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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Reflecting back over semester two’s science and technology learning, I have found myself building upon the knowledge learnt in semester one and testing this knowledge across the wide variety of projects. Many of the projects this semester have had a main focus around new technologies, the WhyVote project was around bringing politics to the 21st century using current technologies to implement these changes. Centre for Life project was about how to effectively communicate new technologies research to the masses, and how new technology displays could encourage interaction for all ages. The Unilever biotechnologies project was about effectively communicating this next generation surfactant that is still in development to the consumer. The strand knowledge learnt within John Kearvell’s lectures had a focus around programming and web design this semester, which I directly applied to the reflective report, building my knowledge to develop different levels of websites and which is applicable for my needs. The programming area was interesting to learn and understand more about but was difficult to apply to any of the project work so far. I found myself building on many skills developed in semester one learnt through science and technology, such as, digital cinematography and 3D modeling.

Analysing Online Technologies 

The WhyVote projects focus for my group was around social media and how we could use this tool to engage a younger demographic in politics. Social media could not be classed any longer as a new technology, people are extremely familiar with many of the variations of them and use them on a daily basis, but from research there are new social platforms being developed constantly, challenging the old, and forcing existing ones to continuously push boundaries to stay on top. Whilst conducting research around social media, I discovered a relatively new technology called Thunderclap. This innovative new way of spreading a message played a key role in the development of our idea, and feasibility of using social media to get people talking/get a message out. Social media is no longer just regarded as an out-of-work activity, it is becoming more important for companies to have a social media presence and find new ways to attract new business. The importance for our design, as a social media based platform was we came off in a professional manner, but not in a way that would deter a younger audience. We believed by incorporating some of these new technologies into the website would prevent it feeling dated but also make it appropriate for the correct demographic. One of the newest social medias of 2014 is called Sulia. Sulia is a subject-based social network that connects you to the top social sources on subjects you care about. We all have interests that we're extremely passionate about, whether it's our family, a sports team, breaking news or a political issue, we obsess over our interests’ everyday. However, with an endless number of sources talking about an endless number of topics, it's nearly impossible to find the best sources to follow across your interests. And, even if you were able to identify the top sources, sifting through all of their content is maddeningly time consuming.People use Sulia everyday to discover new sources and engage with their interests. This is a clever way of gathering all the relevant information for you and having it all in one place. Moving our project forward it would be useful to use a similar media platform put specifically for politics. There are many more emerging technologies that could help the advancement of this project; I look forward to the future of ‘Shockwave’ the politics platform.

Click Logos to take you to appropriate websites

Analysing Bio-Technologies 

The Unilever project focused around the Power of Nature and the application of this new technology being developed was a very interesting project from a technology perspective. As this tech is not finished development, the company is not even sure how it might be applied. The main properties have been confirmed but the applications are still questionable. Working on such a technology is exciting and fresh, although extremely difficult to research and evaluate when it does not exist yet. There are so many current technological advances that have been directly affected by nature such as wind farms, solar panels and architecture. We are constantly taking influence from nature to create and develop more advanced technology. This new technology as I understood it contained natural elements such as yeast to aid in the cleaning process. Unilever is changing the way they manufacture to become greener; changing from a consumables business to a durable business. Great emphasis has recently been given to the environmental impacts caused by chemical surfactants due to their toxicity and difficulty in being degraded in the environment. Increasing environmental concerns, the advance in biotechnology and the emergence of more stringent laws have led to bio surfactants being a potential alternative to the chemical surfactants available on the market. This technology is a future technology we are directly involved with. We discussed various different applications for this new technology within this project, such as shampoo that cleans your shower, self-cleaning pots in your kitchen etc. creating various communications to explain this technology to the consumer. Implementing a solution around this new technology would be a difficult job, as nothing currently exists like it. Working on a project liked this led to wider research into the topic of biotechnology; it is a fast growing area of interest of late, although its applications have been around for many years people are now finding wider applications for it.

Flick through the images as some examples of applications of biotechnology

Summary of Learning

The knowledge strand this semester has been almost always directly applicable to the project work covered. There has been many projects that have included new technologies, online based, robotics based and chemical based. Being a responsible designer I must be constantly considering new technologies at all times, whilst always being conscious of the scientific life cycle of the product. With so many limitations on raw materials and energy, I must continuously ensure I am connected with new eco-technologies that support our world’s fragile ecosystem.

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