Understanding: A Series of Essays

Robots are often touted as the ultimate solution to many of the world’s problems. As a roboticist, I wonder how much of it is just hype? In this series of essays, I try to answer this question as I aim to understand the core of pressing global issues and uncover what place robots have in approaching real-world problems.

As defined by the United Nations, global issues are “issues that transcend national boundaries and cannot be solved by any one country acting alone”. The UN System works together to solve global issues and has highlighted some at their website which I highly recommend the enthusiastic reader to check out. Below I listed some global issues that stand out to me personally.

• Food
• Water
• Energy
• Climate change
• Big data for sustainable development
• Ageing population

I will be focusing on these topics for the coming articles in this series. I should note that these topics are by no means isolated from other global issues. Food or water scarcity is strongly tied with Poverty, Health, Children, and Peace issues. Needless to say, Climate change, Big Data, and the Aging population affect almost all global issues. The relationship between global issues will be further covered in their articles. The following are essays under this series:

• Understanding Food Security [IN PROGRESS]
• Understanding Water Security [IN PROGRESS]
• Understanding Agriculture [IN PROGRESS]
• Understanding Search and Rescue (SAR) [IN PROGRESS]
• Understanding Sustainable Energy [PENDING]
• Understanding Global Warming [PENDING]
• Understanding Big Data [PENDING]
• Understanding Aging Population [PENDING]

I am by no means the field expert of these subject matter, and would very much like to hear your opinion and feedback on the work presented. Please email me at yuelinnchong@gmail.com or use this contact form.

For works within my domain, ie. robotics, see my publications.