Emerging Technologies

As future computer engineers and technicians, it is important that we understand emerging technologies.  The world that we live in changes very rapidly, and we need to realize that as one new method, interface, or technology emerges, it is quickly followed by a new one on a not so distant horizon.  Some become "standardized" and part of every day life, while others, no matter how promising they may have been, fade away to the trash pile of  history.

Some of the emerging technologies that may impact computing in the future include:

1. Biometrics
2. Using GPUs for general purpose computing
3. Do It Yourself Computing (think Raspberry Pi)
4. Holographic Data Storage
5. Quantum Computing
6. Screen-less Displays (ie. virtual retina display/google glasses)
7. 3D Displays
8. 3D Printing
9. Intelligent Apparel
10. Swarm Robotics
11. Powered Exoskeletons
12. App Based Computing (instead of web browser based)
13. 5 Minute Gaming

TEJ4MI students are to pick one of the above topics and complete your first research assignment for this course.   Make sure that your final work is well-researched, professional in appearance, and written at a level that your audience can understand.  Also make sure that you understand  Gartner's Hype Cycle, and how it applies to technology.  The evaluation rubric can be found here.

As is shown in the Youtube video below, a good example of  how trends can affect technology can be seen in the gaming industry.