In this episode of Labs Talk, we talk to Ben Knutsen -  he is the Founder and CEO of kAR Graphics and a Snapchat Ambassador and Lens Creative Partner. As you may guess, this episode is all about the world of Snap and their vast ecosystem of AR-related software.

We start with the Snap Camera Desktop app, which allows you to augment the video-feed of popular videoconferencing apps such as Zoom with Lenses. Other topics include the Snapchat Mobile App, the Spectacles 3 glasses and of course the specifics of the Gen Z which seems to overlap a lot with Snapchat’s users. We also cover the newly introduced Snap Minis, little web experiences that allows brands to become part of Snapchat. We also specifically discuss how brands can use Snap and their software to engage with their Gen Z audiences.

Links

• Ben Knutson's Site
• Youtube Channel with a lot of Lens Studio Content
• Snap Lens Studio

Frontend development recently got shaken up by a trend called Micro Frontends. Here, the frontend monoliths are split up into smaller pieces – which sounds like more complexity – but it promises to scale the frontend development, so many teams can work simultaneously.

 In this episode, we discuss trends in frontend development technologies. For example, we take a look at the Luigi micro frontend framework that enables developers to create an user interface which is driven by local and distributed views. And luckily we have the opportunity to talk to Philipp Pracht about it, he’s a colleage here at SAP Munich and deeply involved in the development of this framework.

Links

• https://github.com/SAP/luigi
• https://luigi-project.io/
• Building UI application with Luigi — open source micro-frontends orchestrator: https://medium.com/swlh/luigi-micro-fronteds-orchestrator-8c0eca710151

When you think about your shopping habits, what factors most influence what you buy? If “product reviews” come to mind, you aren’t alone – numerous studies show that a vast majority of purchase decisions are driven by online reviews, both for digital and physical commerce. So how can businesses and consumers better navigate this landscape? In this episode, we chat with Alon Ghelber, Chief Marketing Officer for Revuze. Revuze is an Isreali startup leveraging AI to analyze customer sentiments and improve CX. Tune in to learn. 

Links

• Revuze Website
• Revuze on LinkedIn
• Alon Ghelber on LinkedIn
• Article by Alon about eCommerce review fraud

Hyperloop is an ultra-high-speed ground transportation system for passenger and cargo proposed as a concept by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, in a white paper back in 2013. And just one more exciting piece of information: the TUM has a long track record when it comes to winning the hyperloop competitions: Over the last half decade, the team has won all editions of the event and gathered extensive experience in these fields.

Ana Eloisa Garcia is Mexican nanotechnology engineer – and according to her biography, she has a passion for technology transfer and tacos! She's participated in many entrepreneurship contests, including some from Harvard and MIT in the United States. She also contributed to international programs that aim to improve the relationships between youth from all around the world. Right now, she is pursuing a master’s in management at the TUM. Parallel to this, for the past two years Ana has supported the school’s Hyperloop team, including attending the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2019. Since last September, she has led the Business Case Subteam, and together with other students, she is developing feasibility studies to analyze the potential of the implementation of a Hyperloop system in Germany, and hopefully in the near future, throughout Europe. 

Links

• Ana Eloisa Garcia on LinkedIn 
• TUM Hyperloop: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube
• Tesla - Hyperloop Alpha
• [VIDEO] TUM Hyperloop - POD IV - Making Of Video
• TechCrunch - Team TUM wins SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition with record 288 mph top speed
• Innovation Origins - TU Munich is building a full-size Hyperloop vacuum tube and pod prototype for testing
• Composites World - TU Munich gears up for full-scale Hyperloop demonstrator

Related News

• The Wired Guide to Hyperloop
• How Stuff Works - How Hyperloop Works
• Hyper Map - Interactive Global Map
• The Verge - Virgin Hyperloop hits an important milestone: The first human passenger test

Project Gardener is about delivering fully-managed Kubernetes clusters –  kind of like Kubernetes as a Service - independent of the underlying cloud service like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. 

 While Kubernetes took over the world of cloud-native computing overnight, Gardener is now taking on the problem, that many Kubernetes clusters are somewhat hard to maintain and manage. 

 We’ll be talking to Rafael Franzke, a Senior Developer from SAP. He was part of the initial project inception team and is driving the Gardener core implementation. As such, he was one of the early adopters of Kubernetes Operators and Kubernetes extension concepts in general.

Links

• Rafael Franzke on LinkedIn and Twitter 
• Gardener Website
• The Kubernetes Botanist Blog Post
• Project Gardener Update Blog Post
• Gardener on GitHub
• Hasso Plattner Founder Award for Project Gardener
• Intro Movie about Gardener at SAP TV
• Gardener Landscape Installer
• Gardener Slack Channel
• Gardener Weekly Community Meeting

Single-use plastic packaging is a huge problem, that SAP Munich is addressing with their strategic partner Relevo. From July 2020 on, SAP Munich employees will have the opportunity to use reusable containers for their lunches bought on restaurants (nearby) and have it to take-away. In this episode, we take a closer look at the Sustainability Champions Network at SAP with Tabata Perez Renteria y Hernandez. For the main interview, we’re discussing Zero Waste with Gregor Kolb from Relevo. 

Links

• Relevo Website
• Gregor Kolb on LinkedIn
• https://www.bain.com/insights/covid-19-gives-sustainability-a-dress-rehearsal/
• https://www.deutsche-startups.de/2020/06/02/10-startups-ganz-frisch/ (German)

In this episode, we’re talking to Sadee Gamhewa and Geoff Wright from Velou. Sadee is their CEO while Geoff is their Chief Commercial Officer. Velou has been a SAP.iO Foundry Munich Member and have integrated their data enrichment and search platform with the SAP Commerce Cloud offerings. They use a mixture of AI, ML and NLP tools to analyze and enrich product data. Using their technology, shoppers quickly find the product they want, leading to increased sales.   

Links

• Velou's Website
• Sadee Gamhewa and Geoff Wright on LinkedIn

There are quite a few definitions out there for digital twins, but many have in common that a digital twin is a digital representation of a real-world entity or system. The main benefit of having a digital twin is the ability to optimize the operation and maintenance of the physical counterparts. They also allow for accurately testing new scenarios, and predicting and preparing for enhancements or issues without disrupting the current state of the existing entity. Digital Twins can combine many elements, ranging from hardware sensors, machine learning to connectivity solutions such as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT).  

TWAICE is Munich-based startup that combines their knowledge of battery technology with data analytics. Calling them experts would be an understatement – digital twins are at the core of their business. In this episode, we’re shedding light on digital twin technology, together with Lennart Hinrichs, the commercial director of TWAICE.

Links:
TWAICE
ERGO - TWAICE: Digital twins for batteries
EU Startups - Munich-based Twaice raises €11 million Series A to take its battery analytics global

Related:
IoT for All - What is a Digital Twin?
Forbes - 7 Amazing Examples of Digital Twin Technology in Practice
Reliability Connect - SAP Predictive Engineering and the Digital Twin

This episode is dedicated to local commerce – a surprisingly current topic when you look at the corona pandemic. The restrictions we all suffered from were especially hard for local retailers and according to some studies, about 30% might not even survive.

 Our interviewee is Johannes, he’s one of our colleagues at SAP Munich and he’s a product manager for the Customer Experience portfolio. He has an impressive 7 years of eCommerce and Customer enablement knowledge.

 Johannes supported an initiative called miagehn.online – which loosely translates to let’s go online. It’s a program that tries to help local, non-digital, physical and rather small stores to make use of eCommerce or digital tools in general.

Links

• MiaGehn.Online Initiative
• Johannes on LinkedIn
• Recent research about implications of the Corona Pandemic
• How Corona affects Retail

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is about business process automation, but the term “robotic” does not mean humanoid robots are taking over these processes. We’re talking about software robots (often just called “bots”) and AI-assisted digital systems that automate processes. RPA is one of the hot IT trends of 2020 and some experts believe that it will change businesses in a more profound way than previous trends. 

In this episode, we’re sharing a lot of insight and knowledge when it comes to RPA – but we start with the basics so everybody can make up his mind and put RPA onto a big picture. Our interviewee, Sebastian Schroetel, is the Head of Intelligent Robotic Process Automation at SAP and we’re very grateful to have such a competent partner nearby to discuss this topic.

Links

• Automatisierung mit Robotik Process Automation 
• SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation 
  • Free Trial: click the Try Now button
• SAP Community page for Intelligent RPA
• SAP White Paper - Launch Business Productivity with Intelligent Robotic Process Automation
• S/4HANA & Intelligent RPA Infographic + PDF
• Use Case Discovery tool online with an abbreviated PDF
• Short product video - SAP Intelligent RPA
• Short video series - RPA Talk 

Related News

• Digitalist - Robotic Process Automation: The Dawn Of Unlimited Intelligence
• Medium - Robotic Process Automation
• Forbes - Remote Working: What it Means for RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
• Towards Data Science - RPA Trends: This is what we can expect this year