IT Professionals Panel Disruptive Technologies What’s Possible

IT Professionals Panel Disruptive Technologies What’s Possible and What’s Being Considered That You Haven’t Heard of Yet

Panel Introductions: Who Are You and What Do You Do? Eden Lasater, Director Craig Marios Senior Network Information Technical Services Security Engineer Bellevue College The Boeing Company Katie Metcalf HR Data Analyst Group Manager Microsoft Dr. Sean Robinson Data Scientist Pioneer Square Labs Taija Tevia-Clark Web Specialist Bellevue College

Disruptive Technology: How would you define this? The Harvard Business Review actually calls it “Disruptive Innovation.” Thus, it began with a different name as the Harvard Business Review states they coined the term in 1995. They also created the “disruptive theory.”

Job Categories with Potential to Be Replaced by Automation and/or Robotics/AI (Based on 2014 employment from DOL BLS) Transportation 4,916,600 Food/Beverage 10,068,600 Building/ Grounds Cleaners 3,716,700 Business/Finance 1,853,200 Personal Care 3,029,000 Sales 8,357,900 Construction 1,386,400 Office/Adm. Support 10,312,800 Total 44.5 million

Robots can’t steal jobs from people with these traits By Jasper Hamill, The Sun May 10, 2017 Scientists have revealed the key personality traits that people need to possess in order to survive the robotic revolution — and boring office drones with personality bypasses should be feeling pretty nervous right now. Researchers from the University of Houston said the key to staying relevant in the age of automation lies in possessing human skills that robots can’t mimic. “Robots can’t perform as well as humans when it comes to complex social interactions,” said Rodica Damian, assistant professor of social and personality psychology. “Humans also outperform machines when it comes to tasks that require creativity and a high degree of complexity that is not routine. As soon as you require flexibility, the human does better.” “It’s those basically rote, repetitive tasks where you’re fixing the same thing,” he said. “It’s very hard to imagine any of those positions coming back. Basically, a robot is a lot more affordable than a human employee.” These are the personality traits that will protect workers from the oncoming robot revolution: Extroversion, Creativity, Flexibility, An interest in arts and science, A

15 Disruptive Technologies: Our Panelists Rate Them 1 Not in the Next Five Years up to 10 Coming Very Soon 1 Never going to happen up to 10 Absolutely 1. Robots Become Coworkers: 2017 will be the year in which science fiction becomes fact, as robots start to be employed for an increasing range of job roles well beyond the production line. With investment in advanced robotics increasing, we will see the rise of sobots, social robots who can read emotions and talk, used as digital assistants. 2. From Wearables to Implantables: While 2016 saw increasing use of health and fitness trackers in the insurance and healthcare industries, it did not show the mass adoption of smartwatches some had predicted. Until there are significant increases in functionality in this market, disruption is more likely to come from experimentation with technology for inside the body. Up to 50,000 people already have electronic RFID implants , and Intel now have a chip for controlling smart devices in the brain. Together with Elon Musk’s eye on building VR in the brain , 2017 could see the beginnings of increased

3. Bots Usurp Apps: Advancements in AI fueled machine learning and cloud software have lead to real improvements in chatbots performance, and real opportunities for businesses to take advantage. Not only will they be widely used for customer support, the big tech companies are investing in bots that enable consumers to interact with various partner services, such as Microsoft’s Conversation as a Platform’. The rise of the Chatbot economy in 2017 will see tasks such as booking tickets and conducting research increasingly done by bots rather than by navigating apps, contact centres or web interfaces. AI fueled bots (as opposed to rule based chatbots) have also made a breakthrough in 2016 , with enhancements to digital assistants such as Siri, Viv and Cortana. Huge commercial opportunities will be available as companies take advantage of renewed consumer confidence in such applications. 4. Genetically Modified Lifeforms: In 2016 we saw DNA editing on the CRISPR genome editing platform transform biology. We covered flexible gene editing, home genome editing kits, genetically modified mosquitoes and the potential of biological weapons. With the rate of movement in this field, we will no doubt be reporting on more projects with huge disruptive potential in 2017. 5. 3D Printing Gets Industrial: With the speed and scale of 3D printing increasing exponentially in the last 3 years, it will soon move from being a tech novelty to a core part of the manufacturing and construction process in

6. AI Replaces White Collar Expertise: Machine learning successes this year have showcased AI as a (more) reliable way of replacing smart people working out patterns. In 2017 we will make headway with the cultural shift required to trust them with more and more ‘graduate’ jobs. Legal bots, AI journalists, and diagnostic ‘robot doctors’ mean that jobs lost to digital technologies will no longer be restricted to the blue collar employment markets. 7. Quantum Computing Gets Practical: Although we are not expecting a fully fledged, affordable Quantum Computer until at least 2020, research is currently being done to find practical applications for existing quantum technologies. BREXIT might slow some of these down, but at the very least 2017 needs to be the year in which companies start to think carefully about the effect that quantum computing will have on their business models, with the potential they bring for massive process and data disruption. 8. Self Driving Vehicles On the High Street: The investment in autonomous vehicle R&D was huge in 2016, and not just from Google and Tesla. Most of the large automotive groups are developing prototypes or have bought driverless tech companies and are regaining lost ground. In the meantime taxi companies such as Uber have started trialling self driving taxis. Safety, while still a concern, did not slow development as much as expected, so in 2017 we might see some developments in what will be the biggest disruptive potential for the technology- in the trucking and haulage industries.

9. Blockchain Disrupts More than Banks: The disruptive potential of Blockchain technologies has in 2016 proven not to be limited to currencies like Bitcoin disrupting the banking and mortgage systems. This year we have seen breakthroughs in security management, and in 2017 we should see experimentation in the fashion and music industries. In the longer term, Blockchain might even be the method of taking identity management from the dominant tech companies. 10. Virtual Reality as a Commercial Reality: No longer limited to the entertainment and gaming sectors, 2017 will see more companies adapting and applying the technology for more practical purposes. Education and Healthcare are at the forefront of this innovation, with other uses also being found in everything from Real Estate to Travel . It’s definitely time for businesses to consider how virtual reality could be enhancing their marketing, customer journeys, productivity or product offerings. 11. From Augmented Reality to Mixed Reality: Augmented Reality was only really propelled into the limelight in summer 2016 when Pokemon Go became a global phenomenon, and yet the AR industry is predicted to hit global revenues of 90 billion by 2020. This amount is mirrored in the investment. In 2015 only 700 million in total was invested in AR/VR, but in early 2016 one company alone broke records with an 800m ‘C’ round. That company, the ‘secretive’ Magic Leap has yet to showcase any of the Mixed Reality platform it is working on, but in the meantime Microsoft has opened up its MR platform for developers and we expect to see some fruit in 2017. 12. Robots Teaching Themselves: Self teaching robots have been one of the breakthroughs of 2016 as we have seen more examples of bot to bot communication in

13. Cybersecurity Wars: 2016 has seen cyber security attacks on every level – from every level of consumer and business cyber crime up to state level campaigns which some say may have changed the shape of global government. One thing is sure – nobody can afford to ignore potential threats. The proliferation of big data and the rise of IoT makes businesses and consumers vulnerable, and huge investment is being poured into the area. It is unlikely this will solve the problems by 2017 though – expect to see some more major hacks. 14. The Things Are Taking Over the Internet: More and more ‘Things’ have become connected in 2016, with applications ranging from gardening, transport, energy, sport to farming and medicine. Connected Cars and Smart Homes are now all realities. Yet while it is in Smart Cities and Industrial IoT that significant changes to productivity, lifestyles and business models will be seen, in 2017, companies will still be grappling with the changes to consumer facing applications and navigating the data they produce. 15. Renewables and Clean Energy Diversify: With Elon Musk leading the way (last month merging Tesla Electric Cars and his solar power venture SolarCity), tech companies are at the forefront of making sustainable energy solutions available to the public. With increasing public appetite for green energy, and a growing awareness of the transformational potential for the developing world, we expect to more disruption to energy companies and see more innovation in solar, wind, tidal, biomass and geothermal technologies, and Virtual Power Stations. Direct Source: Disruption

Tech Alert: Today, ultrasound is finding its way into even more applications, powering inventions that have the potential to make huge changes in their fields. Here are just a few of them: 1. Truly hands-free phones for contactless touch-screens 2. Acoustic holograms could be used to improve medical imaging but also to better focus ultrasound treatments. 3. Glasses for blind people send out ultrasound waves and use the reflected sound to work out where things are. 4. Tractor beams could move drugs around the body to get them to their target cells. 5. Martian scanners can use ultrasonic to efficiently compact material, like a kind of drill hammering its way through. Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing.

In the News: Examples of Automation/Robotics/AI Replacing Humans “The roboship without a single human on board: First autonomous container vessel to launch in 2018 ” Container ship will operate on the water as a manned vessel in 2018 and be fully autonomous by 2020. “Robot lawn mowers are a thing now” Perfectionists will want to wait for this admittedly expensive technology to mature. But for anyone who hates mowing, here are three models to keep your lawn just tidy enough.” “ Sally: The Robot Salad Maker that Keeps People Healthy has Raised 5 Million ” The salad robot that has the capacity to make custom salads that are chef inspired. Sally is designed to prepare food in different restaurants, hotels, malls, cafeterias, airports including hospitals. Scientists want to make robots with human flesh, University of Oxford biomedical researchers claim the technology is already in place to start

New Technologies: Brain Hacking Soon, very soon, our computers will surpass us in every skill imaginable. This fact concerns a number of individuals, as artificial intelligence is predicted to outpace humanity at an unprecedented rate, which may result in AI looking at us as nothing more than house pets (or maybe even doing away with us entirely). This fear has pushed Elon Musk to suggest something rather unconventional and almost controversial: the neural lace. In short, the neural lace is a device that is intended to grow with your brain. Its primary purpose is to optimize mental output through a brain-computer interface, allowing the human brain to effortlessly access the internet and, thus, keep up with (and someday merge with) artificially intelligent systems. What is BCI? A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a mind-machine interface (MMI), direct neural interface (DNI), or brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and an external device. BCIs are often directed at researching, mapping, assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions.[1] 16 jobs in Seattle (up by two since March 2017): Brain computer interface

Will Your Students and Industry Be Ready? The Top 10 future technology jobs: VR developer, IoT specialist and AI expert Note: Indeed.com/Job Search for Seattle/50 mile radius Source: V3, May 2016 Note (Yes, another one). Chief Digital Officer was #4, however they believe the job will go away. I agree. 10. VR Developer Virtual reality (VR) is on the up. The first wave of headsets has hit the market and numerous firms are experimenting with the technology for its business potential. So there will be a growing demand for VR developers, not just at gaming firms but at enterprises that don't want to miss the next big tech trend. This could be hotels letting potential customers experience a room, sports stadiums allowing fans to see the view from their seat, museums wanting to recreate historical scenes, or clothing companies showing how a garment will look when worn. Job Postings: 94 9. Blockchain engineer/developer One for the future, perhaps, although those waxing lyrical about blockchains will tell you that you're better off developing/possessing these skills now. Blockchain is the underlying technology for bitcoin, and has been touted as the biggest breakthrough in tech since the internet Job Postings: 6 (MS posted 3 of the jobs I believe)

8. Security engineer Software engineers will need the ability to code in languages including Java and C , experience of working with large datasets, and skills in cryptography. This is really a job for the here and now as companies are desperate to hire cyber security talent amid a growing shortage of people with the right skills and an increasing number of cyber threats every day. There is also a growing demand for chief information security officers to lead IT security in an organization, and a host of other roles. Job Postings: 2,234 7. Internet of Things (IoT) architect Some end users said during V3 sister site Computing's recent IoT Summit that the IoT requires a group of people to work together, rather than a specific skill of one person. Others, such as Alun Jones, a data scientist at industrial equipment firm Konecranes, suggested that organizations embarking on IoT projects should resist the temptation to put together dedicated teams and instead create teams embodying knowledge and skills from across the enterprise. However, this hasn't stopped some organizations attempting to hire IoT architects. Vodafone, for example, is currently on the lookout for IoT solution architects with technical expertise in core network architecture and design. Job Postings: 551

6. UX Designer UX stands for user experience, so a UX designer is, yes you guessed it, someone who makes sure that a product functions in a way that is easy for people to use. UX designers earned an average of 96,855 in the US last year, according to Glassdoor. Job Postings: 1,201 5. Data Protection Officer The new EU data protection legislation is now in force, and data protection officers (DPOs) are more in demand than ever. This is because DPOs will be mandatory in companies where processes require regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale. The DPO can be recruited from within the company but they must possess the right skills. They can also take up another role (or continue in their existing role) as long as it does not result in a conflict of interest. The DPO should report to the CEO. Job Postings: 641

3. AI Developer Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next big thing. Google, Microsoft and Facebook are actively pursuing this, from winning games of Go to language translation, while large firms, such as RBS, are developing their own tools. This is a trend that’s only going in one direction, so those with the necessary technical skills may well benefit from refocusing their expertise in this area. This doesn’t have to mean becoming an AI whizz overnight, as it's more about understanding the capabilities and potential on offer, and how they could be incorporated into existing workflows, and dealing with the data it creates. Job Postings: 297 (For Machine Learning, and the term must appear in the job description, a whopping 2,341! 2. DevOps Engineer DevOps engineers are highly sought after (second on the list of biggest increases in demand between 2014 and 2015, according to CV-Library) indicating that many organizations are attempting to hire people who have worked as a developer and in operations. However, organizations should err on the side of caution here. Puppet CEO Luke Kanies said during a recent Computing web seminar that a lot of organizations have implemented DevOps merely by taking their ops teams and calling them DevOps engineers, or hiring a slightly more senior ops engineer and giving them a different title but with fundamentally the same role and the same dynamic.

1. Data Scientist Data scientists are the supposed crown jewels in any IT team's artillery and, some would have you believe, have the rarest skills. The hype surrounding data scientists is huge, and has resulted in many organisations calling data analysts data scientists, but true data scientists require a far greater set of skills. Either way, if you are lucky enough to have those skills, or can develop them, you will be rewarded with a job at one of the world's biggest companies with a handsome six-figure salary to boot. It's worth noting that machine learning, another area gaining much traction, is a part of the overall data scientist job. Job Postings: 1,471

This concludes our conversation around disruptive technologies. Many thanks to our tech industry professionals! Any final thoughts and questions? Let’s do lunch! Thank you!