Blog10 - Final Post

This. class. kicks. @ss!

I’ve been fascinated by new and innovative technologies for as long as I can remember. Having recently decided to make career change after spending nine years serving in both technical and management level roles the biotech industry, into the tech industry as a product manager, this course exceeded all expectations in helping to broaden my knowledge of current and future technologies. Best all, through this course I was able to meet and work with other students and professionals that share my passion for technology. Overall, this course was the perfect level of exposure to several topics. There were a couple topics I wish we had spent a bit less time on and couple that I wish we had dove a bit deeper into. I will discuss each of these throughout this blog post.

This class emphasized the importance of human centered design across several fields of technology. We studied and discussed the design challenges associated with designing complex systems at the intersection of humans and machines. We covered topics of systems automation, signal detection theory, internet of things, future humans, chatbots and social robotics to name a few. We dove into deep discussion and group projects to investigate humans and machines working together and which tasks might be best delegated to people vs. machines, and the problem of how to instill user trust. Each topic explored was additionally framed in the context of designing for not just the user defined in the “now”, but also for the potential user of the future both near and far.

One topic I find particularly fascinating and aim to pursue a career in is the Internet of things (IOT), more specifically wearable devices. IOT has grown significantly in the past few years. IOT has expanded into nearly every industry from health and fitness to automobiles and smart homes. Smart homes now can aid in nearly every aspect of our with devices such as smart bulbs, thermostats, security cameras, baby monitors, smart tv’s and refrigerators. Smart home devices can be very beneficial by helping us to better control our heating or assisted living for the elderly. However, IoT is not safe and our data is not safe until it is secure. There are several amazing products in this industry with lots of room for growth on improvements and development of new products.

Another topic I really enjoyed learning about was signal detection theory. An understanding of signal detection and information theory is crucial when determining how humans should interact with machines. Signal detection theory is a great framework to utilize when considering the impact of a “hit” “miss” “false A machine system can be altered to adjust the sensitivity to each of the above detection conditions, thereby making some more likely and others less likely. Adjusting these can be extremely important in cases where a false alarm or miss has grave consequences.

The concept of future humans and exactly how robots will be able to help daily human activities is not as far in the future as many may think. The concept of exoskeletons is both fascinating and terrifying. Exoskeletons are being developed to solve a wide range of problems from worker fatigue in manufacturing, helping rehabilitate people who have been injured and even creating better soldiers on the battle field. These exoskeletons come in a wide array of shapes, sizes, weights and functionalities. As with most technologies, the are pro’s and con’s to the development and use of exoskeletons. Two risks that concern me the most are the use of exoskeletons by military or terrorist groups and if there are long term health effects from using exoskeletons such as muscular or bone atrophy.

Big data ties into so much of our lives on a daily basis and plays a part in several of the other topics discussed in this course. A majority of companies, especially tech companies, are collecting large amounts of data on its users.
For example, every morning when I get in my car, google maps and Waze tell me exactly how long it will take to get from my current location to the parking garage at Tufts in Medford or my apple watch will send me a message around 4 pm telling me I’m usually further along with my exercise for the day on days I skip the gym. These companies track our movements every minute of the day. They know where we are, what we are doing, how much we are moving and if we are asleep or awake. This amount of data collection is terrifying, especially if this information is being misused.

Social robots provide an exciting and somewhat terrifying glimpse into the future.
A social robot is defined as “an autonomous robot that interacts and communicates with humans or other autonomous physical agents by following social behaviors and rules attached to its role. Like other robots, a social robot is physically embodied.” These robots will be able to assist around the home with every day chores or help in industries such as aerospace and medicine. Across the industries studied in this course, several social robots are already being developed to help in certain industries. For example, robotic flight attendants and robotic bar tenders are already becoming tested by companies for use. These robots will be able to serve both in personal every day life and within industry functions. The future of social robots is envisioned as a robots using machine learning artificial intelligence to interact with humans. Social robotics have exciting potential for implementation in various settings as they are able to learn from each interaction as well as autonomously interact and communicate with humans. This impressive capacity is enabled by a few things. Most broadly, social robots are automated machines.

Automation simply means the machine is able to complete its set of tasks with minimal human assistance. The level of automation required for AI robotics can vary wildly depending on what functionality or interaction is required. Some of the technologies that help human machine systems become more autonomous include the use of Big Data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. One topic that applies to each of this is cyber security. As technologies advance, so do the skills of hackers. It seems that nearly on a weekly basis there is some story on the news about a companies data being hacked to expose the information of thousands, if not millions of people. What happens if one these hackers decides to hack into an autonomous vehicle while someone is driving down the road or hack into a robotic flight attendant in the middle of a flight? These new technologies are equal parts exciting and terrifying. In the words of Uncle Ben from Spiderman “with great power comes great responsibility!”

I am excited to see how each of the topics studied in this class will grow and change over time. I can only hope to be part of the innovation shaping the way for future technologies.