1. Emerging Information Technologies I
Session 1: Agerwala sessions
FALL EMERGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES I - AGERWALA

2. FALL 2018 EMERGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES I - AGERWALA
Summary
Session 1 (Sept 8): Overview
Session 2 (Sept 29): Convergence Research and Innovation
Session 3 (Oct 20): Interactive Human Computer Intelligence
Session 4 (Nov 17): Ethics and Emerging Information Technologies
FALL EMERGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES I - AGERWALA

3. Convergence Research and Innovation
“What does it take to make a scientific breakthrough? A flicker of insight, state-of-the art equipment, years of dogged experimentation, and, perhaps, luck.
Another critical ingredient, often overlooked, is the ability to truly integrate specialized skills and processes from a variety of fields such as engineering, physics, and computation with the life sciences. Such integration, termed Convergence Research, is exemplified by the effort to sequence the human genome where chemists tinkered with reactions to sequence DNA, computer scientists pieced together roughly three billion data points into a complete genome, and biologists mapped health outcomes to specific genes.” --- Justin Chen, MIT
We will discuss the importance of “Convergence Research” in the innovation process. Please review the following material prior to Class Meeting 2 on Saturday Sept 29th and be prepared to discuss how Convergence may be relevant to your dissertation work.
FALL EMERGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES I - AGERWALA

4. Review material for “Convergence”
Brief video
Meeting global challenges: Discovery and innovation through convergence By Phillip A. Sharp. “Integrate biology, physics, engineering, and social science to innovate”
research/cancerscience-research30.pdf
OPTIONAL “Convergence: Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, and beyond” National Academy of Sciences Press.(Copy and paste) age/pga_ pdf
FALL EMERGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES I - AGERWALA

5. Interactive Human Computer Intelligence
The rapid digital transformation of our world provides an opportunity to address significant challenges that societies face today. This presentation traces the progress of technology that has enabled the rapid growth of this capability and examines the history of humans and computers pitting themselves against each other in increasingly complex games (Checkers, Chess, Go and Jeopardy) to illustrate that:
1. Computers are required for computationally intense tasks;
2. Ingenious humans are needed to program them and teach them essential strategies;
3. Computers can raise the skills of human players;
4. Humans and computers working together can be a very powerful combination, not just to win at board games, but to arrive at better evidence-based decisions.
We will discuss the hypothesis: A system of humans and computers that interact in natural ways and refine insights through dialog, can solve increasingly complex, important problems over time, more effectively than humans or computers acting alone.
FALL EMERGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES I - AGERWALA

6. Ethics and Emerging Information Technologies
Rapid digital transformation and the convergence of digital, physical, biological, and cognitive sciences is resulting in many emerging technologies including machine learning, artificial intelligence, precise genetic engineering, sense-and-avoid robots, and autonomous weapons systems.
These technologies have a significant potential to improve human wellbeing , e.g. curing diseases, ensuring adequate food supply, and improving national security, but they raise new ethical dilemmas.
The goal of this session is to increase awareness of these ethical issues, discuss a framework for making ethical decisions and illustrate with an example (autonomous weapons systems?, biotech medicine?, precise genetic engineering? – would like your feedback!).
FALL EMERGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES I - AGERWALA