Digitel Talk

In this episode of Digital Talk, host Ian Ginn speaks with Dr. Manpreet Kaur , Director of Strategy and Product at SidLabs LLP. MP shares her journey from developmental psychology to tech entrepreneurship, highlighting SID Labs’ impactful work in real-time environmental monitoring and community protection.

A standout project discussed is a real-time SOS system deployed in the Amazon region of Peru. This tool enables local citizens to report environmental crimes and receive alerts within minutes, drastically reducing response time from 30 days to real-time. The system integrates satellite data, mobile technology, and media sources to decentralize information and empower communities, governments, and NGOs.

MP also touches on the ethical and scalable nature of AI-driven solutions developed by SidLabs, including applications in education and child development. She emphasizes the importance of domain knowledge, critical thinking, and responsible tech design—especially for Generation Alpha growing up in an AI-driven world.

Links and resources:

• SidLabs
• AI for Good Summit (ITU) 

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth.

Guest bio:

Dr. Manpreet Kaur is a Director of Strategy and Product at SidLabs Online LLP. After a decade-long career as a practising developmental psychologist, she turned to HCAI Design in 2021. In 2022, she was recognised as India's Top-rated Child Psychologist across various national and regional media houses. 

With over 12 years of global experience at the cutting edge of human-centred AI, systems design, stakeholder engagement, and ethical innovation, in 2025 at the AI for Good Summit, Geneva, Switzerland, SidLabs earned dual victory for their AI-powered solutions to real-world challenges - Defence AI and LexAid.

Her approach merges profound behavioural insights, design thinking, and systems strategy. Whether aligning multi-sector stakeholders, guiding AI product roadmaps, or translating complexity into clarity, she builds with empathy, scalability, and clear, measurable outcomes.

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn
• Guest: Dr. Manpreet Kaur 
• Editor: Francis Wright
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn
• Project manager: Ivana Duric

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In this AI for Good special of Digitel Talk, host Ian Ginn speaks with Dr Steffen Kirchgeorg, co-founder of Namu Robotics, about using drones, robotics and AI to tackle one of the planet’s greatest challenges: biodiversity loss.

From testing drone-mounted probes in the Amazon rainforest to detecting invasive species in Europe, Steffen shares how Namu Robotics is pioneering new ways of monitoring ecosystems, supporting conservation, and addressing climate change.

The conversation explores:

• How drones can collect DNA samples deep within the rainforest canopy.
• The challenges of biodiversity mapping and why AI is essential for analysis.
• Fighting invasive pests like the Japanese beetle in Europe’s vineyards.
• What Steffen learned from the AI for Good Summit in Geneva.
• His personal reflections on climate change, from melting glaciers in the Alps to the need for solutions that are truly impactful.

Links and resources:

• Namu 
• ETH Zurich
• AI for Good Summit (ITU) 

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth.

Guest bio:

Steffen Kirchgeorg is a robotics and aerospace engineer passionate about using technology to tackle environmental challenges. He’s currently building Namu Robotics, where they develop innovative tech for biodiversity monitoring and pest detection. Previously, he completed his PhD at ETH Zürich, researching and developing novel robots for tree canopy exploration and environmental monitoring.
 
Steffen’s work has won awards like the XPRIZE Rainforest Competition Bonus Prize and has taken him to the rainforests in Singapore, Peru, and Brazil to perform his research and test his technology. He’s focused on turning creative ideas into real-world solutions that quantify the true value of nature and help protect our planet.

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn
• Guest: Dr Steffen Kirchgeorg
• Editor: Francis Wright
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn
• Project manager: Ivana Duric

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You can find us on LinkedIn @digitel-talk or on our website www.digiteltalk.com

In this AI for Good special episode of Digitel Talk, host Ian Ginn speaks with Leen D'hondt, Director of Technology at the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). From mapping remote, unmapped regions to empowering local communities with open-source tools, Leen shares how geospatial data can transform lives in low- and middle-income countries.

Discover how HOT works with communities to address local challenges—from post-disaster recovery and sanitation planning to disability access and environmental monitoring—using drones, AI-assisted mapping, and peer-to-peer training. Hear inspiring stories like mapping informal settlements in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and why open and responsible AI is key to sustainable impact.

If you’ve ever wondered how maps can change the world, this episode will show you the power of open data, human collaboration, and technology for good.

Links and resources:

• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)
• AI for Good Summit (ITU) 

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth.

Guest bio:

Leen is the Director of Technology and Data at the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). Her drive: connecting people through mapping for Social Good. The HOT Technology team she leads co-creates open-source tools that empower communities to create and use geospatial data in a collaborative way.

The democratization of this geospatial technology ensures that communities govern their own data, protect it, and use it to meet local needs. It enables people to actively participate in decision-making and become local change-makers through the use of community-generated data.

Before joining HOT about 3 years ago, she worked at TomTom and Capgemini as Sr Product Manager Maps and Geospatial Consultant and worked in Development Cooperation for the Belgian Development Agency Enabel. She is a Bio-engineer by training, specialized in GIS and Remote Sensing.

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn
• Guest: Leen D'hondt
• Editor: Francis Wright
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn
• Project manager: Ivana Duric

Send us your feedback

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Want to be a guest on the show or sponsor a podcast? For all enquires contact [email protected]

If you liked this episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5* review and rating, it really helps our channel.

You can find us on LinkedIn @digitel-talk or on our website www.digiteltalk.com

In this special edition of Digitel Talk, recorded live at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, host Ian Ginn sits down with Professor Veronica Santos from UCLA to explore the future of human–robot interaction, the role of tactile sensing, and how AI and haptics could redefine connectivity across physical and digital worlds.

From demoing wearable haptic rings to exploring “telephones for touch”, Veronica shares her vision for creating emotionally intelligent machines—and how the Human Fusions Institute is making tech more human, inclusive, and accessible. Whether it's pain management, remote surgery, or digital handshakes across continents, this episode reveals why the power of touch could be the next frontier of AI for good.

Links and resources:

• AI for Good Global Summit
• UCLA Biomechatronics Lab
• Human Fusions Institute
• Case Western Reserve University

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth.

Guest bio:

Veronica J. Santos is a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCLA and directs the Biomechatronics Lab. Her research focuses on tactile sensing, hand biomechanics, and prosthetics. She also serves as Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Dr. Santos earned degrees from UC Berkeley and Cornell, and has received NSF CAREER and teaching awards. Her work has been featured in National Geographic, TechCrunch, and Forbes.

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn
• Guest: Veronica Santos
• Editor: Francis Wright
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn
• Project manager: Ivana Duric

Send us your feedback

Support the show

Follow Digitel Talk

Want to be a guest on the show or sponsor a podcast? For all enquires contact [email protected]

If you liked this episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5* review and rating, it really helps our channel.

You can find us on LinkedIn @digitel-talk or on our website www.digiteltalk.com

In this special AI for Good edition of Digitel Talk, host Ian Ginn speaks with Lingli Deng of China Mobile Research about an inspiring use case of 5G for marine conservation. Learn how advanced sensing technology and AI are being used to protect endangered white dolphins in Chinese waterways by detecting their movements and preventing collisions with human activity. The project, which has reduced dolphin fatalities by 97%, could be scaled to forests, national parks, and beyond.

This is a true example of AI for Good—where network infrastructure meets ecological protection in the name of sustainable symbiosis.

Links and resources:

• China Mobile Research
• AI for Good Global Summit

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth.

Guest bio:

Lingli obtained her Doctorate in Computer Application Technology from the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences and joined China Mobile in 2009. She was a core member of the Novonet project which drives SDN/NFV strategy for China Mobile, and had been working on evaluation and introduction of data plane acceleration technology, running the Novonet Testing Lab for the SDN/NFV trial network for the company. She has been an active contributor and community leaders in various SDOs (ETSI, 3GPP and ITU-T) and open source communities (OPNFV, ONAP and LFN) to boost corresponding industrial collaboration. Currently, she is actively leading the Agentic AI industry operation ecological construction team which drives the autonomous telco transformation with AI/ML enabled internal operation (i.e.  Autonomous Network at TM Forum) and external AI agent monetization enablement (i.e. Agentic AI  for Telco initiative at GSMA), as a director researcher at the Jiutian AI divison of China Mobile.

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn
• Guest: Lingli Deng
• Editor: Francis Wright
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn
• Project manager: Ivana Duric

Send us your feedback

Support the show

Follow Digitel Talk

Want to be a guest on the show or sponsor a podcast? For all enquires contact [email protected]

If you liked this episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5* review and rating, it really helps our channel.

You can find us on LinkedIn @digitel-talk or on our website www.digiteltalk.com

In this AI for Good special of Digitel Talk, host Ian Ginn speaks with Galim Turumtaev, a machine learning engineer and the visionary behind Homai—a grassroots project reviving endangered languages using AI and speech technology.

Broadcast live from the AI for Good Summit, this episode explores how Galim’s work is reconnecting communities with their cultural roots through smart speakers, speech models, and locally digitised content. By building language tools for Bashkir and nine other minority languages, Homai is turning AI into a powerful tool for preservation, identity, and education.

Discover how tech can protect what makes us human.

Links and resources:

• Homai 
• AI for Good Summit
• Innovation Factory (ITU)
• Glidance Mobility Solutions 

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth.

Guest bio:

ML Engineer and founder of Homai, Aygiz Kunafin, started this project in 2020 to help his four children speak more in their native Bashkir language. The original idea was to create a smart speaker that could talk about Bashkir culture and history in the Bashkir language.
I joined the project in 2023 as an ML engineer with experience in speech synthesis and speech recognition, driven by my passion to support my native language, Bashkir.
At Homai, we quickly realized that many other languages face similar challenges. That’s why we decided to expand our project to support more languages. This led to the launch of Homai in Malta. Now, we are building a platform where anyone can digitize their language without technical barriers, using the knowledge base and toolkit we developed while working on the Bashkir language smart speaker.

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn
• Guest: Galim Turumtaev
• Editor: Francis Wright
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn
• Project manager: Ivana Duric

Send us your feedback

Support the show

Follow Digitel Talk

Want to be a guest on the show or sponsor a podcast? For all enquires contact [email protected]

If you liked this episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5* review and rating, it really helps our channel.

You can find us on LinkedIn @digitel-talk or on our website www.digiteltalk.com

In this AI for Good episode of Digitel Talk, host Ian Ginn interviews Dr Aral Surmeli, physician and founder of HERA Digital Health. What began as a small mobile app for refugee mothers has evolved into a multilingual, AI-powered chatbot helping displaced populations navigate health systems worldwide.

From antenatal care in refugee camps to disaster response during the Turkish-Syrian earthquake, this is a powerful example of tech built for impact—with no logins, no gatekeeping, just open-source access to care.

Links and resources:

• HERA Digital Health
• Medical Resource Association of Türkiye
• AI for Good Global Summit

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth.

Guest bio

Aral is the founder/CEO of HERA Digital Health and cofounder /president of Medical Rescue Association of Türkiye (MEDAK). He has spent his career focused on medical rescue, disaster response, and healthcare for migratory populations. Aral received his MD from the Acıbadem University School of Medicine, his MPH from Harvard University T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and is currently studying for his PhD in technology and humanitarian aid at Johns Hopkins. 

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn
• Guest: Dr Aral Surmeli
• Editor: Francis Wright
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn
• Project manager: Ivana Duric

Send us your feedback

Support the show

Follow Digitel Talk

Want to be a guest on the show or sponsor a podcast? For all enquires contact [email protected]

If you liked this episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5* review and rating, it really helps our channel.

You can find us on LinkedIn @digitel-talk or on our website www.digiteltalk.com

In this special episode of Digitel Talk, recorded at the AI for Good Summit in Geneva, host Ian Ginn speaks with Professor Cecilia Laschi (National University of Singapore) about how soft robotics, inspired by the octopus, could transform our understanding of the oceans.

Cecilia explains how her biodegradable, AI-assisted robots are designed to explore the seabed —safely collecting sediment samples, planting seagrass, and even deploying lab-grown coral—all without damaging delicate marine ecosystems.
 Beyond marine science, the conversation touches on broader applications in biomedicine, agriculture, and the need for sustainable computation in a resource-hungry tech landscape.

Links and resources:

• AI for Good Global Summit
• National University of Singapore
• IEEE Technical Committee on Soft Robotics

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth.

Guest bio

Prof Cecilia Laschi is the Provost’s Chair Professor of Robotics at NUS, where she leads the Soft Robotics Lab. She is the Director of the Advanced Robotics Centre and co-director of the Centre for Advanced Robotics Technology and Innovation (CARTIN). She holds a PhD in Robotics from the University of Genoa and an honorary doctorate from the University of Southern Denmark. A pioneer in soft robotics, she explores marine applications of soft robots and their use in the biomedical field, with a focus on eldercare. She has worked in humanoid and neuro-robotics, applying brain models in humanoid robots. Prof Laschi is Editor-in-Chief of Bioinspiration & Biomimetics and holds key editorial roles in top robotics journals. An IEEE Fellow and active member of various scientific societies, she founded the IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft). She also co-founded RoboTech, a spin-off company in edutainment robotics.

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn
• Guest: Professor Cecilia Laschi
• Editor: Francis Wright
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn
• Project manager: Ivana Duric

Send us your feedback

Support the show

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Want to be a guest on the show or sponsor a podcast? For all enquires contact [email protected]

If you liked this episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5* review and rating, it really helps our channel.

You can find us on LinkedIn @digitel-talk or on our website www.digiteltalk.com

In this AI for Good Special episode of Digitel Talk, host Ian Ginn sits down with Professor Janet Wiles, leader of the Florence Project at the University of Queensland—a groundbreaking initiative co-designed with people living with dementia to reimagine communication technology.

Rather than designing “for” people with dementia, the Florence Project designs with them. Over 10 years, the team has developed a series of simple, empowering tech tools that support communication, dignity and daily life—ranging from tactile cameras to private social circles and custom-designed diaries.

From AI-enhanced speech recognition to user-guided co-design, Janet shares how human-centred AI is not just a technical approach but a moral one—enabling people to stay connected, independent and seen.

Links and resources:

• Florence Project – University of Queensland
• University of Queensland – School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering
• AI for Good Global Summit

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth.

Guest bio

Janet Wiles is a Professor in Human Centred Computing at the University of Queensland. Her multidisciplinary team co-designs language technologies to support people living with dementia and their carers and social robots for applications in health, education, and neuroscience. She is currently developing a citizen science project which uses insights from neuroscience, AI and language technologies to explore the electrical characteristics of mycelial networks of symbiotic fungi in local ecosystems. She received her PhD in computer science from the University of Sydney and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychology. She has 30 years’ experience in research and teaching in machine learning, artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computation, complex systems, visualisation, language technologies and social robotics, leading teams that span engineering, humanities, social sciences and neuroscience. She currently teaches research methods for thesis and masters students, and is developing a new course in human-centred AI. Previous special interest courses include a cross disciplinary course ”Voyages in Language Technologies” that introduced computing students to the diversity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous languages, and state-of-the-art tools for deep learning and other analysis techniques for working with language data.

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn
• Guest: Janet Wiles 
• Editor: Francis Wright
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn
• Project manager: Ivana Duric

Send us your feedback

Support the show

Follow Digitel Talk

Want to be a guest on the show or sponsor a podcast? For all enquires contact [email protected]

If you liked this episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5* review and rating, it really helps our channel.

You can find us on LinkedIn @digitel-talk or on our website www.digiteltalk.com

In this AI for Good Special episode of Digitel Talk, host Ian Ginn speaks with Professor Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist, Head of the Drone Centre at the University of Southern Denmark and lead of the Wild Drone project.

From solar-powered autonomous drones to 5G-enabled missions over remote African landscapes, Ulrik shares how his team is combining AI, robotics, and environmental science to tackle the global biodiversity crisis.

This is a conversation about designing for the real world: drones that can fly all day, operate beyond line of sight, and detect endangered species in the wild — using cutting-edge AI and network slicing for safety and accuracy.

Links and resources:

• Wild Drone Project – EU-funded initiative using AI and drones for biodiversity
• University of Southern Denmark 
• Drone Centre – University of Southern Denmark
• Project GENIUS
• AI For Good Global Summit

Episode sponsored by IFG Consulting Europe– Supporting telcos with tech strategy, digitisation and growth [https://www.ifgconsultingeurope.com]

Guest bio

Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist is Professor and Head of Center for SDU UAS, the drone center at University of Southern Denmark. He is currently coordinator of the WildDrone Marie Curie Network on drones and AI for nature conservation, and was leader of the recently completed project GENIUS which won the GSMA Foundry Excellence Award at MWC Barcelona 2023.

Podcast credits:

• Host: Ian Ginn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-ginn/)
• Guest: Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulrikpaghschultz/)
• Editor: Francis Wright (https://www.linkedin.com/in/franciswaudio/)
• Designer: Rebecca Ginn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-ginn-86218414a/)
• Project manager: Ivana Duric (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanamj/)

Send us your feedback

Support the show

Follow Digitel Talk

Want to be a guest on the show or sponsor a podcast? For all enquires contact [email protected]

If you liked this episode, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a 5* review and rating, it really helps our channel.

You can find us on LinkedIn @digitel-talk or on our website www.digiteltalk.com