Grand Challenges Theme entries

1 - Sustainability:

During the sustainability theme exploration part of FSE 150, I gained a deeper and more nuanced understanding of sustainability. In class, I participated in activities that got me to think about how sustainable technologies can be implemented, listened to a guest lecturer describe possible sustainability problems with autonomous vehicles, and learned from my peers about important research projects addressing problems in sustainability.

One of the beneficial activities we did in class was discussing all the factors that enable a lamp to turn on when a light switch is flipped. This activity was valuable because it influenced me to not only think about the factors that directly caused the lamp to turn on, such as the electrical components in the system, but also to think about the people who worked in the power plants or extracted natural gas. Going further back, the natural gas is only present because of the slow sedimentation and compression of organic matter, which happened over millions of years. This exercise helped broaden my perspective and showed me how interconnected our actions are. In order to generate more sustainable solutions, we have to think in a similar fashion. Instead of going for solar panels because they are green, it is important to think about how the solar panels are made and installed, what emissions are associated with the process, and how the solution affects people’s lives.

The other class activities that helped me understand this were the play pumps case study and the energy economics game. The energy economics game showed how important price of a service is to companies and consumers, and that the lower priced services will be favored over higher priced ones, even if the cheaper ones are less sustainable. The play pumps study showed that a solution that seems like a good idea in theory may not be a good idea in practice, since the play pumps were not a popular solution in the villages they were deployed in. It is important to define the problem and talk to the stakeholders throughout the process to make sure that the developed solution makes a positive impact when deployed.

This vein of thinking was also reinforced by the guest lecturer, Dr. Sara Khoeini, who discussed the potential effects of autonomous vehicles. Although autonomous vehicles and improve safety and convenience, they could have a negative impact on sustainability. Since autonomous vehicles do not require a driver, they can be sent out on errands and make drives that people would not wish to spend the time doing. This would result in much greater driving mileages, which would use up more gasoline or electricity, contributing to greater CO2 emissions. This experience taught me that new technologies are not always beneficial to all of our goals and can not only solve problems, but also introduce new ones.

Lastly, the GC theme paper presentations by my peers were very valuable because they introduced me to some new problems I had not thought about before. It was fascinating to see how wide the scope of the projects related to sustainability were – from measurement and analysis of air quality data in San Francisco to mining resources from asteroids to reduce the need to bring materials from earth to space.

These experiences are very valuable to me because they helped increase my understanding of sustainability and how complex the problems are. The guest lecture and student presentations were especially valuable to me because I was able to see all the opportunities available to help create a more sustainable world. My own interest in sustainability was previously focused primarily on designing better renewable energy producing and storage systems, but now I am also interested in how sustainable technologies can best be implemented to create the greatest benefit to society.

2 - Joy of Living:

The joy of living exploration section of FSE 150 was very valuable because it helped to define a more fluid and conceptual challenge. In the discussions and class activities, I learned about finding solutions to and analyzing societal effects of more concrete examples. During the faculty guest lecture, I learned about solutions to the much more abstract problem of improving happiness and wellbeing. A joyful life means different things to different people, and engineering can be used to help people lead these joyful lives.

One activity I did in class was the ideal classroom environment group activity. In this activity, my group and I were tasked with coming up with a better classroom design. Our group chose to focus on improving the experience of students in large lecture-style classes in colleges, where students would sit in an auditorium and listen to the professor teach. The problem with this style of class in many cases is that students sitting in the back may have trouble seeing what the professor is writing on the board. The professor may be projecting a video of what they are writing onto screens, but sometimes the lighting and position of the student can create a lot of glare. Our solution incorporated sensors and a camera system that analyzed the light levels and adjusted the lighting in the room, as well as the contrast of the video displayed on the projector screen, in order to ensure that all students could see the board. This exercise taught me that one of the main components of the joy of living GCSP theme is making people's lives easier and alleviating stress. Since stress is something that reduces people's joy, alleviating the stress by helping students see the board in a classroom will help increase their joy of living.

The other class activity that was helpful was the analyzing technologies in a societal context activity. This activity was designed to help the student understand how technologies influence people. In the activity, my group and I were tasked with identifying the what, how, and who of AI technology. We chose to focus on AI in the gaming field. Through this activity, I realized that technologies can both contribute to and reduce joy of living. In the case of AI in gaming, an AI engine, such as a chess program, can provide an instructive and fun experience to someone who likes to play chess but does not have anyone to play with, which can make them happier. On the other hand, the AI can be used to cheat on a chess game against another human by suggesting the best moves that no human can counter. This could ruin the game for both players. Since a technology that has the potential to do good can also be used to reduce the joy of living, technology developers must anticipate and counteract these potential problems.

One of the most useful portions of this class was the faculty lecture by Dr. Pavan Turaga. During the lecture, Dr. Turaga discussed various projects that his research team has and is working on. The goal of one of the larger projects was to create environments in which caregivers to the sick could relieve stress and live more in the moment, creating a more joyful life. This was an interesting lecture because it showed how the joy of living theme has many different approaches. In the class activities, joy of living was achieved through technologies that made life more easier and convenient for people. Dr. Taruga's approach, on the other hand, was to allow people to live in and appreciate the moment by creating interactive environments that amplified the small details in life. One example of this was a visual world that participants could control, creating art in a collaborative way with others. Another example was a breathing room that allowed users to focus on their breathing to relax and reflect.

These experiences were very helpful to me because they influenced me to think about all the technologies that I have in my life that make me joyful and contemplate what life would be like without these technologies. Furthermore, it gave me an understanding of why humans do things like explore the deep sea or space. These things are not really necessary to sustain human life, but they satisfy a curiosity that is ingrained in all humans. By indulging in this curiosity to explore how the world works, humans can achieve greater joy in their life. Previously I had been solely focused on how to reduce climate change, but the experiences I have had as I learned about the joy of living GCSP theme have inspired me to explore other fields that I am curious about, such as space and ocean exploration.

3 - Health:

During the health exploration section of FSE 150, I learned about the many considerations that go into how to best address problems related to health. There is a lot of exciting research in this area, as technology is constantly and quickly progressing, opening doors to to solve problems that before seemed unsolvable. On the other hand, there is much controversy when it comes to health issues. With the quickening rate of technology and the ability to solve problems that once defined the human experience, many moral dilemmas arise concerning certain technologies. One of the most valuable lessons I learned from the health unit is the importance of navigating the societal, ethical, and moral implications of technology.

One activity I did in class was the health debate. In this activity, the class was divided up into four teams, with two teams each tasked to debate a certain side of a topic. My assigned topic was bioengineering, which described technologies like prosthetics and implants. I was also assigned to debate against the development of the technology, to highlight the negative impacts this technology could have. Initially, I seemed to have trouble determining what negative impacts a technology that is designed to help people regain their mobility or other natural human abilities could have, until I discovered the concept of transhumanism. Transhumanism describes technologies that elevate the abilities of humans above the current abilities through direct interaction with the human body. Examples include eye modifications that can see farther and with more precision, exoskeletons that allow humans to run faster, or even brain modifications that increase a person's intelligence. This sort of expansion has many direct impacts. One of these impacts is the increase in inequality. Since these new technologies are likely to be expensive and rare, only the wealthy will be able to afford the best modifications. This will provide them with many advantages over those who cannot buy these modifications, further increasing inequality. This also brings into mind the question of what it means to be human, which could cause extensive moral conflicts. The health debate influenced me to begin thinking about these questions, but I was also able to see the many positive impacts it could have. Overall, I learned that technologies could have many ethical and moral implications, and that there is never a clear right or wrong decision.

The effects of technology on inequality became apparent through the lesson of the global health disparities discussion activity. Through this activity, I was able to understand why the poorest countries had lower average lifespans than richer countries. I had initially thought that it was simply because of a lack of healthcare, but I later realized that the impact of technology is much more broad than that. Less access to technology in general can impact health, such as a lack of access to the newest ambulance vehicles to deliver patients to hospitals, or low-tech cooking options which pose numerous health risks.

Finally, the lecture by Dr. Plaisier was very inspiring. Although the content of the lecture was very technical, Dr. Plaisier did a very good job of explaining it in a way that was understandable to me. The lecture discussed using data from RNA sequencing for to gain insights about how cells multiply and how things like cancer cells can be controlled. This was inspiring for me because it showed how much potential there is for humans to understand and control the basic building blocks of life. Through continued research like this, humans may eventually reach a stage where they can completely understand how every part of the body works down to the smallest levels, which can open the possibilities for incredibly powerful technologies.

Health lies at the core of the human experience, and technologies that can influence health have a great potential to not only change the world, but also the way we as humans experience it.

4 - Security:

The security exploration section of FSE 150 was very interesting for me because I had never really been exposed to the security field before. My initial understanding of security was very broad, and I did not truly understand the difficulties and threats the nation had to face. The security activities, student presentations, and faculty presentation were very helpful in giving me a deeper understanding of the grand challenge of security.

The first activity we did in class was personal security activity 1. In this activity, the class worked in groups using a virtual brainstorming environment to consider the impacts and motivations of common personal security threats. My group decided to focus on cybersecurity through the hacking of a bank account, which actually happened to one of my group members. Through the activity, we discussed the motivations and the ways the criminal could have gained access to a bank account. This helped expose the many vulnerabilities there are in personal security today, especially those due to a lack of knowledge and information about security threats. One of the main problems that affects the common person is phishing. Criminals use phishing scams to send emails that look official to unsuspecting victims, which eventually load malicious programs onto the persons computer or gain access to personal information or passwords. This activity led me to realize that one of the main threats to security is not in fact technology, but humans. This solidifies the importance of understanding how humans will relate to technology when designing for solutions. It does not matter how technologically advanced a security system is if the human using it unknowingly grants access to a malicious software through manipulation by a phishing scam.

The most significant activity for me that we did in class for the security theme was the security role play activity 2. In this activity, the class was given different roles in both the public and private sector and had to work together to solve a security challenge. I picked the role of the United States president and did research on how the president interacts with FEMA and other security organizations to prepare for the activity. Before the activity, I felt prepared, but after the class was given the situation and the prompt, the situation became fairly hectic. I felt as though there were many things to do and not much time to do them. The role play activity centered around the hacking of the nationwide automated transportation fleet. As President, it was my responsibility to issue orders to create a solution. What was interesting for me was that I personally knew very little about the situation and the many other federal level workers gave guidance and information about it, similar to how the process would actually work. The most difficult part of the activity was keeping the citizens satisfied and safe. I found that it was very beneficial to consult with the state governors, who had developed solutions for their specific state. This activity was very helpful because it helped me realize how many people are involved in facing a major security threat like a nationwide hack. In designing engineering solutions for security applications, it is very important to consider the many people who will be affected by these solutions. This activity also illuminated the dangers of increased technological reliance and reliance on automation, while underscoring the importance of cybersecurity.

The expert lecture by Dr. Nancy Cooke was also very enlightening and interesting. The most interesting parts of the lecture for me were the virtual environments that were used to train military and security personnel and the artificial intelligence teammate. What was most interesting was how there were examples of training and simulations being conducted through the virtual environment in the videogame Minecraft. It is amazing to see how far videogame technology has expanded and how much is possible using it. Furthermore, it was interesting to see how the humans interacted with the AI teammate during training. Although the AI is simply a computer program and not sentient, the humans would refer to it using phrases that one would use with a human. This was interesting to me because it showed the potential for real human AI integration. The student lectures were also interesting. It was great to see how far-reaching the security theme is, from cybersecurity to space.

Security is one of the most important challenges because, without security, humans cannot enjoy the comforts of the rest of life. Maintaining personal, societal, and national security requires a wide range of experts and technologies.