The Future of Everything - Stanford Engineering

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Pamela Chen: How meme culture and algorithms are reshaping photography Jun 17, 2020

Show notes

With a degree in photography with a concentration in mathematics and boasting high-profile jobs at two of the most influential visualoutlets in the last century, National Geographic and Instagram, Pamela Chen knows a bit about the state of modern photography and the algorithms that shape popular tastes.

Now, as the Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and John S. Knight Journalism (HAI-JSK) Fellow at Stanford, she studies how artificial intelligence is shaping the role of photography in society: particularly the rise of memes, which she refers to as “packets of culture.” Chen says mathematics is redefining photography as much as artistic vision, altering both consumer tastes and the creative eye of photographers who want to become – or remain – relevant in a rapidly changing world.

Chen joins The Future of Everything host Russ Altman to discuss why artificial intelligence’s influence on photography is only just in its infancy and why lovers of photography still have power to shape AI as much as it shapes us. [Listen here.]

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Michael O'Sullivan: Data leads New Zealand’s COVID-19 response Jun 11, 2020

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Stanford engineering alumnus Michael O’Sullivan, now at the University of Auckland, likes to say his business is the “science of decision-making,” and that expertise paid off handsomely in his native New Zealand’s successful response to COVID-19.
O’Sullivan pivoted his knowledge of computer modeling, usually reserved for optimizing business processes, to help predict how quickly the disease might have spread through the island nation’s 5 million inhabitants, and to gauge various national response strategies. Based on expert models from a team of researchers that included O’Sullivan, New Zealand’s leadership took an aggressive approach and quelled the disease after just a month of lockdown.
O’Sullivan tells Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything he is now turning his attention to highly detailed geographic models to better understand how COVID-19 could spread geographically if a future outbreak occurs. He is also putting his modeling to work to help analyze how response to the disease will impact the coming flu season and how the lockdown might have had negative effects on the treatment of other illnesses such as the early detection of cancer.

Michael O’Sullivan, MS ’97, PhD '01, would like to acknowledge the work of Kevin Ross, MS '01, PhD '04 (Precision Driven Health), and Pieta Brown (Orion Health), who have been instrumental in making a pipeline for the modeling work discussed in this podcast readily available to the New Zealand government.

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Megan Palmer: COVID-19’s scientific silver lining May 12, 2020

Show notes

Megan Palmer, executive director of Biopolicy and Leadership Initiatives at Stanford, joins bioengineer Russ Altman for this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast, to discuss how we can better prepare for future virus outbreaks and how the world could ultimately become a more secure, peaceful and prosperous place as a result of the lessons learned from COVID-19.

The key to that future, she says, will be better coordination and communication among world leaders in science, security and policy, who will be charged with foreseeing and preventing the next crisis. Likewise, it will take better cooperation between humankind and the natural world.

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Catherine Blish: Immunology is on the trail of a killer Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

As she tells it, the life of immunologist Catherine Blish has not changed all that much from what it was just a couple months ago.

Her lab still studies deadly infectious diseases, but instead of myriad killers like HIV, dengue fever, influenza and the like, her team is now focused solely on the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Only a select group of researchers in the world are qualified to work with such serious viruses, and fewer still are properly equipped with the protective gear and sophisticated ventilation systems needed to guarantee the safety in the lab.
Blish recently joined Russ Altman for this special COVID-19 edition of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast, to talk about the unique character of the virus, a few surprises she and others have unearthed in their research, and how once-competitive scientists around the world have united to find treatments and a vaccine that are critical to ending the pandemic for good.

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Seema Yasmin: How to conquer a pandemic with communication Apr 16, 2020

Show notes

Seema Yasmin is a rarity in public health: a medical doctor who is also a journalist. As such, she’s seen a lot, from Ebola in West Africa to SARS and MERS, and now COVID-19, the most serious pandemic in a century.

Yasmin is currently director of research and education at the Stanford Center for Health Communication. From her years in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a group widely described as “the disease detectives” — and as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News, Yasmin says that the greatest impediment to halting an outbreak is the rapid spread of bad information, and even abject disinformation, which when abetted by social media can spread faster than the disease itself. To halt the pandemic, she says medical science and public health experts — and the journalists who cover them — must become better storytellers to get ahead of bad information and to “pre-bunk” false claims that lead to bad decision-making.

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Victor Carrion: How to beat stress in a pandemic Apr 16, 2020

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Child psychiatrist Victor Carrion has dedicated his career to studying and helping people deal with trauma, especially kids. He says that it is understandable that everyone in the family is dealing with some degree of stress due to COVID-19, and that’s okay. The key is to recognize and acknowledge the stress and deal with it head on.

In this episode of Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything with host, bioengineer Russ Altman, Carrion explains that stress manifests differently at different ages. What works for parent may not for child. He also discusses strategies for minimizing the risk of future post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Carrion counsels trying creative outlets like art and mindfulness techniques like yoga to find what works best to beat stress in these very stressful times. Listen here.

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Sanjay Basu: The power of healthy eating Apr 13, 2020

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When humans roamed as hunters and gatherers, the ability to retain calories likely determined who lived and who died in times of famine.

Today, that evolutionary advantage may make us prone to diabetes.

Join host Russ Altman, professor of bioengineering, and guest Sanjay Basu, a foremost expert in disease prevention, for a broad-ranging discussion of what works, what doesn’t and what new approaches—including an emphasis on community gardens and healthier diets—are on the horizon as society battles this deadly disease.

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Alison Marsden: Computer models could transform cardiovascular surgery Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

Imagine being born with just half a heart.

Alison Marsden does, pretty much every day. She is an associate professor of pediatrics specializing in cardiology and also of bioengineering. She works with children born with such dire defects.

Fortunately for those kids, Marsden is also an expert in computational modeling of cardiovascular system and developer of SimVascular, software that helps surgeons simulate surgeries on the computer without risk to living patients. The software provides researchers and surgeons a way to propose novel surgical procedures and then simulate the resulting blood flow patterns in order to better understand the potential for a successful outcome.

Join host Russ Altman and Alison Marsden for an exploration of the many ways computer simulations are making heart surgery more effective and more personal than ever before.

You can listen to the Future of Everything on iTunes, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine.

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Jayodita Sanghvi and Grace Tang: Big data meets big business Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

Jayodita Sanghvi is director of data science at Grand Rounds, a startup that connects members to high-quality health care. Grace Tang is a data scientist at LinkedIn. Both are alumnae of Stanford bioengineering.

While the connection between big data and bioengineering may not be readily apparent, Sanghvi and Tang say that the connection couldn’t be more clear or timely than right now when big data is now firmly entrenched in big business.

From applications that help diagnose and guide people to relevant care to programs that suss out bad actors on social media, the challenges of harnessing big data and the consequences of incorrect or improper use are raising important questions for those charged with making big data work. The challenges range from finding correct answers in messy or missing data to the deep ethical and privacy dilemmas inherent in the breadth and quantity of information available today.

Join host Russ Altman and big data experts Jayodita Sanghvi and Grace Tang for a deeper look into the challenges arising when big data meets big business.

You can listen to the Future of Everything on iTunes, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine.

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William Chueh: How to build a better battery Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Stanford materials engineer William Chueh got interested in battery design as way to battle climate change. He looked across the energy landscape and understood that a future filled with renewable solar and wind energy will require more and better batteries to even out the troughs when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing.

Chueh says battery design has come a long way in the last 10 years. But sating the energy needs of a future filled with countless smartphones, laptops, electric cars and wearable devices will drive a profound transition in the battery industry. Today’s $50 billion battery market will blossom to a trillion dollars in the next 15 years, he predicts.

Chueh says the grid of the future will be a network of diverse smaller-scale energy-storage options that guarantees a steady supply of electricity with no single point of failure — a model that takes its inspiration from the way the internet delivers information without fail. The result will be a more efficient and resilient grid for all, Chueh says.

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