Finding Genius Podcast

Just For All is a high-tech, cutting-edge sustainable food company, using plant-based proteins to create nutritious, affordable, and cruelty-free food options. Dedicated to implementing a more sustainable food system across the globe, Just For All is known for its wondrous bean-based egg substitute, Just Egg. In this interview, Senior Scientist, Vitor Santo, explains the next step for Just For All and for the alternative protein revolution: clean meats. Smith informs listeners of what clean meats are, how they are produced, and why they are the key to a sustainable food system. The scientist explains the process of collecting animal cells and feeding them plant protein to produce ethical, cruelty-free meat. He continues on to present listeners with the idea that it is possible to consume animal protein without the ethical dilemma of taking the lives of other species. He touches on issues like factory farming's massive contribution to carbon emissions and water consumption, and offers a hopeful glimpse into a future where every person on earth has access to sustainable, affordable, and ethical animal proteins. For more information on sustainable foods, plant-based protein sources, and clean meats, visit: www.justforall.com.

As a professor of biogerontology at the University of Brighton, Richard Farragher has served as Chair of the British Society for Research on Ageing and the International Association of Biomedical Gerontology. He joins the podcast today to discuss something that affects us all: the process of ageing. "Understanding how ageing works is a prerequisite to improving later life health," says Farragher. So, how does it work? While research efforts to answer this question are ongoing, Farragher believes that there are three primary mechanisms of ageing: the cessation of cell division (aka 'cellular senescence'), the decline in efficiency of nutrient recycling in the body, and the restriction of a DNA-based process referred to as 'slicing.' Farragher explains each one in detail and explores the ways in which they could be addressed in order to improve and prolong health. Farragher will be speaking at New Scientist Live in the UK this September, and is always happy to answer questions via email. Tune in for the full discussion.

Kurt Schmidinger, founder of Future Food, an internet-oriented initiative based out of Austria takes us on a lively discussion of the foods we eat and the future of our diets. Future Food's mission is largely comprised of distributing information about the many alternatives to animal-derived products, and supporting the research and development of in vitro meat, also known as lab-grown, or clean meat. Schmidinger discusses his organic path, from a geophysics background to food science, toward the development of Future Food's premise. From an environmental standpoint, the harvesting of meat for food is a major contributor to the destruction of rain forests, pollution, water waste, and climate change. He'll explain how the confluence of animal welfare, human health, and environmental preservation makes our future food perhaps one of the most important issues we face globally. The food scientist discusses how the most logical path to moving consumers toward a plant-based, or synthetic-based, diet is through the offering of alternative food choices, as opposed to using ethics or reason as a springboard for change. He'll provide insight into the methods used to harvest animal cells that ultimately lead to consumer meats, and the challenges food companies face in their quest to bring costs down, and on par with traditional meat products. From a cautionary perspective, Schmidinger details the dangers of industrial livestock farming as it pertains to antibiotics, and how resistance to antibiotics could pose serious risks to human health. Schmidinger provides an overview of the benefits to human health that may be coming with future foods. He'll detail how clean meat could be low in cholesterol and saturated fats, but high in the health-boosting omega-3 fatty acids that our bodies need. Hungry venture capitalists are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into food companies' coffers for research and development, and the race is on to deliver alternative meat products that pass the taste, texture, and cost tests. And while it is only his best guess, the food technologist estimates that alternative meats may be gracing dinner tables in as little as five years.

Dr. Panta Sutardja – Founder of LatticeWorks inc joins Future Tech Podcast to discuss the solutions that LatticeWorks provides as an alternative to cloud storage among other things. LatticeWorks is a technology consulting company delivering DevOps and Cloud Computing (AWS) solutions. They are passionate about helping customers fulfill their business needs by enabling them with build/release automation, infrastructure as code, automated testing, and event-driven security/compliance.

Gijs Den Butter, CEO of Sense Glove, discusses his company's vision of advanced design robotic gloves for rehabilitation and B2B training that can enhance a user's experience in a virtual environment. Haptics, the science of using touch sensation to interact with computer applications, is an exploding field that technology innovators are gravitating toward to aid them in the development of products that enhance the human experience. Den Butter's glove allows for the user to feel not only vibration responses, but also actual resistance when grasping virtual objects thus it greatly enhances the user's experience. The prognosis for Sense Glove's success in regard to patient rehabilitation is excellent, as the advanced glove technology allows for better engagement, but also, importantly, allows for the collection of data. And this data can be used to provide a physical therapist with specific information that will inform her or him which physical therapy techniques may be most advantageous. The glove technology enables learning, and thus creates an environment where real time data can be used to help a user translate their virtual experience onto true-life tasks, from buttoning a shirt to tying shoes and beyond. While the technology is in its infancy, progress is being made daily. The Sense Glove CEO will provide details on the state of the technology to date. One goal would be to enable users to feel the difference between a plastic, wood, metal, or any number of other surfaces. But currently, the glove can help decipher a difference, but not yet exact data to differentiate from the many surfaces that exist in the real world. Den Butter's glove can help with the simulation for a myriad of advanced tasks from surgery to welding pipes, as the user can feel the sensitivity and pressure on the hand and can thus pursue any endeavor utilizing the virtual knowledge. Sense Glove is heavily focused on B2B training, and though Dem Butter does see an opportunity for his technology within the virtual reality gaming world, currently the glove's entry into that market is user cost prohibitive.

For the past 16 years, Romit Feingold has worked as a physical therapist with people who have suffered from stroke and other forms of neurological damage. She's noticed one problem in particular: the average 45-minute therapy session covers just a fraction of the amount of work and effort that patients need to put into their rehabilitation, leaving them to carry out the rest on their own. Unfortunately–whether because of frustration, boredom, or lack of motivation–many patients fail to follow through. This is where Feingold sees an opportunity for robotics to engage and motivate patients to maintain the necessary amount of therapy. Currently in the works is the development of a humanlike, inviting, and friendly robot designed to guide and encourage patients through upper extremity exercises. In its final form, the robot should be able to detect and ensure that the patient is performing each exercise correctly. By incorporating a variety of interactive games throughout the exercises, it is hoped that patients will feel more engaged with and excited about the work needed in order to reach maximum recovery. Tune in to hear the details, and visit http://shelly453.wixsite.com/levy-tzedek-lab to learn more about this ongoing research.

This Blockchain Academy offers programs, delivered by industry experts, on the role of the blockchain, its impact on central banks, financial institutions, trade finance, settlement, contracts, IP as well as education. A recent report by Santander estimates that blockchain technology could save the financial industry between$15-20 billion annually by 2022. Most people associate blockchain with bitcoin but fail to realize that bitcoin is built on the blockchain. We feel that the coming tsunami of blockchain will fundamentally alter the way the: finance, legal, IP and educational markets.

AID: Tech is an award-winning company that focuses on the delivery of digital entitlements, including welfare, aid, remittance and donations using Blockchain & Digital Identity. AID: Tech was the first company in the world to successfully deliver international aid to Syrian Refugees in Lebanon using Blockchain technology. Our products and services help client and partners address some of the world's largest social issues as well as targets set by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals – signed on by over 190 countries.

A floating Pacific island with its own government, cryptocurrency and 300 houses could be in the near future. The Floating Island Project plans to create off-shore housing that uses its own currency and operates outside of government regulations. The project is a pilot program in partnership with the government of French Polynesia. A long-term vision for the project is to have hundreds of countries floating on the ocean. Blue Frontiers are building sustainable floating islands to address sea level rise and negotiate special governing frameworks to catalyze innovation in governance.

What do the robots know and when did they know it? But more importantly, how did they learn it? Technology is improving and advancing at a blistering pace and the implications for AI, advances in robotics, and more, depend heavily upon learning. Michael Littman, Professor of Computer Science at Brown University will delve into a broad discussion of the multiple types of learning as they relate to multi-layered neural networks. Professor Littman provides examples of the various kinds of learning that are available and how they are suited to various tasks. The Brown University professor discusses machine learning, which applies to the creation of systems that use data and AI to improve targeted areas of functioning. We'll also gain insight into supervised learning, which is learning based on feedback, essentially correcting a response via given feedback. This process can provide advanced teaching in an AI environment via various inputs such as layers, such that the learning system can match input to the desired output. For example, as we consider a particular image, individual layers will match data until eventually, in aggregate, that image can be classified and thus the input leads to a conclusion of what that image actually is. Further, Mr. Littman discusses another specialized type of learning that can be applied known as reinforcement learning, which would simply allow an AI network to make selections on its own, then at the end, it would be given reinforcement. Reinforcement would inform the network as to whether it has been successful or whether it has failed, which would allow the network to learn from either and advance. Additionally, Mr. Littman will explain how algorithms can map out narrow pieces of multi-dimensional space within an entire network to gain clues about what could be improved. With technological advances that allow for more data to be gathered, along with accelerated computer processing speeds and better algorithms, networks can be set up and configured to produce improved results for training data. Linking the future of learning to our cultural past, Littman provides an interesting overview of how various types of network learning were applied to early Atari video games. The learning allowed for a network to equal or surpass human scores. But this research certainly goes well beyond teaching a network to win an old school video game; the applications for this learning are directly applicable to advanced robotics. With applied training and learning, extremely advanced AI is more than just a researcher's dream in some tech laboratory—it's coming.