Like most engineers, Michael Armstrong was first inspired by his high school English class…Wait, that can’t be right? Indeed it is! Since then, Armstrong’s career has taken numerous unexpected twists and turns that include pistachios, designing a PhD program on a napkin, and becoming an unintentional Disney Imagineer.

Armstrong got involved in electric aviation long before it was made cool by Uber (yes, Uber). During his distinguished career, he has worked with many company names that we would associate with aviation, including NASA and Rolls-Royce. Armstrong has long been asking the questions: “What does the next aircraft of the future really look like? And, how do technologies like electrification change the way you think about what a good aircraft looks like?”

And now, he is leading efforts to create high voltage, high power, high-reliability battery systems for electric aircraft propulsion. This includes a current program to complete the first flight certification of a battery that will propel the all-electric Diamond Aircraft eDA40. 

The technology is amazing, but Armstrong’s stated goal is for “the battery to be the most boring system on the plane.” And that drives his focus on safety and reliability.

Drawing from his career working on electric aviation from full systems down to batteries, Armstrong provides interesting insights on battery technology, electric aviation, and even deciding upon an engineering career path. You will not want to miss this fascinating Moore’s Lobby episode as he discusses:

-How electric propulsion will allow designers to complete reimagine aircraft

-The massively different challenges presented by electric aviation when compared to electric vehicles

-Working on multiple NASA X-plane programs, including the flying harmonica

-Why after delivering a battery, “in some ways your job has just begun.”

In this Industry Tech Days 2022 keynote panel discussion, we get to hear from three industry leaders: 

- Michael Knight, President of the Exponential Technology Group and Senior VP of Corporate Business Development at TTI.

- Jeff Newell, Senior VP of Products at electronics distributor Mouser Electronics.

- Misha Govshteyn, CEO of MacroFab, a contract manufacturing company serving the electronics industry.

You don’t thrive in the turmoil of the electronics industry without seeing challenges as opportunities. This is evident throughout this discussion. Misha Govshteyn demonstrated this attitude as he reflected on the last couple of years:

It's messy, but I got to be honest with you. I love It. We're in wartime mode, and I think we're trying to build a very different model for how to build product and how to do manufacturing. Believe it or not, it's actually very difficult to do without a crisis.

Jeff Newell also has a lot of positive things to say about the unique opportunities of our current situation, including:

If you give the engineers time to really think and create versus having to go to meetings and some of the overhead things associated with working in an office environment, I think we're going to see a lot of cool things come out of that environment…I think the number of new products is going to accelerate as we get through the next few years. If I were an engineer in today's world, I'd be very excited about that.

This is a spirited discussion, and everyone from executives to engineers and students can learn something from it. Our Moore’s Lobby host, Daniel Bogdanoff, leads a discussion that includes:

- Gray and black market products and their relation to e-waste

- Component engineers? What are they and why your company might need them

- Why EE hardware engineers might be undervalued in the market

- Advice for early career and student engineers

Wei has always been at the cutting edge of hardware and software as Intel transformed from a PC-based hardware company to a world leader in data centers, cloud, mobile, and now AI solutions. 

He spearheaded compiler development that set world records for performance on parallel servers and supercomputers. How impressive are his accomplishments at Intel? Wei and his teams have received not one, not two, but FIVE of the prestigious Intel Achievement Awards. Perhaps more importantly, Wei always seems to be having fun, even if he might be “stuck in the Matrix.”

In this Moore’s Lobby episode, Wei provides his insights on hardware and software co-design, AI reference kits, and advances in CPUs and GPUs. You will enjoy this interview with host Daniel Bogdanoff as they discuss not only AI, but also:

- Hardware is an accelerator for software. “It's not the other way around. It's not!” 

- Why Wei and Intel are encouraging and investing in the AI open-source movement

- Wei’s three key pieces of advice for early-stage engineers or students

Starting his engineering education by taking classes at Caltech under Carver Mead, one of “one of the luminaries of computer VLSI design,” Sam Naffziger “really got excited about the VLSI design field” early in his career. That excitement hasn’t waned a bit as he continues to tackle important challenges in low-power circuit and system design. 

Low-power design techniques like boost and adaptive clocking were brand new in the early 2000s, and not much interest to teams focused almost solely on performance. So, Sam had to sneak some of those low-power features into early designs:

There was another engineer who had a little tiny little microcontroller for other functions to manage the I/O interfaces, and so I managed to get a backdoor path into that microcontroller and some code space so we could actually sneak in, so that the design leads didn't actually know we had this back door.

And the rest, as the saying goes, is history:

So we got this stuff in there, and it proves so valuable…that suddenly it became an essential element for all future processors.

So valuable that it is now used in everything from smartphones to desktop PCs and the latest supercomputers.

Naffziger has had such a fascinating career in the integrated circuit world that you will not want to miss a minute of this Moore’s Lobby interview with our host Daniel Bogdanoff. Some of the other great topics in this episode are:

-Early developments of in-order and out-of-order computer architectures

-Why AMD pays attention to the overclocking community

-Is performance per watt more important than raw performance? 

-Sam’s key role in one of the most famous Caltech pranks of all time!

Zoox is designing cars with autonomy as a primary requirement from the outset. That means no drivers, no steering wheel, and no gas or brake pedals. As their motto highlights, Zoox builds cars for riders, not drivers. 

In this interesting keynote interview from Industry Tech Days 2022, Ryan McMichael of Zoox and our Moore’s Lobby host, Daniel Bogdanoff, discuss sensor systems for high-altitude balloons and next-generation autonomous vehicles.

While Ryan is having a fascinating career in engineering, his original dream was to pursue something entirely..and I mean, entirely…different in college. And even after transitioning to engineering, it was a “happy accident” that led him to specialize in optics. 

There are many other interesting tidbits in this interview that definitely make it worth a listen, including:

-How ADAS sensors now include much more than cameras and lidar these days

-Why Zoox is focusing on mobility-as-a-service

-The favorite pop culture autonomous vehicle at Zoox

In this keynote interview from Industry Tech Days 2022, we hear from two leaders at electronics industry heavyweight companies—Digi-Key and Molex. Dave Doherty is the President and COO of distributor Digi-Key Electronics while Joe Nelligan is the CEO of Molex, a leading supplier of connectors and interconnect components. Both of these gentlemen started their careers as engineers and still have an enthusiasm for and understanding of the challenges that design engineers face today.

As we think about advancements in the semiconductor world, it is typically focused on nanometer feature sizes and new transistor technologies like FinFETs and RibbonFETs. But, Steven Kosier, CTO of SkyWater points out that:

At any particular technology node, there are all sorts of other things that silicon can do to improve the world…power management efficiencies…superconducting chips…silicon photonics chips…and microfluidic chips. There are all sorts of things that you can do with the same equipment set and a little ingenuity.

In this Moore’s Lobby interview, host Daniel Bogdanoff and Steven Kosier discuss the unique challenges and opportunities available at a pure-play semiconductor fab that focuses on technology co-creation with customers that need to develop and manufacture new technologies.

In one of the most interesting sections, Steven explains how chip designers can get access to free EDA tools, download free IP libraries, and manufacture free 130nm silicon ICs in collaboration with Google and eFabless. Did I mention free? Here I will echo Steven’s comment:

There's nothing stopping you from designing a chip and changing the world with it…You can go do it right now. And it's just awesome!”

Other highlights from this engaging discussion about semiconductor technology and foundry business include:

-SkyWater’s collaboration with Purdue University to create a new innovation center for creating new technologies and educating the next generation of semiconductor engineers

-Steven’s interesting entrance into the electrical engineering world

- Why accelerated radiation testing for satellite electronics doesn’t always work

Season 5 of Moore's Lobby brings you new conversations with some of the most fascinating leaders in the electronics industry. 

Join host Daniel Bogdanoff as he geeks out with CTOs, inventors, engineers, and more about the hottest trends and most interesting technologies that are shaping our future. 

While he is currently the VP of Engineering at what is probably the largest computing company in the world, Bill Vass was not always convinced a career in computing was a good option:

My primary major was in geology, actually, because I never thought people would actually pay you just to do computers. I always thought it would be using computers for other things. So, I studied marine biology, geology, and computer science.

In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, we get to hear from one of the tech gurus at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on topics that include artificial intelligence; machine learning; portable, ruggedized, high-density storage; quantum computing; and explosions. Yes, explosions!

Other fun topics include a discussion of Bill’s view of the Metaverse. I won’t give it all away, but it is definitely more than AR/VR goggles and involves everyone’s favorite spy, 007.

After you listen to Bill explain how he graphs out his time on his calendar, you will get 

some insight into how he has forged such an amazing career. It might even get you to start graphing your own calendar and time usage! 

And, be sure to listen to the end for a truly fascinating story about how Star Trek influenced the technology we use every day.

Other highlights from this fast-paced episode include:

• Why it would be fun to visit Bill’s barn
• A 5-pound snowcone and a 50-pound snowball?
• The best engineers and coders are also…well, you will have to listen to find out how Bill completes this sentence!

Dipti Vachani fell in love with technology during her high school years when the idea of being able to write code and magically make something do what she wanted amazed her. Her programming skills, typing speed, and…...running ability?...helped her win computer science contests around the nation. This was just the beginning of a remarkable career that is still going strong.

After graduating from Texas A&M with a BS in Computer Engineering where she was the only woman in her graduating class, Dipti spent 17 years at Texas Instruments. During her time at TI, she worked on numerous projects including automotive audio systems and low-power digital signal processors. As she worked her way up to a Vice President role, Dipti also led the creation of TI’s Sitara brand of Arm microprocessors.

In this podcast, Dipti reflects fondly on that early work:

“It was fun and no day was the same. You came in and you took technology to solve problems for your customers…and when you figured it out and they were happy, it felt like joy, like you accomplished something.” 

Now, in her current role at Arm, Dipti is helping bring the automotive and IoT worlds together as they both begin “to look like a network of networks.” With IoT, Arm is looking to transform every industry including industrial, retail, home, cars, and agriculture. 

While Dipti is active in mentoring younger women in engineering, in this interview she provides important guidance for all engineers about setting boundaries in your career and knowing when it might be time to move on to another position.

Other highlights from this lively episode include:

-How corporate “frenemies” must come together to grow markets

-The important distinction between mentorship and advocacy, particularly as it relates to women in engineering

-Why Arm is the place for Vachani as she looks to leave a legacy

-The “Junk in the trunk” of automotive compute applications