Best Stanford School Of Engineering Podcasts (2023)

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The Future of Everything

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Best of: What can the DNA in your blood reveal about your health? 27:17

2d ago27:17

27:17

Professor Stephen Quake's research has helped countless patients avoid the pain and suffering that can come with invasive diagnostic testing. Russ and Stephen discuss his work to develop a number of noninvasive blood tests to help detect preterm births, genetic disorders like Down Syndrome, cancer, and organ transplant rejection. It’s an episode th…

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DataFramed

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#166 Optimizing Cloud Data Warehouses with Salim Syed, VP, Head of Engineering at Capital One Software 32:30

15m ago32:30

32:30

Effective data management has become a cornerstone of success in our digital era. It involves not just collecting and storing information but also organizing, securing, and leveraging data to drive progress and innovation. Many organizations turn to tools like Snowflake for advanced data warehousing capabilities. However, while Snowflake enhances d…

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The Future of Everything

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The future of AI Chat: Foundation models and responsible innovation 35:47

7d ago35:47

35:47

Guest Percy Liang is an authority on AI who says that we are undergoing a paradigm shift in AI powered by foundation models, which are general-purpose models trained at immense scale, such as ChatGPT. In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast, Liang tells host Russ Altman about how foundation models are built, how t…

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DataFramed

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#165 Data & AI for Good, with Marga Hoek, Founder & CEO, Business for Good 45:54

10d ago45:54

45:54

There's often a debate in technology ethics on whether technology is neutral or not. On one hand, critics have rightfully pointed out examples of technology exacerbating the climate crisis, amplifying bias as we've seen in our recent episode with Dr. Joy Buolamwini, or contributing to the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Conversely, we …

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DataFramed

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#164 Driving Data Democratization with Lilac Schoenbeck, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Rocket Software 46:00

9d ago46:00

46:00

The consequences of data not being easily accessible within an organization are profound. Good decision-making often relies on good information, and with crucial insights locked behind closed doors, decision-makers may have to rely on incomplete information, stifling their ability to innovate through a lack of comprehensive data access or an inabil…

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The Future of Everything

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The future of ecohydrology 31:12

22d ago31:12

31:12

Guest Alex Konings studies fundamental links between the global cycle of water percolating into the ground and evaporating into the skies and a similar cycle of carbon moving through the world, shaping ecosystems, droughts, and fires. These cycles are inextricably bound, she says, and understanding how they function individually and in tandem is ke…

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DataFramed

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#163 Upgrading Company Culture Using The Geek Way with Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management 1:01:02

24d ago1:01:02

1:01:02

We are all guilty of getting excited about shiny new toys in whatever guise they present themselves to us. For many of us, lots of the recent shiny new toys have been ways of utilizing AI to update and iterate on the ways that we work. Leadership teams have been looking for ways that their organizations can incorporate AI solutions into their produ…

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The Future of Everything

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Best of: Bendable electronics 27:03

29d ago27:03

27:03

We’re re-running a fascinating conversation Russ had with Zhenan Bao back in 2017 about the work she and her lab are doing to develop artificial skin. The possible applications of a material that could replicate properties of human skin range from restoring a sense of touch for amputees to creating bendable electronics. Thank you for tuning in, we …

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DataFramed

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#162 Scaling Data Engineering in Retail with Mohammad Sabah, SVP of Engineering & Data at Thrive Market 51:02

29d ago51:02

51:02

Poor data engineering is like building a shaky foundation for a house—it leads to unreliable information, wasted time and money, and even legal problems, making everything less dependable and more troublesome in our digital world. In the retail industry specifically, data engineering is particularly important for managing and analyzing large volume…

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The Future of Everything

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Best of: Developing electronics for the extremes of space 26:25

1M ago26:25

26:25

Space exploration and travel are two topics that are always exciting, and that have sparked a lot of enthusiasm about the future. Debbie Senesky, a previous guest on the show, researches ways to develop tiny, tough electronics that could help augment our abilities to further explore extreme environments, such as those found in space. Today we’re re…

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DataFramed

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#161 Fighting for Algorithmic Justice with Dr. Joy Buolamwini, Artist-in-Chief and President of The Algorithmic Justice League 54:25

1M ago54:25

54:25

In 2015 an MIT Researcher set out to build a mirror that would augment their face to look like those of their idols. The execution of this went well, until it came to testing. When the researcher came to use the mirror, no face was detected. The researcher was not detected in the mirror, until that is, she put on a white mask, at which point, the m…

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The Future of Everything

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The future of computational imaging 36:15

1M ago36:15

36:15

Using math to improve photographs, with expert guest Gordon Wetzstein. Such methods have exploded in recent years and have wide-ranging impacts from improving your family photos, to making self-driving cars safer, to building ever-more-powerful microscopes. Somewhere in between hardware and software, he says, is the field of computational imaging, …

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DataFramed

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#160 Adapting to the AI Era with Jason Feifer, Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine 45:30

2M ago45:30

45:30

I think it's safe to say that we are in the peak of the hype cycle with generative AI. Almost every week now, we see new startups with exciting new GenAI use-cases and products. However, exciting doesn't necessarily translate to useful. And now more than ever, it's important for leaders, whether at incumbents or startups, to adapt and drive value w…

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The Future of Everything

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Best of: Guided missiles target cancer 27:38

2M ago27:38

27:38

Almost everyone knows someone who has battled cancer. Today, on The Future of Everything, we’re re-running our episode with Professor Jennifer Cochran who is bringing some hope in this area through work she and her lab are doing to find ways to localize therapies directly to the site of cancer tumors for more efficient and effective treatment. You …

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DataFramed

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#159 Building Trustworthy AI with Beena Ammanath, Global Head of the Deloitte AI Institute 38:48

2M ago38:48

38:48

Throughout the past year, we've seen AI go from a nice-to-have, to a must-have in almost every large organization’s boardroom. There’s been more and more focus deploy AI by leadership teams, and as a result, there's never been more pressure on the data team to deliver with AI. However, as the pressure to deliver with AI grows, the need to build saf…

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The Future of Everything

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The future of neuroscience: Karl Deisseroth sheds light on the inner workings of the brain 32:58

2M ago32:58

32:58

Transformational research techniques shaping our understanding of how the brain works. Guest Karl Deisseroth is a bioengineer and a psychiatrist who has developed two of the most transformational research techniques shaping our understanding of how the brain works — optogenetics, which allows neuroscientists to control brain cells with light, and C…

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DataFramed

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#158 Building Human-Centered AI Experiences with Haris Butt, Head of Product Design at ClickUp 53:02

2M ago53:02

53:02

In today's AI landscape, organizations are actively exploring how to seamlessly embed AI into their products, systems, processes, and workflows. The success of ChatGPT stands as a testament to this. Its success is not solely due to the performance of the underlying model; a significant part of its appeal lies in its human-centered user experience, …

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The Future of Everything

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Best of: How do we educate a new kind of engineer? 28:57

2M ago28:57

28:57

A perspective on the need for diversity and empathy in the engineering profession. As we enter a new academic year, it’s an opportune time to think about how we’re educating the next generation of engineers. Russ's conversation in 2020 with Sheri Sheppard, an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering and founder of the Designing Education Lab at…

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DataFramed

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#157 Is AI an Existential Risk? With Trond Arne Undheim, Research Scholar in Global Systemic Risk at Stanford University 46:52

2M ago46:52

46:52

It's been almost a year since ChatGPT was released, mainstreaming AI into the collective consciousness in the process. Since that moment, we've seen a really spirited debate emerge within the data & AI communities, and really public discourse at large. The focal point of this debate is whether AI is or will lead to existential risk for the human sp…

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The Future of Everything

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The future of quantum mechanics: Unraveling entanglement's secrets 33:21

2M ago33:21

33:21

Discover how quantum mechanics is reshaping our understanding of time, reestablishing computational capabilities, and ensuring the security of sensitive data transmission. Guest Monika Schleier-Smith is a physicist who says that quantum principles, like entanglement, can make atoms do funny things, such as allowing two atoms to share secrets across…

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DataFramed

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#156 Making Better Decisions using Data & AI with Cassie Kozyrkov, Google's First Chief Decision Scientist 1:08:34

3M ago1:08:34

1:08:34

From the dawn of humanity, decisions, both big and small, have shaped our trajectory. Decisions have built civilizations, forged alliances, and even charted the course of our very evolution. And now, as data & AI become more widespread, the potential upside for better decision making is massive. Yet, like any technology, the true value of data & AI…

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The Future of Everything

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The future of the gut microbiome 31:46

3M ago31:46

31:46

Discover the astonishing intricacies of microbial ecosystems and their potential to improve healthcare. Guest KC Huang is many things: A bioengineer. A microbiologist. An inventor. But mostly he’s an expert on the ecology of the human gut. He and his collaborators have developed a device that can sample bacterial DNA and create a living map of the …

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DataFramed

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#155 Building Diverse Data Teams with Tracy Daniels, Chief Data Officer at Truist 49:15

3M ago49:15

49:15

In data science, the push for unbiased machine learning models is evident. So much effort is made into ensuring the products we create are done thoughtfully and correctly, but are we investing the same effort in ensuring our teams, the very architects of these models, are diverse and inclusive? Bias in data can lead to skewed results, and similarly…

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The Future of Everything

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The future of coastal erosion 29:40

3M ago29:40

29:40

Guest Jane Willenbring is a geoscientist who studies accelerating coastal erosion. The challenge lies not in understanding why coasts are receding today, but in determining what they looked like a thousand years ago to know how much they’ve changed — a secret revealed in coastal rocks through isotopes shaped by cosmic radiation. But measurement is …

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DataFramed

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#154 Building Ethical Machines with Reid Blackman, Founder & CEO at Virtue Consultants 57:23

3M ago57:23

57:23

It's been a year since ChatGPT burst onto the scene. It has given many of us a sense of the power and potential that LLMs hold in revolutionizing the global economy. But the power that generative AI brings also comes with inherent risks that need to be mitigated. For those working in AI, the task at hand is monumental: to chart a safe and ethical c…

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The Future of Everything

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The future of Muslim mental health 28:50

3M ago28:50

28:50

Join host Russ Altman with guest Rania Awaad, M.D., a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she is the Director of the Stanford Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab. Delve into the intersection of mental health and spirituality, shedding light on the importance of holistic approaches…

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DataFramed

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#153 From Data Literacy to AI Literacy with Cindi Howson, Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot 38:42

3M ago38:42

38:42

For the past few years, we've seen the importance of data literacy and why organizations must invest in a data-driven culture, mindset, and skillset. However, as generative AI tools like ChatGPT have risen to prominence in the past year, AI literacy has never been more important. But how do we begin to approach AI literacy? Is it an extension of da…

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The Future of Everything

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The future of science education: Cultivating critical thinkers 31:08

3M ago31:08

31:08

Bad science is a big problem for society, says guest Jonathan Osborne, an expert in science education, but we don’t have to surrender to it. Beating bad science requires young people to learn three skills, Osborne says. First is an ability to size up conflicts of interest. Second, to evaluate a source’s qualifications. And third, to more rigorously…

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DataFramed

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Introducing Data & AI Literacy Month 1:55

3M ago1:55

1:55

With September and International Literacy Day (September 8th) upon us, we’re dedicating the entire month to cover the ins and outs of data & AI literacy. Make sure to sign up for the events we have in store, and to tune in for this month’s episodes. Data & AI Literacy Month DataCamp Radar: Data & AI Literacy Edition…

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DataFramed

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#152 How Data can Enable Effective Leadership with Dr. Constance Dierickx, The Decision Doctor 56:03

3M ago56:03

56:03

The mainstreaming of data & AI is fundamentally altering the way we work and operate. But with rising innovation, comes rising ambiguity and complexity. How can leaders effectively navigate the path ahead? How can leaders adopt data-driven decision-making and learn from their mistakes? How can leaders use data to look inward, and become what today’…

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The Future of Everything

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Best of: How computer chips get speedier through specialization 28:18

4M ago28:18

28:18

The Future of computer chip design: delve into a revolutionary approach to chip design. A re-run of a conversation Russ had in 2021 with Priyanka Raina, an assistant professor of electrical engineering. Priya is an expert in computer chip design. Whether or not you realize it, chips are everywhere and power everything from your toaster to your car.…

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DataFramed

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#151 How Data Science Can Sustain Small Businesses with Kendra Vant, Executive GM Data & AI Products at Xero 50:47

4M ago50:47

50:47

Throughout history, small businesses have consistently played a pivotal role in the global economy, serving as its foundational backbone. As we navigate the digital age, the emergence of large corporations and rapid technological advancements present new challenges. Now, more than ever, it's imperative for small businesses to adapt, embracing a dat…

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The Future of Everything

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Best of - AI and safety critical systems 27:52

4M ago27:52

27:52

Today we're rerunning a conversation Russ had in 2020 with Mykel Kochenderfer, a professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. Mykel's research has impacted anyone who has been on a plane recently for any kind of travel. His research led to the creation of a program known as the Airborne Collision Avoidance System, or ACAS X , w…

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