State of Technology:
ICTs
Rahul Tongia
Fall 2007
Broader goals for ICT:
Sustainable Development
ƒ WSIS and other efforts have talked of ICTD
o Scholarly efforts are also growing, e.g., IEEE’s
ICTD2006, 2007, etc.
ƒ Whole range of technical, social, economic, and
policy challenges related to “e-buzzwords” (elearning, e-health, e-commerce, etc.)
2
Development Needs Drive ICT Research (examples only, non-exhaustive)
Infrastructure
Development
S
Basic Human Needs
and Development
S Disaster / DB/IS
CTRL Weather
Advanced DB/IS
Urban
Transport
C
CTRL
HCI
CTRL
C
HCI
HCI
Management
C
S
Enabling
ICT
Remote DB/IS
Medical
Detection /
Diagnosis C
DB/IS
Water
Management
CTRL
Health DB/IS
Monitoring
and
EpidemiologyC
S
DB/IS
S Electricity
Load
HCI
CTRL
Forecasting
and Warning C
C
S
HCI
HCI
Drip and
Advanced
Irrigation
CTRL
Empowerment
DB/IS
Distance and
e-Learning
HCI
C
DB/IS
S
S Electricity
Theft
Reduction
Economic
Development
Agricultural
Price
Discovery
DB/IS
E-Governance
C
Expanding
DB/IS
Markets for
Rural /
Traditional
Goods C
HCI
C
DB/IS
HCI
National and
Global
Inclusiveness
C
DB/IS
Digital
Libraries
C
HCI
C
Sensors, Communication, Databases/Information Systems (DB/IS),
Controllers/Actuators/Effectors (CTRL), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Incorporates issues of: OS, Protocols, Robustness, Software, Hardware, Power Management, Regulation,
Security, etc.
Source: Tongia et al. (2005)
Trends in
Software Applications
for Development
Joe Mertz
Fall 2007
Some software application
trends for development
ƒ Email
ƒ Local area network
ƒ Microsoft Excel
Somewhat mundane, no?
5
Development ~= Business
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On the ground, development is the business activity of
individuals, NGOs, local businesses, government agencies, and
schools
In many ways, development contexts are similar to business
contexts
o Gather information - E.g. AIDS patient history
o Manage information - E.g. crop yields across years
o Communicate
- E.g. market prices to fishermen
o Provide services
- E.g. public health inspections
o Produce Products
- E.g. clean water
Improving business
processes
ƒ ICT investment improves development work in
the same ways that it has for business.
ƒ 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
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Computers
Printers, etc.
Local area networks
Internet connectivity
Office applications
Microsoft Outlook
Simple Microsoft Access
databases
Web browser
Email
Local file sharing
Software application
trends
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Computers
Printers, etc.
Local area networks
Internet connectivity
Office applications
Microsoft Outlook
Simple Microsoft Access
databases
Web browser
Email
Local file sharing
ƒ But the value of
ICT investment
far outstrips the
hardware and
software
investment
Value of ICT investment
Other Firms Making
Similar Investments
Investment in
New Business
Practices
Synergy
Investment in New
Organization
Structures
ICT
Investment
Investment
in New Staff
Skills
Investment
in New
Products
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Investment
in New
Services
Interpreted from:
Beyond Computation: Information
Technology, Organizational
Transformation and Business
Performance
By Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt
The Journal of Economic Perspectives,
Vol. 14, No. 4. (Autumn, 2000), pp. 2348.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0895-
3309%28200023%2914%3A4%3C23%3ABCITOT%3E2.0.CO%3B26
Examples…
ƒ From Carnegie Mellon students
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Jon
12
ƒ
Helped TLC-USA
build a PHP/MySQL
backed web site to
raise funds to support
an orphanage in South
Africa.
ƒ
ICT investment
created
o New service
opportunity
o New convenience
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:
ƒ Department heads come to meetings with data.
ƒ Decisions are made based on information, not conjecture
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Matt – Palau
Matt helped the
Ministry of
Education
implement opensource server
software and expand
staff skills.
Director if IT, 24
months later: has
resulted in cost
savings of $50K per
year.
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Palau Ministry of Education boat
Web 2.0 applications
ƒ Web 2.0 applications are another trend
ƒ Web 2.0 is a quite fuzzy term
ƒ It generally refers to
o Internet-based applications
o Often facilitating many-to-many
communication
o 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
ƒ Are a class of software applications that
drive the interactivity of Web 2.0 sites.
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Types of CMSs
ƒ Portals
ƒ Blogs
ƒ E-commerce shopping
carts
ƒ Intranets / Groupware
ƒ Discussion boards
ƒ Guestbooks
ƒ Mailing lists
ƒ Wikis
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Image galleries
Video galleries
Calendars
Customer relationship
management (CRM)
ƒ Document workflow
management
ƒ Polls and surveys
ƒ Project management
Student-facilitated
examples
ƒ For community development locally and
abroad
ƒ [These are not difficult to set up.]
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Wireless Neighborhoods
ƒ Mission: Use IT to enable communities to become
competitive in education, human development,
workforce development, health care and economic
opportunity.
ƒ Membership organization needed to have
o
o
o
An easy-to-maintain web site
Dynamically added content
Membership-only areas
ƒ www.wireless-neighborhoods.org
ƒ Deployed by student consultant Spring 2005
o
Used PLONE (FOSS)
ƒ Still in use, users adding content (slowly)
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Auberle
ƒ Serves children and families through:
o Foster care placement
o Residence for children
o Educational programs
ƒ Wanted to support communication among
their board of directors
ƒ Deployed by student consultant Spring 2005
ƒ Used eGroupWare (FOSS)
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TriBoro Development
Forum
ƒ “An alliance representing the boroughs of
Braddock, North Braddock, Rankin, and Swissvale
to work together on issues common to all four
communities.”
ƒ Leaders in these four economically struggling Mon
Valley communities meet regularly to work on
common community development issues.
ƒ They wanted a forum for sharing news, events, and
other information.
ƒ Deployed by a student consultant Spring 2007
ƒ www.tbdfconnects.org
ƒ Used DotNetNuke (FOSS)
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State of Technology:
Robotics
M. Bernardine Dias
Fall 2007
What is possible with
technology today?
ƒ Can’t possibly be comprehensive
ƒ New and exciting innovations are occurring each year
ƒ Technology is permeating many parts of our lives
today – sometimes in ways we don’t realize…
ƒ 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
Think
Sense
Act
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Magnetic field
Speech
Path planning
Sound
Task planning
Vision Position Light
Acceleration
Velocity
Motion planning
Plan
Force
Touch
Temperature
Position
Classification
Learn
Think
Sense
Distance
Predict
Act
Output information
Speech
Text
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Process data
Visuals
Move
Wheels
Arms
Legs
Tracks
Multiple agents…
Think
Sense
Sense
Think
Act
Communication
Interact
Act
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Interfaces
Language
Interaction
ƒ Communication devices
o
o
o
o
Phones/mobile phones
Internet (wired/wireless)
Radio
Television
ƒ Interfaces
o
o
o
o
Graphical interfaces
Bar-code scanner-based interface
Audio interfaces for the blind
Multiple mice per computer
ƒ Languages
o
o
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Automated translation
Same Language Subtitling
Bumptop
http://bumptop.com/
Movie:
http://www.ted.com/index.ph
p/talks/view/id/131
Perception
ƒ Sensors
o
o
o
Cameras used in agricultural disease
diagnosis
Chemical sensors for identifying
dangerous substances
Sensor networks for soil/environmental
monitoring
ƒ Intelligent perception systems
o
o
o
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Filtering and signal processing to
identify objects of interest
Inspection systems
Sensor suites for activity monitoring
PillCam
http://www.givenimaging.com/
Cultures/enUS/Given/English/Products/ES
O_CE/
Cognition
ƒ Optimization
o
Optimizing use of limited resources
ƒ Analysis
o
Analyzing complex data sets
ƒ Modeling and Estimation
o
BodyMedia activity monitor
http://www.bodymedia.com/
Modeling soil properties and estimating rain fall
ƒ Learning and Prediction
o
Learning weather patterns and predicting disasters
ƒ Guidance
o
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Training programs of all kinds
Action
ƒ Manipulation (physical/data)
o Remote surgery
o Landmine disposal
ƒ Transportation (physical/data)
o Smart vehicles
SONY QRIO robot
Movie:
http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=33a33XEVHKE&mo
de=related&search=
ƒ Mobile Manipulation (Mobipulation)
o Rescue vehicles
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Integrated Systems
Computer Vision
Multi-Agent Systems
Planning
Medical Robotics
Manufacturing
MEMS
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What drives innovation?
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Profit (promise of)
Driven/passionate individuals
Needs
Wars
Disasters
Grand challenges
Why Grand Challenges?
ƒ Drive collaboration
ƒ Build Technology
ƒ Build Market
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Software Defeats
Chess Champion
Impact of the Grand
Challenge
ƒ The “impossible” became
“possible” within 2 years!
ƒ Real outcomes
o
o
o
o
34
New sensing technology
New planning technology
Improved driver safety
Renewed focus on vehicle
autonomy and intelligence
Robots in space!
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Military robots
36
Automated vehicles
37
Automated tools
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Exploring harsh environments
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Industrial automation
40
Entertainment and education
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Summary…
ƒ Try not to limit your solution space to thirtyyear-old technology solutions just because
you are solving a problem in an underserved
community
ƒ Sometimes 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 problem
ƒ Encourage and engage in research relevant
to underserved communities
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