Interesting Topic for last class

The topic that caught my interest was civil engineering. This stood out to me because I use to work for the Army Corps of Engineers. As a result, I have a lot of friends who are civil engineers and I am curious into how this relates to human interaction with systems and how you research the subject and relate it to our respective field. Maybe this will give me an interesting topic to discuss and perhaps explore further with my engineering buddies.

What do you consider is Big Data and why?

I consider big data to be the research, collection, entry, and analysis of a large amount of information, often involving multiple sources and databases. To me it is a large collection of information or data that is used for some meaningful purpose after all the data and/or information is analyzed. I believe data is the collection of information therefore I consider big data to be the collection of a large amount of information from multiple sources. An example of big data would be the tracking of crime in New York City. The information on the nature of the crime, victims, perpetrators, and area are all taken into account and put into a database to predict, control, and focus on where the most crimes are being committed, what crimes are likely to happen in certain areas, who is committing such crimes and where, and many other useful information the police use to combat crime in their city.

Tell me an interest of yours in technology and why it interests you.

There are so many different ways I could go with this topic. I use technology everyday, whether it is my smartphone, my Xbox, or my laptop. Technology is a big part of everyday life for a large amount of people in this country and other developed countries. However, a particular interest of mine, which I have only been aware of recently, is Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices. These devices provide a means of speaking and writing for individuals who have difficulty communicating with others, whether it be due to autism, a car accident, or  under some other unfortunate circumstances. The great thing about AAC is that they can be either low tech or high tech communications and is yet another example in which technology can improve people's lives. This subject interests me because my brother is autistic and has used low tech AAC devices in the past. He is my motivation and the reason for my interest in using assistive technology to improve the life of those with disabilities.

How will we interact with PCs/Laptops in 5 - 10 years? Will we be using keyboards/mouse, or something entirely different?

In 5 to 10 years I think we will continue to use laptops with keyboards and a mouse, although I could see touch screen pcs being increasingly integrated into the market. This would include smartphones along with touch screen laptops and other mobile devices being hooked up on a docking station or connected to a larger screen with an HDMI cord or another similar device.
As new devices continue to react to gestures, I think in someway our pcs and laptops will have a number of features and capabilities where they can track sensors. But the traditional touchpad, mouse, and keyboard will stay present due to its familiarity to users. I think they will be similar to successful video game consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox, who rely on customers committed to the product name.  Those game systems have features of motion sensors but also continue to stick to the traditional methods of game controllers for the time being.