First Semester 2010

Innovation and Technology

Innovation and Technology

Instructors:
Dr. Gregory Tangonan
1st Semester SY2010-2011

Course Description
Though technology plays a very important role in our lives, we seldom reflect on how
technology happens or even on how it develops. This course is aimed at students as
future technologists, the focus is on strategic thinking and the role of innovation in
changing the technical landscape. We address questions like: what makes something
hot, how new technologies have developed, what makes for technology into a busi-
ness success, and how do successful technologies lead to whole new industries? This
course surveys themes like technology and society, creation of new technology com-
panies based on new ideas, and global competitiveness. We will need to understand
the technical basis of new developments but our objective is to understand the global
context of technology development as well.

The course is intended as a capstone course that develops a strategic overview of

technology and applying this knowledge to the
Philippine scene. This course complements their
students’ skills in science and engineering disciplines.
Being aimed for young technologists at the start of
their careers it is supposed to be a fun course rich with
student presentations, discussion and interesting
reading. The instructor or guest speaker will oftentimes
just catalyze student discussion. This class could make
learning and investigating new ideas, summarizing new ideas, and judging the poten-
tial impact, an integral part of their lifelong learning.

The competitive landscape is changing rapidly, today focused R&D and product de-
velopment teams in developing companies can compete globally. The origins of the
“flattening” of the competitive environment will be a major focus of the class lectures
and student presentations. Our efforts will be to understand how these forces affect
the Philippines. We will study the strategic role that intellectual property – patenting,
licensing, and trade secrets – plays in securing for entrepreneurs their intellectual eq-
uity.

Innovation and Technology Class

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Course Objectives
The course will develop skills in strategic thinking about technology and soci-
ety. The course will hone studentʼs presentation skills, especially in making
concise and insightful presentations on technical topics.
This course will develop information gathering, information analysis, and criti-
cal thinking skills that will prove useful in your future careers.

First Semester - Innovation and Technology - How Innovations can radi-

cally change our lives.

Students will analyze the development of the iPod / iPad and how the new
iPad/ iPhone fits within a strategy that will remake Apple and change several
industries. The hot new iPad that costs only $499 with WiFi only is a real stra-
tegic breakthrough for Apple. The focus will be on developing new applica-
tions for these tablet devices in new markets like personal health manage-
ment and personal wellness. This is also a story of world class Innovation as
driven by highly focused teams led by super-
innovators like Steve Jobs. So this class focuses on
the Innovator as the creator of new industries, by ask-
ing: What is the innovation process of Apple? How
have they come up with tremendous new products -
Mac, iPod, iPhone and now the iPad - that are truly
game changing innovations. To this end the students
will start by analyzing the innovation process of Apple by a class reading of
Inside Steveʼs Brain by Leander Kahney. At the
same time the students are going to be
challenged to understand the booming market of
applications for these new devices. They will
analyze applications in a specific field like
gaming and determine the potential impact on
the Industry of new media platforms like the
iPad. Then the students will then present their
idea for a new application and why they believe
it can sell. No need for coding of the applications
now, just develop the concept for a new application.

This semesterʼs focus areas are Sustainable Solutions for Energy Environ-
ment and Application to Improved Health and Wellness. We will begin the dis-
cussions by looking at the major new innovations in these fields for the last

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Innovation and Technology

two years, by reading different surveys of

hot new ideas and innovations for 2009-
2010. This survey will lead directly to
student presentations on new technical
ideas and their impact - like solar energy
systems, nano-materials and new
biomedical devices, and software as a
service.

Given that the students will also be finding

thesis topics for this yearʼs undergraduate
research, we will emphasize developing
an overview of the overall significance of
their topic. Basic questions we tackle are:
What can be the impact of my research? Can I get close to the state of the art
by focusing on fertile technology areas? Is industry already interested in this
topics area? For those doing a thesis, this exercise can really help crystallize
the motivation for doing research.

The students will be required to present a final presentation on one of the

many books in our Innovation Center library. A 20 minute presentation on the
bookʼs major ideas is required with 10 charts maximum.

Prerequisites: This course is open to upper division engineering and sci-

ence students participating in thesis projects. Since the class does NOT re-
quire higher math or science skills, non-technical majors are encouraged to
participate. When necessary they should get help from the more technically
oriented students in making their presentations rich in technical details.

Readings, Information sources, and Seminars:

A bibliography is given below for the First Semester class. Materials down-
loaded from the Facultyʼs own subscriptions to variety of sources will be made
available to the students. These materials have been obtained from sources
like the The Economist, Scientific American, Technology Review Maga-
zine, IEEE Spectrum,, and the Wall Street Journal. Extensive use of Pod-
cast materials on Innovation are also available, notably Stanford University,
MIT, and TED Talks have lectures that students can learn from. Students are
encouraged to listen to several Innovation Podcast on the Web in developing
their class presentations and developing their applications.

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Course Requirements
Meeting deadlines for presentation is of great importance in evaluating stu-
dent performance. Students are required to make four major presentations to
the class and to participate in meaningful class discussions of presentations.
In most cases, the presentations and proposals are Power Point slides (5
charts max – 5 minutes max). Not meeting deadlines will result in a significant
lowering of the high grade that students start with. The grading scheme is
based on class presentations, class participation and reaction papers.

Innovation and Technology Bibliography

Books
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman (2008 Farrar, Strauss,Giroux)
Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (2008 Harvard Business
Press)
Wikinomics- How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tap-
scott and Anthony Williams (2008 Portfolio)
The Post American World by Fareed Zakariah (2008 Norton)
Founders at Work:Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston
(2007 Apress)
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Taleb
(2007 Possibly Maybe)
The Inventor's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen (2002 Harper Collins)
The Inventor's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by
Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor (2003 Harvard Business
School Publishing)
How Breakthroughs Happen: the Surprising Truth about How Compa-
nies Innovate by Andrew Hargadon (2003 Harvard Business School Publish-
ing)
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore (2002 Harper Collins)
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman (2006 Farrar, Straus and Giroux;
Updated Edition)
The Flight of the Creative Class by Richard Florida (2005 Harper Collins)
The Cult of iPod by Leander Kahney
(2005 No Starch Press)
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (2002 Little Brown and Company)
Newspapers and Magazines
Business Information Sources
Technology Quarterly from the Economist Magazine (2007 to 2008)
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Business Week, The Economist,
Atlantic Monthly
Technical Journals
IEEE Spectrum, Scientific American

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American Scientist, MIT Technology Review

Physics Today, EE Times

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