Session 6 - BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences (Past, Present and Future)

Prof started the session with a video showing possible advancement in technology in the future. Some examples featured in the video are all-in-one card with all the cards combined into one digital card and showing people the direction on how to get to their destination with digital arrows showing on the floor. I think that it will be really cool if all these innovations come true as it will be more convenient for us and the possibility of us getting lost is reduced. However, is it really possible for all these innovations to come true? Personally, I do not think so. Probably I should phrase it in a way that it will not come true in the next few decades but will probably come true in a century or so since we will never know what will happen in the future. By then, everything could be computerized? Another issue to be discussed is that if all these innovations come true, is it going to be more expensive? For sure, electricity bill will go up as electricity is needed to operate the machine 24 hours daily. However, do these innovations offset other costs? According to what the Prof said, it is going to be cheaper than now despite the rise in electricity bill. This is because more space is available for other purposes since we do not have to store paper anymore with everything computerized and more cost savings with less manpower hired to do any task.

I think that Prof mentioned something that I find it quite thought-provoking. To prepare for the future, one is actually sacrificing himself. When we are selfish and only think about our current consumption and benefits, we will never go beyond our current way of living or improve the current technology. Like what the old saying says, “No pain, no gain”, thus, for countries to prosper in the future, they will have to sacrifice by using less natural resources and doing more research for the sake of future generation. Even if they do not benefit from their actions, the future generation will definitely benefit from it. However, countries can only continue to prosper provided that the future generation is doing the same thing and taking the next generation into consideration.

Before this session, I had no idea what BioBusiness is or I probably only know the vague meaning of BioBusiness from the word “Bio” and ”Business”. After this session, I learnt that BioBusiness is a commercial activity based on understanding of life sciences and life science process. Some of the BioBusiness areas include Biomedical BioBusiness, Agri-Veterinary and Food BioBusiness , Environmental and Industrial BioBusiness and other BioBusiness activities. Prof gave some examples of each area. I was quite lost in some examples and only managed to catch some. One example that caught my attention was the spider-web protein under Industrial BioBusiness. Prof mentioned that spider-web has high tensile strength and can be used in many applications. Due to its usefulness, there are even hybrid goats with spider-web proteins to obtain these proteins in milk.

Prior to this session, I thought that insurance is good for us as it covers medical expenses should anything happen, reducing our burden on medical expenses. This session has changed my opinion of it. Insurance creates moral hazard and is being abused by many people. Some people may have the mentality that since they have paid for insurance, they should get the necessary coverage and they will try all their means to get it. They will also try to get the maximum amount they can get. Exploiting insurance can escalate the cost of insurance and deprive the people who really need the coverage from their insurance to cover their medical expense. A better way to solve all these problems could be providing incentives to people who try to stay healthy instead of compensating them for any medical injuries or illnesses. However, this can be a problem as one cannot control himself from getting an illness such as cancer or heart problem and this will be unfair to them.

I was quite glad in a way that by 2020, preventable disease would have dropped as medical research and technology improves and cures and preventions are found to cure diseases and even prevent them from happening. However, I think that not all diseases can be prevented as we will not know what will happen. The most we can do is to find the cure to the disease. Prof also mentioned that a small investment in research for cures and preventions can actually save many lives. This is really true and I think countries are pumping in money in this area.

Moving on to readings, I have learnt from reading one that not only should we have innovations, but we have to ensure that people have access to them. Usually, poor people have infected diseases because they are being deprived of healthcare and they do not have proper living conditions. These make them more susceptible to being infected by diseases. As they are poor, a greater proportion of their income is spent on healthcare. I also learnt the four different categories of healthcare such as primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary healthcare.

Primary healthcare – preventive and privately driven

Secondary healthcare – deal with simple diseases

Tertiary healthcare – hospitalized, made public unless no resources and government is unwilling to invest in it

Quaternary healthcare – specialized hospitals

I was quite shocked when I heard from the Prof that some people only get healthcare when they are very ill such as when they have to go to the Accident & Emergency (A&E) Unit. There is really a lack of logical utilization of their resources. Furthermore, by doing so, the patients actually incur more cost as they could have spent less when their illness is less serious. The number of people going to A&E can also be reduced. I think that the right of having access to healthcare is really important and everyone should be given the right. This reminds me that I should be glad that I am born in Singapore where healthcare is easily accessible. 

The class then moved on to healthcare revolution and biomedical science revolution. I was also quite lost for some examples of these but I learnt about Nutraceuticals which are food-based and nutritional products that have medical benefits. Last part of the session was presentations. I find the presentations for this week rather interesting as different presenters cover different topics. I learnt that overuse of drugs accelerates evolution and effective drugs could be developed but are unavailable as they have to be tested. As a result, there might be a time lag as when the drugs are finally available, the virus or illness may have changed. This may make the drugs no longer that effective as compared to when it is first developed to combat the virus at that time.

One question posted by one of the presenters is that should doctors prescribe effective drugs to patients and risk evolution of superbugs. In my opinion, if the patient does not have any other option, I guess that taking the effective drugs is the only option and the patient will just give it a try as the patient has nothing to lose and taking the drug will at least give the patient a glimpse of hope as compared to not doing anything. Nevertheless, if the illness or disease is not that serious, doctors should not prescribe drugs that are not tested on humans. Drugs should be evaluated by all means of scientific research as well as undergo human testing. One question that comes to my mind is how to test the drugs on humans? Who should be tested? My answer is probably patients who have tried the drugs when that is their only option. If the drugs are proved to be effective on at least 10 patients, they can be considered safe. Nonetheless, drugs may have different effects on different patients depending on their body conditions and the severity of their illnesses.

One presenter also presented on Virob which is a micro-robot used in medical field. I did not hear of this micro-robot before and I find it rather interesting as it can be used to cure illness without really operating on the body. On the other hand, people will only dare to allow the Virob to enter the body to cure their illness if it can be taken out or dissolve. If there is uncertainty on how the Virob is removed, people will not choose this option to cure their illness as the effects of Virob on their body are unknown and people do not want to take the risk.

I will rate this session 7 out of 10 because I am quite lost during some part of the session but I find the presentations for this week remarkable.

Session 5 - ICT and World Change (Mass Media, the Internet, Wireless, Interactive Telecommunications) - Past, Present and Future

I learnt that interactivity is an important element in mass media and mass media has transformed from static interaction to dynamic interaction. Mass media has allowed people to give and share feedbacks around the whole world. We can even customize our newsfeed and choose what information that do we want. One student even said that there is an invention where news is given in the spectacles. If that invention really comes true, that would be really cool! It might be even further develop when we can just serve the net using that specs!

On top of that, Prof showed us a video regarding web 3.0. Before that, I have no idea what web 3.0 is. After the video, I am still quite lost about what it is other than a brief description of what web 3.0 is like. From the video, I learnt that users provide information in web 2.0 such as facebook and web 2.0 is an intelligent continuation of existing technology. In web 3.0, appliances connect to each other and share information through the internet, meeting our wishes more easily. Prof further elaborated that web 3.0 is an extension of what we have and all information is easily accessible and available. A shocking thing is that things are done for us without us having to do anything. I was shocked by what the Prof said that google uses our choice to build an understanding of me. That is impressive! This has made me realize the advancement of the internet and how smart the internet is. However, it also made me realize the risk of the internet. Internet making use of sending cookies to gain understanding about users can be dangerous at times as people hack to obtain confidential information of users. As the internet gets more advanced, I hope that internet security can improve as well.

The class went on to talk about training people using gaming. Stimulated environment instead of actual environment can give people a “try out” so that they will know what to do and be prepared. This will really help in real world and can test one’s capability. Moving on, I learnt about cloud computing. It is about inserting information in the internet but not in the computer. One example is facebook. Cloud compute involves running on shared data which can be a better way to run business. It is more secure and reliable. This can prevent confidential information to be seen by unauthorized personnel. Nevertheless, the internet can also be unsafe as mentioned above.

Prof also talked about knowledge management which involves data → information → knowledge → wisdom/ insights. Data given is made into information which is then used to conclude which becomes the knowledge. Inference is then made from knowledge which becomes the insights. I learnt that knowledge is beyond information and is actually an application of information. Besides that, the class discussed some dangers of ICT. These include organizations having security concerns as they feel safer and confident when they are controlling their own data, invasion of privacy, identity theft, addiction and exposure to corrupting influences. I think that one major concern is addiction. People can be so addicted to ICT till that they are disconnected from the real world. This can be harmful to one’s well-being as one may not like to interact with people in real life anymore.

Prof used one story regarding an elderly found dead in an apartment after 2 weeks as an example to illustrate that some elderly are so lonely that they do not have anyone to talk to at all and no one knows anything about them at all. Thus, it takes so long to find out the elderly have passed away. A person in the virtual world in this case can talk to them and track their health conditions. This will also improve the well being and health of the elderly as they may feel happier when they feel the care and concern. This can also be used on children whose parents are busy. This will make the children feel less lonely and neglected as they are able to share their problems, reducing teenage problems such as joining gangs. Nevertheless, this can only be a short term solution. Nothing is better than the care and concern given by a real person. Use of virtual world can only be done once in a while. Too much involvement in a virtual world can disconnect a person form the real world as well.

On a side note, as my peers argue if students do learn thing when they play games, I agree that they do learn. They may not know what they are learning and do not even realize that they have learnt something in games as they are having fun. They actually indirectly learn some values and lessons from the games they play. From my past experience, my teacher made us play a typing game. I thought that I did not learn anything from the game as I just typed throughout the game. In fact, the game has trained me to type faster and has trained me to remember the rough position of the different keys.

I will rate this session 8 out of 10.

Individual Topical Review Paper Outline

i. Specific Innovation of Interest:

• Changing from fossil fuels to biofuels as a  source of energy

ii. Rationale for Selecting this Innovation:

• Biofuels are more efficient than fossil fuels
• Majority of energy used today comes from fossil fuels, a limited, non-renewable and polluting resource
• Production and use of fossil fuels raised environmental concerns
• Biofuels can be a long term solution to meet the increased energy needs without depleting natural resources nor polluting the environment

 iii. Proposed Approach to Development of Paper:

   

• Executive Summary

• This report will outline how fossil fuels slowly are replaced by biofuels and the importance of biofuels. Different types of biofuels will be elaborated further and the issues regarding biofuels will be discussed.
  

•  Background/Introduction

• What is biofuels?
• Fuels made from once living organic materials
• A type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation
• Fossil fuels are not considered as biofuels because they contain carbon that has been "out" of the carbon cycle for a very long time though they have their origin in ancient carbon fixation
• Types of biofuels
• First generation biofuels - fuels derived from sources like sugar, starch and vegetable oil
• Bioalcohol - Bioethanol
• Biodisel
• Biogas
•  Second generation biofules - biofuels produced from sustainable feedstock
• Under development: Cellulosic ethanol, Algae fuel, biohydrogen and biomethanol
•  Brief description of benefits of biofuels: burn cleanly, efficient, produce less pollutants, renewable and sustainable

• Historical Perspective

• Use of fossil fuels like gas, coal, and petroleum to produce energy (transportation , generates electricity and as raw materials for petrochemical industry)
• Primary energy sources are reserves in the ground
• Coal, oil and natural gas provided 79.6% of primary energy production during 2002
• Coal
• Uses : Run furnaces for melting metal ore, fire steam engines, produce electricity and heat through combustion
• Petroleum (crude oil)
• Involves extraction through oil drilling, refining and transporting (oil tankers and pipelines)
• Uses: Powering vehicles (portable, dense energy source) , generate electricity and raw material for chemical products such as pharmaceuticals, fertilizers and pesticides
• Natural gas
• Uses: Major source of electricity generation through use of gas turbines and steam turbines and used to produce fertilizers
• Problems with fossil fuels as source of energy
• environmental problem
• depletion of natural resources
• low supply
  

• Current Situation

• Fossil fuels are still being used today but countries are trying to change to biofuels and some are already using biofuels
• First generation biofuels
• Bioethanol
•  made by fermentation from carbohydrates produced in sugar or starch crops
• used as substitute for petrol for vehicles
• Cellulosic biomass derived from non-food sources such as trees and grasses, is being developed as a raw materials for production of bioethanol
• Biodisel
• mainly produced from oil crops such as palm and soybean
• used as a fuel for vehicles
• high compression ratio and throttleless operation results in diesel engines being more efficient than many spark-ignited engines such as petrolieum engine
• efficiency and lower flammability and explosivity than petroleum results in military use of diesel in armored fighting vehicles, such as tanks and trucks
• Diesel-powered cars are better than equivalent petroleum engines as they produce less greenhouse gas emission, have higher energy per-litre content of diesel fuel and the have highly efficient diesel engine
• Cleans the engine combustion chamber of carbon deposits, helping to maintain efficiency
• an oxygenated fuel (contains a reduced amount of carbon and higher hydrogen and oxygen content than fossil diesel) which improves the combustion of biodiesel and reduces the particulate emissions from un-burnt carbon
• safe to handle and transport because it is as biodegradable
• Biogas
• produced either from biodegradable waste materials or by the use of energy crops fed into anaerobic digesters to supplement gas yields
• used to produce fertilizers
•  Second generation biofule
• Under development: Cellulosic ethanol, Algae fuel, biohydrogen and biomethanol
• To make fuels without food crops, researchers explore non-food ligno-cellulosic feedstocks such as wood chips, straw, willow, jatropha and switchgrass
• These plants can be grown on poor land without much irrigation, petrochemical fertilizers or plowing, making them cheaper and less carbon intensive
• They want to harness the lignin and cellulose in the crops, using enzymes to turn ‘ligno-cellulosic feedstocks’ into sugars which can then be fermented and distilled into biofuels
• Ligno-cellulosic biofuels can yield more energy
• This increased efficiency could make biofuels more sustainable and also reduce the land area used for the purpose of biofuels thereby leaving more land for food production
   

• Issues/Challenges/Opportunities

• Ligno-cellulosic biofuels still involves making fuels from food crops
• Deforestation as lands are cleared to grow plants to make biofuels, leading to soil erosion due to frequent clearing of land
• Use of biofuels limit our food supply as we produce this fuel instead of feeding the population
• Food price riots as prices of food increases with lower supply
• The process of growing the plants, making fertilizers and pesticides, and processing the plants into fuel consumes a lot of energy, resulting in a debate about whether ethanol from corn actually provides more energy than is required to grow and process it
• Energy used in production comes from coal and natural gas, depleting the natural resources
• Making biofuels from plants can be very wasteful as only the sugary or starchy part of the plant are used; leaving behind leaves, seed husks, and stalks
• Whether biofuel production meets the sustainability criteria that are being debated worldwide
  
  

• Future Considerations

• Fossil fuels may be completely replaced by biofuels
• Further development of biofuels to make it more energy efficient
• Biofuels are not made from food crops
• Less energy consumption methods to produce biofuels
  

• References

Session 4 – Drivers of World Change & Change Management and Change Leadership

For the first half of the session, Prof went through various drivers of world change and some examples of the drivers. Drivers of world change are factors that caused the change. The various categories of drivers of world change are social, environmental, science and technology, cultural and globalization. Indeed, science and technology is a big driver of world change. It is one of the drivers that has affected our life greatly. It has made our life more convenient with machine doing the work for us, brought people closer together with airplanes and ships, and has saved many of our lives with scientific research about the cure for different illnesses and viruses. Prof has brought up something regarding changes in different countries. He mentioned that it is only when people in one country see people in another country coming up with new inventions that are useful in our everyday life then they will follow suit and come up with inventions that are same or similar to those. This means that when people in developing countries do not come across a new invention in a developed country, they will not know about the invention and the benefits of it. Thus, they will be left out in the world change and this could be one of the reasons why they remain undeveloped.

The first key takeaway from the first half of the session is that things are going to change whether you like it or not. We have to be more generalized, adaptable and flexible to survive. We also have to recognize the change and respond to it. We will not always be living with the way things are and must be prepared to accept any changes that occur. After that, we discussed about evolutionary versus revolutionary. Evolutionary is a change over time which can include improvements whereas revolutionary is a change in the way things are done. Revolutionary can be described as disruptive and a disruptive change will completely change the way of doing things in the original direction. Revolutionary involves changing the world irreversibly. Nevertheless, revolutionary is not a bad thing after all as it does improve our live with various new innovations that suit our need though it may change our usual ways of doing things.

On top of that, Prof pointed out something that is rather important. In reality, we are all living in an unknown world. There is no certainty and we will not know what is going to happen in the future. Anything can happen unexpectedly. As such, we do not have complete information to make decisions. Any decisions that we make are actually only based on the known information. Therefore, when an unforeseen change comes by, we will have to work towards another direction and make a new decision taking into account the new change. In this world, everything is actually like a trial and error.

We also went through the readings. From reading one, I have learnt a new term called “wildcards” which are low probability events that could disrupt the expected mega trend. I find reading one useful as it has shown the possible changes in the future. It is a nice summary of different issues, covering different aspects. This can allow us to prepare for the future such as finding the solutions to them and trying to minimize the damage. Nevertheless, reading one only shows the possibility of what can occur and is not a prediction of what will occur. For reading four, I have learnt some strategic responses to deal with globalization of the economy and markets such as having the right strategies, good knowledge management, skilled staffs at all times, innovation and always meeting customers’ requirements.

The first presenter of the first half of the session presented and posted a question to the class. The question was that competition seems to be the ideal way for nations to progress and whether we agree with it. I think that this was a good question posted as competition is actually occurring everywhere, in school and in workforce. Competition allows for improvements as individuals will find ways to be better than their opponents. It is only through competition then we are able to perform to the best. However, collaboration is in fact better than competition. Collaboration between two parties produces better output as both parties pool their resources together to come up with the best ideas. No matter how strong one is, collaborative efforts will still produce better results since there are more people thinking and people can give feedback to each individual’s opinion and come up with a better one. Sharing of information between two parties also increases the possibility of success at a faster rate since both parties have the maximum inputs to produce an output.

During the second half of the session, Prof talked about managing change. He used three types of birds as an example of how we can manage change. First is the eagle that is proactive, has a big picture perspective, recognizes the change and makes things happen. Second is the ostrich that will sit out, ignore the change even if it recognizes the change and continue to do the things in the original way. Last is the dodo bird that does not even recognize the change. I hope to be the eagle who can make things happen. I want to be able to recognize the change and act according to the change. Prof also mentioned the difference between a leader and a manager. Leader is the creator who creates the framework whereas manager implements and ensures that things are done according to the agreed objectives.

In addition, Prof taught us the process of uninformed optimism to informed pessimism to informed realism to completion to manage change proactively. Prof used dating a girl to describe and this example has allowed me to understand the process better. One of the readings for this part talked about management having to rethink new strategies to solve the current problems. Nowadays, the way to treat people in the past can no longer be used to treat people now as people become more knowledgeable. They need to be convinced so that they are willing to give their intellectual inputs. They also have to know and understand the need for change before they are willing to do so. The first reading mentioned the need to include the employees for change program to succeed and organizations have to connect with the employees so that they will identify with the organization. It also mentioned that management misaligned with human nature requires expensive controls to change the employees’ behavior. Thus, there is a need for organizations to understand its employees and make changes that the employees are willing to accommodate. Organizations have to train their employees often, set target and provide meaningful incentives for them. This will then allow the change program to be implemented successfully. Key takeaway for reading two is to adapt to changes, estimate what is likely to happen, plan ahead and act accordingly.

For the guest presentation, I have learnt from one of the presenters that a successful president has to make it clear to the people regarding the change and has to implement it. The president has to build relationship with the people and lend them his support. Most importantly, the president has to communicate with its people constantly to know what the people are thinking and to understand their changing needs.

I will rate this session 9 out of 10 as I have learnt a lot from this session.

Session 3 - Moving towards Sustainable Development and Innovation Management

This session was a fruitful one as the class had an in-depth discussion about sustainable development and innovation management. Prof started the class with a recap of the previous topic and shared with us an innovation that he was impressed with. He talked about Emperor Qin Shi Huang forcing everyone to use the same type of writing and how this had allowed the people to spread information easily as everyone understood the writing. He also shared that the flow of information can actually allow science and technology to grow very fast.

Next, as usual, Prof started the topic about sustainable development with a video, “Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff”. This video illustrated that our current industrial development is actually a “linear” system which is a system in crisis, and we cannot run a linear system on a finite planet that we are living in. This video has shown that our current industrial development is not sustainable as we cleared forests for land and raw materials, and used energy to process the raw materials, producing chemical products which could be toxic and not tested for impact on health and the environment. These actions are depleting the world’s resources and polluting the environment at the same time. In addition, as industrialization development requires a large usage of energy, most companies will turn to burn fossil fuels for energy, reducing the amount of fossil fuels and releasing a large amount of green house gases such as carbon dioxide. Hence, traditional linear industrial development has resulted in depletion of world’s resources and worsening of global warming caused by greenhouse gases. There is really a need to look for other sources of energy so that we will not be using resources at a rate that will compromise the future generation.

As such, a “cyclical” industrial development will be more beneficial as used products can be recycled and processed to make other products. This will reduce the need for more raw materials and hence reduce the need to burn more trees, slowing down the rate of depletion of resources and preventing air pollution. The key takeaway for the first half of the session is that we should be transforming from traditional “linear” industrial development to “cyclical” industrial development to ensure sustainable development, bringing about both economic and environmental well-being.

Prof also talked about countries spending on green technology so as to ensure sustainable development. He shared that China is spending twice as much on green technology since it consumed the most energy as compared to other countries as it develops. In addition, he talked about why some products are cheap because the damage done to the environment by the production methods is not accounted for. With production methods that are not environmental friendly and thus cheaper, the products will be cheaper. Manufacturers only take into account the short-term economic gain from the sale of the products, ignoring the long-term damage done to the environment. In this case, the development of the country will not last as the environmental damage will hinder the country’s future development.

For the first half of the oral presentation, one of the presenters posted the question to the class, “Who do you think can help sustain our world more effectively”. The options are scientists or politicians. The answer is that both scientists and politicians can help sustain our world effectively. In fact, scientists, politicians and everyone help sustain our world effectively because all parties are interlinked. Scientists are required to carry out research that will consider the impact on the environment, politicians are needed to govern the people and everyone has to make an effort to recycle to protect the Earth. Education is also crucial as people may not know the extent which the environment is damaged and may not know that they have to recycle or may not know what to do to sustain the world.

For the second half of the session, the class talked in dept about innovation management where people translate their promising ideas to high-valued products and services. I was impressed by the article written by Prof. He shared with the class about the “valley opportunities”, “summit opportunities” and “cloud opportunities”. I agree that most companies should focus on “summit opportunities” and capitalize on the current knowledge and technology to move forward. I think only capital-rich companies who can afford to innovate can focus on “cloud opportunities” and open up a new market. Nevertheless, all companies should always try to keep up with the current technology and be involved in research and development so that they will not fall to “valley opportunities”. The Prof shared that a company that has more ideas than products is more risky than a company who has more products instead because the latter is able to transfer their ideas into high-valued products which is one of the keys to success. Companies can only be successful in their innovation when they are able to put ideas into actions and come up with the actual products or services.

The Prof also shared with the class the R-D-A Translation Process. The innovation process involves researching, developing and applying. Research is first needed to look for new insights and understanding. Then, the new insights and understanding in response to market realities are to be translated into practical application by the innovative enterprise for commercial use. As companies progress through this process, value proposition increases while execution risk decreases.

Lastly, presenters of the second half talked about innovation processes being technology pushed or innovation pulled. A technology pushed process involves using existing technology to find applications to use it to generate profits whereas a market pulled process involves finding areas where consumers’ needs are not met and focus development efforts to find the needs. For both processes, companies must first have the resources and capabilities to innovate. On top of that, for market pulled innovation to be successful, the needs of the consumers must be known so that companies are able to come up with ideas that fulfill the needs of the consumers.

I will rate this session 9/10 as I had many key takeaways for this session.