Assessment

Task

You have been tasked to prepare a report for potential investors that allows them to understand the potential social, ethical and legal opportunities and risks of a technology, selected from a list of topics provided on the Moodle site.

You have graduated from your degree and now work in a small tech start-up company. Potential investors are excited about the technology you are developing, and see significant opportunity for financial growth. However the investors also place high importance on social responsibilities: although they want to make money, they also want their investments to make positive contributions to society (in fact, some investors may be prepared to lose money if the social contribution is significant).

Your report should cover the following:

1. Explain the technology being developed.
2. List the stakeholders in the technology you are developing. That is, who may potentially benefit or lose from the development.
3. Discuss the intellectual property protection that your company may obtain, including the advantages and disadvantages of using protection. At least 2 measures must be discussed - select from copyright, trademarks, patents and trade secrets.
4. Discuss potential opportunities and benefits that the technology may bring, and which stakeholders are involved. At least 2 issues must be discussed, e.g. related to privacy, censorship, employment, cybercrime, information overload (or other ethical/social issues).
5. Discuss potential risks and drawbacks that the technology may bring, and which stakeholders are involved. At least 2 issues must be discussed.
6. Summarises why the technology opportunities outweigh the risks (that is, convince the investors to invest).

Assume the potential investors are the audience for the report and that they already have financial information about the development (that is, do not include financial opportunities/risks in the report). Focus on social, ethical or legal issues, such as those covered in the unit, e.g. privacy, censorship, employment, cybercrime, information overload.

References must be used to support the discussion.

Format

There is no mandatory format for the report, however consider the following guidelines:

• Include your name, student ID and the selected topic title.
• Use section headings to guide the reader. 
• There are no suggested or mandatory word limits. However as a guide, items 3, 4 and 5 above may about 1 to 2 pages of text each. Items 1, 2 and 6 may be about 1/2 page (or less) each. Focus on the quality of writing and providing clear and detailed explanations, rather than the quantity.
• You may use pictures if necessary (e.g. explaining the technology), however either draw your own picture or clearly acknowledge the author if using someone elses picture. 

You may use the example template Word document, although it is not required.

Submission

You must submit one (1) Microsoft Word document (docx or doc) on Moodle. Late submissions will be penalised at a rate of 5% per part of day.

Topic List

The technology you select must be one of the following topics. If you want to consider a different technology you must ask the Unit Coordinator at least two weeks before the deadline, and if they agree, they will add the new technology to this list. Any reports on technologies not listed below will be penalised.

1. Auto Boats. A cheap kit that can be added to any boat, allowing that boat to be self-navigating.
2. Social Networking. Social networking website that will attract a large percentage of Internet users under the age of 18. 
3. Traffic Decryptor. USB dongle that can be inserted into common network equipment (routers, switches, servers) that automatically captures and decrypts data passing through that equipment.
4. Cryptocurrency. A cryptocurrency that provides complete, secure transaction records, anonymity of users, and has support of large banks to convert to cash.
5. People Detector. AI software that has extremely high accuracy of identifying people using face and gait detection. 
6. Auto Lecturer. Software that can "watch" online videos and "read" books in specific domains, and then produce high quality interactive videos (including answer questions) that can be used for university lectures.
7. Intelligent Advertising. Electronic billboards or advertising signs in public places that can direct targeted advertising to passers-by based on analysing audio and video recordings. E.g. the sign "hears" (via speech recognition) you asked your friend about a restaurant and "sees" (via computer vision) your age, gender, dress, emotional state, and then produces an ad of a nearby "relevant" (based on its algorithms and data) restaurant.
8. Robot Nurse. A robot that can perform physical activities, make decisions and provide emotional support equivalent to that of a human nurse.