The Complete and Modern Guide to Technology Convergence

Posted May 30, 2017

External Article: AT&T Developer Program Blog

Margaret Kosal, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affiars was quoted in “The Complete and Modern Guide to Technology Convergence” for AT&T Developer Program Blog.

Excerpt:

 I have over 15 years as an experimentalist, technology developer, strategist, policy developer and implementer, and academic scholar in the field of Technology Convergence. My strategic direction has been to bring technology convergence into the Federal Biodefense and C-Weapons of Mass Destruction programs with the goal of generating revolutionary disruptive capabilities for the military.

The converging technology landscape is hugely varied. There are places where it is thriving; different sectors have taken off –especially in the field of biotechnology we are seeing the biggest strides and intersections. These are happening at the science and application level at the intersection of biotechnology and informatics, biotechnology and cellular telephony, biotechnology and genomics, data analytics, nano-enabled devices and delivery systems. I am concerned about certain factors of American society. These include the death of expertise and the erosion of the value of expert knowledge. Everyone can Google something and think that they are experts. They get just enough knowledge to get them in trouble. Additionally, we have a lack of new, young professionals being able to enter the federal workforce because of hiring freezes and budget austerity. This is a long-term problem. With the aging of the federal workforce, we are unable to hire and keep new young folks with new skills and areas of knowledge. We need these professionals to eventually become strategic leaders. It is comparatively easier for them to get jobs in laboratories, and needed, but we need some of them to come out of the lab and lead.

For the full article, read here.

Related Media

Margaret Kosal, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs