First person blog from Faye

I was delighted to be invited to host the International Tech Up For Women – IFA Berlin Virtual Conference event earlier this month (2nd September 2021).  And, poignantly, to be able to do so from here in Cambridge, the UK’s centre of Science, Technology and Innovation, one of the most respected Science & Tech hubs in the world. 

Such is the success of the celebrated Cambridge Cluster that I was proud to share that our small city receives four times the amount of tech investment per head than in London. And, as the UK’s most inventive city, has more patents published per resident than any other in the UK.

Such entrepreneurship builds on this city’s long history of invention, with Cambridge famed for being the birthplace of the reflecting telescope, IVF, hovercrafts, the Clearblue pregnancy predictor test, iris recognition and, of course, good old Alexa, to name but a few …

I feel enormously privileged to have spent most of my career working with some of the most incredible technology startups and corporations who are doing truly world-changing things.

And I was similarly excited to hear from the broad range of speakers on the Tech Up For Women agenda what technological advancements there are simmering on the horizon – from fintech and cryptocurrency, to AI and the cloud, across a variety of sectors including automotive and space.

It goes without saying that technology is now inextricably part and parcel of our daily lives – at work and at home. It’s pervasive actually. And the Internet rules it. I mean, how many of us could last even a day without our smart device? Not many, I suspect, when you realise that there are currently 4.66billion active internet users worldwide – that is, almost 60% of the global population. And, of this total, nearly 93 percent (4.32 billion) access the internet via a smart device.

For context, Amazon has approximately 100 million Prime users. Facebook sells a “free” product and has 1.6 billion daily users. Twitter sells a “free” product and has 125 million daily users. WeChat recently surpassed a billion daily users.

Of course, back in the 80s – when I was a young one – we didn’t live our lives online. There were no smartphones, or social media for that matter. And we were quite content with the significant consumer technological advancements of the day.

Let’s reflect on a few of them, count how many you remember or have ever heard of:

  • the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES),
  • the Sony Walkman,
  • the Sharp Pocket computer,
  • the Apple Mackintosh 128k, 
  • the Casio Databank watch,
  • the Polaroid Sun AF 660,
  • the Nintendo Game Boy,
  • the VHS player
  • and, of course, the Clapper, a simple device that plugged into a wall socket and allowed you to turn off the lights with a simple clap of your hands. Alexa who?

How times have changed. But then technology has the power to do many things, and changing the world is one of them.

So I also feel privileged to be living in a time where science and technology can assist us and make our lives easier. The technology we’re used to has paved the way for us to innovate further – and, in turn, our future technologies will go on to change our lives even more, in lots of different ways…

So what of the next 40 years?

In Cambridge, NVIDIA is already creating a world-class AI Research Centre and superhub dedicated to research covering leading-edge work in healthcare, drug discovery, autonomous vehicles, robotics, data science and more for the post-pandemic world.

Elsewhere, we are promised Space Tourism; 3D printed food; fridges that automatically order what you’re running low of; smart toothbrushes that send data to your dentist; lab-grown meats; self-driving cars, solar-powered cars, flying cars even; computer-powered transport and driverless lorries; roads over oceans; robots in the workplace; working in VR; gesture-based computing; wearable screens; Cloud gaming without machines … All this and more beckons. Indeed, these are exciting times ahead.

We hear so much about the negative impact of technology – how all these amazing technological advances are conversely dumbing down our human capabilities – and not just our ability to communicate, which we hear so much about.

But as with all disruptive things – like the first car or the invention of the washing machine – the gaps filled by doing these things better, can be filled with more meaningful work.

We are truly at a pivotal time where companies’ and users’ adoption of technology will exponentially increase – but, at the same time, they should also focus on making a positive impact. As Steve Jobs famously observed, his ambition was “to make a ding in the universe” – to make a mark – that’s the practical vision of the role of technology.

So it’s great to remind ourselves about technology for good – whether that is technology with a conscience, technology with purpose, or ‘technology for our planet’ to help us reach our Net Zero targets.

The bionic arm invention by Canadian startup, smartARM is a great example of tech with a social conscience. They created a 3D-printed, robotic prosthetic hand for amputees that costs less than £600. That’s the kind of ding that will really make a difference.

Societal and human improvement relies on technology – but, whereas in the past, people have had to adapt to technology, now we need technology that aligns to the needs of people. Technology that connects and harnesses information to create knowledge. Technology that empowers people to innovate.

We can all create value through the integration of technology into our lives and business.

Shaping our tomorrows, creating a better society, aligning our business operations through technology, and creating positive social outcomes shouldn’t just be an aim, but an obligation as we face the global challenges ahead.

The world is going to look a very different place again in 10, even five years’ time. And, as women, we have an important role to play – not just because of the role we must play in the development of the technology we need, but the need for diversity in the creations of the future.

If AI continues to be developed predominantly by men, it will naturally have a bias. Lest we forget, each and everything in the world has historically been designed for the average white male to use, or with the white male in mind. From the crash test dummy through to laparoscopic surgical instruments with ‘male grip strength’. In fact, it is only recently that diversity has even been a consideration for device manufacturers working on medtech, healthtech and everyday surgical instrument design, and that is just one example area. 

By being women in tech, whatever the level or function, we can be part of the solution where we create a future we need and, most importantly, that we’ll want when we get there.