Will this new technology work to solve the problem its inventors claim it will? Is it likely to succeed? What is the right technical solution for a particular problem? Can we narrow down the options before we invest in development? How do we persuade our colleagues, investors, clients, or readers of our technical reasoning? Whether you're a researcher, a consultant, a venture capitalist, or a technology officer, you may need to be able to answer these questions systematically and with clarity. Most people learn these skills through years of experience. However, they are so basic to a high-level technical career that they should be made explicit and learned up front.
Bains provides you with the tools you need to think through how to match new (and old) technologies, materials, and processes with applications. It starts with key questions to ask, goes through the resources you'll need to answer them, and helps you think through who is most (and least) likely to deserve your trust. Next, it talks you through analyzing the information you've gathered in a systematic way. The book includes chapters on audience (and how to tailor your explanation to them), how to make a persuasive and structured technical argument, and how to write this up in a way that is credible and easy to follow. Finally, the book includes a case study: a real worked example that goes from an idea through the twists and turns of the research and analysis process to a final report.
Author(s): Sunny Bains
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 224
City: Oxford
Cover
Explaining the Future: How to Research, Analyze, and Report on Emerging Technologies
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Chapter 1:
Key Questions
Question 1: What’s so special about this technology?
Question 2: What problem are you trying to solve?
Technical requirements
Ethical and legal requirements
Commercial requirements
Potential obstacles
No problem for the solution? Be creative . . .
Question 3: What is the effect of time?
Limits
Money, momentum, and market
Getting started
Question 4: What is the competition?
The status quo
Technology in development
Something completely different
Question 5: What are the features of each competitor?
Summary
Chapter 2:
Finding Answers
Getting organized
Example work flow
Which application is the most promising?
What are the application’s requirements?
What is the competition?
What are the features of the competing technologies?
A simple plan
Real life steps in
Types of sources
Keywords
Search engines
Technical
The technical literature
Forward and backward citations
Books and book chapters
Commercial/technical
Patents
The technical press
Industry bloggers
Industry reports and roadmaps
The outside world
People
Conferences
Lab, company, and site visits
Business development and PR/comms people
Commercial
Trademarks and designs
Annual reports
Websites, press releases, and whitepapers
Summary
Chapter 3:
Perspectives and Agendas
The press and the trade press
Look for the naysayers
Disagreement over the problem to be solved
Misleading without deliberately lying
More contrary positions
Individual agendas
Industry/corporation-supported cheerleaders
Credibility, analysis, and balance
Summary
Chapter 4:
Analyze
Starting point
Application-focused analysis
Technology-focused analysis
Choosing an application
Level of detail
On time, on spec
Routes through the process
Phase 1: Understand the technology
Step 1: The basics
Step 2: Features
Step 3: Potential applications
Step 4: Eliminating distractions
Phase 2: Taking the application’s point of view
Step 1: The basics
Step 2: The competition
Phase 3: Timing
Step 1: Ramping up
Step 2: Roadmap and uncertainty
Step 3: Evolution
Phase 4: Coming to a conclusion
Phase 5: Reality checking
Step 1: The application
Step 2: Your own work
Step 3: Fixing your analysis
Summary
Case Study Part I: Research and Analysis
A quick introduction to neuromorphic engineering
A quick introduction to photonics in computing
Getting down to work
Iterative trawling
Redirection
Moving forward
Moving the goalposts
Toward the finish line
Wrapping up
Chapter 5:
Audience and Explanation
Audience
Showing respect
Preparation
Multiple audiences
Purpose
Explanation
Jargon
Visualization
Photos
Diagrams
Graphs
Videos
Different audiences, different images
Figure captions and legends
Copyright and plagiarism
Summary
Chapter 6:
Technical Argument and Structure
The technical argument
What is the vision?
What is the status quo?
What is the technical problem?
What are the competing solutions?
What is the new solution?
What are the obstacles?
What is the prognosis?
Structure
Weight
Writing the title and introduction last
Title
Introduction
Conclusion
Variations on an outline
Outline for a basic research project
Outline for a review
Summary
Chapter 7:
Credibility
Show, don’t (just) tell
Be honest, authoritative, and accurate
Prepare for objections
Signposts, resting points, and flow
Paragraphs
Topic and linking sentences
Connector phrases
Non sequiturs
Sentence length
Section and subheadings
Make it easy to read
Voice
Repetition
Grammar
Legibility
Mathematics, code, data, and other technical detail
References
Don’t give rough drafts to readers
Summary
Case Study Part II:
Report
Will silicon photonics speed up deep learning?
Optimizing neural hardware
New viability for photonics
Discussion
Conclusion
Epilogue
References
Index
