State of Technology:ICTs

Rahul TongiaFall 2007

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Broader goals for ICT: Sustainable Development

WSIS and other efforts have talked of ICTDo Scholarly efforts are also growing, e.g., IEEE’s

ICTD2006, 2007, etc.

Whole range of technical, social, economic, and policy challenges related to “e-buzzwords” (e-learning, e-health, e-commerce, etc.)

Development Needs Drive ICT Research (examples only, non-exhaustive)

Electricity Load

Management

Advanced Urban

Transport

Electricity Theft

Reduction

Remote Medical

Detection / Diagnosis

Health Monitoring

and Epidemiology

Agricultural Price

Discovery

Expanding Markets for

Rural / Traditional

Goods

National and Global

Inclusiveness

Water Management

Digital Libraries

E-Governance

Disaster / Weather

Forecasting and Warning

Drip and Advanced Irrigation

Distance and e-Learning

Sensors, Communication, Databases/Information Systems (DB/IS), Controllers/Actuators/Effectors (CTRL), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

Ena

blin

gIC

T

Incorporates issues of: OS, Protocols, Robustness, Software, Hardware, Power Management, Regulation, Security, etc.

Basic Human Needs and Development EmpowermentInfrastructure

DevelopmentEconomic

Development

S

CCTRL

HCI

S

CCTRL

DB/IS

S

CCTRL

DB/IS

S

CCTRL

DB/IS S

CCTRL

S

C

DB/IS

S

C

DB/IS

S

C

DB/IS

HCI

C

DB/IS

HCI

C

DB/IS

HCI

C

DB/IS

HCI

C

DB/IS

HCI

C

DB/IS

HCI

C

DB/IS

HCI

CTRL

HCIHCI

Source: Tongia et al. (2005)

Trends in Software Applications

for Development

Joe MertzFall 2007

5

Some software application trends for development

EmailLocal area networkMicrosoft Excel

Somewhat mundane, no?

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Development ~= BusinessOn the ground, development is the business activity of individuals, NGOs, local businesses, government agencies, and schoolsIn many ways, development contexts are similar to business contextso Gather information - E.g. AIDS patient historyo Manage information - E.g. crop yields across yearso Communicate - E.g. market prices to fishermeno Provide services - E.g. public health inspectionso Produce Products - E.g. clean water

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Improving business processes

ICT investment improves development work in the same ways that it has for business.Organizations working in developing communities are adopting ICT the same way you have seen it used in offices, retail outlets, or government offices anywhere.

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Software application trends

ComputersPrinters, etc.Local area networksInternet connectivityOffice applicationsMicrosoft OutlookSimple Microsoft Access databasesWeb browserEmailLocal file sharing

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Software application trends

ComputersPrinters, etc.Local area networksInternet connectivityOffice applicationsMicrosoft OutlookSimple Microsoft Access databasesWeb browserEmailLocal file sharing

But the value of ICT investment far outstrips the hardware and software investment

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Value of ICT investment

ICT Investment

Investment in New Business

Practices

Investment in New Staff

Skills

Investment in New

ServicesInvestment

in New Products

Investment in New Organization Structures

Other Firms Making Similar Investments

Synergy

Interpreted from:Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business PerformanceBy Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. HittThe Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 14, No. 4. (Autumn, 2000), pp. 23-48. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0895-

3309%28200023%2914%3A4%3C23%3ABCITOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6

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Examples…

From Carnegie Mellon students

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JonHelped TLC-USA

build a PHP/MySQL backed web site to raise funds to support an orphanage in South Africa.

ICT investment created

o New service opportunity

o New convenience

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Gopal & Steve:Palau

Patient tracking databases customized to the needs of individual hospital departments.

General spreadsheet and database training sessions for physicians who make regular statistical reports but spend much time manually counting data.

Director of Ancillary Services, 12 months later: Department heads come to meetings with data.Decisions are made based on information, not conjecture

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Matt – PalauMatt helped the Ministry of Education implement open-source server software and expand staff skills.

Director if IT, 24 months later: has resulted in cost savings of $50K per year.

Palau Ministry of Education boat

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Web 2.0 applications

Web 2.0 applications are another trendWeb 2.0 is a quite fuzzy termIt generally refers too Internet-based applicationso Often facilitating many-to-many

communicationo Often involving “social networking,”

– whether in whole (e.g. MySpace) – or part (e.g. Amazon.com user reviews)

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Content Management Systems

Are a class of software applications that drive the interactivity of Web 2.0 sites.

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Types of CMSsPortalsBlogsE-commerce shopping cartsIntranets / GroupwareDiscussion boardsGuestbooksMailing listsWikis

Image galleriesVideo galleriesCalendarsCustomer relationship management (CRM)Document workflow managementPolls and surveysProject management

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Student-facilitated examples

For community development locally and abroad[These are not difficult to set up.]

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Wireless NeighborhoodsMission: Use IT to enable communities to become competitive in education, human development, workforce development, health care and economic opportunity.Membership organization needed to haveo An easy-to-maintain web siteo Dynamically added contento Membership-only areas

www.wireless-neighborhoods.orgDeployed by student consultant Spring 2005o Used PLONE (FOSS)

Still in use, users adding content (slowly)

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Auberle

Serves children and families through:o Foster care placemento Residence for childreno Educational programs

Wanted to support communication among their board of directorsDeployed by student consultant Spring 2005Used eGroupWare (FOSS)

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TriBoro Development Forum

“An alliance representing the boroughs of Braddock, North Braddock, Rankin, and Swissvale to work together on issues common to all four communities.”Leaders in these four economically struggling Mon Valley communities meet regularly to work on common community development issues. They wanted a forum for sharing news, events, and other information.Deployed by a student consultant Spring 2007www.tbdfconnects.orgUsed DotNetNuke (FOSS)

State of Technology:Robotics

M. Bernardine DiasFall 2007

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What is possible with technology today?

Can’t possibly be comprehensiveNew and exciting innovations are occurring each yearTechnology is permeating many parts of our lives today – sometimes in ways we don’t realize…The purpose of this lecture is to present an overview of what technology can do today, and to inspire you to think creatively about what technology can do for underserved communities around the world

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The Robot Control Loop

Sense Think

Act

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Velocity

SpeechVision

Acceleration

TemperaturePosition

Distance

TouchForce

Magnetic field

Light

Sound

PositionTask planning

ClassificationPlan

Learn

Process data

Path planning

Motion planning

Predict

MoveOutput informationSpeech

TextVisuals Wheels Legs

Arms Tracks

Sense Think

Act

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Multiple agents…

Sense Think

Act

Sense Think

Act

InteractCommunication

Interfaces

Language

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InteractionCommunication deviceso Phones/mobile phoneso Internet (wired/wireless)o Radioo Television

Interfaceso Graphical interfaceso Bar-code scanner-based interfaceo Audio interfaces for the blindo Multiple mice per computer

Languageso Automated translationo Same Language Subtitling

Bumptophttp://bumptop.com/

Movie:http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/131

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PerceptionSensorso Cameras used in agricultural disease

diagnosiso Chemical sensors for identifying

dangerous substanceso Sensor networks for soil/environmental

monitoring

Intelligent perception systemso Filtering and signal processing to

identify objects of interesto Inspection systemso Sensor suites for activity monitoring

PillCamhttp://www.givenimaging.com/Cultures/en-US/Given/English/Products/ESO_CE/

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CognitionOptimizationo Optimizing use of limited resources

Analysiso Analyzing complex data sets

Modeling and Estimationo Modeling soil properties and estimating rain fall

Learning and Predictiono Learning weather patterns and predicting disasters

Guidanceo Training programs of all kinds

BodyMedia activity monitorhttp://www.bodymedia.com/

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ActionManipulation (physical/data)o Remote surgeryo Landmine disposal

Transportation (physical/data)o Smart vehicles

Mobile Manipulation (Mobipulation)o Rescue vehicles

SONY QRIO robotMovie:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33a33XEVHKE&mode=related&search=

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Integrated SystemsComputer Vision

MEMS

ManufacturingMedical Robotics

Planning

Multi-Agent Systems

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What drives innovation?

Profit (promise of)Driven/passionate individualsNeedsWarsDisastersGrand challenges

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Why Grand Challenges?Drive collaborationBuild TechnologyBuild Market Software Defeats

Chess Champion

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Impact of the Grand Challenge

The “impossible” became “possible” within 2 years!Real outcomeso New sensing technologyo New planning technologyo Improved driver safetyo Renewed focus on vehicle

autonomy and intelligence

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Robots in space!

36

Military robots

37

Automated vehicles

38

Automated tools

39

Exploring harsh environments

40

Industrial automation

41

Entertainment and education

42

Summary…Try not to limit your solution space to thirty-year-old technology solutions just because you are solving a problem in an underserved communitySometimes the best solution won’t involve any form of technology, other times we will need to adapt or apply an existing technology solution, but sometimes we need new technology to solve a problemEncourage and engage in research relevant to underserved communities