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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
While we might not yet be able to levitate objects by simply using our brainwaves, the rigorous study of brainwaves has certainly led to some astounding developments. Dr. Christoph Guger, CEO and President of g•tec (gtec.at), a medical engineering product development company, introduces the spectacular technology behind their groundbreaking work that allows an individual to control external devices with their thoughts.
Dr. Guger's company, g•tec, is a pioneer in the field of brain–computer interface (BCI) technology. BCI creates a direct pathway of communication between a wired brain and a particular external device. Dr. Guger received his education in biomedical engineering at the University of Technology, Graz, Austria. Guger's PhD work centered around real-time analysis of EEG data for the application into, and development of, brain-computer interface technology.
The medical engineering CEO explains the complex process that BCI uses to allow users who are paralyzed to communicate via brainwaves. While the process is highly advanced, in simplest terms the BCI displays multiple characters and images on a screen and the user responds to the flashing images. Brainwaves are detected in this process and the computer translates the user's brainwave responses into sentences. Guger expounds upon the advances in stroke rehabilitation that BCI has enabled by allowing the user's brainwaves to initiate electrical stimulators such that the brain learns to control the body again. And Guger discusses how BCI, amazingly, allows for select coma patients to actually respond via their brainwaves to yes / no questions. Thus the BCI, in these cases, is not only allowing physicians to gain a better understanding of their patient, but it provides families with renewed hope, and a connection to their loved ones previously thought to have been lost forever. BCI, in some cases, has miraculously given coma patients a new confidence that aids them in their ability to return to a conscious state.
The g•tec CEO gives an overview of some of the exciting new developments coming soon in the BCI technology arena, such as events in which programmers, designers, and artists come together for several days to develop new brain-computer interface applications. Some of the areas being developed are for controlling drones, prosthetics, controls for television and lighting systems, surgical applications, and so much more.
Guger's company, g•tec developed and launched their first commercially available BCI system back in 1999. Today, their advanced BCI system is in over 60 countries worldwide.
As a fellow at both the Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Hoover Institution, Andrew Grotto centers his work on the intersection between emerging technology, governance, and national security. According to Grotto, the decisions that governments make about technology have national security applications in the US and affect global foreign policy; this is just part of the reason why it's important to evaluate the benefits and risks of emerging technologies.
Grotto offers insight on a number of topics, including how large versus small companies may be affected by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), voting and election security, three different types of companies that will play a role in the cyber security and privacy debate, and an emerging phenomenon referred to as "deep fake" videos.
Hit play for a detailed and informative conversation about these topics and more.
"Technology is progressing very fast, and I think ethics in AI is our biggest challenge for the next couple of decades," says Dorian Kierken. As the founder and CEO of Age of Minds, Kierken is focused on the future of artificial intelligence and the ways in which the human species will interact with it.
He began asking himself what he should be working on in order to make sure that the lifespan and happiness of his daughter--and the human species as a whole--is maximized. He's narrowed it down to five: AI ethics, energy conservation, drinkable water, waste management, and climate change.
Tune in for an interesting discussion on these topics and many more, and visit ageofminds.com to learn more about Kierken's work.
The Kinesis Monetary System is an evolutionary step beyond any monetary system available in the world today. It enhances money as both a store of value and a medium of exchange and has been developed for the benefit of all. Core to the mechanics of the system is the perpetual incentive and thus stimulus for money velocity. Outside capital is attracted into Kinesis via a highly attractive risk/return ratio and then put into highly stimulated movement, promoting commerce and economic activity.
This is achieved through structuring money to represent 100% allocated title of an asset and then attaching a unique multifaceted yield system that fairly shares the wealth generated by the system according to participation and money velocity.
Marcus Eriksen, Co-founder & Research Director of 5 Gyres Institute (5gyres.org) leads an informative discussion on the ever-growing plastic trash problem that is having a detrimental impact on our seas, sea life, and planetary health.
Eriksen's experience in the area of marine research is vast, as he has led multiple expeditions around the globe to specifically research plastic marine pollution. As a pioneer in this field of study, Eriksen's work, and subsequent discovery of plastic microbeads in the Great Lakes was so startlingly significant that it lead to the passage of the Microbead-free Waters Act of 2015. As a noted author on the subject and experienced researcher with a PhD in science education, Eriksen, and his wife Anna Cummins, launched the 5 Gyres Institute after completing an exhaustive 88-day trek from California to Hawaii on a raft built from 15,000 plastic bottles. The institute takes its name from the root word 'gyre' that is defined as a large-scale system of surface currents in the ocean that are driven by the wind.
The research director discusses his expeditions, the voyage with Captain Charles Moore (the oceanographer who discovered the sea trash accumulation zone), and the eureka moment when he realized that there were thousands of sea miles free for study. Eriksen's realization that the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Bay of Bengal, the Mediterranean Sea, and the equatorial waters were barely travelled and wide open for scientific research, spawned an idea. The idea was to embark upon major scientific expeditions to collect data and publish their findings on the sea plastic trash problem. After six years of study, their results were staggering. They concluded that there were an estimated 5.25 trillion bits of plastics floating in the oceans from a quarter of a million tons of trash.
The 5 Gyres co-founder details how cups, plastic bags, polystyrene, bottles and more are degraded into smaller bits by ocean currents, fish nibbling, and the sun's rays, and how these microsized bits are causing real damage to wildlife. Eriksen states that the ideal solution, other than simply not allowing any plastics to make it into the ocean altogether, would be to harness the trash plastics near coastlines, before they get out to sea.
Eriksen gives an eye-opening introduction to the strategies needed to tackle this global problem successfully. Ultimately, he states, the real solution is to tighten up community and municipality recycling programs from city centers all the way down to the individual homeowner. Getting a handle on the recycling of plastics at the source, and ending the production of single-use plastics would help to prevent the sea plastic trash problem before it happens. Unfortunately, recycling programs currently aren't meeting the challenge.
In regard to sea life health, toxins such as DDT, PCB, flame-retardants, etc. are being ingested. Thus sea life is ingesting chemical toxins from the volume of microplastics that exist within our oceans and the long-term effects to aquatic life, as well as human life, could be deleterious, but more study is needed.
Eriksen's team believes that the current implementation of recycling plans and programs only scratches the surface of the greater need. Eriksen affirms that truly successful recycling strategy would suggest that every manufacturer of a plastic or disposable item have an 'end of use' plan for their items. Ideas might include 'buy back' plans such that manufacturers take back their product, and provide coupons for their receipt, that would then provide discounts for secondary purchases, and so forth.
He'll discuss society's need to adopt stricter recycling strategies that put an end to carry out containers and usher in the concept of a 'bring your own' carry out container way of life. Additionally, the science educator discusses other concepts that walk us away from our disposable culture habits, such as 'heirloom culture,' which is the concept of buying things that might be more expensive but are built to last for years, perhaps decades.
To make a dent in the plastic and disposable trash problem, we must consider intelligent packaging, reduction of single-use, ending unnecessary plastic use, and rethink recycling and non-compostable waste strategies, etc.
Kidney failure? No problem. Need a new heart? Check, working on it. Let's just head on over to the 3D printer and print one up and send you on your way. While this sounds like science fiction, and currently still is, the advances in biofabrication and 3D bioprinting may intersect in a jaw-dropping, historical moment some day in our future. To learn more about the stunning advances in medical biofabrication that are being put to work today, listen to Dr. Lorenzo Moroni's intensive discussion of the present and future of modern medical science.
Lorenzo Moroni, a professor of biofabrication for regenerative medicine at Maastricht University delivers a dense foundation of information on the advances in biofabrication models, and how they may open the door to medical breakthroughs in drug therapy. Specifically, biofabrication is the production of intricate living as well as non-living biological entities from natural biological materials such as living cells and biochemical molecules, etc.
Moroni holds a master's degree in biomedical engineering from Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy, and in nanoscale sciences at Chalmers Technical University, Sweden, as well as a Ph.D. cum laude from the University of Twente.
Moroni's lab works to originate medical applications toward the creation of biological models to test treatments for new drugs, and to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the pathology of diseases in three dimensions.
The biomedical engineer details how biofabrication offers a more physiological, three-dimensional environment of a targeted tissue area or organ where the testing of new treatments and drugs is focused. Further, Dr. Moroni explains how testing drugs on cells of a three-dimensional substrate also enables higher quality testing of the efficacy and potency for these new drugs, chemical compounds, and therapies. As our bodies are three-dimensional, the testing of new drugs and therapies in three dimensions is more efficient, and provides better results than the traditional methods utilized in a two-dimensional laboratory cell culture testing environment.
Moroni discusses how biofabrication and 3D scaffolding allows for more targeted study and development of treatments and therapies for conditions or diseases that affect cartilage, heart valves, vascular tissue, and beyond. He touches on how these 3D processes are paving the way for a possible future that could see bioprinting of organs come to fruition, but cautions that we are still a long way away from reaching that monumental moment in history.
Robotics and automation have come a long way since the development of George Devol's 'Unimate' in the early 1950s. Before Unimate was impressing audiences on the Johnny Carson show in '66, the world of manufacturing was completely reliant on human power. Today, engineers are moving fast and forward with prototypes that may advance various industries. Listen in as Shashank Samala provides an overview of how his company, Tempo, is providing nearly real time feedback in the digital environment that pushes robotic automation to the next level.
Shashank Samala, Co-founder and VP of Products at Tempo (tempoautomation.com),
expounds upon his company's core belief that innovation can best be achieved by cycling rapidly from the origin point of an idea to its conception and realization. Through the creation of process fluidity, Samala's mission is to make it possible for engineers to explore and realize ideas at a faster pace—to reduce the time gap that begins at design and ends with testing. While simulation is helpful for engineers and designers, the creation time needed for their circuit boards is patently slow, and this is precisely the area that the Tempo co-founder expects to further facilitate.
Whereas many prototypes are produced on the high volume manufacturing system that is designed to churn our millions of units, Shashank Samala and his team at Tempo are rethinking this traditional model. Tempo fabricates their boards and sources parts in a matter of days, cutting the time lag down significantly. By retooling the traditional manufacturing model, essentially auto-configuring a factory and optimizing it for low volume by reprogramming automation robots for the new tasks, Samala hopes to revolutionize the prototype process.
Tempo's proprietary automation software creates an intact digital thread that rolls seamlessly from design through delivery. Engineers can upload their design and see real time manufacturing feedback in a matter of minutes, and setup times are decreased as each machine can take its proper manufacturing outputs directly from the design, all within the digital environment. Tempo uses machine learning to precisely predict delivery times, which can greatly enhance engineers' ability to maximize their work flow. The automation VP states that Tempo's work has been utilized for a swath of industries including automotive, aerospace, and medical, and that they are proud to play a small role in the development process and path to innovation.
Author and consultant, Whitney Johnson, President and Co-founder of Rose Park Advisors' Disruptive Innovation Fund discuss the power of disruption theory and how it can release the better self in all of us. With a background on Wall Street covering emerging markets and telecom, Whitney Johnson came to some important realizations about the personal challenges we all face in our careers, and the reasons we become stymied along the way. Johnson's books, Disrupt Yourself and Build an A-Team, focus on achieving goals through her core philosophy of 'disruption.' The consultant provides an overview of her mission to help people become better bosses and team builders and achieve higher goals by being cognizant of the moments when we are at the top of a learning curve and it may be time to move on. Disruption deals with recognizing this and making a change.
Johnson outlines how disruption theories suggest that one take on market risk, new markets that may not as of yet be fully actualized or even exist, as opposed to the competitive risk that comes with inserting oneself into a saturated market. Additionally, Johnson advocates playing to one's strength, for when individuals focus their challenges in areas where they have outstanding abilities they will be emboldened to attempt new challenges in unfamiliar markets, which could lead to successes.
The author and consultant details how the basic tenets of disruption philosophy can be utilized to help corporations and businesses build better teams. Building great teams come through optimizing learning curves. Johnson explains that businesses should strive to have approximately 70% of their team at a point in the learning curve where they know a sufficient amount but are not masters of the information. It is in this steep part of the learning curve that they are achievers and innovators.
Further, about 15% of the team should be at the lower end, such that they are not completely proficient and therefore ask many questions about process and reasoning. And through this question and answer process, innovative ideas often spring forth. Finally, 15% should be at the high end, and these are the masters of the information who provide the structure and guidance to keep the team moving forward.
The Innovation Fund co-founder stresses the importance of considering disruptive constructs such as: 'am I taking on market risk,' 'am I playing to my strengths,' 'is the task hard but not debilitating,' and 'am I gaining momentum.' Johnson advises individuals to appraise the variables and let the signs point them to their next career move, be it a disruption that takes them to a new uncharted adventure or one that moves them into a novel and challenging area within their company.
Nitin Agarwal - Founder of B21 joins Future Tech Podcast.B21 is a personal wealth management platform exclusively for crypto assets. Our mission is to make it easy for everyday investors to easily create and manage diverse portfolios of crypto assets.
Ultra is bringing the blockchain revolution to the gaming industry and creating a fair ecosystem for the future of games distribution With cutting-edge technology, Ultra aims to shake up the gaming industry by putting the power back into the hands of developers and players, paving the way for a first-class game publishing platform.
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