[Photo by Radowan Nakif Rehan on Unsplash]
The first computer was invented in 1822 by an English mathematician, Charles Babbage. Since then, computers have become part of our everyday lives.
But, computers and modern technology have done more than bring us TikTok and YouTube.
Here are the 5 real-world marvels made possible by computer science.
Healthcare Innovations
One of the most amazing things computer science has given us is life-saving healthcare innovations.
A key example of this is Watson.
Watson is an artificial intelligence used to answer questions via techniques like language processing, information retrieval, machine learning, and automated reasoning.
Watson was developed by IBM and has helped cancer doctors to prescribe personalized treatment plans to their patients.
This has improved the care of patients with cancer and has optimized personal healthcare. Saving doctors and patients valuable time and resources.
Another ground-breaking innovation is BrainGate.
BrainGate was designed by Cyberkinetics. It’s a brain implant system that aims to help people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or spinal cord injuries.
To simplify, BrainGate sends signals from the patient’s brain to an external decoder that is connected to a prosthetic limb. This allows patients to use prosthetic limbs and regain their ability to move using these limbs.
If you’re tech-savvy and such life-saving innovation interests you, it’s possible to do an online Master’s in Computer Science for non-CS Majors. So even if you’re in a different career, you could still rock the world with your inventions.
Transportation Advancements
If technology has advanced to control prosthetic limbs, why not cars? Well, the road toward self-driving cars started before 2000, with the invention of cruise control and antilock brakes. After, came the advanced safety features like electronic stability control and blind-spot detection.
All these little innovations were built toward the creation of the self-driving car. The self-driving car uses cameras, radar, AI, and sensors to travel without a human driver.
What this means is that cars can drive themselves and us.
However, self-driving cars have their positives and negatives. The main positive of this is safety and the possible reduction in car crashes and traffic accidents. A major downside is that self-driving cars aren’t fully trusted. While they have the potential to revolutionize the way we travel, if not carefully designed, they could cause more accidents than it prevents.
Communication and Connectivity
Google is a tech giant. They’ve changed the way we interact with the internet. One of their major innovations is Google Glasses.
Google glasses look like regular glasses but let you browse the internet, make calls, and send text messages. You could also use them for navigation, which is super handy if you’re visiting a new city and don’t want to bother with your cell phone.
Another nifty feature is that you could use Google Glasses to call your friends via video chat and let them see what you’re seeing.
However, as amazing as these inventions are, none of them would be possible without Wi-Fi.
In the 90s, if you wanted to surf the internet, you needed to chain your computer to a network cable. Back then, it took hours to do anything. With Wi-Fi, anything you need is right at your fingertips.
It has become so essential to our daily lives that it’s strange to find homes without it. Wi-Fi also ensures that information and data can be exchanged between different machines and technologies, such as traffic control and medical equipment.
Environmental Sustainability
Automation, made possible by computer engineering, has become the new norm. So much so that complex algorithms are used to predict the weather via climate models.
Meteorologists use weather models and data to make forecasts about current and future weather conditions.
This technology allows us to prepare for conditions to come. It can help with preventing planes and ships from becoming trapped in storms.
A natural extension of the weather model is the climate model.
Similarly to the weather model, the climate model uses various data and AI software to make predictions on average weather conditions. But, climate models tell us how the weather will change over time.
This helps scientists predict droughts, floods, and other possible natural disasters.
This technology has also helped scientists track the current climate crisis. It allows them to make recommendations so that we can all do our part for the environment.
Space Exploration
Technology has made amazing strides in the way we travel the world, but it hasn’t stopped there. Using a combination of computer sciences and technology, scientists have allowed us to explore the universe.
In 1971, America sent the first lunar rover to the moon. Since then, 2 more were sent and in 2020, the Mars rover was launched.
Although they’re in different parts of the milky way, the lunar rover and Mars rover have a similar job.
Both are meant to explore their respective planets/moons and collect rock and soil samples. Most importantly, the Mars rover is searching for any signs of life.
These little robots drastically increased the range astronauts could cover. This meant astronauts could cover more ground than ever before.
