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Better Decision-Making
ICT systems allow your business to store, process, analyze and share vast amounts
of data. The information available from corporate data enables managers and
employees to make decisions quickly and accurately so that they can manage
operations effectively and respond rapidly to business opportunities or threats.
Communication networks also enable decision-makers in different locations to
work together easily when they need to take joint decisions.
Greater Collaboration
Communication networks enable your project teams to collaborate effectively. By
using videoconferencing or web conferencing over the Internet, teams can hold
virtual meetings that bring together members from different locations, or different
organizations, such as suppliers or business partners. This helps to create stronger
project teams and enables the teams to maintain progress on important projects,
rather than waiting for members to meet in a single location. In a product
development program, for example, teams can reduce overall project time and get
new products to market faster, giving the company a strong competitive advantage.
One might think that computers and engineering are distinct technological pursuits, as
people often equate engineering with large macroscopic projects while computers are
seen as producing effects that are contained on microscopic chips. However, since the
90s we have increasingly seen a merger of the two fields, which is not only resulting in a
rise in software engineering jobs but in the widespread adoption of computer-aided
technologies into traditional engineering fields. As a result, engineers are seeing a
significant expansion of options in how they can pursue work. Here are a few different
ways young engineers can integrate computer technology into their careers:
Learn CAD software
One of the major uses of computer technology in engineering is with CAD software.
Computer aided design software is the application of computer technology for the
purposes of design. This industrial art is now widely used in many traditional industries,
such as automobile manufacturing, shipbuilding, aerospace, prosthetics, architectural
projects and even special effects in movies.
The use of computers in law enforcement has changed and developed rapidly,
especially in recent years. Computers are used to hold databases of information, to
run sophisticated software that can recognize faces or identify fingerprints and to
connect to the Web, an avenue for communication and a rich source of intelligence.
As well as desktop computers, law enforcement personnel also use mobile devices,
such as laptops and tablets, to do their job.
Databases
Computer technology allows law enforcement services to store and retrieve vast
amounts of data. This information can include details of incident reports, criminals'
descriptions, fingerprints and other identifying marks. It can also include
descriptions and registrations of vehicles involved in criminal activity. Another
crucial pool of information is DNA data taken from suspects. DNA databases allow
samples of DNA taken from suspects to be matched with samples taken from crime
scenes.
Sharing Information
The Internet
Cyber Crime
Law enforcement agencies must also use the Internet when tackling online crime.
This can include the sharing of illegal material, such as pirated commercial movies
or music. "Phishing" and other forms of identity theft that use email or the Internet
must also be addressed using computer technology, as must attacks using viruses
and hacking attacks. Law enforcements from different countries must often work
together to tackle cyber crime.
ICT in Medicine
Quick revise
Body scanners
A body scanner sends electromagnetic rays through a patient’s body and sensors detect
how much different parts of the body absorb the rays.
A computer uses this data to build up an image of the inside of a patient’s body.
Body scanners allow doctors to find and treat conditions such as tumours in their early
stages when the chances of treating them successfully are much greater.
Patient monitoring
Computers are used in hospitals to monitor critically ill patients in intensive care units.
The patient has sensors attached to him which detect changes in heart rate, pulse rate,
blood pressure, breathing and brain activity.
If any of these fall below a preset level the computer sounds an alarm and alerts the
medical staff.
The data is also logged and used to analyse the changes in a patient’s condition over a
period of time.
Organ transplants
Computerised databases are used to help match patients who are waiting for organ
transplants such as a new kidney, liver or heart, with suitable organs from donors.
Patient records
Computerised databases are used by every hospital in the country to store information
about patients.
Uses of these databases include: organising the transfer of patients between wards
recording the history of a patient’s appointments with a consultant booking outpatient
appointments booking ambulances ordering equipment.
How computer science equips medical research
This video shows recent advances in computing has enabled biologists to sequence and
decode species' entire genetic codes into a gnome. The use of a BBC newsreel and
interviews highlight the increasing dependency of scientists on the storage and processing
capabilities of computer systems; and how this is being used to compare the genetic codes
of bacteria to identify the source of infectious diseases such as cholera. It also highlights
some of the data storage and processing challenges associated with collecting, storing, and
effectively and efficiently interrogating extremely large data sets.