About Katia:

Katia is the head of communications for IBM Research Europe and a master of personal reinvention. In this episode hear her impressive story of emigration from the former Soviet Union to Canada. In Canada she obtained a first degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University but then moved into science journalism where she worked for some of the most high profile science publications. Eager to dive deeper into the science she was reporting on, Katia took time off to obtain an advanced degree in astrophysics and write a leading reference on neutron stars, a subject she is still passionate about. This turned out to be just the right background for her current role as head of communications at IBM Research. If you have ever thought about reimagining your own career, you will want to hear how Katia has done it, and done so multiple

times, with gusto!  

Collaboration – love it or hate it – that is the question. For psychologist, author, and former Harvey Mudd professor, Deb Mashek studying collaboration seems like it has always been her calling. From growing up in a trailer park in Nebraska and having to make her own rules to engage with her young peers, to figuring things out, first in the context of her own intimate relationships and then in the context of the relationships of her students, Deb has studied collaboration from all angles. In this discussion, Deb describes her formative journey,including several rounds of self-reinvention.  We then dive into the core elements of Deb's provocative new book, Collabor(h)ate. Do come along for the ride – we think you will learn something!

Deb's recommended readings and listenings:

Trevor Noah's Born a Crime

Rick Rubin's The Creative Act: A Way of Being 

The podcast This Jungian Life

Talia is the Director of Hybrid Cloud infrastructure Research at IBM. In this episode, Talia takes us on a journey through her formative education as a material scientist at MIT and the University of Cambridge, and how the education systems in the United States and the UK instilled two dual but important traits: personal rigor and independence of thinking. Talia goes on to tell us about how her experience playing rugby shaped her thinking about management and effective organization – a big part of her current work. Talia is a person known for her exuberant style of communication and ability to relate technically to listeners at all levels. So learn about Talia, in her own words. We think you are in for a treat!

About Ulisses: Ulisses was born in Brazil, in the culturally vital and historical city of Ouro Preto. Ever since his youth, he has shown the determination and intelligence to deal with adversity and achieve his goals. Ulisses is currently the director of the global technology outlook (GTO), which examines in great depth the trajectories of new technologies in IBM Research and in the marketplace, in an attempt to set the agenda for future investment of the IBM company.

In this podcast (the first episode hosted by Heloisa), Ulisses talks about his own trajectory as a geologist, research scientist, previous director of the IBM research lab in Brazil, and now the director of the GTO. 

Some recommendations from Ulisses: 

• Miles on Miles: Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis
• (Musicians in Their Own Words)  
• The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital
• Competition, Innovation, and Power  
• Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building
• and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations 
• Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates
• Foundation Rock the World with OKRs  
• Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in
• the Way of True Inspiration  

About Raimo: Raimo was born in Estonia before the Second World War. He lived through Nazi occupation and Stalin, eventually fleeing to the United States with his family in his teenage years, and settling down in Sterling, Kansas.

Listen to Raimo's fascinating journey from Estonia through Poland and eastern Germany to a UN refugee camp, and ultimately to the US. He was part of the very first group of researchers to open up the Yorktown Heights lab back in 1961, where he was part of a pioneering team working on automatic speech recognition - what was believed to be a crazy idea back in the day.

Raimo is known for the development of the "Bakis Model" for speech recognition. In its day, the Bakis Model was a revolutionary concept for modeling entire words rather than discrete sounds. Today, speech recognition systems are glorified Bakis Models, with orders-of-magnitude greater numbers of parameters. 

Things to listen for:

• [00:04 - 00:24] Introductionn
• [00:37 - 03:26] Raimo shares what it was like being born in Estonia before WW2
• [07:03 - 10:23] The beginning of Raimo at IBM
• [10:50 - 13:24] The Markov Model
• [13:34 - 17:31] How science has changed, from Raimos' perspective
• [17:52 - 25:01] Does quantum mechanics and fundamental uncertainty help explain consciousness at all?
• [27:35 - 28:26] A memorable mistake

About Anu: Anu grew up and was educated in India. She started her career at the India Research Lab in Delhi, but then moved to Bangalore and was one of the first employees of that lab. Anu became a manager in 2009 and was soon thereafter given the opportunity to be a Global Technology Outlook (GTO) co-lead, which meant a move to the US. This experience, where she was not promoting her own ideas, but pushing others to develop their ideas, was a transformative one for Anu.

Anu ultimately settled down with her young family in the US and has become known for how she instills confidence in her own people and pushes them to stretch themselves and become growth minded. In this episode we learn a bit about what makes Anu tick, and some of the secrets to her ability to motivate her people and to make sure they are always growing.

Things to listen for:

• [00:05 - 00:27] Introduction
• [00:32 - 02:07] Anu's background
• [02:23 - 03:18] How Anu's interest in technology began
• [12:23 - 14:34] What GTO is and becoming a GTO co-lead
• [15:36 - 16:49] How Anu's GTO experienced affected her perspective on management
• [18:12 - 21:29] Lessons in management

Segev was born in Israel, in the capital city of Jerusalem, but then moved around a lot, spending three of his early years on a kibbutz in northern Israel and then six years in South Africa. He became hooked on computer science after watching the 1983 film WarGames, in which an AI  system almost starts a nuclear war. Matthew Broderick, the computer nerd star of the movie, convinces the AI that sometimes not winning leads to a better outcome than winning, and nuclear war is averted.  

In this episode of "On Not Knowing" we listen to Segev as he tells us how the theme of the movie has become a persistent theme in his own research. Along the way, we learn about some of the key concepts in so-called non zero-sum games, in other words games where one party's win does not necessarily mean another party's loss, and vice versa.

Some recommendations from Segev:

Robert Aumann's lecture upon receiving the Nobel prize for his work on game theory

Ender's game by Orson Scott Card 

The 1983 film WarGames, starring Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood and Ally Sheedy

About Victor: Victor grew up amidst the hustle and bustle of Lagos, Nigeria. After contemplating a career in medicine he became interested in computer science, which led him to pursue a Masters degree at the CMU campus in Kigali, Rwanda and then to the IBM Kenya lab where he was first an intern and then a highly influential research engineer. He is now pursuing his Ph.D. in computer science at CMU in Pittsburgh, PA in the USA. 
 
About Julian: Unlike Victor, Julian grew up in the calmness of a modest size German town, where he learned to repair bicycles and other crafts. He developed an interest in physics and then geophysics, with a special interest in the earth and its systems. He now works on the future of climate. Among the different problems he has worked on, one involves parameter estimation (also known as problem inversion, depending on who you talk to). Julian once thought of himself as not being good at languages, but as we hear, he has turned that weakness entirely on its head. 

Some recommendations from Victor:

Tyler Cowen's "Conversations with Tyler"  

Tomi Adeyemi's "Legacy of Orisha" book series 

Paul Graham's essays 

Some recommendations from Julian:

Naomi Klein's "This Changes Everything" 

Amandine Gay's documentary "Ouvrir la Voix" 

Patricia Kuhl, "The linguistic genius of Babies" (TED Talk) 

About Rosie: Rosie grew up in London where she cultivated an early interest in mathematics and sports. She learned to scuba dive at a young age and, through diving, developed an interest in the world's oceans. By profession, Rosie is equal parts oceanographer and software engineer. Rosie is leading the marine mammal experimentation on the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, a sleek modern reincarnation of the original Mayflower that will try to autonomously travel from Plymouth in the UK to Plymouth Rock in the USA. In this chat we learn about that planned voyage and Rosie's involvement in it.

About the Mayflower Autonomous Ship:
Sea Change - Setting a New Course for Ocean Research
This Ship Has No Crew and it will Transform Our Understanding of the Ocean - Here's How

Some recommendations from Rosie:

Richard Wiseman, 59 Seconds

Nick Pyenson, Spying on Whales

My Octopus Teacher (Film)

Frederik Imbo, How Not to Take Things Personally (TED Talk)

Robert Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers  

About Mahmoud: Mahmoud is the Chief Technology Officer for IBM Global Industries responsible for addressing industry needs and innovation opportunities based on IBM technology and platforms across IBM global markets. He has led major IBM businesses as a general manager in strategic partnerships, business consulting and industry solutions. Mahmoud was for many years a vice president in IBM Research. 

In this chat we hear about Mahmoud's journey, from growing up in an ancient town in Iran, to schooling in Europe, grad school at Columbia, and then landing at IBM Research in the heyday of wireless communications and the Internet of Things. We then hear about his voyage out of Research, leading to his most recent adventures, addressing industry needs and innovation opportunities using IBM technology.

What Mahmoud has been reading:

Y. N. Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents

R. G. Rajan, Fault Lines

Coleman Barks, Rumi

Yasmin. Kahn, The Saffron Tales