Session 6

In this session we discussed bio business and talked about how technology and issues such as healthcare, genetic engineering are linked. We discussed topics such as the Life Sciences and talked about other things in bio business. One of the things that really struck me was how technology driven the field of biology has become as shown by the number of patents granted in the last few years. The prof talked about how science of biology has experienced a paradigm shift in its method of study and development, It has now become a technology driven science, with technology both being used to study and technology being developed as a result of this study.

The real interesting stuff that hit me during this class was from one of the readings. The concept of disruptive innovation really caught my eye because it speaks volumes about people's attitude towards change. Once in a while you come across innovations that can really change the way people do things. These are the kind of developments which change things at a basic level. And this is why change like this is rejected by people. Most people are slaves to routine and normality. This makes unreceptive to change that might disturb this sense of normality. I think this deals a lot with change management and how leaders introduce people to change.

Key take aways should be the realisation that biology is now a technology intensive science and should be viewed as such. It is filled with opportunities as discussed by prof and it's applications in areas such as agriculture and healthcare makes it a very good social investment.

I would have liked to discuss healthcare in developing countries and how we can provide healthcare and bring innovation in this to these places. We have home grown innovators in developing countries such as India who can drive change but they need leadership. Healthcare, sanitation and family planning are huge issues in these countries and as such we could have discussed possible solutions.

I would rate the session 9 on 10.

Session 5

Information Technology has become an indispensable part of our lives. It is so integral to our way of living that we take for granted what it has done for us. I recently bought myself the new iPhone and have been using it for fun and games. But what the class made me realize was that a technology like the iPhone could actually make it possible for anyone, anywhere to get themselves education and information. Till now I had only focused on IT that changed how I did things. But after this I understand that ICT can be a driver of change, change which can actually help people raise their quality of life.

The basic themes discussed in class were what ICT is, what are its implications and possible uses for the future. Also we discussed its dangers and other problems connected to it. We also mentioned possible application it might have in dealing with social problems such as poverty and unemployment.

One part that I really enjoyed was the one on Cloud Computing. The video was very good and I really grasped the concept well because of it.

A thought that came to me was that the root cause of most of these problems is a lack of information. Unemployment is partially caused by lack of knowledge of opportunities. Poverty can be caused by lack of knowledge of how to use resources. Illiteracy is caused by lack of teachers and infrastructure. All of these problems can be solved through the proliferation of information technology. I mentioned the MIT Media Lab's one hundred dollar laptop, which could be a tool for solving these problems.

Another thought I had is related to the story of the Tower of Babel. Our world for a lot of recorded human history has been divided by culture, geography and language. However with the advent of the Internet we are again reverting to what we were before the Tower of Babel. We are no longer divided by geography, no longer split asunder by language. We speak the language of 1's and 0's, experience each other's lives through blogs and social networking and live the same culture through sites like 4chan, Facebook, youtube etc.

I would rate the lecture 9/10 for some very interesting presentations and good insights into how IT works.