Get Research-Technology Creative!
Dr. Chris Alexander
Assistant Professor (Technology Enhanced Learning/TESOL)
Head of the Distance Learning IT Unit, University of Nicosia
No-one these days needs to be convinced that technology is changing the world beyond belief. And, I’m sure most people would agree that there are good-humanising sides and bad-dehumanising sides to this unstoppable technological transformation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are more overtly here too, and they will be transfiguring the work market over the next few decades dramatically. Nevertheless, let us not forget that it may take a thousand yearsi for AIs to come close to what we are capable of doing as self-aware humans. Moreover, our 20-watt/100-billion-nerve-cell human brains have the potential to unleash one of ‘Mother Nature’s most disruptive innovationsii’: creativity.
An example of human creativity in the area of technology could be the research done by Tom Carter; as a student of the University of Bristol he became fascinated in how ultrasound could be used to simulate tactile sensations. Today he is co-founder and chief technology officer of Ultrahapticsiii, which is a company that specialises in using this technology. Kahn (2016) holdsiv that Tom Carter’s ultrasound technology lets you touch and manipulate virtual objects, and his technology has been attracting interest from Jaguar Land Rover, Harman and dozens of others.
Another example of creative technology research is the research done by Luis von Ahn, who by his mid-twenties had sold two companies to Googlev and then went on to create the free language-learning platform Duolingovi with over 40 million registered app users.
So get research-technology creative and maybe even rich too!
i Dobelli, R. (2015) Self-Aware AI: Not In A Thousand Years. Retrieved from https://edge.org/response-detail/26170
ii Sikka, V (2016) What kind of education do we need in the future? Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/amplifying-our-human-potential-a-new-context-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution
iv Kahn, J, (2016) Meet the Man Who Made Virtual Reality ‘Feel’ More Real. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-02-03/uk-startup-ultrahaptics-is-making-virtual-reality-feel-more-real
v O’Conor, L (2014) Duolingo creator: ‘I wanted to create a way to learn languages for free’ Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/aug/27/luis-von-ahn-ceo-duolingo-interview
