We are living in a new world. Computers are increasingly coming out corporate offices and moving into our living room, cars, pockets and gym. Computers no longer stay on a desktop for work alone, but being taken everywhere we go. Dramatic developments in microprocessors and memory chips turn ordinary artifacts like desk, chair and buildings into intelligent ones -- one that we can interact with and remember who we are and what we did last time. Technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Quick Response (QR) code, along with increasingly powerful short-distance wireless technology such as Bluetooth, enables us to create sensor network, transforming the way we experience time and space. Broadband cellular network and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have turned ordinary mobile phones into a powerful computing platform. Virtual reality has become a reality. In the world of Second Life, over $100 million worthy of economic trading takes place, every day! Companies like IBM, GM and Best Buy have their own presence in Second Life. YouTube is threatening the future of broadcasting industry in the same way Amazon.com has completely transformed the retail business, just few years ago. Myspace and Facebook have become one of the most important place to make friends. In short, we live in a brave new world of computing.

How can business respond to this fundamental changes in computing? While some of the old principles that we learned for Enterprise Resource Planning Systems and corporate Intranet and Internet still remain relevant, there are many new rules and princples that companies need to learn. These new computing technologies will not only influence corporate IT department, but also new product development, marketing and strategy. While the IT in the past was mostly hidden from customers, now computers have become the primary medium by which companies and customers are interacting with.

In this course, students will survey emerging new computing technologies and try to imagine new business opportunities utilizing those technologies. In particular, we explore ubiquitous computing, social computing and virtual reality as three representative emerging technologies. Students will read articles about these technologies, conduct case studies about companies utilizing these technologies and design their innovations using these technologies. The class will be conducted as a studio-style class where students will constantly bring their project work into the classroom and use those ideas and materials as the basis of class discussion.