Everybody knows cars are becoming more like computers than mechanical devices. Few know this better than Mark Allen, Global Vehicle Chief Engineer at GM, a company that’s been defining the American automotive business for a century. As an engineer who is also a car nut raised in the heart of American automotive manufacturing, Mark has a long view on the history and challenges of vehicle design.

The engineering that goes into making modern cars has changed enormously, to the point that Mark claims there are few purely mechanical systems left as electromechanical systems take over. This trend has also resulted in a blending of mechanical and electrical engineering tasks and skill sets, to the point that Mark says they barely distinguish between the two disciplines on the job. But, no matter what field they hail from, he says, engineers will never stop perfecting their craft, which is why the automotive industry has the performance and safety it does today.

In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, catch conversation between Daniel and Mark about:

• How new technologies like backup cams evolve from novelties to luxuries to expected to mandated
• The cost of electronics in modern cars (and why that’s harder to quantify than you might think)
• Designing cars vs. designing smartphones and how durability impacts product lifespan

Mark’s pure love of automotive carries through in this episode as he explains the lofty goals of the automotive industry, the difference having an EE CEO can make, and the (sometimes literal) highs and lows of vehicle testing.

"Want to subconsciously learn while being entertained?" says the ElectroBOOM YouTube page. "Then subscribe!!"

Mehdi Sadaghdar is well-known for several things: his YouTube videos, his habit of accidentally shocking himself in said videos, his sense of humor, his impressive unibrow. But Sadaghdar is also one of the few electrical engineer celebrities alive today and he's made a name for himself by creating electronics educational videos on YouTube.

Just as his YouTube page promises, ElectroBOOM makes over 4.8 million subscribers laugh with his particular brand of hijinks while also teaching them about concepts like current limiting and magnetic fields in BLDC motors. The result is somewhere between Bill Nye, Mythbusters, and the Marx Brothers.

In this episode of Moore's Lobby, Mehdi and Daniel chat about the role of YouTube and social media in modern engineering education, especially the idea of teaching by showing (occasionally shocking) mistakes.

Also included in this episode:

• The story of that one time Mehdi nearly died building a Jacob's Ladder
• Answering the question, "Is it the current or the voltage that kills you?"
• Throwing shade at mechanical engineers
• Rage at "free energy" products 
• The challenges of being an introverted engineer in the limelight

Turning science fiction into engineering reality is a complex business, but Ben Lamm has made it into a career. 

In this episode of Moore's Lobby, Daniel chats with Lamm, a serial entrepreneur who has founded several technology and science startups all through his 20s and 30s. One of these companies is Hypergiant, which helps governments and companies integrate cutting-edge AI into their aerospace, defense, and infrastructure. 

Now, Lamm has set his sights on bioengineering, where he's partnered with one of the leading experts in genomics, George Church, to bring back woolly mammoths in the form of engineered arctic elephants designed with mammoth DNA.

Yes, Ben has seen Jurassic Park. Yes, they get that question all the time. And, yes, you have got to hear how they're pulling this off. 

Join us to hear Ben recount his favorite projects throughout his career (so far) and explain his addiction to what's next in pursuing "the art of the possible."

Steve Orrin (self-described former hacker and undeniable math zealot) stands firmly at the crossroads between the public and private sectors, precisely where cybersecurity intersects with them both. From his viewpoint, it's a myth that the government is slow to adopt progressive technologies. Or, more accurately, reality resides in a nuanced gray area where Predator drones are outfitted with cutting-edge security and, somehow, painfully slow cloud adoption is actually a blessing in disguise.

In this episode, you'll hear about the impact of AI and quantum computing on cybersecurity, the "new math, new hardware" of next-gen cryptography, and how the heck to bring classified materials into the work-from-home environment of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Additional highlights from this episode include:

• A shockingly accessible explanation of homomorphic cryptography
• The unique joys of having Bruce Schneier rip one's carefully crafted cryptography stack to shreds
• How a security expert chooses a baby monitor these days
• Why maybe we should be designing security systems with our moms in mind

In this Industry Tech Days Keynote, we have an all-star panel of industry experts to talk about the ramifications of the global chip shortage and what lessons we can learn from them. You'll hear from Dave Doherty, President and COO of distributor Digi-Key Electronics, Steve Sanghi, Executive Chair of semiconductor manufacturer Microchip Technology, and Michael Knight, Corporate Senior Vice President of Business Development of distributor TTI.

2021 brought us the first functioning 2 nm chip, a milestone accomplished by a team at IBM Research, one of the foremost research institutions on the planet for the electronics industry.

In the upper echelons of this prestigious group is Dr. Jeffrey Welser, the Vice President of Exploratory Science and University Partnerships for IBM. In this episode of Moore's Lobby, Dr. Welser talks with Daniel about everything from quantum computing to CMOS devices to neural networks.

Two engineering students developed an autonomous golf cart system to transport people across campus. One accelerator program and a lot of engineering later, the same two engineers founded Embark, an autonomous trucking company that rapidly grew into a $5 billion endeavor. 

In 2018, when the company was only two years old, Embark claimed an industry-first: a 2,400-mile coast-to-coast journey for an autonomous truck from LA to Jacksonville, Florida. For the first time in many people's minds, autonomous trucking seemed to have arrived.

This is the story of Brandon Moak and Alex Rodrigues, CTO and CEO respectively of Embark. Moak joins us in the Lobby to talk about the challenges of scalable autonomous systems, gaining acceptance in the transportation industry, and the differences between passenger autonomous vehicles and those meant for the infrastructure of shipping.

What do Lady Gaga, DreamWorks, and SpaceX have in common? Would you believe us if we said the answer was tech? In this episode, two top HP execs talk about the unexpected ways this giant in the industry has gone from the inventors of the inkjet printer to Oscar-winning staple in Hollywood, healthcare, and some out-of-this-world applications.

Joining Daniel in the Lobby today are Jim Nottingham, Global Head & General Manager of HP’s Advanced Compute & Solutions, and Bruce Blaho, HP Fellow and Chief Technologist for the Advanced Compute & Solutions Business Unit in HP Personal Systems. Daniel guides Jim and Bruce through a conversation about HP's monolithic presence in the history of the electronics industry and how precision engineering has revolutionized display technology just in time for the age of remote work.

This trio of engineers delves into color fidelity across displays, data capture and storage, AI and machine learning, high-performance and edge compute, and the new wave of AR/VR.

Highlights you won't want to miss:

• What are HP's plans for an EGOT? (No, seriously.)
• What does "the HP way" mean nowadays?
• How does DreamWorks keep Shrek's signature green the same from one display to another?
• How do you get unneeded workstation equipment off the ISS? 
• What's next after keyboards and mouses? 

In their conversation, Victor, Michael, and Daniel will discuss what it's like to walk in space, the technologies that are propelling space exploration, and the importance of engineers in making aerospace history.

Arduino recently announced a monumental change in its new efforts towards producing affordable, scalable hardware for industrial automation applications. Hear the how and why of Arduino's jump from the hobbyist bench to the factory floor.