Science & Technology

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 apr 2014

'Early adopters' are critical to fuel demand for technological innovations. They experiment and use technologies and often help in their improvement before they become part of the mainstream society. Moreover they also enable continued development of innovative products and services. But better rules, regulations and policies also play a very important role to drive innovations and consistent technological developments. Policies and regulations that demand continued maintenance of obsolete and legacy systems divert investments that otherwise would have been used for building new technologies. Article explores the implications of regulatory framework in the development of next-generation broadband networks in US. It mentions the recent decision of FCC to allow beta testing of 21st century broadband-enabled network in select areas as the step in right direction. Moreover the upcoming spectrum incentive auction that is expected to have fair and open bidding rules would ensure competition, continued innovation and convenience to consumers and benefit to communities. Broadband connectivity has potential and capability to provide effective and efficient healthcare and enable nationwide, interoperable public safety network. Other areas that would benefit from better regulatory mechanism that leads to investment in broadband technologies, both wire and wireless, include education, communication, professional development and entertainment. Read on...

GeekWire: Commentary - Smart rules needed to spark next-generation broadband in U.S.
Author: Tom Gurr

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 17 mar 2014

Social media, search terms, blogs, online surveys etc are becoming new methods for researchers to analyze data and get insights into various aspects of human behavior. According to James Pennebaker, President of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), 'these technology tools provide capability to capture people's thinking, communication patterns, health, beliefs, prejudices, group behaviors etc'. Article provides examples of studies conducted through various web-based media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google etc that have considerable impact on the understanding of personality and social psychology. Analysis of 400,000 Facebook posts by scientists points out the differences in the communication pattern of parents while interacting with their children versus their friends and how they deal with their adult vs teen children. Scientists analyzed 36,000 tweets during the three months leading up to the births and some 40,000 tweets for three months after the births to detect changes in mood and behavior, and found 376 new mothers who might be at risk of postpartum depression. Scientists J. B. Michel and Erez Aiden of Harvard University, used millions of books digitized by Google to build a scientific tool to measure trends in our shared culture, history, and language going back hundreds of years. Roxane Cohen Silver of University of California at Irvine has been using online surveys to study how people cope with trauma in the aftermath of disaster. She is now planning a project with Baruch Fischhoff of Carnegie Mellon University, to use mobile app for the study of communities at-risk due to severe weather events. Read on...

PsychCentral: Using Social Media as New Tool to Explain Human Behavior
Author: Name

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 mar 2014

Wearable devices have the potential to become a part of human lifestyle, but for their sustained use they should be able to induce long-term healthy behavioral changes in users. According to Michael A. M. Davies of MIT, companies developing wearables have to understand the importance of three factors of behavioral science - habit formation, social motivation and goal reinforcements - to overcome the challenge of sustained engagement and provide long-term health benefits. Research by Endeavor Partners found that 1/10th of the US comsumers above the age 18 owns a modern activity tracker but half of them no longer use it. A large percentage of wearable devices have fatal user experience flaws and fail to fulfil one or more of the nine baseline criteria of product design (selectability, design, out-of-box experience, fit/comfort, quality, user experience, integration ability, lifestyle compatibility and overall utility). For successful and effective wearable devices and related services, companies have to incorporate the insights provided by the science of behavior change. Read on...

VentureBeat: How to make wearables stick: Use them to change human behavior
Author: Name

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 feb 2014

Nitrogen, the largest component of air, is the essential requirement for crop growth but most of it is provided by fertilizers. The only exceptions are some legumes that can absorb nitrogen directly from air with the help of bacteria. Professor Edward Cocking of University of Nottingham is now developing an innovative technique, termed as N-Fix, to put a nitrogen-fixing bacteria into the cells of plant roots that would fulfil its nitrogen requirement from air. The research has critical implications for agricultural practices. According to Dr. Edward Cocking, 'The world needs to unhook itself from its ever increasing reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers produced from fossil fuels with its high economic costs, its pollution of the environment and its high energy cost'. The first European Nitrogen Assessment (ENA) launched in 2011, mentions the cost of damage caused by nitrogen across Europe as 70-320 billion Euro while the benefit of using nitrogen fertilizers in European agriculture is only 20-80 billion Euro. Read on...

The Times of India: A new technology may make fertilizers irrelevant
Author: Subodh Varma

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 14 feb 2014

China's manufacturing goods industry with its modern mass production factories and cheap labor is one of the most dominant and competitive in the world. Will 3D printing affect and transform Chinese manufacturing? In the article, authors of the latest book 'Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing', Melba Kurman and Hod Lipson, share their insight and opinion on how 3D printing technology changes the dynamics of the Chinese manufacturing sector. Among the skeptics is Terry Gou, the CEO of one of the largest manufacturer, Foxconn. But the industry is now adopting the technology, although a bit late as compared to US and Europe. There are now seven 3D printer manufacturers located in China and the world's largest 3D printer manufacturer Stratsys, based in US, planning to open its office there. Moreover the technology will also assist China to evolve into high-end manufacturing and related services. Chinese government is considering it as priority and mentions it in their 12th Five Year Plan. The key goals include - investment in R&D; move up the value chain and focus on high-end & high-margin manufacturing in biotech, IT, innovative materials etc; upgrade skills of the labor force. During the course to achieve the goals there will be challenges. 3D printing technology may not totally displace the current mass manufacturing but it has the potential to find its own niche for premium custom products and services, both for the domestic and global markets. Read on...

Yahoo News: How 3D Printing Will Transform Chinese Manufacturing
Author: Melba Kurman

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 14 feb 2014

3D printing is the latest manufacturing technology that can create objects by depositing material layer by layer directly from a digital file. Development of individualized products based on customer specifications and needs is an advantage of the technology. It is used for both prototyping and manufacturing in variety of industries like medical applications, architecture & construction, industrial design, automotive, fashion etc. According to Andrew Maher, 3D printing can provide operational efficiencies as the products can be manufactured in proximity to the point of delivery and consumption. Survey by DHL Supply Chain mentions that 3D printing will become prominent in the next 10 years while several companies are in the process of introducing the technology into their operations in next 3 to 5 years. Read on...

Brisbane Times: Shape of things to come
Author: Carolyn Cummins

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 jan 2014

Diversity in entrepreneurial and product development teams is capable of bringing not only valuable inputs and perspectives but can also make firms enhance and expand to markets they haven't actually planned to target. In case of most mobile apps that are currently been developed, the founders are young and educated and most of them are trying to serve the market that they themselves belong. But there is lack of apps development for the other segments like elderly, rural population, less effluent etc. Although there are some efforts in healthcare focused mobile apps development for senior population. According to an expert there is also a visible divide between tech-sector startups - big data and biotech firm's leadership tend to skew older, while consumer focused tech firm leadership skews younger. When products from large corporations are considered it is observed that they seem to be more prepared in handling diverse set of market segments in their product delivery. Skype and FaceTime, by Microsoft and Apple respectively, are the two apps that have been well adopted by seniors. Moreover such corporations are also the ones that have implemented workforce diversity and inclusion programs. While startups are just beginning to consider inclusiveness in their workforce. Read on...

Fast Company: STARTUP CULTURE'S LACK OF DIVERSITY STIFLES INNOVATION
Author: Neal Ungerleider

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 20 jan 2014

Search for affordable and quality education is a challenge for students all around the world. Better education is considered as a channel to provide future career opportunities. Internet and associated digital technologies focused towards education are capable of transforming the learning landscape. Initiatives like - online education from traditional universities; diverse learning content providers like Khan Academy, Alison.com, etc; MOOC platforms like Udacity, edX, Coursera etc - and not to forget the large number of self-learning content freely available through independent websites, all adds up to the online learning spectrum. Certification and degree recognition are some of the issues and challenges related to this form of education. According to University of Pennsylvania survey most of the MOOCs availing students are those that are already educated and take them up for enhancing specific knowledge and skills for career advancement, in poor countries accessed by mainly those who are wealthy and have computer and internet connection and 90% of those who register drop out without completing the course. Blended learning is also being utilized where online learning mechanism is adopted alongwith traditional education delivery. Coursera has started Learning Hubs in 10 countries that provide physical infrastructure to enhance learning access. Online learning and education space is expected to evolve innovative and more disruptive models in future particularly in a country like India with shortage of trained faculty and inadequate educational infrastructure. Read on...

The Hindu: India's virtually challenged universities
Author: C. Gopinath

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 jan 2014

Big data and analytics is finding applications in businesses and governments for better decision and policy making. Stephen Wolfram is talking about 'personal analytics' (converting life into packets of personal data) as the next big thing and introduced an app on facebook based on this principle. On the same line researchers and thinkers are proposing that cities can also be considered as sources of data and information that can be utilized for better urban planning and development. This concept of 'quantitative urbanism' is finding support from leaders in software, consultancy and infrastructure industries. According to Assaf Biderman of MIT, this science will assist in making the cities 'more human'. In 2003 research team led by Geoffrey West of Santa Fe Institute collected large data sets of select urban centers and obtained information on various parameters from multiple sources and put them into a single database. The results reduced the life of a city to a mathematical rule - 'unified theory of urban living', similar to what Max Kleiber showed in the form of zoological rules that suggested that all forms of life follow the same equation that combines size, energy use and life expectancy. But cities don't follow Kleiber's law exactly - they don't slow down when they become bigger in size. On the contrary they accelerate, becoming more productive, creative, efficient and sustainable. Other model of urban thinking utilizes mathematics of complexity which views the city as a combination of networks and information. But this data intensive approaches on thinking about cities may not be sufficient & complete and other ways of looking at the city must be considered too. Read on...

New Statesman: Architecture - What does Big Data mean for our cities?
Author: Leo Hollis

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 10 jan 2014

'Datafication' of businesses is creating new models that harness the power of big data by storing, analyzing and monetizing it. There is a need for 'datafying' human resources as it happened with marketing that became a data-centric function some 25 years ago. Considering that businesses spend 50-60% of their total revenues on payroll it is even more important for them to optimize employee spending by analyzing data related to HR. Article provides detailed examples of companies that have taken the initiative to 'datafy' their HR function and are getting positive results by doing so. It is helping businesses to retain right set of employees, to enhance hiring and training programs to a targeted employee segment and to hire and predict high performers in a business function. The 'datafication' process have already started and it has potential to change and transform many aspects of HR that are currently in practice - Data management; Analytics tools; Data providers; Analytics education; New decision-making processes. Read on...

Forbes: The Datafication of Human Resources
Author: Josh Bersin

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