Segment 4(17) - Technology as a Requirement (For real this time)

[Paul Terlemezian]

It can be popular and correct to state that technology should not dictate our business strategy - nor should it dictate the way we learn or perform.

With that in mind - technology is changing business strategies and the way we learn and perform - perhaps faster than we can change our business, our learning and our performing.

The Accountable Learning Organization model asserts that the use of technology is mandated - not only for scale and to sustain solutions - but increasingly for relevance. We must stay current (and even ahead of technology changes) and make conscious choices to include or exclude emerging technologies - versus building a defensive response supported by our lack of practical understanding of emerging technologies.

Each panelist will be asked to respond to how "technology" relates to their application of the Accountable Learning Model to a current problem (one of the 10 defined on 2016 or a different one of their choice.)

Remarkable Speaker: Todd Peneguy https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddpeneguy/

Moderator: Debra Kline https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwisedeb/

Panelists:

• Peter Epstein https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-epstein-b8237269/
• Gillian Gansler https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-gansler-74aba018/
• Patrick Holloway https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-holloway-8827a622/
• Eric Knapp https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-knapp-57393865/
• Doug McMahon https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-mcmahon-7a8a1668/

[Paul Terlemezian]

Here is a thinking model designed to help us think about technology as a requirement:

1. Questions: Ask new questions about old problems (or seek new answers to old questions)
2. Data Sources: Determine potential sources of data that may help provide answers to the new or old questions
3. Connect: Use technology to connect the sources of data
4. Intellect: Use human intellect to make better decisions based on the new data
5. Automate: Use technology to automate the decision process

[Doug McMahon]

Key question for the participants: What does the Georgia Robotics Alliance need to do to better prepare students for the technology challenges of the future?

Participants (Did not have a chance to get last names) :

Doug McMahon

Brittnay

Damien

Ben

Bryan

Peggy

Len

Mike

 

Comments made on this question:

• Focus on foundational core values, know thyself and identify what your core values are
• Get the parents more highly involved in the student activities
  • Engage them in what the students are doing
  • Reference to a Boston Principal Study – minimum process (I tried looking this up but could not find it)
  • Accountability – parents are not passing accountability along to the students
  • Setting expectations up front with the parents – what they are expected to do, what they can expect to get out of it, the do’s and don’ts.
• Einstein’ quote is appropriate to apply to the engineers of the future – Intellectuals solve problems – geniuses prevent them.
• The world is contracting but people are still getting further apart – what are the different perspectives to on how this happened and do the students need to consider this as they pursue engineering careers
• Students do not have a clue about issues that are not localized – they need a broader perspective.

Many perspectives were shared that I did not get a chance to capture, but of everything shared, the first thing I am going to ask the board to focus on is how do we get the parents more involved with the students. This is something we have not done up to this point and I believe from the discussion, it would bring big benefit to the students in preparing for the future.

 

We spent the last few minutes discuss the impact of AI in the future and what types of challenges that would present to society and to engineers. Comments were:

• It just is what it is, we have to decide what we as a society are going to do with it
• AI changes business dramatically, it will  change the employer/employee relationship
• With AI, soft skills are even more important, where do we teach those
• AI has to be refined to better target our personal needs
• AI will change what we do both in our work and in our spare time
• Kids can see things differently than adults – what will they do with AI as a tool?
• A focus on being able to think without technology will be even more important

 

That’s all I have

Doug