Solving today's challenging problems using breakthrough technology

Its time for team based project for my Fall class at SJSU again. It requires a great deal of passion and team effort to do something that has not done before. I always encourage my students to think big and solve a problem which has not been solved before. And trust me, there are plenty of problems which might have solutions but either they are not uniquely addressing the problem or they can't be afforded by the masses. Anyway, here again I am posting some ideas that you can research and brainstorm to come up on a problem statement.

1. Barcode of Life (DNA Barcoding)

DNA barcoding is a molecular-based identification system that aims to identify biological specimens, and to assign them to a given species. DNA based identification for multi cellular life is an emerging concept and scientists from 25 countries have got together to create a database of DNA barcodes (BOLD) to solve multi-faceted problems. 

Here are some potential use cases:
a) Timber and wild life trafficking
b) Traceability of food pipeline for food safety
c) more..

2. Blockchain:

Blockchain is a technology for a new generation of transactional applications that establishes trust, accountability and transparency while streamlining business processes. It is a design pattern made famous by bitcoin, but its uses go far beyond. It has the potential to vastly reduce the cost and complexity of cross-enterprise business processes. The application of this emerging technology is showing great promise across a broad range of business applications.

Blockchain technology example

Here are some potential use cases:

a) Tracking the origin and movement of a high value item across a supply chain. Think of Money transfer as a simple example. Counterfeit drugs or high priced fashion items are other examples. 

b) Mechanism for collectively record keeping and notarizing any type of data financial or otherwise. This is not necessarily about a physical asset. 

c) explore non-financial use cases of Block chain 

3. Hyperspectral Image Analysis:

Hyperspectral imagery consists of much narrower bands (10-20 nm). A hyperspectral image could have hundreds of thousands of bands. This uses an imaging spectrometer. 

Here is an excellent read: http://gisgeography.com/multispectral-vs-hyperspectral-imagery-explained/

This is an emerging technology being used in several domain including:

a) Smart Farm irrigation techniques http://gamaya.com/

b) surveillance and reconnaissance

c) Agricultural drones

4. Conversational Interfaces:

Voice interfaces have come a long way but Thanks to the advances in Machine learning voice control has become much more practical. This eliminates the need for hundreds of different interfaces which will be hard to develop and keep up with the users. 

5. Application of Crowd funding into brand new space

6. IoT and Analytics for Better life

IoT is inside our home and offices already, from Nest to 24x7 monitoring of indoor conditions. Here is one company sells device for making you aware on the indoor air quality.  How about developing an IoT solution which can monitor overall "mood" indoor and suggest people to do something better for their health and happiness. This can be monitored by camera and activities in the house such as movement tracking, smile on faces, crying kids vs happy kids, yelling, of course indoor air and noise quality, temperature etc...

Augmented Tools for construction. Read this paper: https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2016/EECS-2016-90.pdf

This idea can be applied to healthcare, interior decoration, farming and more..