Lexicon

In this episode, we sit down with Rick Balzano, Vice President of Go-to-Market for AI Services, Safety and Robotics at TaskUs, to explore what it will take to move humanoid robots from impressive demonstrations into real-world workplaces. 

We discuss embodied AI, simulation, training data, human oversight, and why safety could ultimately determine whether humanoid robots achieve mass adoption. 

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In this episode, we sit down with Paleolithic archaeologist Dr. Ariel “Arik” Malinsky-Buller to reverse engineer the Stone Age. 

We explore how tiny fragments of obsidian and chert reveal the sophisticated toolmaking, long-distance travel, and shared knowledge that helped ancient hunter-gatherers survive the rugged Armenian Highlands tens of thousands of years ago.

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In this episode, we sit down with Salar al Khafaji, founder and CEO of Monumental, to explore how autonomous robots are moving beyond the lab and onto real construction sites. 

We discuss robot bricklayers, construction’s labor shortage, the challenge of building in unpredictable environments, and whether coordinated robot fleets could one day build a house in just 24 hours.

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In this episode, we are joined by Winnie Lai, founder and CEO of Auriga Space, to explore how electromagnetic launch technology could transform counter-drone defense. 

We discuss why using multimillion-dollar missiles against low-cost drones is becoming unsustainable, how Auriga’s frictionless magnetic-launch system works, and why the same core technology could one day help launch satellites, or even transport materials from the Moon. 

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In this episode of Lexicon, we sit down with Philippe Berlan, CEO of EverDye, to explore one of fashion's biggest environmental challenges: textile dyeing. 

With dyeing responsible for a significant share of the industry's carbon emissions, Philippe explains how new biobased technologies could dramatically reduce energy use, water consumption, and reliance on petrochemicals. 

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A boy who once woke up in his own sweat during blackouts grew up to build the machine ending them. In this episode we sit down with Johannes Amo Aye, founder of Minaji Energy, to talk about the Fusion Wind Turbine: a gearless, oil free hybrid system combining wind and solar in one unit, built to run 20 to 25 years with almost no maintenance. He shares the story of a night when midwives delivered a baby using two phone torches, why 90% of the system is manufactured in Ghana, and what it means to build Africa's energy future with African engineers.

In this episode:
A blackout tragedy in a maternity ward and the turnaround a year laterThe engineering behind a gearless, lubricant free wind turbineThe MTED program training local youth as techniciansShortlisted for the Royal Academy of Engineering Africa PrizeThe roadmap to scaling past 100 turbines

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AI is making cyberattacks faster, cheaper, and more accessible by allowing attackers to automate tasks such as reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, infrastructure mapping, and attack planning. In a recent Lexicon interview, Redsift CEO Rahul Pavar explains how AI is shifting cybersecurity from human speed toward machine speed, why critical infrastructure such as water utilities could become softer targets, and why organizations need to focus on fundamentals like MFA, continuous asset discovery, attack surface management, and faster threat detection. He also expects the next 6 to 18 months to bring a surge in vulnerabilities as AI uncovers weaknesses that may have existed for years but were previously too difficult to find.

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Lithium runs out. Batteries degrade. But sand? It lasts billions of years.

In this episode of Lexicon, Interesting Engineering sits down with Annette Haglund-Dones (CCO at Polar Night Energy) to reveal how they turned ordinary sand into a massive thermal battery—and survived one of Finland’s coldest winters on record.

Here is what you’ll discover:

• Zero Degradation: Why sand beats lithium for long-duration heat storage.

• The Scaling Surprise: What happened when they built a battery 20x larger than the prototype.

• Industrial Decarbonization: How 250°C heat stored in sand can replace fossil boilers.

Listen now to discover why the future of clean energy might be beneath our feet.

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In this episode of Lexicon by Interesting Engineering, Christopher McVadden speaks with Tom Granger of Niron Magnetics about iron nitride magnets, rare earth free permanent magnets, and the future of magnetic materials.

They explore how iron nitride could transform electric vehicles, robotics, data centers, defense systems, electric motors, and global magnet supply chains, while reducing dependence on rare earth elements and China.

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In this episode of Lexicon, we sit down with IEEE Fellow Dr. Karen Panetta, Dean of Graduate Education at Tufts University and co-inventor of the first digital twin. 

From AI ethics to the soft skills engineers are missing, she argues that engineering education is overdue for a serious overhaul. 

Why are we still training students to pass exams instead of solving real-world problems? And in an age of generative AI, what does it actually mean to think and design like an engineer? 

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