TWC End
of Course Review
The 13
week journey in TWC with Prof Shahi really broadened my horizons and benefitted
me a lot. From being dumbfounded by Yali’s question at the start of course, I
progressed to being able to provide some semblance of explanation to these
inequalities. I shall now give a brief
summary of each topic, hopefully my humble explanation is adequate.
Introductory Session
Learnt
about what is Technology, Science, Innovation, and Invention. Thereafter we
were given an introduction to Yali’s question.
Technology-
Knowing how to apply knowledge to solve problems
Science-
The creation of knowledge
Invention-
subset of innovation
Innovation-
Invention is the first step in innovation, and the whole translation process in
the market is called innovation
Technology,
Society and Global Dominance
We learnt about the model of rising star, dominant
player, and falling star and the characteristics of countries/companies/individuals
in each category. Then we moved on to the impact of colonialism in shaping the
development of countries today. These countries are able to keep themselves
ahead because they exploit their colonies for resources.
Technology
and Human Development
We defined development as generally change in a positive
direction. Over the years, development has been happening in all areas(social,
industrial, tech, cultural, economic, human), but increasingly, sustainable development, ie development w/o
negative consequences, have been increasingly important. Also learnt about
human development in different areas such as 1. Health 2. Education 3. Income.
Technology and
Industrial Development: Toward Sustainability
Industrial
development has helped reduce the gap between developed and developing
countries. This is due to their entry costs such as worker’s pay being lower
than that of their counterparts. As a result they have a competitive advantage
in the manufacturing industry over developed countries and can produce products
at a lower cost. However countries like the US and South Korea are still ahead
of the rest because they have shifted away from the manufacturing sector (labour
intensive) to more knowledge and capital intensive industries. An example would
be the mobile phone industry.
We
thought that our industrialization would only have just a miniscule impact on
Earth. However, (homeostatic) mechanism of Earth has been overstressed by human
activity.
Eg.
US- 5% population consume 30% of earth resources. If everyone consumed like
this we would need 3-5 planets. Hence the need to go towards sustainable
development. Also refers to going from linear to cyclical approach of
consumption. We were then introduced to the many frameworks for sustainable
development. Also talked about the benefits of developing late which means that
these countries already have the template of development to follow and will not
have to innovate much.
Technology
and Innovation Management
We learnt that invention happens before innovation. And
in innovation management, there is the R-D-A Translation process and the
innovation creation pipeline. So the further we go from the translation process,
there will be a higher chance of success.
And at the start of the translation process, more technical skills would
be needed, while at the application stage, more management and business
development is needed.
Drivers
of World Change
The world’s processes are going from non- mechanised to
mechanised and from energy intensive to sustainable development. So the drivers
of change include Technological innovation, Social, demographic, cultural,
ideological changes, Competition, Globalisation and Changing expectations with
changing times. We also discussed Evolutionary and Revolutionary change, and
the differences between the two.
Change
Management and Change Leadership
Leadership V Management. Main difference is that one is
proactive and other is reactive. So we must proactively manage change and use
the modern model of continuous monitoring and renewable instead of the
traditional freeze unfreeze refreeze model. Leadership is important as it could
decide a developing country’s growth, especially when government do not make
policies that are popular but instead focus on long term needs of the nation.
ICT and world change
Learnt about the evolution and change of many types
if ICTs. They have the potential to empower people from developing countries
with the tools to break out of their poverty cycle. Eg, Children with access to
the internet can learn from outside advancements and gain knowledge capital.
They can even innovate and come out with new things to change the world.
BioBusiness
We learnt how it can change the world through
biomedical, agri-veterinary, environmental etc sectors. Already it takes up a
huge proportion of global GDP and is expected to grow exponentially.
Energy and World Change
Our resources are limited and the true cost of
fossil fuels are not factored in when we use them for buring. On top of
monetary cost, there is opportunity cost as these fuels can be used for other
more useful purposes. Then there is environmental pricing as we are actually
polluting the environment. As such there is a need for all countries to adopt
renewable energy and not only let the burden fall onto the developed countries.
Emerging and Future Technology
We were introduced to many emerging technologies and
what were their drivers.
1.
Unmet market opportunity and need
2. Growing
tech know-how
3. Supply
creating demand
4. Mass
media and advertising changing our needs
5.
4 Smarts
Bottom line is that if we can imagine it, we can
make it happen
Technology
Development and Forecasting
We need to have the foresight to predict future
trends as it will be where we are all heading to. Learnt about the many
different tools used as well as between technology assessment, forecasting and
foresight.
Final
Remarks
This has been a fulfilling course where I have gained a lot of knowledge
and insights from everyone in the class. Although the workload is rather heavy,
I feel that the individual and group report really helps you to gain a better
perspective on different matters. I have learnt to open my mind to more possibilities
and not be too critical and deem something to be impossible. After all, never
say never as change is the only constant. Thanks to Prof, TA, and all classmates!