CC0007 INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Kanishk Parmar, U2123934E
The course CC0007 is designed to inculcate the concept of critical thinking, creativity,
awareness, and curiosity in the students through interdisciplinary collaboration. Through the
course, we learned and analysed the technological, social, and business aspects of 2 modern
technologies and the generational old problem of aging. With a holistic mix of 2 social
science students, one business student, and two engineering students, our group was able to
collaborate effectively for the discussions and the proposals. Being interested in innovative
technologies, I decided to take up the challenge of being the Chief Innovation Officer (CIO)
of our group.
Being the CIO of the group, I had the responsibility to search for and coordinate information
about the scientific and technological aspects of the innovations discussed in the lectures.
Since every group had members from different schools and courses, it was also my
responsibility to help them understand the fundamental concepts of the innovations. Although
we are assigned different positions in the group, it is the responsibility of every group
member to help each other. Since Thangavelu and I were from an engineering course, it was
easier for us to comprehend the fundamental concepts of the innovative technologies
discussed. Thus, we took the responsibility to help our group members understand some
perplexing concepts like the working of a decentralized app and public and private keys. In
the section on artificial intelligence, the concept of “training of a perceptron” was challenging
for all of us. Being the CIO, it was my responsibility to search for resources to understand the
concept clearly, followed by the useful information required for the activity. In the end, we
were able to create a basic perceptron training diagram, like that shown in the lecture slides.
Figure 1: The perceptron training diagram
My position also demanded searching for viable options which could serve as the
groundwork for our group proposals. During our second proposal, we decided to tackle the
problem of fake certificates in the academic industry using the idea of blockchain and smart
contracts. It was my responsibility to search for the actual functioning of the concept and
resources which would help my groupmates to clearly understand the whole solution. Thus,
after thorough research, I found the article published by MIT Media Lab stating the
functionality of this concept and the shortcomings they encountered after implementing it.
This piece served as the crucial groundwork for our proposal because the real-world
implementation of blockchain technology is complex.
Figure 2: The digital certificate solution by MIT Media Lab
For the final project submission, we developed our third proposal relating to the use of
artificial intelligence to create a personalized learning system. I have explained the
technological aspect of the solution in the video. Using a multi-layer perceptron diagram and
the general overview of the training and deployment phase of the neural network, I explained
the working of the neural network, which would allow the system to give personal
recommendations to the students for their specific subjects and doubts.
Figure 3: The training and the deployment phase diagram
In totality, this course helped me realize that innovation starts with looking at the problem
and not at the monetary benefits a technological breakthrough might have. Collaboration with
people from different backgrounds developed my critical thinking by identifying and
analysing the technical, ethical, financial, legal, cultural, and social problems arising from a
piece of technology or innovation. It helped me to grow as a team member in the
entrepreneurial world since all the group activities were regarding solving a problem from a
company’s perspective.