The Mobile phone will be the gadget of necessity in the next generation

THERE is no doubt that the next industrial revolution will be a digital one and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop the train. For one to get onto the gravy train one needs to be equipped with digital skills like Artificial Intelligence(AI). Creativity will be another critical skill one will need to survive this era as most of the jobs which will be in existence for the next generation have not yet been created.

AI helps extract intelligence from data and can be useful in solving business problems like identifying fraud and manufacturing errors. It can be extremely useful even in the area of public health where AI can be used to detect heart conditions and brain tumours in individuals.

It really doesn't matter which field one intends to make use of this digital skill be it in education or even in mundane tasks, it certainly makes life better as it takes over the role of the human mind but in a faster form devoid of any emotions.

It becomes therefore imperative for everyone to be equipped with these skills in order to survive, however it is unfortunate that women who constitute more than half of the world's population are still lagging behind on this gravy train. While some like Dhawani Tirverdi have seized the day by acquiring these skills which will set them up in industry, only a few women have shown any real interest.

According to statics revealed during the Mobile Learning Week conference hosted by UNESCO and ITU in March, women recorded a 12 % usage of internet as compared to their male counterparts. Furthermore, girls in schools shy away from taking up careers in ICTs even though scientific evidence reveals that they have as much capacity as their male counterparts to take on the demands of ICT studies.

Naked Truth(NT) caught up with Dhawani Tirverdi(DT) a first-year student of Electronics and Communication Engineering to discuss all things ICT and her theory that in the next decade the mobile phone would be the gadget of choice as compared to the laptop and tablet.

Please watch a video where Dhawani demonstrates her theory on the mobile phone being the most important gadget going forward.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

NT: You're a very intelligent young woman who is well poised and articulate and you have a shot at having any career but why did you choose to study Electronic engineering?

DT: I am actually studying Electronics and Communication Engineering which is Electronics and Communication in India but Electronics and computer outside. We, in fact, a lot of common subjects as well. Technology was my passion and love and will be forever. And as I do come from such a background, like the inspiration and motivation for me is my dad as he is in professor inTechnical education, I always see him working and developing something since I grew up, due to that I find being a part of it and working and pursuing ICT as career really interesting. So along with my interest, and my Dad being a part of it I really got a motivation to pursue EC as a career option.

NT: How did you as a first-year student in Engineering manage to get a slot to make a presentation at the Mobile Learning Week (MLW)?

DT: As I got to know that the theme of this MLW in UNESCO, "Skills for connected world" and ITU will be a part of MLW, I felt that this conference would be really helpful for me as I come from that particular field of interest and AI (Artificial Intelligence) is going to be the future digital skill and the other thing of interest was also the Ethics which I also talked about. I think that I became one of the presenters at the MLW because I am very passionate about it and I have done a lot of research on the area. When a call for proposals was made, I submitted mine and I guess my proposal got selected.

NT: In your presentation at the MLW you mentioned that in the next generation, there would be no need for PC'S and Tablets as the mobile phone would be the main gadget people will use. Could you elaborate how this would help in a workplace set up where communication is usually via email and documents are shared on virtual platforms?

DT: It's actually like our previous generations they did get PC's to work on. The thing which I mentioned in my presentation was about the technology access in future. In future, there will be a scenario where children will be getting mobile phones at first place instead of computer and laptops and they will be having knowledge about what computer is before they work on it. So it will be really helpful.

NT: The general consensus at the MLW Conference was that there was a need for more women in ICTs, why do you think that most young women are not opting for courses in ICT?

DT: I don't have much idea about other countries but there is no such kind of scenario in India as a maximum number of women are in ICT sector and are very successful as well. There may be different situation according to different countries.

NT. Do you feel that there is something that is preventing girls from taking up careers in ICTS?

DT: No, I don't really think there are any issues standing in the way for girls being a part of ICT sector or if any, one of the reasons could be because of the financial crisis but Government of India provides a lot of schemes for financial support to keep the girls engaged.

NT: What advice would you give young girls out there who are keen on a career in ICTs

DT: I would just like to say to the girls who are keen on a career as ICT is to keep up their work in AI in ICT as future will be dependent on such criteria.