The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is occurring now, has seen the integration of the cyber, physical and biological worlds. The technology and tools that have emerged impact every aspect of individual life, but what makes this revolution unique is the speed of change; the pace at which technology is being created and adapted. The impact of technology on the world’s citizens has been unprecedented.
Delivering the 12th convocation address of the Great Lakes Institute of Management here on Wednesday, Subra Suresh, President of Carnegie Mellon University, said the role of the individual with smart phones is tremendous. There is opportunity for two-way communication — to receive information from the cutting edge of this revolution and also to to send information back. Individual communication can be useful but can also lead to confusion. Misinformation can also be communicated easily fast.
“Technology has two sides,” said Suresh. An individual can participate on a global scale but it also empowers him to do either good or evil. “The intersection of the real and virtual worlds and the tug of war between natural and artificial intelligence will also create interesting questions in the way in which the 21st century will unfold. Fifty years from now, whether we will emerge as better human beings or not will depend on how this generation will use or abuse the tools of this revolution,” he explained.
Suresh said that one of the areas “we have to pay much greater attention to in the 21st century is not just science, technology and discovery, but also how science interacts with human behaviours and human conditions.”
Delivering his convocation address through a video message, Prof MS Swaminathan told the students that they were ending one phase and beginning the next phase of their career. “Always remember the three Ms — Monitoring, Measurement and Management to progress ahead,” he exhorted the students.
Bala V Balachandran, Chairman, Great Lakes, Institute of Management, emphasised that the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to have a great impact in the work place and the outgoing students should be prepared for it.
A total of 725 students graduated this year, across five different full-time and executive programmes. Six best outgoing students and four academic toppers received gold medals during the graduation ceremony. NR Ramanathan and Rini Solomon bagged the gold medals for the best outgoing students in Great Lakes’ flagship one-year post graduate programme in management.