Brac University has organised lecture on “Migration, Innovation and the Future of Work”. It was presented by Associate Professor Prithwiraj Choudhury of the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. The event was arranged by Brac Business School (BBS) on Wednesday, 18 December, 2019.
Associate Professor Prithwiraj Choudhury urged students to view problems as opportunities. Any problem, be it social or professional, cannot be solved without first challenging it. Students should break down one problem into 500 rudimentary ones. Then stick to one to come to a solution. This is how innovation works.
Innovation was connected to migration in more ways than one. Migration has two sides. One is that it is the oldest phenomenon for developing human capital and recombining knowledge. The other is that it is not affordable for all for economic and political reasons. This can be better understood by looking at the Silicon Valley. Migrating to that area enables development of human capital and recombining of knowledge. But not all can afford to migrate there. This is because rent is very high there, even for a small house. The speaker found the solution to this issue through research in remote work. This is already practiced by web-based software developer GitLab of San Francisco. Valued at $2 billion, the company has 1,000 employees. All work from their homes around the world with no dent on productivity. The research found another benefit of people being able to live where they want. It enables working an additional five years past the retirement age of 60-65 years.
The speaker also investigated the application of machine learning methods in research and practice. Students should not have paranoia over machines or artificial intelligence becoming a threat. Machines carry out predictions and act based on data provided by humans. These predictions cannot be error free every time. Clarity of data and instructions require human assistance. According to the associate professor, machines would surely replace humans in some jobs. But that is not a threat for humans at all. He suggested students prepare themselves by undertaking hands-on courses on machine learning.
The lecture ended with students and teachers engaging in a question-answer session with the speaker. Associate Vice-President and BBS Dean Mohammad Mahboob Rahman, PhD presented a gift to the speaker as a token of appreciation.