Future Ready Series 2017 | 4th October 2017 | NTUC Centre, Room 903, S018989
The world seems to be moving so fast these days, it’s incredibly difficult to follow the latest developments in so many different industries by ourselves. Future Ready Series, jointly organised by Young NTUC and NTU-IIC, brings industry leaders together to explain these complex changes to us. They share their insights regarding the foreseen impact of these developments, as well as suggest ways in which each of us can prepare ourselves for this uncertain future.
Surprisingly, the event had captured the interests of a more mature demographic, as many adults were also seen present alongside the youths, ready to listen to the speakers.
Four prestigious speakers were invited this night to speak about Technology and the Digital age: Mr. Simon Thomas, an IBM leader and technology and data expert; Mr. Fan Mingwei, an NTU alumni and pioneer in the field of bio-entrepreneurship and synthetic biology; Mr. Lyonel Cha, Director of IHiS (Integrated Health Information Systems), and Ms. Joycelyn Kwek, Director of Quality Assurance at Amgen Singapore Manufacturing Biologics Plant. Interestingly, the common theme that every speaker revolved around was the disruption that digitalisation brings to all industries.
No one brought this up better than our first speaker, Mr. Thomas. For Mr. Thomas, it is obvious that the world and technology are intrinsically tied together, and will only be more integrated in the future, bringing more opportunities. “Today,” he asserts, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) happens on…your Iphone. It’s a completely different paradigm that disrupts everybody.”
How Technological Disruption Changes the World
From decreasing the variances in job performances to using predictive analysis to caution oil rig workers of potential occupational dangers, it is no question that the world will only embrace AI more for its wide applicability, and not lesser.
For Ms. Kwek, the automation and increasing precision and flexibility that AI and technology brings is another way medicine production can become more efficient. Amgen is at the forefront of advances in Biotechnology manufacturing, and has been investing in new manufacturing technologies and ideas. For one, the Amgen manufacturing facility in Singapore is actually reconfigurable, which allows great space reduction with the same throughput. Amgen’s use of high-end automation technology also removes inefficiencies in the production system, thus increasing production rate and accelerating the commercialisation process of medicine. Manpower demand falls, but expertise demand rises.
The removal of system inefficiencies through its digitalisation and automation is not only present in medicine production. Both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Cha shared their insights on how businesses and healthcare have benefited greatly from Big Data and Cloud Computing.
For Mr. Simon, technology is changing the way customers and businesses communicate in retail. Everything, for instance, becomes more transparent as consumers and businesses make their desires and goals known online via social media. Now, we have intelligent virtual assistants, shopping advisors and smart agents, which draw expertise out from a huge database to service customers. Knowledge, security and human socialising–none of them can escape digitalisation and the cloud, and that creates both risks and opportunities for businesses. Mr. Cha further presented to the audience how Information Technology transforms healthcare by integrating the health data of millions of Singaporeans. Behind the scenes, the cooperation between engineers, IT experts and the administration departments is crucial in maintaining the megasystem of sensitive health data of local hospitals. Yet, it is this data integration that allows hospitals to share information about a patient, and ensure everyone receives efficient heathcare services.
For Mr. Fan, however, the world and giant possibilities of biosynthetic he presented to the audience seemed so advanced and futuristic that it was slightly shocking. From medicine that can be bioprinted (try searching ‘Spritam’) and regenerative medicine that help tissues regrow from injuries, to the field of Bionics and Cybernetics that combines biotissue and engineering together, the audience was constantly surprised that technology has already brought many of these revolutionary innovations into healthcare. Naturally, these advances will greatly contribute to patients and maybe human evolution worldwide.
Disruption, it seems, makes the world very productive. It gives rise to new opportunities for innovation and breaks through conventions to present us with new ways to live. Yet, there was one thing all the speakers have agreed on: these technological waves are coming in greater numbers and in greater power, and they will be pervasive and penetrating, bringing fundamental changes into the way we live.
Will Digitalisation and AI take over our lives?
During the Question & Answer session, one of the questions which stood out was whether technology could disrupt people’s lives to the point of a threat. To this, Mr. Fan asserted that no matter how advanced an AI is, it will never fully replace human common sense. Much of the time, the human touch will still be required to maintain the products of these advances and direct how technology is developed. Interestingly, to those worried about how AI may take control of society in the future, Mr. Cha’s assurance that “the battery is always the limit” is perhaps the most convincing, and incited much laughter from the audience.
How do we prepare for it?
Although the workplace may become more challenging with the introduction of more technologies, the general consensus among the speakers was that this change cannot be prevented. Change also gives rise to job opportunities, just that they may be of a different nature. Ms. Kwek further affirmed that even with automation, the most important quality every individual should have is his ‘basic building blocks’, the foundation of being willing to learn and adapt. Like what Mr. Thomas said in his presentation, the individual must be able to ‘[learn] to learn’ in a fast and effective way in order to survive.
The Q&A discussion also touched a little on entrepreneurship, and the rigidity of this concept among many Singaporeans. According to Ms. Kwek, entrepreneurship involves giving students a problem and requiring them to solve it on their own; although funding is important, it is not primary to the growth of an entrepreneur. Mr. Fan, a bio-entrepreneur, also asserts that it is the willingness to take risks and take action that makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur, and when people look at entrepreneurs and their glamour, it is actually the grit, creativity and risk-taking they admire.
Just like how entrepreneurs rise above their challenges, facing the large disruptions technological advances will bring in the future also requires grit and resilience of a similar level. The very first session of the Future Ready Series not only brought qualitative insights on technological advances in healthcare, data systems, businesses and pharmaceutics to the table, it also left the audience with greater confidence in how to adapt to a world of increasing science and technology.