The Pros and Cons of Modern Technology

My research explores the role of pharmacists in the detection of atrial fibrillation, or irregular (“funny”) heart beat by using novel, mobile technology. Come to my talk to watch a live heart test and to find out more about a simple and painless 30-second check, which can help identify heart conditions before they cause strokes or other health problems.

Drones are being deployed with increasing frequency by the UK military for operations that rely on the identification of unfamiliar people, such as the acquisition and subsequent elimination of targets. However, the scientific study of facial recognition suggests that this process should be quite challenging, and prone to high error rates. In this talk, I will refer to some key studies that support this position, including the only psychological study to date that investigates the ability of humans to identify unfamiliar people from aerial footage recorded by drones.

Online advertising is big business. Firms can launch targeted ad campaigns suited to what they believe we want, or to influence our beliefs in particular ways. To allow such targeting, organisations constantly explore new ways to gather information about us, often at the expense of our privacy. This spans traditional web tracking, smartphone apps and new technologies (e.g. smart-tech). In this talk, I demystify how online advertising works, the tricks advertisers use to track users, and what the risks to us are. I also provide some tools and tips you can use to protect yourself online!