Degree in Digital Business Design and Innovation

In today's world, the digital revolution is transforming the way we communicate and the way we do business. Professionals have to be able to constantly adapt to these changes

Managing Emerging Technologies

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Description
Managing Emerging Technologies is a discipline that investigates, explores, translates, and accelerates the possibilities of an emerging/post-emerging future. For emerging future, we understand between 0-5 years ahead. For post-emerging we understand between 5-10 years ahead. Over 10 years is future and Sci-fiction. The idea is to look at how evidence found in science, technology and entrepreneurship/ business can affect: culture, behaviors, and new structures in society - raising our awareness and thus helping us to make better decisions to generate positive impact on the world of today and tomorrow. This course is based on providing the student the sufficient knowledge about (i) new exponential technologies and (ii) new business models, derived from them, that allow any participant in the course to ask good questions about how to improve the world without leaving anyone aside. The success of the course is based on the pro-active role of the students. They need to actively process information and make connections between formally correct scientific models and the implicit or naïve models they bring with them into the University. In the course we will strength these connections between something that students already know and "the unknown". "Proactive role of students" is the key of that course. Because the class is all about bold ideas and the future, most things taught are questionable and debatable, and this questioning process should be part of the learning process. Debates, questions, presentations... Together we will explore how we can anticipate solutions, (many of which are in their early stages of ideation, a few already in prototyping and a few of them on field tests, in our lives today), to provide solutions to the greatest challenges in front of us: energy, environment, food, shelter, space, water, governance, disaster resilience, health, learning, prosperity and security. Society is increasingly influenced by technology, and that's a good thing, because it's a tool and an enabler for people to have more time to think and innovate: Seeing & Mapping, Understanding, Believing and Acting. This is the name of the game.
Type Subject
Tercer - Obligatoria
Semester
First
Course
2
Credits
5.00

Titular Professors

Jordi Martí Gascón
Previous Knowledge
Objectives

The degree in Managing Exponential Technologies is designed as an integral journey into the entrepreneurial business mindset and skillset. Exponential Emerging Technologies plays a key role in that journey. It will transform the way the student interact and feel the world. Thinking about the future raises' awareness of the need for change.

Through Exponential emerging technologies the student will shift from a Scarcity mentality (seeing life as a finite pie) to Abundance mindset that refers to the paradigm that there is plenty of opportunities for everybody.

The students will learn how to start training their mind to loosen its focus and create an expanded awareness.

If we succeed with this course, the students will understand that they are living in the best of the times but simultaneously have a massive opportunity for improvement; things could be so much better, and a vision of a wildly better world is deeply inspiring.

We think this course is spot on with covering all the most relevant "game changer" topics that are going to affect our near future. This course, and what it teaches should be at the really core of any degree, but especially business (together with practical philosophy). Not because I personally like it, but because it exposes all the relevant topics that our engineers, scientists, politicians and entrepreneurs could find meaning working on.

Contents

Unit 1 - Elephant in the room
Unit 2 - If not you who?
Unit 3 - The bold Crowd
Unit 4 - If not now when
Unit 4.1 - The art of innovation material
Unit 5 - Is this the world we have created?
Unit 6 - NASA is anybody out there
Unit 7 - Uncomfortable truths & Entrepreneurship tricks and tips
Unit 8 - Biomimicry Inspiration from Nature
Unit 9 - Connecting abilities - Why what we do matters

Methodology

The class is thought and planned as student centric education. It means that focus of instruction is shifted from the teacher to the student. The course is focused on encourage students to be actively involved in their own learning and helps them take ownership of their education.

This involves creating an environment in which students feel free to ask questions, raise concerns and participate in the learning process. For that reason, student participation in class it is a must. Active student participation ensures that all student needs are met.

For that reason:
Reading assignments: This will play a key role in all our methodology. Read text assignments prior to class and be prepared to discuss the text material, answering instructor questions orally with well-organized thoughts and ideas.

Class participation. The learning process will be focused on peer-to-peer learning. When one or more students teach other students, sharing experiences and discoveries.
Learning by doing. Students are encouraged to learn through experiences that can help them to know and be familiar with the latest technological breakthroughs and push the students to take action in front of our Global Challenges.

Evaluation

Your final grade consists of:

Class attendance: (10%)
Concepts such as student centric education, peer-to-peer learning and learning by doing implies student active participation in class.
It is required student, physically or virtually, attend to the class.
Students are permitted 3 absences without penalty.

Punctuality: (10%)
Respect for your time and that of others.

Participation in class. (20%)
As said before, active participation is what make sense in this course. Come to class ON TIME, PREPARED to take part in the class discussions and other activities. You will be assessed on the QUALITY of your comments and your ability to CONNECT with and build upon the comments made by your colleagues. Your participation assessment includes not only your contribution to your own project, but also the constructive feedback you give to help your classmates' projects succeed.

You are required to prepare all assigned reading prior to class.

Knowledge deliveries (40%)
This course is planned as a journey.
Learning by doing approach means that during the different sessions it will be asked several deliveries (homework) that should be presented on time.
Deliveries would be requested orally, pwp presentations in class and pdf in the platform.
In order to have access to the final exam requires a minimum of 80% of requested deliveries.

Knowledge mid Term (10%) and Knowledge final exam (10%)
Mid term and final exam. Time to evaluate the achieved goals.

If you have below 3.5 as a final course score, you are not eligible for a re-take exam.

Evaluation Criteria
Basic Bibliography
Additional Material