Join us as we speak with Ricardo Olivares about his 17-year journey at NASA where he has climbed the ranks through various engineering and management positions.  

In this episode, Ricardo talks about his biological work at NASA, what's it's like to load cargo into a rocket waiting to take off, and some of the process that goes into performing research and development at the highest echelon. Additionally, Ricardo talks about what it was like to take part in highly selective (and individually customized) leadership programs at NASA.   

This is Ricardo's second appearance on CWSK and we are glad to have him back. 

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Join us as we speak with Kenny Chen, who ran Pittsburgh's Thrival festival for many years, founded AI for Good, ran the accelerator known as Ascender, and has generally been a staple of Pittsburgh's tech community. In this episode, Kenny talks about studying public policy at Harvard and some questionable uses of AI that are going on right now that you may or may not know about, such as China's social credit system. 

As China swallows up its neighbors, is there a way to protect the rights of Taiwan and Hong Kong's citizens? It's dubious, but some things are worth fighting for. This is a long episode with a lot of drinking and first-principle explanations since Spencer is not well versed in Politics and Kenny is an excellent teacher. 

Pull up a chair. This is fascinating stuff.

Dimitry Krivochenitser is the CFO and COO of Xena Workware. His wife, Ana, is the CEO. For those of you who do not know, the COO typically does a lot of non-glamourous, but almost ballet-like, work to make things happen on time. It is their job to make the CEO's promises come to fruition. The CEO's job is equally important in that they sell the product and represent the company's image to the world. Marriage aside, this is a symbiotic relationship in any company and one could not succeed without the other. 

Xena was the first company to bring a stylish safety-rated workboot for women to market. This offering is long-overdue and it took a lot of grit and hard work to bring it to fruition. You can find out more about Xena's stylish workboots here: https://xenaworkwear.com/

Join us as we speak with Dmitry Krivochenitser about the challenges of starting a medium-scale product company with a fairly novel mission. In this episode, Spencer drinks way more than Dmitry. Dmitry gives his perspective on the challenges of bringing a product that has never existed before to market in an international ecosystem. Dmitry and Spencer talk about industrial safety and the importance of paving new ground. 

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In light of the federal holiday, we are releasing this episode on a Thursday. Our normal schedule will resume next week.

Join us as we speak with Pittsburgh Robotics Network Executive Director Joel Reed. In this episode, Spencer and Joel sip Scotch. Joel talks about his career from high-powered (top 3) consultant, to startup CEO, to running the Pittsburgh robotics network, with a lot of stories in between. Joel and Spencer also talk about alternate careers they once considered as doctors and what made them decide to go into robotics instead.

Join us as we speak with Vecna Robotics' Director of Business Development, Matthew Cherewka, about Vecna Robotics, aspiring to work with technology from an early age, speculations about the past, present, and future of robotics, and ethical business practices that simultaneously generate profit and good-will.

Join us as we speak with the multitalented Stephen Hawes about his interests in electronics manufacturing, various ways to motivate teams of engineers, open source vs closed source, bringing products to market, and the pros and cons of listening to critics on the internet.

Check out Stephen's YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/StephenTheRobot

And his Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/stephenhawes 

If you enjoyed this, please tell your friends and subscribe to CWSK. Your validation goes a  long way in helping us continue to make more awesome content. 

Join us as we share a cup of coffee with high volume knee and hip replacement surgeon and research engineer, Ken Urish. In this episode, Ken describes what it takes to get an MD / Ph.D., Ken and Spencer discuss the history and significance of Machine learning in medicine, we debate the efficacy of surgical robots, and Ken discusses the (delayed) joys of improving patient outcomes. Finally, Ken and Spencer wax nostalgic about inventing things for the fun of it. This is a good one so please don't miss it!

You can find out more about Ken's work at aadlab.org

Join us as we speak with Innovation Works Communications Director, Terri Glueck. In this episode, we talk about the realities of entrepreneurship and what it looks like to support the entrepreneurial community, as well as how many entrepreneurs are wired. We also explore cynicism, motivational structure, and the beauty of the biomedical and life sciences sectors. This episode dives deep so be sure to check it out, folks.  

Speaking of biomed and life sciences, please check out the AlphaLab Health Showcase on Jun 9th at 3pm ET / noon PT. RSVP today! https://alphalabhealth.org/events/showcase.

As always, if you found this interesting, please subscribe and stay tuned for more conversations with interesting people doing incredible things.

Join us as we speak with Deeplocal's Director of Software, Oscar Prom about what it takes to build high-tech interactive exhibits for big brands on a regular basis. In this episode we discuss how Oscar and his team have been applying the lessons they've learned to create a universal framework for commissioning exhibits more effectively. The product, gumband, encompasses a unique set of tools and is on-sale now.   We also discuss ways we've been trying to engage people during the pandemic, discuss art, tell stories about work and play, debate philosophy, and have an all around great time.  

Learn more about gumband, here: https://www.gumband.com/ 

Learn more about Deeplocal here: https://www.deeplocal.com/ 

If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to Collaborative with Spencer Krause for more informal conversations with people who are pushing the limits of science, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Join us as we speak with Greek Gadget Guru about his approach to making superhero gadgets for fun and profit. In this episode, we discuss Greek Gadget Guru's journey into his current role and offer a sneak-peek into an unpublished project that Greek Gadget Guru and SKA have been teaming up on.

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