Session 12- LAST SESSION :(

I can't believe this is the last official session! Time in SMU passed really fast and I can still vividly remember the first session. This was what I wrote in my first blog entry : "I entered the class with apprehension because TWC is my first seminar in SMU and without any prior knowledge regarding this module, I do not know what to expect from it. " I'm glad that the apprehension I first felt in class no longer exist. 

The topic presented today are Epidemic Management, Technology & Sports, Crowd Sourcing & Green Technology. 


Epidemic Management


My group presented on epidemic management. Being the first to present, I was slightly nervous and did not perform as well as I expected. 


Overall, I believe my group did well. One improvement will be to include a conclusion to have a comprehensive coverage on the issues discussed (which is now included in our website). Another issue will be pertaining to the use of  "Game Theory" as one of the possible future epidemic management.Although game theory can aid us in decision-making, it is still unable to eradicate fear during epidemics, which is usually the root of the problem in epidemic management. Game theory can help us to determine the people who should be prioritized for the vaccination, the amount of funds necessary to tide the epidemics...however how it actually works is not mentioned in our presentation because the process in complicated and will be hard and uninteresting to understand. 


One of the issues raised in class was the issue on equality: How can we distribute resources such as vaccines fairly/equally? Who should get the vaccines first- the rich? the poor? doctors? or politicians? 

Personally, I feel that it is impossible have equality in epidemics management. The fact that we are prioritizing groups of people for vaccinations show that epidemics does not allow for equality. And the reason is simple: Scarcity. Shortage of vaccines will compromise one party of another. With a higher demand than supply of vaccines, not everyone can be satisfied. 


Since there couldn't be equality, the main focus on epidemic management should be on reducing inequality. Reducing the gap between the have and have-nots in epidemic management can be done using Game Theory which allows for a more even distribution of resources, although not an equal distribution. 


Crowd Sourcing


I find the presentation on crowd sourcing really interesting. Random requests to do surveys on the streets, wikipedia... I have been constantly exposed to crowd sourcing but wasn't fully aware of it. Although crowd sourcing have numerous benefits such as the pooling of invaluable knowledge and cost savings, its inadequacies include the difficulty in finding the exact and more effective solution to a problem. As such, the group proposed smart-sourcing which is to do crowd sourcing on targeted crowds who are experts in the field. This will ensure that suggested solutions and answers to a question is focused. 

 Crowd-sourcing  VSSmart-sourcing

However, What are some inadequacies of smart sourcing? Could restricting the type of crowd also restrict the innovativeness of the solutions raised? The fundamental reason for crowd sourcing is to gather new ideas from different sources. Could smart-sourcing defeat such a purpose? I feel that this should be an issue for further discussion. 


I rate this lesson an 8.7/10. Everything is good as always but -1.3 because I'm gonna miss my TWC classmates :( really had lotsa fun during lessons!