Session 11

Brief Overview/Summary

The eleventh TWC lesson was about Group Project Presentations. This week, we saw the presentations from the first three groups. The first presentation was on area of Futuristic Buildings, the second was on Clean Energy, and the third was on Nanotechnology.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

Prof Shahi started the lecture with some quotes from some famous people. The first one was by Oscar Wilde:

“You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.”

- Oscar Wilde -

This quote tells us that everyone has a much larger knowledge base than what we think we are aware of. All we need is a trigger factor for us to realise what we have known all along. At the same time, since we cannot possess all sorts of knowledge and be aware of everything around the world, and thus we will always face situations where we are not familiar with a certain kind of subject or type. In these situations, the main question is then, how do we find out about the topics and subjects that we aren’t clear of?

Through research and a hunger for knowledge, we will be able to expand our knowledge base and get to know more that is happening around the world today.

On the other hand, if someone thinks that they know everything around the world, such that they possess all sorts of knowledge, they tend to keep their mind closed and their head up high, and would in time tend to be less knowledgeable as compared to others who are keen and constantly learning new knowledge.

The second quote that Prof introduced is from Martin H Fischer, and it stated:

“Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.”

- Martin H Fischer -

In short, this quote tells us that wisdom is the distillation of knowledge. According to dictionary.com, possessing wisdom means to have knowledge of what is true or right, coupled with just judgment as to action.

This quote talks about how knowledge is merely information to us, and is useless on its own. It is only with wisdom, where one can make sense out of an area of knowledge and ideas, so that someone else can take strategic lessons from it is the key and knowledge can be spread. If one is not interested in sharing knowledge, they rob themselves of the opportunity to learn about others’ insight, and the ‘patenting’ of knowledge will cause a major gap and lack of knowledge around the world in time to come.

The third quote that Prof shared was by Alfred North Whitehead, and it stated:

“Wisdom alone is true ambition's aim,

wisdom is the source of virtue and of fame;

obtained with labour, for mankind employed,

and then, when most you share it, best enjoyed.”

- Alfred North Whitehead -

Similar to the second quote, this quote talks about the importance of sharing knowledge and wisdom today.

The three quotes that Prof has mentioned above is highly relatable to the lesson that we were going to have on that day. In the context of the classroom, it tells us about the importance of gaining knowledge from our peers who were going to carry out their presentations, and it encourages us to open our minds to the different perspectives and insights shared by the audience after each presentation. By distilling the knowledge that they have, the presenters were going to share with us new knowledge that most of us did not possess before. With this new set of knowledge, we know now more about the world of science and technology around us,

The 3 presentations on Monday were very interesting and engaging, and it definitely helped me gained extensive knowledge that I have not known before,

Futuristic Buildings

The first group talked about the future of buildings that we see all around today. Futuristic buildings refer to improved buildings based on sustainability, susceptibility, design, and the speed of construction.

As discussed in Session 3, sustainability is an important factor in technology today. As Prof mentioned, sustainable technology must be quickly created and put into place so as to maximise value creation without reducing options for future generations. Given that countries are today are keen on industrialisation and advancement, an increase in the number of buildings around the world today will see a huge leap in the years to come. Therefore, it is beneficial and important that buildings today start to take on a sustainable stance. They can start by installing transparent solar cells on large commercial buildings today.

Also, it is important that future buildings be more susceptible to natural disasters. For example, the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan took away homes and schools of many. It is of utmost important and key for future buildings to be able to be receptive to these disasters.

Clean Energy

The second group talked about the evolution of clean energy overtime. What I particularly liked was the part on the future implications of the use of solar energy. Indeed, laws and regulations and cost must be taken into account for the advancement of solar energy. Since solar energy is not very popular today, more should be done for its implementation as part of the movement towards sustainable technology.

Nanotechnology

The third group presented on the advancement of nanotechnology and its impacts in different aspects. Their blog was very interesting and concise, and had very nice graphics and animations that encouraged me to continue reading the page.

Key Takeaways

1)   There are many forms of existing forms of technologies that have the potential to emerge as large part of the world.

2)   Most forms of emerging technologies have the ‘sustainable’ element, whereby it is important for future forms of technology to not leave any environmental footprint.

Personal Ratings

I rate this class 8/10. It was interesting to hear my classmates share about different types of technology around the world today. It was definitely one of the more engaging and exciting classes in this TWC module as it talks about the specifics of technology going on today, which is different from the technicality of technology that we have learnt in the previous weeks. As the new week comes, I am excited for the other groups who have not presented on their group projects as much as I am to share with the class about the topic that my group has decided to present.