Tech Foresight at Generating Genius 2020

17th March 2020
In February, Tech Foresight was invited to the annual Imperial College London event organized by “Generating Genius” (GG), a UK based organization whose aim is to raise the next generation of STEM leaders. 

 

The Generating Genius program, has worked for 15 years to ensure that talented students from BAME backgrounds are positioned to excel in STEM careers, their mission is to help young minds unlock and realise their potential and talents.

At this year’s event held at Imperial College, a group of 12 curious students in their 17-18s participated, learnt and competed in an intense week that concluded with a final presentation judged by four professionals from the Enterprise division. Over these days, they were able to learn about Imperial College London – its structure and activities.

Imperial Tech Foresight were lucky to share the history and future of foresight.  Our aim was to inspire students and help them take an active role within creating their own future through the use of these methods. Some insights that we mentioned were related to the history of futures thinking – how it evolved across history – and how imagination and prediction are human faculties related to the ability to negotiate with the unknown. We also provided an explanation of various foresight methodologies that we use for our own enquiries.

To take the insights into practice, the team organised a creative activity around our Table of Disruptive Technologies. The students, divided in 4 groups, were asked to imagine a start-up located in 2050 using 2-3 technologies chosen among the 99 presented in the table. Each group then created a value proposition and a vision for their new company and pitched it in the last 10 minutes available. Each of the groups came up with great ideas, some resembling plots heard in Sci-fi novels, as the “artificial swarm of robots” interacting with the climate thanks to whole earth-visualization technology. One was called “organs 4 all” and intended to use robot surgeons for head-transplants in the space, giving the advantage of zero-gravity, slowing tissue damages in the patient. Another one pitched a start-up whose goal was to remove bad memories from people, while the last one was about asteroid mining thanks to space elevators. All of the ideas were great and very imaginative.

We wanted to inspire and we came back to the office inspired. The feeling is that this cohort had a passion and is actively talking advantage of new technology to further understanding of future possibilities. They were driven to create solutions that contribute to a better world by being inspired by new technologies and opportunities.

We wish them all the best and we are excited to see what this cohort does next.