For E-Portfolio 5, I am required to summarise on the round table discussion for our EG1471
The roundtable discussion is about brain mapping also known as fMRI and whether the Government should regulate a set of rules and regulation on the use of brain mapping. The participants of this roundtable discussion consist of me, Xiao Jian and Alvan. Our respective position for this discussion is opposing view, supporting view and moderator.
Alvan being the moderator for this roundtable discussion kickstart the discussion by introducing what is brain mapping and its uses. As per Alvan, brain mapping is a tool that detects and locates brain activity when people think about a specific word or an object. Researchers have develop a more sophiscated that correlates with behavior such as tendencies towards mental disorders, alcoholism, aggression and even racism. After the introduction, Alvan mention that though brain mappings have positve effects on the society but it poses potential adverse effect. Thus it leads to a string of questions for this discussion.
The first thing that was discussed was; would the use the brain process information really benefit one? Xiao Jian stated that it could be used in medical field for early detection of common brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and etc... Early detection could lead to early prevention or cure for the certain brain disease. He also suggested the use of brain mapping for criminal interrogations. This could be used on serious offense criminal especially on the terrorist as they pose very serious threat to the nation security. As a opposer to the brain mapping, I stated that it could lead to many issues such as racism and ethical issues. Currently there is no set of rules and regulation for brain mapping. I used real life experience to elaborate on some issue caused by brain mapping. I used the case of Nancy a pilot who was sacked and had her license revoked due to a brain scanning test for her yearly body checkup. Though the test showed that she had symptoms of potential brain disease and her familiarity to firearms, it is not confirmed that she will sucumbed to it as the test is not proven 100% accurate as for the time of the test. The test could invade on the person's privacy and security issues to which lead to the next part of the discussion. Though a criminal may be guilty of their crimes they had done but it did not meant that they must divulge their on private matters to the police. They had their own human rights to reject. The other main problem that they may face was that if they reject the scanning, it could affect the jury's decision.
The next part of the discussion is about what ethical issue that brain mapping could lead. Human beings will abused the power of the test to choose whether their kids are suitable for certain activities and etc.I stated that employers could use the result of the test to determine who they should employ for example like seeing which of the apllicants are more hardworking or more loyal to the company. It could be very unfair for the other applicants as said before, the result is not 100% accurate. I mentioned about the cost of the scan is expensive and it could be very unfair for people who do not have the money to go for the scan whom may really need to go for the test. I mentioned in the discussion that there were no sectors or organisations that will ensure that the scan results will not leak out and a place to ask for authorisation for the test. Xiao Jian mention that the Government will have to set up a organization that will ensure the security of the test and a place to allow people to seek for authorization for the use of brain scanning on human.
Lastly, Alvan concluded on the discussion by mentioning that Government should setup a organization to ensure privacy of the tests and to prevent other people to use the test for personal or commercially used. The discussion is a very good one as it covers most of the issues that could be a concern for a lot of people.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
E-Portfolio 4
For the E-Portfolio 4, I am required to summarise 2 articles which i used in my writing assignment 2. The 2 articles i will be using are Ethics and Mapping The Brain and A Computer That Can 'Read' Your Mind. These articles are found in the IVLE notes.
Researchers and Scientists around the world are looking for ways to understand how a brain process a human being thoughts and information. A major breakthrough that they found is Functional Magnetic Resonant Imaging (fMRI). The research was conducted by scientists Tom Mitchell and neuroscientist Marcel Just.. This research is supported bt the National Science Foundation (NSF) and W.M. Foundation. Results have shown that fMRI is able to detect and locate brain activity when a person think about a word and using the data found, a computer generated model will be able to determine what the person is thinking. Further researches have been performed and new developments have further increase the accuracy of the test. Using the test results from fMRI, the researchers are able to break down the results into 12 categories eg. animals, insect and etc... . Through a comparison of a text corpus with the 12 categories, the computer will be able to predict the brain activities. Results have shown that fMRI are able to effectively predict the word before the computer 'consult' the model associated with the word. Results have shown that a person can relate a item with the way a person handle the item. In the case, an apple have been represented by tasting, smelling and chewing. More researches are needed to be done to identify more brain issues especially in the medical field. It could lead to some cures or early detection for brain diseases.
For the next article, it is regarding the ethics issues with fMRI. FMRI can be used in many situation, in the first case, it can be used in interrogation of criminals. Results shown that there are differences in the brain activities when the criminals are lying or not and it can be used in the criminal invertigation. This action leads to one major issue, ethic. In the case of Nancy, a pilot, who was sacked and had her license revoked due to symptoms of schizophrenia and familiarity with rifle, , it is very unfair for her. It could also leads to legal issue as there is no law saying that she could reject the scanning. The test was not 100% accurate as of the time of the scan. Thus the writer commented that there should be a certain rules and regulation for brain scanning before it could be used in Courts as evidence or job application. Due to the lacks of regulations on brain scanning, a criminal who reject in doing the brain scanning could affect the jury's decision in Courts. The next issue that the writer commented on is about the privacy of the brain scanning results. He commented that there are no assurances in the privacy as there are no certain organiztion who can 'look' after the results. He too commented that brain scanning is expensive and it could be unfair for people who cannot afford to pay for it.Lastly, he commented on parents who can choose the future of the children using the scan results. Parents could send their childrens for the scan and determine the field that they are good in and thus rejecting the chance of venturing into other fields that the child may be interested in.
The two articles have shown the pros and cons of brain scanning (fMRI). It also show the different stands between the 2 writers. It will be up to individual to determine his or her stands.
References
Marano, L. (2003, June 3). Ethics and mapping the brain (An Abridged version of the original in the Washington Times). Retrieved March 12, 2009, from the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics Web Site: http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/neuro/brain_mapping_ethics.htm
National Science Foundation. (2008, May 30). A computer that can ‘read’ your mind [Press release 08-091]. Retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111641&org=olpa&from=news
Researchers and Scientists around the world are looking for ways to understand how a brain process a human being thoughts and information. A major breakthrough that they found is Functional Magnetic Resonant Imaging (fMRI). The research was conducted by scientists Tom Mitchell and neuroscientist Marcel Just.. This research is supported bt the National Science Foundation (NSF) and W.M. Foundation. Results have shown that fMRI is able to detect and locate brain activity when a person think about a word and using the data found, a computer generated model will be able to determine what the person is thinking. Further researches have been performed and new developments have further increase the accuracy of the test. Using the test results from fMRI, the researchers are able to break down the results into 12 categories eg. animals, insect and etc... . Through a comparison of a text corpus with the 12 categories, the computer will be able to predict the brain activities. Results have shown that fMRI are able to effectively predict the word before the computer 'consult' the model associated with the word. Results have shown that a person can relate a item with the way a person handle the item. In the case, an apple have been represented by tasting, smelling and chewing. More researches are needed to be done to identify more brain issues especially in the medical field. It could lead to some cures or early detection for brain diseases.
For the next article, it is regarding the ethics issues with fMRI. FMRI can be used in many situation, in the first case, it can be used in interrogation of criminals. Results shown that there are differences in the brain activities when the criminals are lying or not and it can be used in the criminal invertigation. This action leads to one major issue, ethic. In the case of Nancy, a pilot, who was sacked and had her license revoked due to symptoms of schizophrenia and familiarity with rifle, , it is very unfair for her. It could also leads to legal issue as there is no law saying that she could reject the scanning. The test was not 100% accurate as of the time of the scan. Thus the writer commented that there should be a certain rules and regulation for brain scanning before it could be used in Courts as evidence or job application. Due to the lacks of regulations on brain scanning, a criminal who reject in doing the brain scanning could affect the jury's decision in Courts. The next issue that the writer commented on is about the privacy of the brain scanning results. He commented that there are no assurances in the privacy as there are no certain organiztion who can 'look' after the results. He too commented that brain scanning is expensive and it could be unfair for people who cannot afford to pay for it.Lastly, he commented on parents who can choose the future of the children using the scan results. Parents could send their childrens for the scan and determine the field that they are good in and thus rejecting the chance of venturing into other fields that the child may be interested in.
The two articles have shown the pros and cons of brain scanning (fMRI). It also show the different stands between the 2 writers. It will be up to individual to determine his or her stands.
References
Marano, L. (2003, June 3). Ethics and mapping the brain (An Abridged version of the original in the Washington Times). Retrieved March 12, 2009, from the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics Web Site: http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/neuro/brain_mapping_ethics.htm
National Science Foundation. (2008, May 30). A computer that can ‘read’ your mind [Press release 08-091]. Retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111641&org=olpa&from=news
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Climate change?
On the 30th of January 09, i'm honoured to have 3 very interesting lecturers to give all the students speeches on climate change. Each of them have their respective ways and stands on what we can do from our part to save our environment.
Dr Andrew Palmer of Centre for Offshore Research and Engineering is the first of the 3 lecturers to give us a speech and get the ball rolling. He told us about the increase of carbon dioxide as compared to before. The increase of carbon dioxide had caused global warming around the world. Through the studies that he had done, Dr Andrew Palmer gives us examples on how we can reduce the carbon dioxide level, example using natural gases and resources (Solar or Wind energy) and storing carbon dioxide under the sea.
Next, Mr. Savacool give us a speech on Using STS to Address Energy Problems. Mr Savacool uses case studies to present to us the topic. I personally find that the method he uses to present more interesting as we can easily relate the problem and find a solution to it. He explains to us about the issue between USA and Kyoto Protocol and reasons behind why USA did not sign the Protocol in the end.
Lastly A/P Bala present his speech to us. As most of the stuffs he presented had been overlapped by the previous 2 lecturers, in the end he can give us a brief and general information on the causes of global warming and what global warming can lead to.
From the talk, i do learn more about Global Warming. But most information that the lecturers present have been talk about or can be read up in the book. The talk is too lengthy and no breaks in between the talk do make it worse. We can actually have a break of 15 minutes after each lectures.
Dr Andrew Palmer of Centre for Offshore Research and Engineering is the first of the 3 lecturers to give us a speech and get the ball rolling. He told us about the increase of carbon dioxide as compared to before. The increase of carbon dioxide had caused global warming around the world. Through the studies that he had done, Dr Andrew Palmer gives us examples on how we can reduce the carbon dioxide level, example using natural gases and resources (Solar or Wind energy) and storing carbon dioxide under the sea.
Next, Mr. Savacool give us a speech on Using STS to Address Energy Problems. Mr Savacool uses case studies to present to us the topic. I personally find that the method he uses to present more interesting as we can easily relate the problem and find a solution to it. He explains to us about the issue between USA and Kyoto Protocol and reasons behind why USA did not sign the Protocol in the end.
Lastly A/P Bala present his speech to us. As most of the stuffs he presented had been overlapped by the previous 2 lecturers, in the end he can give us a brief and general information on the causes of global warming and what global warming can lead to.
From the talk, i do learn more about Global Warming. But most information that the lecturers present have been talk about or can be read up in the book. The talk is too lengthy and no breaks in between the talk do make it worse. We can actually have a break of 15 minutes after each lectures.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
2nd Post
a) How can policies of your government either contribute to help or reduce the problem of global warming?
A policy by definition is a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. Global warming on the other hand is the increasing average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century.
Global warming is a big concern to many as the increasing global temperature causes sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation that will likely destroy subtropical desert regions. Other undesirable negative effects include Arctic shrinkage and resulting Arctic methane release, increases in the intensity of extreme weather events, changes in agricultural yields, modifications of trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.
Having discussed the above negative effects of global warming, there has been an increased awareness from the government to try to do something to help reduce the effects of global warming that attribute from our everyday activities. So in order to bring in fast and effective corrective actions would be to have the government introduce policies like restricting the amount of toxic gaseous or solid waste disposed into the environment as these toxic waste contaminate the waters and air and thus causing the habitats to be infected and die causing extinction or by imposing penalties when electricity or energy consumption exceed a certain amount as it will mean burning more fossil fuel to generate the demanded energy, as burning generate a lot of carbon dioxide that is released into the air and increases the global temperature.
With the government implementing policies, it will show the seriousness of global warming and it will alert everyone else how much damage will global warming thus affecting our live style, due to increasing prices of livestock to provide food for the humankind, increasing number of people suffering from lung problems due to breathing in of unclean air, etc. These government policies will definitely contribute in reducing the problem of global warming.
b) What are the existing or possible roles of environmental and special interest groups in contributing to or solving global warming?
Many special environmental and interest groups have produced many information including educational television programs to educate everyone on the raising temperatures of the earth and the changes in the natural habitats and structures of the wild. There are many campaigns to create awareness to save the world, animals and the environment like the recycling efforts to reduce the amount of waste thrown out.
The possible roles of the groups are to provide more services to help reduce energy consumption at homes and industrial, invent efficient machines to reduce energy consumption and not forgetting to constantly update everyone on how their efforts have helped reduce global warming through regular updates on the situation of the environment that we all are living in, as this will motivate and urge everyone’s commitment and participation.
A policy by definition is a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. Global warming on the other hand is the increasing average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century.
Global warming is a big concern to many as the increasing global temperature causes sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation that will likely destroy subtropical desert regions. Other undesirable negative effects include Arctic shrinkage and resulting Arctic methane release, increases in the intensity of extreme weather events, changes in agricultural yields, modifications of trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.
Having discussed the above negative effects of global warming, there has been an increased awareness from the government to try to do something to help reduce the effects of global warming that attribute from our everyday activities. So in order to bring in fast and effective corrective actions would be to have the government introduce policies like restricting the amount of toxic gaseous or solid waste disposed into the environment as these toxic waste contaminate the waters and air and thus causing the habitats to be infected and die causing extinction or by imposing penalties when electricity or energy consumption exceed a certain amount as it will mean burning more fossil fuel to generate the demanded energy, as burning generate a lot of carbon dioxide that is released into the air and increases the global temperature.
With the government implementing policies, it will show the seriousness of global warming and it will alert everyone else how much damage will global warming thus affecting our live style, due to increasing prices of livestock to provide food for the humankind, increasing number of people suffering from lung problems due to breathing in of unclean air, etc. These government policies will definitely contribute in reducing the problem of global warming.
b) What are the existing or possible roles of environmental and special interest groups in contributing to or solving global warming?
Many special environmental and interest groups have produced many information including educational television programs to educate everyone on the raising temperatures of the earth and the changes in the natural habitats and structures of the wild. There are many campaigns to create awareness to save the world, animals and the environment like the recycling efforts to reduce the amount of waste thrown out.
The possible roles of the groups are to provide more services to help reduce energy consumption at homes and industrial, invent efficient machines to reduce energy consumption and not forgetting to constantly update everyone on how their efforts have helped reduce global warming through regular updates on the situation of the environment that we all are living in, as this will motivate and urge everyone’s commitment and participation.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
My First Post
As the article states, tertiary engineering education has trained the future engineers to systematically analyze the complex information and apply a systematic approach in designing solutions in view of the various problems layman, businesses or government face. This is possible as engineers are trained to be able to visualize the various situations in a holistic view, where they will then gather more relevant data from the affected parties by conducting focus groups, interviews or observation sessions.
However, there will be obstacles like short deadlines, unresponsive respondents hindering the engineers when they are on the job, they may even at times face restrictions passed down by legal laws and standards. In order to overcome the difficulties of collecting important relevant data, engineers have to be equipped with interpersonal communication and soft skills where they will need to get the users commitment and also get management support. These soft skills play an important role as it will help the engineers to better understand the problems contributing to great challenges like creating an ideal handphone, machine or even service procedures to create more satisfied users and happy management as needs of the related parties are met with acceptable standards.
Furthermore, with the common goal of globalization, Singapore university such as NUS have offered more overseas or local opportunities for the training of students including engineering students to experience and learn skills and technical knowledge from engineer schools in other countries and the real working environment, in this way they can be exposed to more knowledge and case studies and how problems are tackled in order to develop sound solutions. This will help produce engineers that are well poised to provide regional and world leadership in engineering.
The article also states that the scope of an engineer has expanded into the service sector as they are more becoming more technology and knowledge intensive. Given the flexibility of engineering education, it has led to a high demand for engineering trained students in both the service and manufacturing in order to contribute to the growth of the new challenges.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)