As a member of Group D, I was asked to read and discuss articles pertaining
to HVAC, sensors, databases, artificial intelligence and “future.”
HVAC, Sensors and
Databases
As technology grows, buildings are getting smarter and more efficient
as a result. One of the most crucial factors to this growth is incorporation of
sensors to collect and analyze data. In
2011, Nest Labs released a thermostat that observes the users daily patterns
and "learns" their temperature preference of any given time of
day. Having an automated thermostat means
reduced heating and cooling bills, as well as a more comfortable environment
for you and your family.
Google, who purchased Nest Labs, also purchased the
smart home hub system Revolv. Revolv
connects all smart home products, such as lighting systems and door locks,
using several different antennas to ensure no incompatibilities between
communication softwares.
While all of these advances seem to only be beneficial,
there lie a few cons. As Jonathan
Plotkin mentioned in his post, the enormous amount of data collected from these
products could be used with malicious intent from being sold to companies for
marketing purposes. It is already
annoying browsing social media websites and getting bombarded with targeted
advertisements of things that I want but shouldn't buy.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is a subject that both fascinates
and scares people. Having a humanoid
protocol droid, such as C3PO, would be great given it was programed to have a
more tolerable personality. However, the
possibility of artificial intelligence reaching the wrong hands remains a very
large concern. There is also the concern
of artificial intelligence replacing humans in the work force.
Artificial intelligence experts attending the
Artificial General Intelligence conference were surveyed and asked to predict
the how long it will take for artificial intelligence to reach the level of super-human
intelligence. Many of the experts expect super-human level intelligence will
take several decades to reach, IF it
is reached at all. However, they do
expect that artificial intelligence will be able to pass the “Turing” test
within the near future. The Turing test,
developed by Alan Turing, tests a machines ability to display intelligence indistinguishable
to that of a human.
Future
As Dmitriy Voznyak stated in his post, the future of
the construction and engineering industries will be heavily impacted by
advancements in technology. Paul Jacobs,
CEO of Qualcomm, stated that engineering education needs to evolve from the dry
lectures based on notes recorded several years ago to something more accessible
such as online lectures and team projects to excite and motivate students. I believe that engineer education needs to be
modified to adapt to the evolving technologies because these changes will be in
effect during our time working in the field.
While it is important to know concepts from books, it is equally as
important to know how to apply these concepts in the field.
Resources:
Amadeo, Ron. (2014) "Google
Tracker 2015: Everything we know Google is working on for the new year." ARS Technica,
<http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/12/google-tracker-2015-everything-google-is-working-on-for-the-new-year/>
Goertzel, B., Baum, S., Goertzel, T. (2010) "How Long Till
Human-Level AI?” Humanity Plus, <http://hplusmagazine.com/2010/02/05/how-long-till-human-level-ai/>
Kanani, Rahim. (2013) "The Engineer of the Future." Forbes Magazine,
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/skollworldforum/2013/08/01/the-engineer-of-the-future/>
I agree that AI's placing humans in the work force will become a problem. Since AI are more efficient than human, it requires much less work force to complete the same task. Therefore more people will become unemployed.
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