Attempts to meld virtual spaces and physical reality so far have struggled to take hold. For all the ingenuity behind projects like Google Glass, the metaverse, and the Apple Vision Pro, they’ve often felt like technologies in search of a purpose. Professor Nick Kelling, an engineer turned researcher, may have found one. Rebecca and Joe spoke to him about the limitations and possibilities of extended reality in the industrial sector. About our guestNick Kelling is a Professor of Human Factors Psychology at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. His research focuses on the use of VR/XR/AR technologies for training psychomotor skills and the use of technology in environments where education and entertainment goals coexist. In his nearly two decades of research, he has collaborated with college athletics, computing and aerospace companies, amusement parks, zoos, and NASA. Nick is an author of more than 30 published works within education, human factors, and engineering receiving multiple grants from the US National Institute of Health and NASA.Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter. Visit our website. Follow us on LinkedIn.
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34:50
How to handle the coming e-waste avalanche
Critical minerals are key to green technologies, but their supply is dominated by a small number of countries. Recycling could, in theory, open up a new source of supply of these minerals—but that too is dominated by a small number of countries. Rebecca and Joe talk to Megan O’Connor, CEO and co-founder of Nth Cycle. The start-up's Oyster system has the potential to transform the recycling business. Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter. Visit our website. Follow us on LinkedIn.
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31:25
Your life is manufactured
Rebecca and Joe talk to Dr Tim Minshall, the Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation and Head of the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge, about his new book, Your Life Is Manufactured: How We Make Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do It Better.They discuss why “supply chain” is a misnomer, how SMEs can begin their digitalization journey, a useful prism through which to think about reshoring—and a whole lot more.Buy Your Life Is Manufactured: Waterstones / Blackwells / Faber / Amazon. Follow Tim on LinkedIn. Visit the Institute for Manufacturing’s website. Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter. Visit our website. Follow us on LinkedIn.
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32:19
“The Victorian Internet”—The world’s first global communication network
The telegraph system went from speculative theory to a global telecommunications network connecting continents via undersea cables in just 35 years. Episode page:https://www.aveva.com/en/perspectives/podcasts/the-victorian-internet/Article page:https://www.aveva.com/en/perspectives/blog/dot-dot-dash-35-years-that-shrunk-the-world/[1] “The Electric & International Telegraph Company's map of the telegraph lines of Europe” Published under the Authority of the Electric Telegraph Company by Day & Son, Lithographers to the Queen. August 1, 1856.[2] The Iconography of Manhattan Island. Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, 1915. Page 61.[3] Cyrus W. Field, His life and work [1819-1892]. Isabella Field Johnson. New York Brothers Publishers, 1896. Page 117.[4] The story of the telegraph and a history of the great Atlantic cable. Charles F. Briggs and Augustus Maverick. Rudd & Carleton, 1858. Pages 11-12.[5] The Victorian internet. Tom Standage. Bloomsbury, 1998. Page 90.Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter. Visit our website. Follow us on LinkedIn.
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11:04
Dark matter and ghost particles—industrial data helps uncover the secrets of the universe
SNOLAB is the deepest clean lab in the world. It searches for the most elusive building blocks of our universe: neutrinos and dark matter. The Nobel Prize website describes its experiments as like searching for a particular grain of sand in the Sahara—and it relies on industrial data to do it.Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter. Visit our website. Follow us on LinkedIn.
We investigate how data and technology are shaping the present and future of the industrial economy. Join hosts Rebecca Ahrens and Joe Renshaw as we talk with experts from critical industries—from water and power to manufacturing, pharmaceutical production, and beyond—about the cutting-edge industrial technologies that are changing how engineers keep the everyday parts of life running.
France