Tag Archives: Economics

The Virtues of Flesh Sensing Technology

Leave a reply

Carpenter cuts wood with a table saw.I was visiting with a friend this weekend and he showed me his table saw from a company called SawStop, based out of Tualatin, OR. He is a part-time woodworker and cabinetmaker and, while his table saw is certainly nicer than mine, I was most intrigued by the safety features. SawStop has a patented flesh sensing technology that stops the saw and drops the blade within milliseconds if it detects skin. Instead of an amputation, you come away with a scratch. If you have been reading this blog for very long, you know that I love unique technology applications so I had to find out more about this one.

History

SawStop was formed in 2000 when cofounder Steve Gass invented the saw brake and sensing technology that is used in their cabinet and portable table saws. He shopped the invention to the likes of Ryobi, Craftsman, and Black & Decker but could not come to an agreement with any of them. In 2005, he gave up and manufactured the saw himself through the SawStop name. The other manufacturers were interested but were hesitant to raise the price of their product to compensate for this additional safety technology.

How It Works

The SawStop carries a small electrical signal through the blade. When skin contacts the blade, the signal changes because the human body is conductive. When the signal changes, a spring loaded aluminum brake is released into the blade, slowing it from 5000 RPM to 0 in approximately 1/200ths of a second. The force of the brake also drops the blade below the surface in that same amount of time. It ruins the brake, which is a relatively inexpensive replaceable cartridge, and also breaks the blade, which can be replaced. Comparatively though, it is less traumatic to replace saw parts than to lose a finger. This is incredible technology that can prevent a lot of woodworking accidents.

Fast Forward

This safety technology has only been available in the SawStop large cabinet saw up until early this year when the company also introduced a portable table saw with the same technology. Bosch’s new REAXX portable jobsite table saw, available this fall, is the first saw to copy the flesh sensing technology since it was developed in 2000 and commercialized in 2005.

Thoughts

So while I love this application of technology, my bigger question is this: why did it take so long for a competitor to copy this proven safety feature? Would consumers pay extra for this if it were available, or are we focused only on cost? I chose this blog topic today to highlight this technology but also to ponder on the bigger economic questions of safety features and marketability of a product. Let me know your thoughts.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional and assistant professor of practice for the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

Can Community College Really Be Free?

1 Reply

Black graduation cap on white background with price tag attached to tassel.I am writing this just before the annual State of the Union address so I am admittedly lacking in details, but I want to start a conversation on the proposal to provide free community college education for everyone. This proposal was announced two weeks ago and has drawn a mixed reaction. The proposal is this: community college tuition shall be free to all who “make steady progress toward completing their program”(whitehouse.gov). Students would be required to attend at least half time and maintain a 2.5 GPA. The federal government would fund this program with $60 billion over the next ten years and states that opt in would bear 25 percent of the cost.

Benefits

This proposal would benefit low-income students who are already taking advantage of Pell grants, as well as all who want to complete the first two years of a college education. In essence, this would be an extension of government funded K-12 education and would remove the cost barrier that prevents many students from continuing their education. The benefit would apply to vocational and certificate programs as well as those programs that prepare students to transfer to a four-year college or university. The national government proposal is modeled after a program launching this fall in Tennessee.

Costs

This proposal would cost an estimated $60 billion with the federal government supplying 75 percent of the money and states covering the remainder. While details are light at this point, the money is expected to come from higher taxes and eliminating some tax breaks, including the tax-free status of 529 college savings plans. Without the tax-free growth benefit such college savings plans would likely disappear as parents would seek other investment vehicles.

Questions

This proposal has set off bells and sirens in my head. Let me be clear, I am a huge proponent of higher education at any level and would love to have it be accessible to all, but there are a lot of unanswered questions. Here are my top questions, and I invite you to add your own (or answer mine):

  1. If tuition is covered, how is a student going to pay for room and board, or will that be covered as well?
  2. If every high school graduate enrolls in community college, who funds the expansion of the community college infrastructure, such as buildings? It will put a burden on the state to keep up with the new incoming students.
  3. Following on the question above, if everyone enrolls in community college because it is free, who is left to complete their first two years at public and private universities? Will these now also become two-year universities for juniors and seniors? If not, will they restructure their curriculum to favor those students that completed their first two years as a resident as opposed to being a transfer student?
  4. What will be the opportunities for those newly minted community college graduates who want to complete a higher degree? Will they be limited because of cost or other factors?
  5. Will cash-strapped states want to participate in this program? If so, will that take money from the already shrinking pool available to four-year state institutions?
  6. Will we create pockets of states that offer free community college tuition versus those that don’t? Residency requirements suddenly become a moot point.

Thoughts

I have a lot more questions, but I am hoping that at least some of them will be answered in the days to come. From the initial proposal, it does not seem well thought out in terms of economics. But the overarching question that I don’t think we are asking is: what do we value about a community college education? Do we value it as a vocational education program or as a gateway to a full university education? Do we value it as a means to teach functional, applied skills, or for teaching higher thinking and reasoning skills in preparation for a university education? How do we value our community colleges?

These are some of my questions and I would love to hear from you. What questions or answers do you have? Perhaps together we can figure this out.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional, adjunct faculty for the University of Oregon, and academic director of the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

The Not So Flat World

Leave a reply

Road closed by gateThomas Friedman wrote a book in 2005 called The World Is Flat in which he painted a borderless world. It would be borderless in terms of trade, information exchange, resource sharing, politics, and workflow. His premise was that the Internet and associated periphery would level the playing field so that all countries could enjoy prosperity and the full employment. Nine years later, we are certainly further down that path, but there have been some setbacks and roadblocks.

Rebuilding Walls

A recent article suggests that not only is the world not flat, but borders are reappearing that indicate that countries and cultures are closing their doors, as opposed to opening them. In the article, the author suggests “the burst [of the Internet] is leading to a world that is disconnected from physical and political geography.” In other words, there are two developing worlds—one physical and one virtual—and they are not necessarily in lockstep. This idea aligns with recent blogs that I have written on virtual currencies and the retrenchment of countries after the revelation of National Security Agency spying.

Borders in the Physical World

In his book, Friedman cites the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall as evidence that borders are opening and the world is becoming flatter. He argues that this event ushered in a new era of cooperation and a homogenization of communist and capitalist ideals. It was indeed a momentous occasion and did much to introduce western thought into former communist East Germany and beyond. The eastern block countries struggled mightily as western marketers suddenly discovered untapped consumers. They struggled to build their own industry to compete in this new, flat world. This great change aside, borders are still rising and falling as evidenced by the recent integration of Ukraine back into Russia. I think we will see more countries follow as they decide which combinations will bring them the most prosperity and stability.

Borders in the Digital World

Much of Friedman’s book focuses on the Internet as the great leveler. As people have broadened access to thought leaders, they expand their thinking beyond their geopolitical borders and are influenced by a host of outside sources. If we consider this a separate world outside of physical boundaries, then the possibilities are unlimited. Virtual currency is trying to accelerate this growth of the digital world by creating a trading mechanism, uncontrolled and independent of the currency attached to a physical country. Even the digital world has borders however, generally where it intersects with the physical world. Europe, Russia, and China are all talking about creating a local Internet where citizens trade within their own borders and are protected from influences outside of their borders. Thus, the world is becoming less flat as countries and regions struggle with how to keep their citizens secure from threats that were not supposed to develop in a flat world.

Thoughts

Two things intrigue me about this idea of a flattening world. One, the idea that there may be two independent developing worlds, and two, the fact that borders fall and borders rise in both worlds. Again, independent of each other, or at best, loosely connected.

Do you think the world is getting flatter, or do you think it is getting spikier? What do you think of the notion of two separate worlds? Let me know your thoughts.

About Kelly BrownAuthor Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional, adjunct faculty for the University of Oregon, and academic director of the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

The Second Machine Age?

Leave a reply

Steel robotic android hands holding blue digital earth I have been reading a book recently called The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by MIT researchers Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. In this book, the authors project a future where mankind will work alongside increasingly sophisticated computers and machinery to create a better world. They tell a compelling story about the history of the industrial age leading up to the current technological age and describe our current time as the second machine age.

Others, however, are not so optimistic about our technological trajectory and where it is leading us economically. In 2003, economist Tyler Cowen wrote a book titled Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation in which he argues that technology has been and will continue dividing workers into two classes. Those workers that are proficient with such technology as computers and robotics will thrive, but those who are not will find themselves unemployed or underemployed. In the author’s defense, he does lay out strategies that can help the latter class to join in the prosperity.

My purpose for this blog post is to start a dialogue and hear your thoughts on the pace of technology changes and how they will affect our future and our economic system. Will technology lead us into a bright future or drive us into perennial unemployment?

The Second Half of the Chessboard

In their book, Brynjolfsson and McAfee refer to another publication, The Age of Spiritual Machines. The author, Ray Kurzweil, draws an analogy between the old story of the emperor and the inventor, and our current technology advancement. In the story, the inventor of chess negotiates with the emperor for payment for this new marvel. He asks only one grain of rice that doubles on each square of the chessboard. The emperor readily agrees, thinking that the inventor is indeed a humble man. By the time they reach thirty-two squares, he is up to 4 billion grains of rice. After that, they reach the second half of the chessboard where things get really interesting and will eventually reach 64 quintillion grains of rice.

This story is based on exponential increase, and the analogy is that we are just now entering the second half of the chessboard. If you thought that the pace of technology advancement was furious in the past, hang on for a wild ride in the future.

Thoughts

The questions still remain—will we benefit from technology or will we be run over by it? Will we be driving the bus or be passengers? I believe that it is up to us and how prepared we are. It is going to take work and constant learning to be in the driver’s seat. What do you think? Are you optimistic or are you worried? Can you keep up? Let me know your thoughts by replying to this post. I hope that we can start a conversation and figure this out together.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional, adjunct faculty for the University of Oregon, and academic director of the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.