Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 41 | Qualcomm's VP of XR Hugo Swart Explains How VR, AR, MR, and Metaverse Will Change The World Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

The Metaverse is coming! It may be a virtual universe, but it has to run on real, physical, high-performance hardware. Tech mega-giant Qualcomm, led by Hugo Swart, is developing the chips behind new XR technology that has "the opportunity to change the world", similar to the smartphone era.

XR, for those still trying to catch up with the terminology, stands for "extended reality," a concept that encompasses VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and sometimes MR (mixed reality).

In this episode of Moore's Lobby, Daniel talks with Hugo about his background and the steps that led up to heading one of Qualcomm's most forward-facing divisions—and when they realized they were "onto something" with this whole XR thing. Topics of discussion include cutting-edge IC design, the difference between designing for AR vs. smartphones, and the nitty-gritty of parameters like "common illumination."

In this Moore's Lobby Season 4 opener, there are numerous highlights that Daniel and Hugo cover that you won't want to miss:

-Get that definition of the Metaverse you crave. (Spoilers: You'll need to make room in your brain for more buzzwords, like "spatial internet.")

-Hear Hugo explain Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2 platform's impact on XR, the first mobile AR/VR chip uniting AI and 5G broadband connectivity with twice the CPU and GPU performance, and why TIME named it one of the "Best Inventions of 2021".

-Discover how Magellan inspires engineers to sail for the "New New World" and why Hugo looks into the future and believes "your audience of engineers…they're going to have a lot of fun."

-Learn what it takes to build a chip suitable for multiple XR use cases, protect IP, and Hugo's take on why "power is king".

-Gain more knowledge on why Qualcomm's key partnerships with Microsoft, Meta, and other Silicon Valley partners are significant—years before they hit the mainstream.

Get Ready For Season 4 of Moore's Lobby Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

Season 4 of Moore's Lobby serves up conversations with some of the most fascinating leaders in the electronics industry.

Join host Daniel Bogdanoff as he geeks out with CTOs, inventors, engineers, and more about the hottest trends and most interesting technologies that are changing the world.

Ep. 40 | AWS VP of Engineering Wayne Duso on Managing ⅓ of the Internet's Cloud Storage Dec 21, 2021

Show notes

A huge amount of the internet—up to a third of it, in fact—is run by Amazon Web Services. But the cloud, as Wayne Duso puts it, is not magic pixie dust. It works because of the blood, sweat, and tears of engineers. Hear all about it in this Season 3 finale of Moore's Lobby.

Wayne Duso is one of the leading minds behind AWS, someone deeply familiar with the technical challenges and heavy responsibility of handling a third of the internet's traffic and data. AWS runs some of the top online services on the planet, including Netflix, Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

In the last episode of 2021, we welcome Wayne to talk about AWS's astronomical growth, Amazon's "working backward" philosophy, and why data storage never gets boring. Wayne also explains what caused the internet to "burn down" recently when AWS servers went down and the mentality of approaching such a crisis like a firefighter.

Also included in this can't-miss episode:

How Wayne ended up in the data storage business (i.e., looking up "C for computer" in the phone book and more jokes about clam bakes than you'd expect)
An inside look at AWS's world-conquering success (including stories about Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and clearing up rumors of AWS's origins)
Stories from the early days of the internet (Who the heck are the Four Horsemen of the internet?!)
Which one patent Wayne keeps on his wall when he threw away the other 35+
Why hardware engineers are more important than ever in a software-driven world

Ep. 39 | General Motors' Vehicle Chief Engineer on the Tech and Passion of Automotive Design Dec 07, 2021

Show notes

Everybody knows cars are becoming more like computers than mechanical devices. Few know this better than Mark Allen, Global Vehicle Chief Engineer at GM, a company that's been defining the American automotive business for a century. As an engineer who is also a car nut raised in the heart of American automotive manufacturing, Mark has a long view on the history and challenges of vehicle design.

The engineering that goes into making modern cars has changed enormously, to the point that Mark claims there are few purely mechanical systems left as electromechanical systems take over. This trend has also resulted in a blending of mechanical and electrical engineering tasks and skill sets, to the point that Mark says they barely distinguish between the two disciplines on the job. But, no matter what field they hail from, he says, engineers will never stop perfecting their craft, which is why the automotive industry has the performance and safety it does today.

In this episode of Moore's Lobby, catch conversation between Daniel and Mark about:

How new technologies like backup cams evolve from novelties to luxuries to expected to mandated
The cost of electronics in modern cars (and why that's harder to quantify than you might think)
Designing cars vs. designing smartphones and how durability impacts product lifespan

Mark's pure love of automotive carries through in this episode as he explains the lofty goals of the automotive industry, the difference having an EE CEO can make, and the (sometimes literal) highs and lows of vehicle testing.

Ep. 38 | Comedy, Shocks, and Educating EEs on YouTube with ElectroBOOM's Mehdi Sadaghdar Nov 23, 2021

Show notes

"Want to subconsciously learn while being entertained?" says the ElectroBOOM YouTube page. "Then subscribe!!"

Mehdi Sadaghdar is well-known for several things: his YouTube videos, his habit of accidentally shocking himself in said videos, his sense of humor, his impressive unibrow. But Sadaghdar is also one of the few electrical engineer celebrities alive today and he's made a name for himself by creating electronics educational videos on YouTube.

Just as his YouTube page promises, ElectroBOOM makes over 4.8 million subscribers laugh with his particular brand of hijinks while also teaching them about concepts like current limiting and magnetic fields in BLDC motors. The result is somewhere between Bill Nye, Mythbusters, and the Marx Brothers.

In this episode of Moore's Lobby, Mehdi and Daniel chat about the role of YouTube and social media in modern engineering education, especially the idea of teaching by showing (occasionally shocking) mistakes.

Also included in this episode:

The story of that one time Mehdi nearly died building a Jacob's Ladder
Answering the question, "Is it the current or the voltage that kills you?"
Throwing shade at mechanical engineers
Rage at "free energy" products
The challenges of being an introverted engineer in the limelight

Ep. 37 | Hypergiant and Colossal's Ben Lamm on Industrial AI and Resurrecting Woolly Mammoths Nov 09, 2021

Show notes

Turning science fiction into engineering reality is a complex business, but Ben Lamm has made it into a career.

In this episode of Moore's Lobby, Daniel chats with Lamm, a serial entrepreneur who has founded several technology and science startups all through his 20s and 30s. One of these companies is Hypergiant, which helps governments and companies integrate cutting-edge AI into their aerospace, defense, and infrastructure.

Now, Lamm has set his sights on bioengineering, where he's partnered with one of the leading experts in genomics, George Church, to bring back woolly mammoths in the form of engineered arctic elephants designed with mammoth DNA.

Yes, Ben has seen Jurassic Park. Yes, they get that question all the time. And, yes, you have got to hear how they're pulling this off.

Join us to hear Ben recount his favorite projects throughout his career (so far) and explain his addiction to what's next in pursuing "the art of the possible."

Ep. 36 | Cryptography in the Cloud Age with Intel Federal's Steve Orrin Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

Steve Orrin (self-described former hacker and undeniable math zealot) stands firmly at the crossroads between the public and private sectors, precisely where cybersecurity intersects with them both. From his viewpoint, it's a myth that the government is slow to adopt progressive technologies. Or, more accurately, reality resides in a nuanced gray area where Predator drones are outfitted with cutting-edge security and, somehow, painfully slow cloud adoption is actually a blessing in disguise.

In this episode, you'll hear about the impact of AI and quantum computing on cybersecurity, the "new math, new hardware" of next-gen cryptography, and how the heck to bring classified materials into the work-from-home environment of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additional highlights from this episode include:

A shockingly accessible explanation of homomorphic cryptography
The unique joys of having Bruce Schneier rip one's carefully crafted cryptography stack to shreds
How a security expert chooses a baby monitor these days
Why maybe we should be designing security systems with our moms in mind

Ep. 35 | The Impact of Chip Shortages on the Electronics Industry Oct 19, 2021

Show notes

In this Industry Tech Days Keynote, we have an all-star panel of industry experts to talk about the ramifications of the global chip shortage and what lessons we can learn from them. You'll hear from Dave Doherty, President and COO of distributor Digi-Key Electronics, Steve Sanghi, Executive Chair of semiconductor manufacturer Microchip Technology, and Michael Knight, Corporate Senior Vice President of Business Development of distributor TTI.

Ep. 34 | The Latest from the Lab: How IBM Research Is Inventing What's Next Oct 12, 2021

Show notes

2021 brought us the first functioning 2 nm chip, a milestone accomplished by a team at IBM Research, one of the foremost research institutions on the planet for the electronics industry.

In the upper echelons of this prestigious group is Dr. Jeffrey Welser, the Vice President of Exploratory Science and University Partnerships for IBM. In this episode of Moore's Lobby, Dr. Welser talks with Daniel about everything from quantum computing to CMOS devices to neural networks.

Ep. 33 | From Autonomous Golf Carts to Semis: The Journey to the Self-Driving Truck Oct 06, 2021

Show notes

Two engineering students developed an autonomous golf cart system to transport people across campus. One accelerator program and a lot of engineering later, the same two engineers founded Embark, an autonomous trucking company that rapidly grew into a $5 billion endeavor.

In 2018, when the company was only two years old, Embark claimed an industry-first: a 2,400-mile coast-to-coast journey for an autonomous truck from LA to Jacksonville, Florida. For the first time in many people's minds, autonomous trucking seemed to have arrived.

This is the story of Brandon Moak and Alex Rodrigues, CTO and CEO respectively of Embark. Moak joins us in the Lobby to talk about the challenges of scalable autonomous systems, gaining acceptance in the transportation industry, and the differences between passenger autonomous vehicles and those meant for the infrastructure of shipping.

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