Engineering for Social Impact

1. Engineering for Social Impact
Prof. Dr. Loc Nguyen, PhD, PostDoc
Founder of Loc Nguyen’s Academic Network, Vietnam
Email: ng_phloc@yahoo.com
Homepage: www.locnguyen.net
Engineering Social Impact - Loc Nguyen - IRConTECS2023
17/10/2023 1
The 4th International Research Conference on Technology, Culture, and Society (IRConTECS)
ICEPD - BISCAST, Villa Caceres Hotel, Naga City, Philippines, October 17 – 19, 2023

2. Axiom of technology
• Base of technology is science and material of science is knowledge. It
is possible to conclude that material of technology is knowledge too.
• But how can we assess price of knowledge, it is not easy but, a short
sentence about a secret recipe is invaluable. Such short sentence
expresses exactly technology.
• Therefore, technology is fruit from root “knowledge” and trunk
“science”. It is not easy to assess knowledge, but the importance of
technology is proved.
• In general, education is sustainable and effective way to foster the
knowledge tree to bloom and result out technological fruit.
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3. Paradoxes of technology
• It is undoubtful that technology helps our world to be rich and wealthy, but technology
also deepens the gap between the rich and the poor. It is not difficult to recognize this
paradox of technology, which is the price we must pay for development.
• It seems that the paradox is opposite to this topic mentioning the engineering and
technology can help us to solve the problem of inequality.
• Fortunately, besides the paradox, technology can really solve the inequality problem by an
indirect way. Such indirect way is education.
• Yes, technology can give studying chances to everyone at anywhere as well as bring
universities back to home, which change educational form in essence. When a person who
can obtain good knowledge as well as technology from such amazing education, she/he
can create more wealth besides moving up upper classes in society. We must accept that
society classification is motivation of development although we have to narrow distances
between classes.
• This is a miracle effect of technology when it causes two paradoxes about the inequality
as well as its indirect solution via educational key.
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4. Super last racing round
• Every ASEAN country has own special cultures and strong points and so, the
diversity is really a strong point. If you focus on purity, you may not reach power
of purity while you may loss power (adaptiveness, high skill, etc.) of diversity.
• There is a story that a race champion has a racing strategy that he is never the
first in race, but he always sticks close on the first until the last round at that time
he overcomes the first by a super skill in such last round. His success is based on
good observation and extreme effort beside high skill.
• About technology and engineering, strategy of super last racing round is suitable
to development in diversity. We should apply and take advantages of
technologies into raising citizen lives and solving problems of environment and
society, as well as, joining in global/area supply chain. Let leading and highest
technologies such as space exploitation for other ones, as an important hinge.
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5. Practice, experiment, and innovation
• Swinging in the hinge, there are many chances for innovations as modifying
or improving core technologies so as to be appropriate to native situations.
• Practice and experiment, which are essential results of decision process,
become more necessary. Indeed, decisive character and solidarity become
more important even though solidarity is seemly apposite to diversity.
However, the diversity is incorporated with the solidarity in a dialectic
manner.
• As an example of modification which is a kind of innovation, I will present
shortly my recent research about artificial intelligence (AI) generative
model in which some different generative models are integrated together in
order to produce a hybrid generative model. It is not a new core innovation,
but it can be considered as a derivative innovation. This is an effectively
applicative advantage of the strategy of super last race round.
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6. Thank you for listening
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Engineering Social Impact - Loc Nguyen - IRConTECS2023
17/10/2023