Unit 5 Discussion Board 3

The Socio-technical Plan in Robotics

Primary Response

ThienSi (TS) Le

CS875-1602C-01

Futuring & Innovation

Dr. Imad Al Saeed

 (06-June-2016)

In Unit 5 Discussion Board 3 on the topic of “Updating the Socio-technical Plan”, students are required to provide a social-technical plan to classmates for peer review. This short piece of writing summarizes the socio-technical plan in robotics and provides three bullet points for classmates to study and feedback.

A socio-technical plan of the innovation of the humanoid robotics in education is an interaction between people and technology. The socio-technical plan covers the in-depth topic that includes scope, purpose, bi-directional impact forces, methods, models, analytical plan, anticipated results, conclusion, and especially areas of future research. It was summarized and outlined as follows:

1. Introduction

Socio-technical Plan is a scheme of development that acknowledges the collaboration between humans and technology in the workplace (Long, 2013). In education, robotics can be applied to advance learning in school.

2. Scope

Robotics has implications for higher education areas (NMC 2016). Its features include:

     - Teaching: Robotics is a new growing field of higher education. Many universities offer Robotics programs in BS, MS, and Doctorate degrees.   

     - Learning: Robots have been used to train medical students and perform clinical procedures in hospital settings.

     - Creative Inquiry: Robotics Research conducted a creative inquiry such as social skills in using robots to enable children to communicate each other, creating curriculum modules for math and science teachers in middle schools.

3. Purpose

The purpose of the study of the advancing robotics between humans to technology (i.e., robots) in socio-technical plan is to infuse more humanlike behavior in machines to adapt or accommodate human needs and demands in many fields such as manufacturing, healthcare, mining, defense, security, transportation, securities, home appliances, particularly education in using affective computing in robotics design that balances emotion and cognition.

4. Supporting forces

     - Technological force: Robotics projects supported by the government.

     - Economic force: Robots for labor has productivity impact

     - Educational force: Many universities offer programs in Robotics

5. Challenging forces

     -Instilling humanoid behavior in robots is difficult

     - Robotics’ hardware is still under construction

     - Software divergence: No standardization

6. Methods

In socio-technical plan of innovating robotics, the method of Delphi technique is chosen because of the rationale below:   

     - A socio-technical plan is complex and intensive. It requires highly skilled members who are likely located in different physical locations. 

     - A member of the Delphi group is selected due to his/her expertise in robotics and education.

     - A facilitator asks each member independently to provide ideas, input to the problem in successive rounds, typically three rounds.

     - The group arrives at the consensus decision on the best course of action.

7.  Models

The socio-technical architecture consists of 7 layers from equipment hardware to organizations then society as shown in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1

(Source: Adapted from Saeed, 2016)

Interactive Socio-technical system is represented in Figure 2 below that shows that three primary elements, i.e., Technology, Process, and Organization, in an effective interaction in the overlapped areas.

Figure 2: A sociotechnical system works affectively in the overlapped area

(Source: Adapted from tapora.se) 

There are three models:

     - Access control model: This model includes ownership, freedom, fairness, privacy, transparency.

     - Business model: Interactions between people and robots evolves and changes gradually.

     - The cognitive model: This model shows communication between people and robots in education.

Figure 3: Cognitive process in communication between people and robots

(Source: Adapted from Whitworth, 2014)

8. Analytical plan

   The sociotechnical plan can be evaluated by

     - Verifying the conceptual framework

     - Checking hardware

     - Testing software

     - Inspect HCI (human computer interaction)

     - Examine STS (sociotechnical system)

9. Anticipated results

     - Robotics teaching program in higher education

     - Robotics’ assistance in K-12 program

     - Robotics help children in bipolar sickness in learning

10. Conclusion

     - Robotics program in higher education has grown rapidly

     - Robotics’ assistance in K-12 program is effective and in demand

     - Robotics helps bipolar children on learning better communication

       in a new approach

11. Areas of future research

     - Instilling humanoid behavior in robots

     - Robots’ hardware requires improvement in motions

     - Better software is needed in controlling intelligent robots 

     With the socio-technical plan on robotics in education presented above, four bullet points for classmates to provide inputs are:

     - What do you think about this socio-technical plan on robotics in education?
     - Is the method in this plan adequate?  

     - Are these models listed above good to represent the socio-technical plan on robotics in education?

     - Any suggestions on the analytical plan?

REFERENCES

Long, S. (2013). Socioanalytic methods: discovering the hidden in organisations and social systems. Karnac Books.

New Media Consortium, (2016). NMC Horizon. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from

http://www.nmc.org/nmc-horizon/ 

Whitworth, B. (2014). Socio-technical system design. Retrieved June 5, 2016 from 

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/socio-technical-system-design

Video: A Sociotechnical Plan on Robotics

A Socio-technical Plan in Robotics

Unit 5 Discussion Board 2

The Socio-technical Plan in Robotics

Primary Response

ThienSi (TS) Le

CS875-1602C-01

Futuring & Innovation

Dr. Imad Al Saeed

 (02-June-2016)

In Unit 5 Discussion Board 2 on the topic of “Development of the Sociotechnical Plan”, students are required to create a video about the social-technical plan. A short paragraph that summarizes the video is provided below:

1. Video:

The video was developed at the website https://animoto.com/ as a trial version. It was built in 14 power point slides with many images in association with robotics and education. The video style of “color frame” was chosen in the education category. The music was Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano No 14 Moonlight. This brief video lasts about 41 seconds.

2. Summary

This video is an image work that describes the socio-technical plan in the innovation of the humanoid robotics in education in collaboration between people and technology. The socio-technical plan covers the topic in-depth with scope, purpose, bi-directional impact forces, methods, models, analytical plan, anticipated results, conclusion, and especially areas of future research. The list of references is also provided at the end. Notice that audience’s comments or critiques are welcome!     

Video URL:      
          http://tslbloggerpage.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-sociotechnical-plan-on-robotics.html

The Socio-technical Plan in Robotics

Unit 5 Discussion Board

The Socio-technical Plan in Robotics

Primary Response

ThienSi (TS) Le

CS875-1602C-01

Futuring & Innovation

Dr. Imad Al Saeed

 (30-May-2016)

In Unit 5 Discussion Board on the topic of “Development of the Sociotechnical Plan”, students are required to share their sociotechnical plan on technological innovation with others on Discussion Board. This short piece of writing will provide a socio-technical plan that includes Introduction, Scope, and Purpose as shown below.

The dynamic and energetic world has constantly changed and intertwined rapidly with full uncertainty and chaos. It is almost impossible to predict the different future from the known present. In an aggressively competitive business environment, many organizations realize that innovation of the existing systems with the interaction between humans and technology such as robotics in the socio-technical process and system is important in business, particularly education in computing world as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Socio-technical plan in computing

Source: Adapted from www.interaction-design.org

I. Introduction

            Social-technical plan in organizational development is a scheme of arrangement and process of complex work design that employs the interaction between humans and technology in the workplaces (Long, 2013). The social-technical system refers to the interaction between complex infrastructures and human behaviors. It is about joint optimization such as interrelatedness of social and technical aspects of an organization or the society as a whole (Trist, & Bamforth, 1951). In education, many academicians and higher education leaders usually address using technologies to advance learning and creative expression. One of the technologies is robotics that can be applied in a socio-technical system for the educational purpose.

II. Scope

            New Media Consortium (2016) predicts that robotics can be used in higher education to assist students to become better problem solvers in the next five years. Humanoid robots can interact and assist learners in disorder or people with disability to develop well-behaved social skills and better communications in a sociotechnical process.   

Robotics has direct implications for higher education areas:     - Air traffic management targets safer drone air traffic (NMC Horizon, 2016)     - Annual robotics law and policy conference hosts conversations between designers, builders, manufacturers on the legal and social structures. (NMC Horizon, 2016)

     - Multiple disciplines on autonomous mobile robots in mechatronic systems are provided to students for engineering study (NMC Horizon, 2016)

            While robots become popular in demand in industry, robotics provides many compelling features. Some typical features are (1) teaching, (2) learning, and (3) creative inquiry.

(1)   Teaching: 

Bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in healthcare robotics in the US universities such as Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, etc. with National Science Foundation (NSF)’s initiative.

(2) Learning:

Robots have been used to train medical students and perform clinical procedures in hospital settings.

(3) Creative inquiry:

Robotics research conducted a creative inquiry such as social skills in using robots to enable children to communicate each other, creating curriculum modules for math and science teachers in middle schools.

            Except the enlightening features, robotics has several limitations. Some typical limitations are:

     - Robotics’ applications such as humanlike robots have hurdles due to the complexity of the human system. For example, human’s intellectual asset is difficult to transform into machines such as humanoid robots.  

     - Even though applications of the robots gain more momentum in progress, robotics’ hardware is still in a developing stage.

    - Robotics software is diverse. There are many kinds of robotics software in various platforms that rely on many divergent manufacturers. There is no standardization in robotics software. 

III. Purpose

The aspect of robotics becomes more practical and less futuristic than ever. Robots that are recently less clumsy, more humanlike and sophisticated, can perform a useful, complex and dangerous tasks (Picard, 2016). The purpose of the study of the advancing robotics between humans to technology (i.e., robots) in socio-technical plan is to infuse more humanlike behavior in machines to adapt or accommodate human needs and demands in many fields such as manufacturing, healthcare, mining, defense, security, transportation, securities, home appliances, particularly education in using affective computing in robotics design that balances emotion and cognition.  

Figure 2: Robot and human in collaboration and interaction

(Source: Adapted from http://venturebeat.com/tag/robotics)

In summary, the writing described a development of a socio-technical plan to integrate robotics as humanoid robots to assist students in learning. The introduction, scope, and purpose of the plan were provided with features and limitations in the integration between robots and humans in this discussion.

REFERENCES

Long, S. (2013). Socioanalytic methods: discovering the hidden in organisations and social systems. Karnac Books.

New Media Consortium, (2016). NMC horizon. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from

http://www.nmc.org/nmc-horizon/ 

            go.nmc.org/airtraffic;

            go.nmc.org/calu;

            go.nmc.org/werobo;

Picard, R., (2016). Affective computing. Retrieved May 25/2016 from

http://affect.media.mit.edu/

Trist, E. L., & Bamforth, K. W. (1951). Some social and psychological consequences of the Longwall method. Human relations, 4(3), 3-38.

Socio-technical Plan (Part I)

Unit 4 Individual ProjectSocio-technical Plan (Part I)ThienSi (TS) LeColorado Technical UniversityCS 875-1602C-01Professor: Dr. Imad Al Saeed

28-May-2016

The dynamic and energetic world has constantly changed and intertwined rapidly with full uncertainty and chaos. It is almost impossible to predict the different future from the known present. In an aggressively competitive business environment, many organizations realize that innovation of the existing systems with the interaction between humans and technology such as robotics in the socio-technical process and system is important in business, particularly education in computing world as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Socio-technical plan in computing

(Source: Adapted from www.interaction-design.org)

           This paper will describe a socio-technical plan in robotics in two parts. The first part that will cover seven sections in this document includes:

            PART 1:

                        I. Introduction

II. Scope

III. Purpose

IV. Supporting forces

V. Challenging forces

VI. Methods

                        VII. Summary for Part 1

References (Part 1)

                        Appendix:

The second part will cover six sections in the next paper as follows:

            PART 2:

                        VIII. Model

IX. Analytical plan

X. Anticipated results

XI. Conclusion

XII. Areas of future research

References (Part 2)

         The first part will be described in-depth in this paper as Unit 4 Individual Project.

I. Introduction

            Social-technical plan in organizational development is a scheme of arrangement and process of complex work design that employs the interaction between humans and technology in the workplaces (Long, 2013). The social-technical system refers to the interaction between complex infrastructures and human behaviors. It is about joint optimization such as interrelatedness of social and technical aspects of an organization or the society as a whole (Trist, & Bamforth, 1951). In education, many academicians and higher education leaders usually address using technologies to advance learning and creative expression. One of the technologies is robotics that can be applied in a socio-technical system for the educational purpose.

II. Scope

            New Media Consortium (2016) predicts that robotics can be used in higher education to assist students to become better problem solvers in the next five years. Humanoid robots can interact and assist learners in disorder or people with disability to develop well-behaved social skills and better communications in a sociotechnical process.   

Robotics has direct implications for higher education areas:

     - Air traffic management targets safer drone air traffic (NMC Horizon, 2016).

     - Annual robotics law and policy conference hosts conversations between designers, builders, manufacturers on the legal and social structures. (NMC Horizon, 2016).

     - Multiple disciplines on autonomous mobile robots in mechatronic systems are provided to students for engineering study (NMC Horizon, 2016).

            While robots become popular in demand in industry, robotics provides many compelling features. Some typical features are (1) teaching, (2) learning, and (3) creative inquiry.

(1)   Teaching: 

Bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in healthcare robotics in the US universities such as Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, etc. with National Science Foundation (NSF)’s initiative.

(2) Learning:

Robots have been used to train medical students and perform clinical procedures in hospital settings.

(3) Creative inquiry:

Robotics research conducted a creative inquiry such as social skills in using robots to enable children to communicate each other, creating curriculum modules for math and science teachers in middle schools.

            Except the enlightening features, robotics has several limitations. Some typical limitations are:

     - Robotics’ applications such as humanlike robots have hurdles due to the complexity of the human system. For example, human’s intellectual asset is difficult to transform into machines such as humanoid robots.  

     - Even though applications of the robots gain more momentum in progress, robotics’ hardware is still in a developing stage.

    - Robotics software is diverse. There are many kinds of robotics software in various platforms that rely on many divergent manufacturers. There is no standardization in robotics software. 

III. Purpose

The aspect of robotics becomes more practical and less futuristic than ever. Robots that are recently less clumsy, more humanlike and sophisticated, can perform a useful, complex and dangerous tasks (Picard, 2016). The purpose of the study of the advancing robotics between humans to technology (i.e., robots) in socio-technical plan is to infuse more humanlike behavior in machines to adapt or accommodate human needs and demands in many fields such as manufacturing, healthcare, mining, defense, security, transportation, securities, home appliances, particularly education in using affective computing in robotics design that balances emotion and cognition.  

Figure 2: Robot and human in collaboration and interaction

(Source: Adapted from http://venturebeat.com/tag/robotics)

IV. Supporting forces

            The integration of robots into the industry such as automotive, healthcare transportation, education, etc. impacts business model and economies globally. The socio-technical plan of robotics in education is driven by many forces such as technological, economical, societal, educational strength. Three typical driving forces are discussed as follows:

     - Technological force

            The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has funded many projects in the robotics field. Many universities such as UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, etc. increase their research and development effort in robotics. For example, scientists who are inspired by the human brain are able to program a robot based on neural circuitry (The New York Times, 2016).  

     - Economical force

Proponents such as economists, social scientists, and futurists are fascinated by robots for labor. International Federation of Robots in a study between 1993 and 2007 found that robots made a great impact on productivity. Robots have replaced low-skilled workers, increased production for factories, and generated new jobs for other high-skilled workers (Rotman, 2015).  

     - Educational force

            Since popular demand of robots in industry, many higher education institutions

Have developed bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in healthcare robotics at Georgia Institute of Technology, air traffic management system for safer drone air traffic, robotics engineering technology program at University of California, etc. These programs imply educational force on robotics in practice (NMC Horizon, 2016). 

V. Challenging forces

            In parallel with the amenable and supporting forces, the innovation of robotics encounters some challenging forces. For example, the limitation of development in robotics includes:  

     - Instilling more humanoid behavior in robots is difficult and sophisticated because of the complexity of the human system.

     - Robotics’ hardware such as arms, legs, microprocessors, etc. for motions is still gradually under development.  

     - Divergence in robotics software in various platforms is another challenging force for integration between robots manufactured by different vendors in many countries. There is no availability of the Robotics software’s standardization today.

     - Manufacturing customized robots carries higher price tags and requires more funding as well as research.

VI. Methods

Group decision making is a participatory process for multiple participants who collect information, analyze problems or situations, weigh courses of actions, and select the best solution. The number of participants in group making-decision varies differently, typical from 5 to 10 persons. Decision-making groups may be formal, informal with a specific goal. The process used to arrive at decisions may be structured or unstructured. Time pressure or conflicting goals that are external contingencies impact the development and effectiveness of decision-making groups (Office of Student Programs, 2011). There are four typical group decision-making methods. They are brainstorm, dialectical inquiry, nominal group technical, and the Delphi technique (Barnett, 2016). The Delphi technique is a group decision-making process that can be used by decision-making groups when the individual members are in different physical locations. It was developed by RAND Corporation in the 1950s. A member of the Delphi group is selected due to his/her expertise on the problem. A facilitator asks each member independently to provide ideas, input to the problem in successive rounds, typically three rounds. For example, this forecast method is applied by a facilitator bases on the results of questionnaires sent to a panel of experts via e-mail, fax, or online discussion forum. Each round the responses is ranked or rated in some order. The group arrives at the consensus decision on the best course of action (RAND Corporation, 1950).

            In socio-technical plan of innovating robotics, the method of Delphi technique is chosen because of the rationale below:   

     - A socio-technical plan is complex and intensive. It requires highly skilled members who are likely located in different physical locations. 

     - A member of the Delphi group is selected due to his/her expertise in robotics and education.

     - A facilitator asks each member independently to provide ideas, input to the problem in successive rounds, typically three rounds.

     - The group arrives at the consensus decision on the best course of action.

VII. Summary for Part 1

            This document of the socio-technical plan (Part 1) on innovation of robotics in education consists of eight sections and Appendix Section for Part 2:

            I. Introduction: This section introduces a socio-technical plan of innovating robotics for learning in education.

II. Scope: It provides the overall view of the interaction between humans and robotics in higher education areas.

III. Purpose: It targets to infuse humanlike behavior in machines to adapt human needs and demands in many fields, particularly education.

IV. Supporting forces: This section discusses driving forces in technology, economics, and education.

V. Challenging forces: It describes obstacles and hurdles in the socio-technical plan on applying robotics in education .

VI. Methods: This section describes several methods to be used in socio-technical plan and emphasizes Delphi technique as a good choice with rationales.

            VII. Summary for Part 1: It is this section

            Appendix: This section lists the headers sections for Part 2     

            VIII. References

Appendix

PART 2: Outline and headers

                        VIII. Models:

1.      The socio-technical architecture

2.      Interactive socio-technical system

3.      Models

IX. Analytical plan:

                                    1. Framework

                                    2. Analytical plan

X. Anticipated results

1. Robotics program for higher education

2. Robotics’ assistance in K-12 program

3. Robotics with children in bipolar disorder

XI. Conclusion

                                    Summary and conclusion of the study of robotics in education

XII. Areas of future research

1.      Robotics in safer drone air traffic control

2.      Robotics law and policy conference

3.      Multiple disciplines on autonomous mobile robots in mechatronic systems

References (Part 2)

References (Part 1)

Barnett, T. (2016). Group decision making. Retrieved on April 17, 2016 from

www.referenceforbusiness.com/management

Long, S. (2013). Socioanalytic methods: discovering the hidden in organisations and social systems. Karnac Books.

New Media Consortium, (2016). NMC horizon. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from

http://www.nmc.org/nmc-horizon/ 

            go.nmc.org/airtraffic;

            go.nmc.org/calu;

            go.nmc.org/werobo.

           

Office of Student Programs, Mount Holyoke College (2011). Skill building – group

decision making. Retrieved on April 18, 2016, from

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/sites/default/files/studentprograms/docs/skillbuilding_groupdecisionmaking.pdf;

Picard, R., (2016). Affective computing. Retrieved May 25/2016 from

http://affect.media.mit.edu/

Rotman, D. (2015). Who will own the robots? Retrieved May 26, 2016, from

            https://www.technologyreview.com/s/538401/who-will-own-the-robots/

The New York Times (2016). Uber would like to buy your robotics department.

Retrieved May 25, 2016

from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/uber-would-liketo-buy-your- robotics-department.html?_r=0

The Examples in Developing a Socio-technical Plan

Unit 4 Discussion Board 3

The Examples in Developing a Socio-technical Plan

Primary Response

ThienSi (TS) Le

CS875-1602C-01

Futuring & Innovation

Dr. Imad Al Saeed

 (23-May-2016)

In Unit 4 Discussion Board 3 on the topic of “Good companies go bad”, students are required to research organizations that had a good plan, but they went down because something changed out of organizational control. This short piece of writing will describe the situation of the company with a good plan, discuss its failure in competitive business, and develop a sociotechnical plan for an organization.

One of the most common phenomena in business is the good companies that have good strategic plans but often fail to respond effectively to big changes in technologies, various markets, or human resources. These companies that witness their low revenue, fewer profits, tumbled stock valuation, and best people leaving are unable to defend themselves against competitors who have new products, technologies, or strategies. Some companies ultimately turn around in downsizing and restructuring, but others disappear in business. Managers who confront companies’ disruption in business often assume that the problem relates to paralysis even though they usually recognize the threat, carefully analyze this problem and respond with an initiative plan, etc. Except for all good strategic plans, the companies still stumble (Sull, 1999).   

1. An example of the good company that goes wrong 

Figure 1: The old Firestone store

(Source: Adapted from www.firestone.eu, n.d.)

One of the companies had a good plan but went bad is Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. (www.firestone.com) found by Harvey Firestone in 1900. The Firestone that uses strategy to treat customers and employees as part of the “Firestone family” enjoyed seven decades of uninterrupted growth in the US tire industry. It built a team of loyal managers, exploited booming demand for tires by new production capacity online, and had a close tie relationship with the top executives of the big carmakers all in the good strategic plans.

However, everything changed almost overnight. Michelin, a French company, introduced the radial tires to the US market. Radial tires, based on a breakthrough in technological design, were safer, last longer, and less cost than traditional bias tires. When a Ford company used radial tires in all new cars in 1972, Michelin would dominate both US and European markets.

Firestone watched the European markets embraced radial tires during the 1960s through its large operations in Europe and had developed forecasts that were clearly indicative that Michelin’s radials would dominate in the U.S tire industry. Firestone swiftly took action: invested $400 million in radial production, built a new plant for radial tires, converted several existing factories, etc. Albeit, Firestone’s actions were quick and responsive; it was far from effective. It still used the existing production process for higher quality radial tires. It delayed closing many factories that produced bias tires. In 1979, Firestone was in deep trouble. Its factories ran at 59% of capacity. Its costly renting warehouse stored unsold bias tires. Product recalls arose. Its domestic tire business had a loss of more than $200 million in cash due to US tire sales were flat because radials lasted twice as long as bias tires Firestones’ CEO used the assumptions of ever-growing demand with no need to close plants. All of Firestone’s intense analysis and action plans were ineffective. The company surrendered most of its share of the US market to foreign corporations and suffered through two hostile takeover bids before finally being acquired by a Japanese company, Bridgestone, in 1988.   

2. An example of the potential impact on the socio-technical plan

Figure 2: A robot is ready in action.

(Source: Adapted from www.bttpl.com, 2016)

This is the world that is constantly going through change, especially technological change. There are many predictions regarding where we will be as a society as a result of leveraging big data. Their applications and outcomes can go either way. Success or failure depends on decision makers’ judgment, skill, and vision.

            Inspiring from the imaginary robot characters such as C-3P0, R2-D2 or Terminator from the films industry (Lucas, n.d.; Cameron, n.d.), robotics is chosen for educational technology for a future adoption. Robots were developed along with Artificial Intelligence to deploy in factory assembly line to increase productivity in the automotive industry in early years. Integration of robots has, today, expanded in many fields such as manufacturing, healthcare, mining, defense, security, transportation, home appliances, etc. NMC (2016) predicts that robotics can be used in higher education to assist students to become better problem solvers in the next five years. Humanoid robots can interact and assist learners in disorders or people with disability to develop well-behaved social skills and better communications in a sociotechnical process.    

3. Discussion of robotics’ relevance

            Robotics is a concept of creating autonomous machines to mimic human behavior and often manage dangerous tasks (Dobson, 2015). Robots can replace humans to take labor work for economic and fewer cost reasons. They can also work interactively with humans to perform dangerous tasks such as bomb removal, weapon demolition, etc. Robots have been present in surgery rooms, scientific laboratories, battlefields, search and rescue scenarios, Mars, and homes such as vacuum cleaners, toys, and security guards. Robotics, in the 21^st century, is relevant to governments, corporations, scientists who envision as a major trend in technological, economic, and social development. Robotics revolution is imminent in progess (IEEE RAS, 2016).        

4. Driving forces

            Robotics will make a significant contribution to technology, economy, culture, humanity, defense, and society. The forces that impact the trend and the technology are technological, cultural, human, and societal. Three typical forces are technological, economic, and defensive.

            With the cultural and economic goals to adapt someone’s idea and make it different and better, robotics has evolved in a full scale. The technological force drives robotics rapidly in many fields along with ubiquitous data and computers. Robotics integration has the very positive impact in working environment with cost-effective fashion. Robots that replace human workers in paper processing works, and perform dangerous tasks such as bomb demolition, etc. are driven by the defensive force. However, robotics also causes a negative impact on the human working force. They replace human workers. People lose their jobs and are maybe obsolete. The governments need to step in to find alternative solutions for people who are unemployed or lose their jobs because of robotics. The economic force on robotics is an agile and forward movement in academia. Higher education educators who can provide a leadership model to promote a culture of innovation of robotics would have a significant impact on the education, economy, entrepreneurship, humanity, and society.

In summary, the writing described a company, Firestone; that had a good action plan went out of business because of new technological products beyond their control in a constant and rapid change in technology and competitive market. It discussed robotics and their applications as an example of the potential impact on the socio-technical plan.  The reasons of robotics that become relevant between human and robots were provided. The driving forces such as technological, economic, defensive, and social weights played a huge impact on the innovation idea of robotics in many areas.  

REFERENCES

Cameron, J. (n.d.). Terminator 2. Retrieved on April 18, 2016, from

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/

Dobson, A. (2015). Robotic technology promises to improve mining. Retrieved on April

18, 2016 from http://phys.org/news/2015-05-robotic-technology-safety.html

Lucas, G. (n.d.). Star wars: force for change. Retrieved on April 18, 2016 from

http://www.starwars.com/

New Media Consortium. (n.d.). NMC horizon. Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/nmc-

horizon/ 

IEEE RAS, (2016). Robotics & automation society: robotics history project. Retrieved

May 23, 2016 from

http://www.ieee-ras.org/educational-resources-outreach/robotics-history-project.

Sull, D. (1999). Why good companies go bad. Retrieved May 23, 2016 from

https://hbr.org/1999/07/why-good-companies-go-bad.

Unit 4 Discussion Board 2

Serendipity, Error & Exaptation

Primary Response

ThienSi (TS) Le

CS875-1602C-01

Futuring & Innovation

Dr. Imad Al Saeed

 (18-May-2016)

In Unit 4 Discussion Board 2 on the topic of “Planning for Future”, students are required to provide an innovation example for discoveries. This short piece of writing will describe an example on discoveries through serendipity, error or exaptation in this discussion. 

In general, serendipity or exaptation is a work that completely changes accidentally the way that something is done. For example, maternity leave or paternity leave is a leave of absence from a job for a mother or father to care for a new baby. A period of paid absence from work, in the England currently two weeks, to which a parent is legally entitled immediately after the birth of his or her child. Now, some people, who have an innovation idea, want to have maternity/paternity leave even though they have no child. It is called “me-maternity.” Furthermore, people who buy or adopt a pet such as a dog, cat or a snake, they also request a paid leave of absence, called “pet-maternity” to adjust their life with the new member, the pet, in the family. If this concept were honored by companies, then it would be serendipity.    

According to Gaughan (2010), serendipity is some random events or occurrences intended for something that discovers something else accidentally by chance in a satisfactory or beneficial way. A famous English art historian Horace Walpole called serendipity as fortunate happenstance or pleasant surprise (Mowl, 2010) when he unexpectedly discovered something by reference to a Persian fairy tale “The Three Princes of Serendip” who always made discoveries accidents and sagacity. A simple example of serendipity is a discovery of matches by a British pharmacist John Walker (Cyran & Gaylord, 2012).

The error is a mistake such as a state or condition of being wrong in conduct or judgement. An error usually relates to a miscalculation, inaccuracy, or blunder. Most errors are bad but sometimes it leads to a good discovery of innovation. For instance, while a mechanic changes the lubrication oil in an automotive and fills the oil in the coolant radiator, he discovers that the water pump is leaking the coolant fluid inside the engine.   

 Exaptation is a transformation in the function of a trait during evolution (Gould, 1982). A trait can evolve by shifting from one particular function to another function subsequently during time growth, particularly in anatomy and behavior. For example, an exaptation of wolf pups is that they lick the faces of adult wolves to encourage them to regurgitate food. Another classic example of exaptation is bird feathers. Bird feathers are initially for temperature regulation, but later they are adapted to flight. 

Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered Penicillin in 1928.

(Source: Adapted from http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//32/media-32192/large.jpg) 

One of the great serendipity is a scientific innovation story of Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin in 1928. Sir Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist who investigated the properties of staphylococci, spherical bacteria in the cultures. He found that one of the cultures was contaminated with fungus, and the colonies of staphylococci immediately surrounding the fungus had been destroyed. Fleming grew the mould in a pure culture and found that it produced a substance that killed some disease-causing bacteria. The substance was called penicillin on March 07, 1929. Fleming’s accidental discovery and isolation of penicillin in September 1928 earned him the shared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 marked the start of modern antibiotics (Colbrook, 1956).    

In summary, the writing described the concept of serendipity, error, or exaptation as the intended work of the events that accidentally discovers something else with useful or beneficial results. It discussed serendipity and exaptation in details and provided several examples, especially Sir Fleming’s discovery of penicillin substance that recently opened the modern antibiotics.  

REFERENCES

Cyran, P. & Gaylord (2012). The 20 most fascinating accidental inventions. Retrieved May

16, 2016  from

http://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2012/1005/The-20-most-fascinating-accidental-inventions/Matches

Colbrook, L. (1956). “Alexander Fleming 1881-1955." Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 2: 117–126. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1956.0008

Fleming, A. (1928). Alexander Fleming: biography. Retrieved May 16, 2016 from

http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//32/media-32192/large.jpg

Gaughan, R. (2010). Accidental genius: the world's greatest by-chance discoveries. Metro Books. ISBN 978-1-4351-2557-5.

Gould, J. (1982). Exaptation – a missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology 8(1): 3-15.JSTOR 2400563.

Mowl, T. (2010). Horace walpole: the great outsider, Faber, 2010.