Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits

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Ep. 23 | Arduino Co-founder Massimo Banzi on How Arduino Took the World by Storm Apr 29, 2021

Show notes

For some, it's a prototyping tool. For others, it's a gateway to freedom of expression.

It's been a powerful tool for STEM education, an object of scorn, and the hardware platform that's launched a thousand Kickstarters.

But no matter what your expectations are, Arduino will surprise you in 2021.

Hear all about the origins of Arduino as an exercise in usability and open-source philosophy. Learn how Arduino transformed the maker movement and vice versa. And listen in as the co-founder of one of the most popular hardware platforms on Earth talks about the beauty and backlash of making hardware simple enough for all.

This episode has a wealth of insights about the nature of creativity in design, but it also has several excellent quotes from Massimo Banzi, including:

"So I showed up with a bunch of potatoes and lemons…"
"When they looked at Arduino, they said, 'What the hell is this thing?'"
"...you, as a developer, were expected to be a professional. So you were supposed to suffer a little bit, you know?"
"The world is full of grumpy engineers."

and, of course,

"Baby talk for potheads."

Meet Massimo Banzi

Massimo Banzi is the co-founder of Arduino, one of the most popular hardware platforms in history. He is an electrical engineer and educator, as well as a self-described open-source advocate.

An important part of Massimo's career is his background in interaction design, which has provided him formal training on how to make hardware accessible to everyone.

Banzi has been a professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, the Domus Academy, and the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. He's also co-founded two FabLabs—digital fabrication labs—in his home country of Italy.

In addition to his work with Arduino, Massimo has served as a consultant for brands like Prada, Whirlpool, and Adidas.

Ep. 22 | Cruise's Sr. VP of Engineering, Mo ElShenawy, on Developing Autonomous Vehicles Apr 15, 2021

Show notes

To say that autonomous vehicles represent a huge number of engineering challenges is an understatement. To some engineers, they seem insurmountable. To others, like Mo ElShenawy, they're part of another day at the office.

This week, Dave speaks with Mo ElShenawy, Senior VP of Engineering for Cruise. Cruise began as a startup out of Y Combinator and rose to prominence as a powerhouse of machine vision and data processing for autonomous vehicle development. Acquired by GM in 2016, Cruise today works with companies like Honda and Microsoft to bring fully autonomous (and zero emissions) vehicles to scale.

Mo runs Cruise's largest department, leading 1,000+ engineers in what is arguably one of the most significant engineering challenges of our generation. In this episode, you'll hear Dave and Mo discuss the hardware and software challenges of designing AVs, why AVs should be safer than human drivers, and why Mo doesn't believe in "tech for tech's sake."

Meet Mo ElShenawy

Mohamed "Mo" ElShenawy's career has spanned several unique industries that share a unifying need for scalable automation technologies. He joined Cruise in 2018, where he now leads over 1,000 engineers as Senior Vice President of Engineering as the team tackles safe, scalable AV deployment, starting with San Francisco.

Ep. 21 | Carnegie Mellon's Karen Lightman on the Intersection of Tech and Policy for Smart Cities Apr 01, 2021

Show notes

"Smart city" isn't exactly an engineering term. And yet engineers are responsible for developing the technologies that take a city from being advanced to being "smart," including wireless communications, sensor fusion, and machine-learning algorithms implemented to serve public life.

But it turns out the real hurdles in the way of smart city technologies are much more human and complex than we may realize.

In this episode, Dave speaks with Karen Lightman, the Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon's Metro21 Smart Cities Institute about how engineering and public policy work hand-in-hand in smart cities. Hear about the tragedies of falling in love with a chip design that doesn't have a market, the dangers of avoiding standards in the tech industry, and the importance of testing smart city technologies in real-world "living laboratories"—or "living sandboxes," as Karen prefers to call them.

Ep. 20 | Dr. Aaron Edsinger, CEO & Co-founder of Hello Robot and Former Head of Robotics at Google on Humanity in Robots Mar 18, 2021

Show notes

Dr. Aaron Edsinger spent years at MIT CSAIL's Humanoid Robotics Group, building robots in the shape of human torsos under the tutelage of world-renowned roboticist Rodney Brooks. It may seem strange, then, that the flagship product at his latest startup, Hello Robot, doesn't look human at all.

Listen in to hear about how Edsinger views the difference between startups and corporate life when it comes to innovation that truly serves people and communities well, from the iterative design process down to the pragmatism of simple design.

Edsinger has run the gamut from founding robotics startups to Head of Robotics at Google to founding robotics startups acquired by Google. Throughout, he's gained unique perspective on what it means to design robotics that are designed for the market and how that differs from designs that are market-ready.

Ep. 19 | Open-Source Machine Learning with BeagleBoard Co-Founder Jason Kridner Mar 04, 2021

Show notes

This week in the Lobby, we have one of the original leaders of the single-board computer (SBC) industry, Jason Kridner of BeagleBoard.org, whose BeagleBone line of open-source SBCs is manufactured by Texas Instruments in partnership with Digi-Key and Newark element14.

In this episode, Jason and Dave get into the importance of rapid prototyping for embedded systems in an era where time-to-market trumps all.

Core to this episode is the democratization of working with neural networks through SBCs like BeagleBoard AI. How will the industry change as access to developing machine learning algorithms becomes more common? And how responsible are developers for bias in AI, anyway?

Tune in for a great conversation about hardware, ethics, and embedded prototyping!

Ep. 18 | Seth Coe-Sullivan and NS Nanotech Are Revolutionizing Display Technology Feb 19, 2021

Show notes

Did you know that changing the size of a quantum dot changes the color it emits without altering any other properties? This deceptively simple fact goes down to the quantum level, where the color of a quantum dot can be controlled by changing how many nanometers across it is.

In this episode of Moore's Lobby, we're diving into what Dr. Seth Coe-Sullivan calls "the quantum weirdness" as we explore the concepts of nanotechnology and quantum dots.

Coe-Sullivan is the CEO, President, and co-founder of NS Nanotech, a company that is blazing trails towards the next paradigm shift in display technologies while at the same time releasing practical far-UVC products used to battle viruses in healthcare applications.

You'll hear Seth demystify many of the most complex and cutting-edge concepts that will govern how sharp and bright displays will be in the future, from AR/VR to mobile device screens to digital signage. And you'll get a crash course in nanotechnology straight from one of the leading experts in the field.

Ep. 17 | The Maiden Voyage of Virgin Hyperloop with CTO Josh Giegel Feb 04, 2021

Show notes

As CTO and co-founder of Virgin Hyperloop, Giegel is a mechanical engineer, former aerospace researcher, and a transportation revolutionary.

Hyperloop transportation has always been a bombastic proposal. Virgin Hyperloop aims to provide ground transportation up to 670 miles per hour. At those speeds, you could step into a hyperloop pod in New York City at noon and step out of it in Los Angeles in time for dinner five hours later, requiring 10x less energy than an airplane.

A robust hyperloop transportation infrastructure would change the way we travel forever.

As Giegel puts it, being one of two of the very first "hypernauts" was something akin to a Roman architect standing underneath an arch he designed. He put his very life into the hands of the engineers he leads, trusting them to hurl him 500 meters in 15 seconds—the initial test of Virgin Hyperloop's test track.

Hear Giegel talk about the vision behind his company's goals of creating a fully-electric, high-power, autonomous maglev system. (Spoilers: As it turns out, a hyperloop is just one of the ways their technology stands to change the transportation world.) You'll hear a fellow engineer discuss the technical elements of hyperloop creation that have long made experts think hyperloops are science fiction.

Would you know history if you were standing in the middle of it? Learn how much closer we are to the age of the hyperloop than you probably realize.

Ep. 16 | DS TECHEETAH's Mark Preston Talks Dominance in Formula E Motorsports Jan 21, 2021

Show notes

What does it take for a motorsport team to win five Formula E championships? And how do automotive companies translate that success into the electric vehicles we drive every day?

We're kicking off Season 2 of Moore's Lobby with a guest who will be familiar to motorsports fans across Formula 1 and its electric vehicle counterpart, Formula E.

Motorsports are the ultimate proving ground for automotive technologies. When it comes to electric vehicles, no prototyping in the world can match the rigor—and the excitement—of a Formula E race.

Learn about crucial power design aspects in Formula E, including why the engineers have evolved towards using direct drive motors and one battery rather than two. And did you know that the cars must regenerate around 30% of the energy used during a race through regenerative braking, etc.? And that the drivers must trigger it manually at key moments?

Hear the details from an expert who has made a career out of blazing trails.

Don't Miss Season 2 of Moore's Lobby Jan 16, 2021

Show notes

Season 2 of Moore's Lobby releases January 21st, 2021!

Last year, we brought you the personal stories and experiences of some of the most interesting engineers from some of the most respected companies in our industry. This season, you'll get cutting-edge insights from the leaders of groundbreaking companies like Virgin Hyperloop, Formula E, NS Nanotech, and many more.

Ep. 15 | The Emergence of the Virtual Supply Chain in a COVID-19 World Dec 17, 2020

Show notes

This keynote panel is moderated by engineer, New York Times bestselling author and producer of the Moore's Lobby podcast on All About Circuits, Dave Finch.

About Our Panelists

Mark Burr-Lonnon, Senior Vice President of Global Service & EMEA and APAC Business at Mouser Electronics

Mark Burr-Lonnon, Senior Vice President of Global Service & EMEA and APAC Business, helps guide and lead Mouser Electronics' global service strategy as well as day-to-day international efforts. Today, with the help of his vision, Mouser has 27 Customer Service Centers strategically positioned around the globe, providing local language, currency, and same time-zone support. He brings a wealth of global electronics distribution experience, totaling over 35 years.

Dave Doherty, President and Chief Operating Officer at Digi-Key Electronics

Dave Doherty, President and Chief Operating Officer at Digi-Key Electronics, brings over 30 years of professional experience between the semiconductor manufacturing and electronics distribution industries, the last 10+ with Digi-Key. His experience and knowledge enables him to provide great insight and innovative leadership within Digi-Key and the electronics industry. Dave holds a BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an MBA from Babson College, and has served as President of the Educational Foundation Board for the Electronics Component Industry Association as well as the chairperson for their Executive Conference.

Frank McKay, Senior Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer at Jabil, Inc.

Frank McKay is the Sr. Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer for Jabil, Inc., a global manufacturing solutions company with revenue of more than $25B. He leads an organization of approximately 600 employees located in the Americas, Europe, and Asia that are responsible for the company's procurement and supply chain activities.

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