, is the risk of shortage of food for the ever-rising population, the environmental & health issues caused by current agriculture practice. Therefore, this ties in to the topic, "Lab-Grown Food-The Future of Our Food Source?" History has proved time and again the importance of food to a civilization and how famine can cause a collapse of civilization, hence we look into how lab-grown food can tackle the various problems, is it feasible, practical and does it create another problem while solving one.

Background

•  What is lab-grown food?
•  Objective of lab-grown food

 Historical perspective

• How agriculture comes about?
•  History of agricultural revolution
• How technology is used in agriculture to help tackle starvation?

 Current situation

•  Effects of current agriculture practice (GM Food, Industrial Farming etc.)
•  Environmental Issue
• Health Issue
• Reasons behind the research on lab-grown food
• Current breakthrough in lab-grown food
• Advantages and disadvantages of lab-grown food (How will it help tackle problems? and controversies)

Future Consideration

• Will lab-grown food be the frontier to our food sources or others (insects)?
• Reducing the cost of lab-grown food?
• Will lab-grown food create another problem? (Food safety)
• Challenges lab-grown food will face (GM Food)
•  Singapore context: Meeting the future food demands and advantages of using this method in Singapore.

Conclusion

Bibliography

TWC Session 3 (Week 3)

 Figure 1. Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant in Fuentes de Andalucía, Spain
 Reproduced from Clean Energy World News. (31 August, 2012)

Brief Overview/Summary

We started off with a review of session 2 which Prof. mentioned in that session we learnt how to maximize human development.
First part of the class, we discussed what is sustainable development, and it means maximizing current resources for development while not limiting the resources for the future generations.

- Sustainable Development refers to a mode of human development in which resource use aims to meet human needs while ensuring the sustainability of natural systems and the environment, so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come. [Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development]

We looked into the effects of linear industrialization and over the years, it stresses then over-stress the homeostatic mechanism of the Earth [Interesting hypothesis at http://tellusa.net/index.php/tellusa/article/view/9731]. And Prof. illustrated to us that if everyone is consuming the same amount of natural resources as USA, we will need around 4-5 planets to support this and that 20% of the world's populations is already using 80% of the world's resources. Hence, the way forward is to move from "linear" to "cyclical" way or moving towards sustainability, which is illustrated in Video 1 and Reading 1 of this session.

From Reading 2, we look into the concept of advantage of backwardness which means the advantages of entering the market late. For example, South Africa is going to be the fastest growing economy in the world.

We ended the first part of the session with 3 presentations from our peers, and I thought Jolene's presentation on the Venus Project was very interesting, that actually there are people out there aware of the importance of sustainability, perhaps Jacque Fresco knowingly or unknowingly increased the awareness of sustainability.

In session 3B, we covered technology and innovation management, that the Innovation Creation Pipeline works on everything. We learnt that there is 90% failure rate at the Concept Stage and that only 10% succeeded in their innovation.

Prof. Shahi's Landscape Model was introduced which I will be sharing in the later part of the post.

We were introduced to the RDA Translation Process, which I will be sharing later. We also discussed whether innovation should be market or technology-driven and Prof. gave an example that for a poor entrepreneur, he will usually create market-driven products so as to earn as much as possible; and for rich or established company, they will create a new product which creates a new market for it, for example, the iPhone and Walkman. Lastly, we discussed the 4Smarts- Smart Ideas, Smart People, Smart Money and Smart Partnerships to a successful innovation, that we should invest in a new company or new products early because it is cheap and if it succeeds, we stand to gain.

Finally, we ended the class with the last 2 presentations, 

• For the 1st presentation by Michael, my thoughts on first question were, even though technology gadgets are slowly becoming homogenous which I also agree, people will still buy them because of the brand and it brings about the cool factor and "I am in the upper class" status, also having new gadgets shows that you're not obsolete therefore the market will still be there.

• For the 2nd presentation by Kartika, I think Singaporeans are not creative and innovative is because the Government is very practical, for example Hyflux could succeed because water is a greater issue (market-driven) in natural resource scarce Singapore and could make a greater impact than Creative inventing an MP3 player at that point of time.

Lastly, regarding a small debate on Solar Power, after research, the figures below shows that Solar Power or specifically Photovoltaics Power is growing because the manufacturing prices is dropping.

[Retrieved from http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/graph-of-the-day-the-plunging-cost-of-solar-pv-41843]

Interesting Observations and Ideas

• The concept of advantages of backwardness on how 3rd world nations are actually emerging and soon will be on the super-fast track of rapid growth.

• I created a diagram below of Prof. Shahi's Landscape Model, 

• RDA Translation Process, which I agree to Prof. Arai's comparisons, that Research is a dream -> Development is a nightmare because I feel that it is really a pain to find investors , drawing up proposals to convince them and the importance on how do you market them, this is also where most people fail in their products -> Application to reality.

Key Take Away Points

• Importance of moving from a "linear" business model of industrialization to a "cyclical"model in order for both economic and environmental well-being.

• Importance of sustainable development in the modern world.

• If you just started a new company, start from a marker-driven product (be innovative on them) then when you established your company, you can start projects for the future (doing something else) in order to stay ahead and be at the summit.

• Invest in a new start-up and new products early because it is cheap, when it succeed, you'll stand to gain.

Issues for Further Discussion

• Why South Africa and also other emerging nations are succeeding from the concept of advantage of backwardness.

Personal Ratings for Session

I rate this session 9/10 because we had a small debate in the class which made more people speak up (and I must start to share my thoughts too!), however I feel that we should have discussed more on the concept introduced in the Reading 2.