Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits

In this keynote interview from Industry Tech Days 2022, we hear from two leaders at electronics industry heavyweight companies—Digi-Key and Molex. Dave Doherty is the President and COO of distributor Digi-Key Electronics while Joe Nelligan is the CEO of Molex, a leading supplier of connectors and interconnect components. Both of these gentlemen started their careers as engineers and still have an enthusiasm for and understanding of the challenges that design engineers face today.

As we think about advancements in the semiconductor world, it is typically focused on nanometer feature sizes and new transistor technologies like FinFETs and RibbonFETs. But, Steven Kosier, CTO of SkyWater points out that: At any particular technology node, there are all sorts of other things that silicon can do to improve the world…power management efficiencies…superconducting chips…silicon photonics chips…and microfluidic chips. There are all sorts of things that you can do with the same equipment set and a little ingenuity. In this Moore’s Lobby interview, host Daniel Bogdanoff and Steven Kosier discuss the unique challenges and opportunities available at a pure-play semiconductor fab that focuses on technology co-creation with customers that need to develop and manufacture new technologies. In one of the most interesting sections, Steven explains how chip designers can get access to free EDA tools, download free IP libraries, and manufacture free 130nm silicon ICs in collaboration with Google and eFabless. Did I mention free? Here I will echo Steven’s comment: There's nothing stopping you from designing a chip and changing the world with it…You can go do it right now. And it's just awesome!” Other highlights from this engaging discussion about semiconductor technology and foundry business include: -SkyWater’s collaboration with Purdue University to create a new innovation center for creating new technologies and educating the next generation of semiconductor engineers -Steven’s interesting entrance into the electrical engineering world - Why accelerated radiation testing for satellite electronics doesn’t always work

Season 5 of Moore's Lobby brings you new 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 shaping our future. 

While he is currently the VP of Engineering at what is probably the largest computing company in the world, Bill Vass was not always convinced a career in computing was a good option: My primary major was in geology, actually, because I never thought people would actually pay you just to do computers. I always thought it would be using computers for other things. So, I studied marine biology, geology, and computer science. In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, we get to hear from one of the tech gurus at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on topics that include artificial intelligence; machine learning; portable, ruggedized, high-density storage; quantum computing; and explosions. Yes, explosions! Other fun topics include a discussion of Bill’s view of the Metaverse. I won’t give it all away, but it is definitely more than AR/VR goggles and involves everyone’s favorite spy, 007. After you listen to Bill explain how he graphs out his time on his calendar, you will get  some insight into how he has forged such an amazing career. It might even get you to start graphing your own calendar and time usage!  And, be sure to listen to the end for a truly fascinating story about how Star Trek influenced the technology we use every day. Other highlights from this fast-paced episode include: Why it would be fun to visit Bill’s barn A 5-pound snowcone and a 50-pound snowball? The best engineers and coders are also…well, you will have to listen to find out how Bill completes this sentence!

Dipti Vachani fell in love with technology during her high school years when the idea of being able to write code and magically make something do what she wanted amazed her. Her programming skills, typing speed, and…...running ability?...helped her win computer science contests around the nation. This was just the beginning of a remarkable career that is still going strong. After graduating from Texas A&M with a BS in Computer Engineering where she was the only woman in her graduating class, Dipti spent 17 years at Texas Instruments. During her time at TI, she worked on numerous projects including automotive audio systems and low-power digital signal processors. As she worked her way up to a Vice President role, Dipti also led the creation of TI’s Sitara brand of Arm microprocessors. In this podcast, Dipti reflects fondly on that early work: “It was fun and no day was the same. You came in and you took technology to solve problems for your customers…and when you figured it out and they were happy, it felt like joy, like you accomplished something.”  Now, in her current role at Arm, Dipti is helping bring the automotive and IoT worlds together as they both begin “to look like a network of networks.” With IoT, Arm is looking to transform every industry including industrial, retail, home, cars, and agriculture.  While Dipti is active in mentoring younger women in engineering, in this interview she provides important guidance for all engineers about setting boundaries in your career and knowing when it might be time to move on to another position. Other highlights from this lively episode include: -How corporate “frenemies” must come together to grow markets -The important distinction between mentorship and advocacy, particularly as it relates to women in engineering -Why Arm is the place for Vachani as she looks to leave a legacy -The “Junk in the trunk” of automotive compute applications

When your junior high school balsa wood bridge is the envy of MIT professors, it is probably a good bet you will have a distinguished engineering career. Argo AI’s VP of Firmware and Hardware Zach Little knew from a pretty early age that he wanted to work in technology. But not even he could have imagined the diverse set of companies he would work for. Zach already had a fascinating career arc prior to joining Argo AI. And now he is working on advanced hardware and firmware to make fully autonomous driving a reality. In this entertaining interview with Moore’s Lobby’s Daniel Bogdanoff, Zach retraces his career path and talks about the current challenges and opportunities when building AVs in collaboration with Volkswagen and Ford.  There are a lot of good tech discussions that you will not want to miss including single-photon lidar detection and the challenges of detecting black cars at long range. Other highlights include: How the west coast beckoned this midwestern young man with…free soda? The different challenges posed by developing AVs for both Miami and Munich The connection between USB keyboards and AVs Zach’s uncomfortable first ride in an autonomous vehicle

“I think you're going to see a world where people work side by side with robots,” says Povlsen. Collaborative robots, like those made by Universal Robots, will take care of the “3D” tasks - dull, dirty, or dangerous. This will allow people to “take on more fulfilling tasks” and use their creativity. In this episode, Povlsen discusses the early years of Universal Robots and the ambitious goal to create collaborative robots that would be easy to install and fun to program.  “They wanted to change that entire paradigm of how to program robots into something that pretty much anyone can do with just minimum training.” Before joining Universal Robots, Povlsen spent some of his early years at Schneider Electric working on embedded IoT devices “where I think we could all see the great potential of connecting devices in general,” but “back then it was a pain in the neck to connect anything.”  Povlsen’s father was an electrical engineer whose workshop was filled with interesting equipment and project. This early exposure created his passion for technology; even though his first project as a young boy was less than a success. “I thought I could build this new fancy program and I totally failed..But, I thought it was great.”  In this lively Moore’s Lobby interview, the charismatic Povlsen also expounds on:  The IKEA of cobots  From ship building to robotics - how a Danish community transitioned from world leadership in one industry to a completely different one The conceptual connection between noise-canceling headphones and better cobots And, why he doesn’t want to play squash with a robot

Marcus Fontoura has spent time at many of the world’s leading technology companies including IBM Research, Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft. In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, Daniel goes on a deep dive with Marcus into Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure. In this episode, they discuss the hardware, software, and infrastructure behind what Marcus considers to be the “world’s computer.” By effectively integrating both hardware and software, they are enabling other engineers and technologists to “do the science fiction work” that they dream of doing. Fontoura’s passion for his work comes through in this lively discussion and in his goals to create technology to make our lives better. Reflecting on the immense challenges that occurred during Covid when internet traffic spiked, Fontoura considered it one of his “proudest moments:" “This became a very challenging couple of months as we had to manage the capacity. But you know, for me it was super exciting because this was putting to the test everything that I'm talking to you about. We really have this deep knowledge of the workloads that we are running on Azure. We know how to manage, we know how to manage power efficiently…we coped brilliantly.”  Did you know that overclocking CPUs isn’t just for gamers, but is used in Azure data centers? Fontoura explains how selective overclocking actually improves efficiency. We’ll bet you can’t guess what intense computing applications demand this overclocking! But, it will make perfect sense after you hear his explanation. The episode touches on many other fascinating topics including: Ambient intelligence that will make our lives better, without being “creepy” “Our most efficient data centers are...” –sorry, you will have to listen to hear Fontoura finish this statement! Democratizing high-performance computing Immersion cooling How the combination of edge and cloud is “a beautiful vision” Fontoura’s view on the skills that the next generation of technologists will need to succeed Tune in and let us know your thoughts from the episode on Moore’s Lobby Linkedin or Facebook pages. 

Chris Keimel may have dreamed of being a veterinarian, but he is undoubtedly making a bigger impact on the world through his work on micro-electromechanical systems, also known as MEMs. In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, our host, Daniel Bogdanoff, speaks with Chris about his career developing cutting-edge nanotechnology. Chris recounts the technology development behind their Ideal Switch and the creation of Menlo Micro, a company that traces its lineage and name back to Thomas Edison, “The Wizard of Menlo Park”. The work began at General Electric’s Global Research Center, where Keimel and his co-workers were asking the question:  “How do you reinvent the circuit breaker, something that's been in existence for decades or even a century, kind of back to the times of Thomas Edison?” “We Were Just Blowing Them Up” In this conversation, Chris noted that “Almost no one in their right mind would…go make a circuit breaker smaller.” Typically, if you want to put more power through a device you make it bigger and add more metal. But the GE team was “thinking outside the box…how do we reinvent this?” As they first started testing the technology available at the time, they were definitely not successful. “When we started pushing watts…or hundreds of watts through these relays, we were just blowing them up in the labs…Okay, this is a transformational moment. We either stop and move on to something else because this is not going to work or we dig in and we figure out why this is not working.”  The Humble Switch and Its Impact on the World In our increasingly electrified world, nearly everything includes a power switch. From our lights and our phones to our cars and coffee makers. Taking on big projects like this is what motivates Chris:  “What I love about this technology is I get to have an impact on developing a technology and looking to transform a technology that we use every day…The switch is the interface between us as humans in a society.” Both engineers and business leaders will find interesting takeaways from this fascinating conversation with Chris Keimel including: - “We had Eureka moments every year, almost every month.” - The unique aspect of GE’s business culture that allowed the Ideal Switch technology to develop over a decade, despite not producing income.- Why Chris compares the product development to an orchestra.- The process behind commercializing the metal MEMs technology and the decision to spinout from GE. So listen in and tell us what you think!

3… 2… 1… Liftoff! In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, a veteran of the aerospace industry, Brent Sherwood, Blue Origin’s Senior Vice President of Advanced Development Programs, discusses the barriers and breakthroughs for all nations, companies, and people to (literally) get outta’ this world.  Sherwood shares how his childhood dream to “build cities on the moon” led him on an unorthodox journey to become an aerospace engineer and one of the world’s leaders in the field of space exploration. Sherwood’s career has been spent living out his grown-up dreams. First at Boeing, then NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and now Blue Origin.  Architecting for space exploration and habitation requires a lot of people, money, and resources. It also takes a deep knowledge of hardware, mechanical, electrical, and industrial engineering in this new “space architecture” field. Sherwood brings us behind the scenes of both his experiences and Blue Origin’s projects and goals. Sherwood addresses earth's fragility and space’s potential for human civilization and the development of new energy and material resources. Blue Origin is looking to dramatically reduce the cost and risk for people to pursue these goals and turn these dreams into reality.  Science Fiction is Becoming a Science Reality  Listen in on this great conversation with Brent Sherwood. Highlights include:  -Why part of space is like “living inside of a VCR” -How many sunrises and sunsets happen in space each day -How power sources (e.g., sun and nuclear) will play critical roles in creating and maintaining space architecture  -Design for reusable liquid rocket engines, microgravity, and timeless aesthetics -The vision behind Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef - a commercially developed, owned, and operated space station scheduled to orbit by the end of this decade (that’s 2030—less 8 years away!) -Sherwood discusses his favorite celestial body (everyone has one of those, right?)