Retrospection: Yesterday that Leveraged Better Tomorrow

(Top 5 Writing: IEEE Day Writing Contest)

Today is October 6, the year 2050. We have been celebrating this day as IEEE day for

such a long time. I am writing without using my own hands as we have been in the

pursuit of better technology constantly. The “ThinkWrite” device is available after 2040

which can write easily what we think based on our brainwaves. Let's rewind 30 years

back and remember a terrible but an impactful year of the 21st century. Yes, It was 2020.

The coronavirus came to the world when we were busy sending rockets to Mars and

roaming around the space. The tiny virus stopped everything and human could barely

meet each other let alone flying in the sky. We learned so much in the year that made us

stronger. The coronavirus hit China 30 years from today first. The whole world was

reluctant at the first stage but globalization acted as a blessing for the virus. It traveled the

whole world without paying any travel expenses. It was a great war against an invisible

army. We fought bravely and survived so far. Let’s look back to our effort that proved the

theory of Darwin true once again,

“ struggle for existence & survival of the fittest”

The enemy, coronavirus, was invisible but not invincible. It used human as a carrier to

travel the whole world. We figured out this earlier and built our strategies to stop it. The

main challenge was to prevent the spread of the virus. We had developed testing

methodologies and medical capacities to cure rapidly. Let’s retrospect the wonders of

technology that leveraged the path of humankind to advance forward!

Confronting the Invisible Enemy with Solidarity

In the midst of a crisis, there was one beautiful phenomenon. All the researchers,

scientists & innovators were focused on a single topic urgently to save the world. All the

human endeavors in biotechnology, vaccine development, virus prevention, artificial

intelligence, economic reincarnation, supply chain were directed to a common goal. The

virus outbreak had ignited the global community of scholars to act collaboratively for an

existential crisis for the humankind. There was a scenario of combined effort such as Dr.

Duprex’s lab in Pittsburgh was collaborating with the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the

Austrian drug company Themis Bioscience. The consortium received funding from the

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, a Norway-based organization, and was

in talks with the Serum Institute of India. The collaboration of so many countries in a

single research effort really established the premise of scientific globalization that

strengthened humans as a species.

Speculative Innovation Pipeline

The common saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention” was really evident at that

time when humans were facing multi-dimensional challenges derived from the virus

outbreak.

Analytics had been really useful to determine the movement of viruses and taking

preventive measures in the risky zone. The forecasts and warnings about the novel

coronavirus spreading beyond China were raised by Artificial Intelligence systems more

than a week before official information about the epidemic was released by international

organizations. AI had been used mainly to help detect whether people had novel

coronavirus through the detection of visual signs of Covid-19 on images from

computerized tomography (CT) lung scans; to monitor changes in body temperature

through the use of wearable sensors, and to provide an open-source data platform to track

the spread of the disease. AI processed a vast amount of unstructured text data to predict

the number of potential new cases by area and which types of populations would be at

most risk, as well as to evaluate and optimize strategies for controlling the spread of the

epidemic.

Blockchain applications tracked disease outbreaks over time by building 'ledgers' that are

both stable and updated hundreds of times a day. In addition, blockchain enhanced

diagnosis accuracy and efficacy of treatment, streamline the rapid isolation of case

clusters, monitor supply chains of medications and medical supplies, manage medical

data, and recognize trends of disease symptoms. In situations such as an outbreak of a

virus, where high numbers of incoming real-time data were released, Blockchain

minimized confusion and provided machine confidence and an integrated mechanism for

documenting and sharing consistent factual information between multiple parties.

In the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, robots were deployed around the globe.

Robotics technology was used to reduce the risk of person-to-person transmission,

particularly in pandemic hotspots as an intelligent solution to combat the coronavirus.

From robots that disinfect entire hospitals, decontaminate public and private sites,

manage biohazardous waste or distribute food and medication, to robots that take patient

temperatures, and act as a medical assistant.

Adapting to the ‘New Normal’

Adaptation is a human competency that prevails us than any other species in the world.

When the coronavirus came, humans adapted new means for survival and thrived

afterward. Physical activities were replaced by the virtual activity which was powered by

cloud technology and strong network across the globe. Digital transformation became a

must for education, healthcare, enterprise, and all. The transformation was powered by

the amazing wonders of technology such as cloud computing, nanotechnology, IoT that

combinedly excelled us towards a better future.

The year 2050, when I am writing this we have come a long way defeating the invisible

army of viruses. We believe in the human potential and strength of the scientific

community to confront any challenge that threatens human existence on this beautiful

planet. Let’s utter with pride,

“We are leveraging technology for better tomorrow!”

References:

1.M. Apuzzo and David, “Covid-19 Changed How the World Does Science, Together,”

The New York Times , 01-Apr-2020. [Online]. Available:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/world/europe/coronavirus-science-research-cooper

ation.html. [Accessed: 04-Oct-2020].

2. Ten technologies to fight coronavirus - Think Tank . [Online]. Available:

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_IDA%282

020%29641543. [Accessed: 04-Oct-2020].

3.“Stock Images - Photos, vectors & illustrations for creative projects,” Shutterstock .

[Online]. Available: https://www.shutterstock.com/?kw=shutterstock. [Accessed:

04-Oct-2020].

Fig.1 © Optinic / Shutterstock.com, Fig.2 © Sashkin / Shutterstock.com Fig.3©

HaraldPizzinini / Shutterstock.com