Week 7

Today's session covered the second component of the biobusiness revolution, concerning that of agriculture and the environment. What we covered today led me to have an increase in understanding of how our food sources might be threatened as we move along the years, and what are some ways that have been implemented in order to counter act nature's processes.

Prof shared his quote- "When we are able to grow the resources we need, we will finally be on the road to sustainability". Essentially, this meant that a country has to be self-sufficient and to also not be too dependent on nature, or on others. This might be a little questionable for Singapore in terms of food as we are severely restricted in land area, having already reclaimed land for our newest developments like the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort. It would then question the government's priorities on whether it does want to channel both monetary and non-monetary resources into constructing more infrastructure for aeroponics, hydroponics, and the likes.. Prof also let us in on the various colour of biotechnology that i was previously unaware of! Red/Medical. Blue/Marine. Green/Environmental. White/Industrial.

One other interesting point mentioned was on waste management. That you could either take waste and generate oil from it, which I think would really help save a significant amount of monetary resources from purchasing oil. Or else, there was also the process of taking human faeces and allowing microorganisms to feed off the sewage and generate protein, making………. SHIT CAKES. Yuck, never in my life will I consume them. Well unless I'm really on the brink of dying from starvation. But, ew.

I also did my presentation this week, on how climate change can threaten food security. And one key point of my presentation was on climate change adaptation, which is centred around increasing the agricultural productivity of land despite climate change hazards like droughts, for example. Through my research, I came across this interesting development that has taken place, and which I also shared during the presentation. This specie is known as WEMA, which stands for the Water Efficient Maize for Africa, which is essentially a drought-tolerant maize developed through conventional breeding and incorporating the best technology available internationally.

How WEMA is really useful in drought-prone areas is that it is predicted to significantly increase yields by up to 20%-35% under moderate drought as compared to current variety. This translates to approximately 2,000,000 more tonnes of maize, capable of feeding 21 million people. This is indeed quite a substantial amount, and I never fathomed that such new developments in agricultural seeds could have such a huge positive impact on society.

Furthermore, more of these new developments are found in the 4th Reading. It is stated in the article that different cereal varieties have been developed with a greater tolerance for soil alkalinity, free aluminium, and iron toxics. What proves to be really beneficial is that these varieties will allow agriculture to succeed in acidic areas, hence increasing the amount of arable land. Furthermore, it is stated in the article was that the "greater tolerance of abiotic extremes, such as drought, heat, and cold, will benefit irrigated areas". This development is in sync with that of Project WEMA as mentioned above, and are both good progressions in the area of the agribusiness, ensuring that much of our food will not be affected by unexpected climate hazards.

It was also questioned in the article "How will resource-poor farmers of the world be able to gain access to the products of biotechnology research?" This is because most genetic engineering research is being done by the private sector which holds patents to many inventions or developments. And I thought this to be a very real issue that governments would come to face one time or another. This is quite a debatable issue as smallholder farmers aren't able to contribute significantly to the developmental process, so hence should they then have a piece of the pie? Many might argue that it would be unfair treatment to allow farmers who have had no contribution to the biotechnology developments to have a share of the benefits. However, another school of thought comes from those who believe that these poor farmers are afterall still humans, hence they should have every right to benefit from a development that can prolong their lives and businesses.

This hence brings me to think upon Project WEMA again, where the foundation (the African Agricultural Technology Foundation) will identify smallholder African farmers especially those in sub-saharan Africa, and distribute any drought-tolerant maize varieties developed to the poor farmers without royalty, essentially at the price of regular maize seed. I thought this act was certainly one that was generous of the AATF and is definitely a decision that would allow all farmers, rich or poor, to thoroughly benefit from the advancements of biotechnology.

Apart from the points mentioned above, one other interesting fact of lesson today was that I didn't know we were consuming Genetically Modified food so much. Like prof mentioned kiwis, i never knew those were GM-ed! Cool fact of the day. I guess it just goes to show how we just stuff our faces with food most of the time, not knowing where it was flown over from, how it came about, and the various processes that made it possible for growth and henceforth, consumption by us fatty people (all singaporeans included, haha)

Thus this made today's session really interesting as it widened my perspectives on the food i'm eating, the agricultural processes that were behind its growth, and what can be done to ensure our source of food isn't threatened by the climate, or by other humans ways, like spraying pesticide for example.

On a separate note, I thought more discussion could go on about the whole issue on smallholder farmers benefitting from biotechnology, whether they should be let in on this privilege or not.

With that, I'll rate today's session a 9/10! (:

Week 6

Today's session covered a new topic on Bio Business, which was defined as a commercial activity based on an understanding of life sciences and life science processes. I thought today's lesson although not as directly relevant to our age group, still proved to be somewhat useful knowledge. We spoke about the future of healthcare and its patients, with prof showing us this video which I thought was quite cool, and have never thought that advancements in technology can be so useful to the healthcare industry in such ways.

Unfortunately I do not have the link of the video and neither did I take note of the title, but what I remember of it was that clinics were kinda like brought into the homes of patients. This is in the sense that patients can have doctor consultations right in their living room, which I feel really saves the whole time and effort bit for the elderly, especially, removing the need to travel to and from the hospital. One other feature I remember from the video was doctors in hospitals having everything electronic! Seeing a patient with electronic records, and also doing research with a team without pen and paper. If this is where we are heading for in terms of healthcare, I'd think it would definitely bring about greater efficiency for hospital staff, and perhaps being able to increase life expectancy for many patients in the long run.

Furthermore, something in the reading "Gates Foundation Global Health Strategy" brought up a fairly valid point. It was stated that both Bill and Melinda Gates had the belief that lasting improvements in health, education and poverty reduction are achievable, stating that these advancements would not simply vanish with people losing interest in it after a while. This kinda links up to the quote which prof also mentioned during the session- "Bio Business may well be our best hope for achieving sustainable development". I can agree with this to a large extent since bio business is based on the understanding of life sciences and life science processes. & since each and every living organism has some form of life science as a part of them (cells, genotypes, etc.), then definitely there would be some form of dependency on bio business for sustainable development.

One other interesting takeaway I got from the same reading was that Bill and Melinda Gates both focused on problems that have a major impact on people in the developing world but get too little attention/awareness, and funding. This was further backed up with their ability to invest with foresight which was combined with the use of technology, giving rise to new products designed specially for the poor. I felt that it's really true that the poorest of countries are just no exposed enough to the new arena of technologies that can help them by leaps and bounds (eg. vaccines), all due to the fact that the awareness of such healthcare advancement is not widespread enough. In my opinion, it certainly is a pity and it is definitely encouraging to know that the Gates Foundation is keen to look into this matter.

The presentations then went on to elaborate a little on medical tourism, the one on the kidney thing which was interesting to listen to, and the last one on the pharmaceutical industry. There was this question raised on whether anyone would be willing to go to a developing country to seek treatment/ for plastic surgery, etc. And this discussion gave me new insight as I never saw Thailand as a country that was known for its medical/healthcare business, and that my classmates were in fact willing to give it a shot! Frankly speaking, I would never have Thailand as one of my options for treatment (and nope i dont believe in plastic surgery haha), choosing developed countries like the US or the UK over Thailand anytime. This sees no relevance to biasness or whatsoever, but perhaps due to certain impressions that have been left upon us previously.

Something that could have been given more air time would probably be the issue on plastic surgery, maybe? I think that would be an interesting topic to discuss, whether the advancements of medical technology has positive impacts in the area of fake beauty, although this would probably bring up issues of ethics and things like that.

Overall, I'd rate the session 8/10 as it gave me comfort to know that when I grow old, medical technology grows with me too, and when that time comes, I wouldn't have to leave home to see the Doc for my aching back :P

Week 5

This week's session allowed us to discuss on ICT(Information & Computing Technology) and World Change, covering areas like the internet, wireless networks, mass media and interactive telecommunications. I thought this topic was relevant to many of us since as youngsters we're all mostly tech-saavy and closely linked up with the internet, especially that of social networking sites.

Some interesting ideas or observations in class today was definitely the video on Milo! It showed how this boy had emotions and knowledge of the person that was talking to him. The video definitely took me by surprise since I had no clue that technology has advanced to such levels today. However it really is quite freaky and intimidating that this character with no life whatsoever has the means to communicate in such a way. I guess we're really moving on with technology huh.

We also discussed cloud computing in class and with many of us ignorant about it, prof showed us this video which pretty much summed up what it was all about CLoud computing allowed info to be not be stored on our computers, but instead it'd be on the internet as if like on a browser. This allows us to gain access to tools and technology that we need without having to purchase it. Examples would be like google docs, Facebook games, etc. I thought this was kinda good in the sense that information cold be shared amongst people more easily, and would save us the worry if our computers crashed just before a presentation or something. However, this would lead to the issue of security of data, since all information could possibly be exposed to the whole world. And I guess the way this issue could be alleviated is only dependent on the discretion of the user- knowing that whatever he uploads has the possibility of reaching many others. So if he has such fears that others would get a know-in on his private life, then he probably shouldn't upload anything in the first place.

Some discussion that came about from the presentations saw us going a little deeper into the scheme of ICT. We discussed the impact ICT has on the economy, and this branched out into a few areas. We mentioned that there must be a certain level of education/ literacy rate in order to maximise the potential of ICTs, and proper infrastructure must also be in place in order to allow ICT to reach out to the masses. Another point brought up was that policies must be in place, meaning the government has to be supportive of such usage of ICT in their countries too. On my part, I feel that, apart from the above, people must be receptive to using new technology and we must be ready to embrace such a change. If the older generation were to remain stubborn sticking to the old ways of doing things, then I guess they'd be stuck in their era for a long time. In order to give technology a chance to positively impact their lives, they've gotta first open their arms to welcome it.

Some issues for further discussion could perhaps be how as youngsters we can use ICTs in a better way instead of being hooked on Facebook all the time, and hence use it such that it would bring about even more technological change for us in the future.

Overall, I'd give this week's session a 8/10 for opening my eyes to the wonders of how technology has advanced, and for relevant discussion of the use of ICTs during the presentations.

Week 4

Well it sure doesn't feel like I've been sitting in TWC lesson for the fourth week now. Time really does pass so fast (when you're having fun?). Anyway today in class we were focused on the topic of Drivers of World Change, mainly elaborating on what are the motivations behind the change that happens. Some examples mentioned were environmental, globalisation, and changing expectations&tastes with changing time. These examples mentioned by Prof are a subset of what was stated in Reading 1, which gave a wide variety of examples of global drivers of change.

Some of these examples mentioned in the reading kinda relate to last week's topic of sustainable development, the primary one being climate change. How the need for us to keep innovating and keep producing stuff has somehow led to more polluted skies and seas, and how such pollution has led to climate change, and finally, how climate change is a driver of change.

Prof also gave us a few of his favourite quotes, and I take special liking to the following one:

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

-George Bernard Shaw.

I thought this quote really summarised the two kinds of people that we can be, passive or aggressive. There is a significant group of people who are comfortable at where they are, thinking that staying in their comfort zones would somehow inch them nearer to success. These people don't question the Whys when things go wrong and are just satisfied with people's reasons for hiccups. On the other hand, the individual who's bold enough to press for change if he senses that things aren't going the way it should be would be the one who's the reason for change today. It's a pity that many aren't for change, particularly the older generation, who would sometimes prefer to stick to tradition.

After our very short 8minute break today, we were gonna talk about Change Management & Change Leadership. Prof showed us this amusing video of a guy who started dancing (top half naked, i think) at this random field with so many people! Well, he was labelled the Leader. Cause soon after, this other skinny man joined him, then a fat man, then 2, then 3 others, till there was this whole crowd that made it look like some rock concert!

Well the video illustrated some points, that

1st, you have to be willing to take the initiative to make the change, well this is in reference to the first guy not minding what others might think of him. And I guess that's the same way for leaders with a vision, that you have to be able to be confident and persuasive in presenting your vision, and to be able to take criticism as well.

2nd, sometimes it requires more boldness to be the first follower. You gotta be willing to 'look stupid doing something stupid'. This is when people are skeptical about this new idea that's brought up, unknowing of all the good it might bring. And as humans, we all have the herd mentality, it would not be any longer before everyone joins in to do what was thought of as stupid in the first place.

& lastly, there has to be music in the background for the dance to appeal. This is in no relation to today's topic, but I thought it was important to recognise that each organisation has to have people in the background, the back office support who does what we call saikang (directly translated to shit work in english heehee) but receive no acknowledgement. As part of being in the leadership, they've gotta recognise that there are important people behind the scenes and credit them, for without them there wouldn't be the basis to drive change.

So, some key takeaways from lesson today is that change begins with the individual. As future leaders (hopefully) of organisations, my generation has to be both receptive and willing to initiate change. Being receptive would enable us to be open to suggestions from other sources that might spark growth, and being willing to initiate change would mean we have to inculcate a sense of boldness in us (i guess school's helping in this ie speaking up with our personal viewpoints) so as to be confident in expressing our ideas across in the secular world in future.

All in all, I'd give today's lesson a 7/10 because there were a number of presentations today, which led us to rush through some questions which could have been elaborated on more. But presentations were insightful, and discussions were alright too.

Week 3

The third session of TWC saw us covering Technology & Sustainability of Industrial Development and Innovation Management.

We started off by looking at the old industrial model, elaborating on how people of the past could continue to advance in technology without having to consider the pressing situation of environmental degradation. However, as a result of such, the environment has landed in bad state today, leaving current firms to grapple with the issue of sustainable development. Companies these days now have to ensure that their primary objective of maximizing profits are being met, while ensuring that they do not bring up levels of global warming at the same time.

Furthermore, Prof also mentioned that starting late does not always put you at a disadvantage. This allows firms to leap in to the industry and begin to capitalize, without having the need to invest in the starting of a new technology and its developmental process. This creates a substantial amount of value for such companies.

Hence, all current firms now have the onus on them to innovate, and work around with our current situation, in order to allow economic growth without harming our environment.

One classmate then had his presentation- whether development & sustainability were/had to be trade-offs. We then proceeded into discussion on how much of a role should governments play in the sustainability of the environment. In my opinion, a government is a leadership figure, having power and influence on the people. Its role is to educate, and to provide the framework for long-term change. However it is not up to the government alone. Firms, on their part, have to be receptive to orders, and to question whether they are willing to compromise on profit levels for the sake of the environment. It would be quite unfortunate if governments have to exert too much pressure, putting the whole issue in a very bad light, cause after all, we're under the same sky.

Halfway through class, we moved on to the topic of Innovation Management. One thing that I remember from this segment was Prof's cute attempt at drawing BioEnterprise Asia's Technology Landscape Conceptual Framework! In summary it listed the summits as opportunities when knowledge, technology & barriers to entry are high, with few competitors in the market. Valleys are pretty much the opposite, with low interest for BioEnterprise unless there's innovation. Then there are the clouds, with summit characteristics (high knowledge tech & barriers to entry) although the business case is not yet developed. All this well-represented by the image below-

All in all, what I've learnt during week 3 was that most of the time, it's worth the risk to think innovatively out of the box and to try something else that no one has. However at the same time, we must be careful to not let the risk be damage to our environment.

I rate this session a 7/10.