Over The Edge

How is technology shaping the future of neurosurgery? In this episode, Bill sits down with Dr. Lawton, President and CEO of Barrow Neurological Institute, Robert F. Spetzler Endowed Chair for Neurosciences, and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Lawton discusses the ways he is bringing new technologies and innovation to neurosurgery, as well as how it could improve patients outcomes and broaden the field’s scope of impact.

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“If we're able to have these huge datasets where we can take all the brain tumor patients and then go back 10 years before they were ever diagnosed and see what was abnormal then, it might open up these ways to predict or diagnose or even prevent some of these diseases before they get started.” 

“It's a technological revolution that has all of a sudden allowed us to envision things in neurosurgery that incorporate this tech in ways that we never had 20 years ago… I think probably the best example of that is the brain computer interface. There's the perfect example  of how technology and engineering brought into neurosurgery is going to change the world.”

“Instead of taking just six variables, we can take a hundred variables and we can feed them into the black box of AI, and we can look at way more than just those six. And maybe our decision making will be better. Maybe our predictive powers will be different.”

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Timestamps: 

(02:26) Integrating technology in neurosurgery

(06:37) Brain-Computer Interfaces 

(09:56) Expanding neurosurgical training

(19:09) AI in neurosurgery: Diagnostics and beyond

(29:16) Mysteries of the Mind and understanding the mind

(34:35) Future of neurosurgery in emotional and cognitive interventions

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Edge solutions are unlocking data-driven insights for leading organizations. With Dell Technologies, you can capitalize on your edge by leveraging the broadest portfolio of purpose-built edge hardware, software and services. Leverage AI where you need it; simplify your edge; and protect your edge to generate competitive advantage within your industry. Capitalize on your edge today with Dell Technologies.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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Watch Dr. Lawton share his vision for how AI and edge solutions can be used to transform neurosurgery

Follow Dr. Lawton on X and Instagram

Learn more about Barrow Neurological Institute and neurosurgery

Get to know Barrow President and CEO Michael T. Lawton, MD

Discover more about Barrow Neurological Institute's newest research quest to solve the mysteries of the mind

Watch Dr. Lawton operate in this collection of neurosurgical operative videos

Find out what it's like to be a neurosurgeon by watching three seasons of Barrow Neurosurgery Base Camp

Follow Barrow Neurological Institute on YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and Facebook

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How are digital cities transforming the future of urban living? In this episode, Bill chats with Bai Lu, Senior Technologist for Global Digital Cities at Dell, to explore the evolution of digital cities and how they're redefining traditional urban frameworks. Bai Lu shares her journey from engineering to leading digital transformation while exploring how edge computing reduces latency, boosts security, and powers digital twins for smarter city planning. They also dive into the challenges of building digital city projects and highlight innovations like Toyota’s Woven City, offering a glimpse into the future of more connected, sustainable urban landscapes.

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“One way that we can help the city planners using a digital twin platform is to actually help the city planners to predict. What will be the potential issue that is affecting their sustainability plan, like city traffic or air pollution or noise pollution, when they actually want to build a new project?”

“The thing that I'm really looking forward to is this equality of using technology for everyone. There will be no limit to anyone because of location, connectivity, or because of age. I believe the future is not far.”

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Timestamps: 

(01:23) Bai Lu's journey into technology

(05:17) Edge computing in digital cities

(09:02) Digital city projects and use cases

(12:44) Understanding digital twins

(15:47) Bai Lu's favorite digital cities deployment

(21:04) Sustainability in digital cities

(27:42) Breaking down the complexities of digital city projects

(35:23) Toyota Woven City: A futuristic vision

(40:59) Future of digital cities and edge computing

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Edge solutions are unlocking data-driven insights for leading organizations. With Dell Technologies, you can capitalize on your edge by leveraging the broadest portfolio of purpose-built edge hardware, software and services. Leverage AI where you need it; simplify your edge; and protect your edge to generate competitive advantage within your industry. Capitalize on your edge today with Dell Technologies.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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Learn more about Dell Technologies Smart City Solutions

Check-out Bai Lu’s recent blog on Forbes 

Follow Bill on LinkedIn

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How is AI transforming security at the edge? In this episode, Bill sits down with Inna Ushakova, Co-Founder and CEO at AI EdgeLabs, to explore the evolving landscape of edge security and its unique challenges compared to cloud and data center security. They discuss the constraints and risks specific to edge environments, the need for lightweight, AI-driven security solutions, and the current state of edge security across various industries. Together, they offer insights into how proactive and automated security measures are reshaping security practices at the edge.

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“If you talk about adopting AI and machine learning, me personally, I don't really consider this as a huge revolution because it's already a must-have for us. It's not something that we have the privilege to implement or not to implement. It should be already done. You should have it already.”

‘There should be some shift from reactive to proactive security.”

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Timestamps: 

(01:54) Inna's journey into tech

(02:17) Understanding security across environments

(04:48) Challenges in edge security

(06:45) Current threats and vulnerabilities

(09:04) Implementing effective edge security

(14:05) AI-driven cybersecurity

(27:48) Security regulations at the edge

(32:40) Edge security across industries

(38:59) Future of edge security

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Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting dell.com/edge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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What makes data lakehouses a game changer in modern data management? In this episode, Bill sits down with Alex Merced, Senior Tech Evangelist at Dremio, to explore the evolution of data lakehouses and their role in bridging the gap between data lakes and data warehouses. Alex breaks down the components of data lakehouses and dives into the rise of Apache Iceberg.
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“I love just get really deep into technology, really see what it does. And then scream at the rooftops how cool it is. And basically that was my charter. And [Apache] Iceberg, the more I learned about it, the more I realized this is really interesting.”

“Interoperability and data. Basically, a lot of the things that kept data in silos is now breaking apart.”

"So here we're talking about something that's going to be a standard. And that's when I think of the highest levels of openness matter because if it's something that a whole industry is going to build on, it should be something that the whole industry has to say in its evolution…And that's the beauty of openness that it does create these nice sort of places where we can collaborate and compete together.”

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Timestamps: 

(01:32) How Alex got started in his career

(03:54) Breaking down data lakehouses

(07:08) The idea behind an open data lakehouse

(10:10) Alex's involvement with Apache Iceberg

(15:13) Key components of a data lakehouse

(23:41) The growth of Apache Iceberg

(32:07) Dremio's Apache Iceberg crash course

(38:43) Explaining self-service analytics

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Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting dell.com/edge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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How will we feed the growing population while making agriculture more sustainable? 

In this episode, Bill sits down with Vikram Adve, to discuss. Vikram is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science and Director of the AIFARMS National AI Institute for Agriculture.

Vikram highlights the growing importance of digital agriculture, and how data and technology will play crucial roles in addressing global food production challenges, sustainability, and climate resilience. He also discusses AI's pivotal role and offers insights into optimizing machine learning at the edge.
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“The sustainability and the environmental constraints that we have to impose to increase productivity is a very, very difficult set of challenges. And so technology is becoming increasingly important in order to meet those challenges."

“All of these technologies are becoming important because agriculture faces some major challenges worldwide. Probably the biggest and simplest one to understand is that we have to increase food production over the next 25 to 30 years by as much as probably 60 percent.”

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Timestamps: 
(01:30) How Vikram got started in tech 

(03:37) Defining digital agriculture 

(07:14) How does AI impact sustainability?

(19:51) Optimizing machine learning in agriculture 

(31:30) Near data processing 

(37:34) The future of data processing at the edge 

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Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting dell.com/edge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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Edge Solutions | Dell Technologies

What’s the real state of AI adoption, and how can edge computing play a crucial role in driving innovation? In this episode, Bill is joined by Nick Brackney, Senior Consultant of Generative AI Messaging at Dell. Nick has 20 years of experience across a variety of technology domains, spanning startups, tech giants and consulting work. The two discuss the true state of AI adoption and how inferencing and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) will unlock new business opportunities at the edge.

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“I think AI is going to be synonymous with edge at some point, right? It's going to be that the only applications out there are AI-enabled applications.”

“Especially for the folks here who like the edge, RAG is the only way to do real-time, because fine-tuning, there's always going to be this delay. If I want to take my data from the edge, and I want to retrain my machine, that's going to take cycles, hours of GPU time to do. But if I want to just side load it into the generative AI using RAG, that could be instantaneous.”

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Timestamps: 
(01:10) How Nick got started in tech 

(04:09) What is the state of AI adoption?

(09:48) Understanding Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)

(14:11) Generative AI at the edge

(23:57) Achieving results with custom models

(24:41) Applications and benefits of synthetic data

(32:44) Advancements in chip development

(38:20) AI, PCs, and the tech refresh cycle

(40:07) Data sovereignty and edge AI

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Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting dell.com/edge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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How will AI at the edge reshape how we interact with our devices? In this episode, Bill sits down with Nicole Reineke, Distinguished Product Manager - AI Strategy at N-able to dive into the future of AI, discussing distributed AI, the shifting interaction paradigm and the future of large action models. Nicole argues that this is the most exciting time in edge device management in her career, diving into how AI can revolutionize device management, drive creativity, and spark business innovation.

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“This is seriously the most exciting time in edge device management that I've ever witnessed. And I've been in edge device management for three decades.”

“You have this offline capability that understands and can control all of your device behavior and can understand your intent or your natural language request. And it's going to completely change the paradigm of how our devices operate. It's going to change how we interact with them.  It's going to be huge and it's going to be fast.”

“Large action models… can be seen as an extension of a language model. It's the ability to take a set of inputs and use those inputs to create a trigger and that trigger can perform an action against something.”

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Timestamps: 
(01:40) How Nicole got started in tech 

(06:27) Edge devices and the shifting interaction paradigm

(18:03) Distributed AI and its implications 

(23:29) Role of humans in AI and automation

(27:12) Choosing the right AI model for your data

(34:40) What's the next great skill in AI? 

(38:10) Ways to stay ahead

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Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting dell.com/edge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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What is the future of private wireless and what role will the edge play? In this conversation, Bill sits down with David de Lancellotti, Executive Vice President - Global Head of Enterprise Campus Edge Business at Nokia to discuss private wireless in depth. The two dive into different use cases, across stadiums and manufacturing, and discuss when private wireless could be preferable to 4G, 5G or WiFi. 

“There's a lot of customers that need privatization…. I don't think commodity is such a bad word  in the sense that at some point, I really see it coming, where, whether it's a brownfield or a greenfield application that you're building for, a port, mine, stadium, what have you, that private network is just like one of the boxes you check.”

“More than one utility in California had to literally shut off the grid. They had to turn people down to make sure that these wires that would, because of wind, knock a wire down and start a fire.  So what if that wire broke? And what if, by the time it hit the ground, it knew to turn itself off?”

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Timestamps: 

01:05 How David got started in tech

02:03 Defining Campus Edge and understanding private wireless

07:44 Worker safety and applications

14:41 The challenges of global projects 

16:26 Private 4G/5G vs. Public Networks

26:40 Private wireless in stadiums

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Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting dell.com/edge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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Edge Solutions | Dell Technologies

AI is revolutionizing building energy management. In this episode, Bill sits down with Jean-Simon Venne, Co-Founder and CTO at BrainBox AI at BrainBox AI about their cutting-edge AI solutions for energy efficiency. They dive into current AI challenges, the critical need for defining AI's purpose, and the impact of predictive and preemptive control. Additionally, they discuss how to balance AI power consumption with efficiency gains.

Key Quotes:

“The bottleneck is now on your capacity to find the right mix of technology to assemble a new solution.”

"You could very rapidly deploy AI in thousands and thousands of buildings, without any bottleneck, and get the first layer of 20, 25 percent energy reduction.”

“I think where the future is going in terms of optimizing is not only the building at the building level but optimizing the behavior of the building. So the grid could be optimized.”

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Timestamps: 
(01:48) Jean-Simon's career journey

(04:22) Current bottlenecks in AI

(07:07) Bias in AI models

(13:22) Understanding the complexities of building operations

(20:44) Factors influencing AI predictions

(25:20) Energy consumption in buildings

(28:12) Clustering buildings for grid optimization

(35:00) Developing specialized LLMs for building management

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Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting dell.com/edge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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Edge Solutions | Dell Technologies

5G technology is revolutionizing enterprise computing by enhancing data movement and connectivity. In this episode, Bill sits down with Jim Brisimitzis, Founder and General Partner at 5G Open Innovation Lab, to explore his career from Nortel to Microsoft and the transformative potential of 5G technology. Jim discusses the evolution of private 5G networks, enterprise use cases, and the critical role of connectivity in driving innovation.

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 “My belief is this moment of AI, the evolution of 5G, the emergence of private networks, and edge as opportunities is truly a transformation point for the industry.”

“The network is evolutionary, but the use cases on the backend of those networks that they're now enabled is revolutionary.”

“I've seen these major waves of technology evolutions that got me really excited about 5G and Edge.”

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Timestamps: 
(02:00) Jim’s career journey

(05:48) What is the 5G Open Innovation Lab?

(19:41) Private 5G vs. Wi-Fi in Enterprises

(25:02) The private 5G network: Evolutionary or revolutionary?

(31:42) Automation and workforce resistance

(34:30) Addressing the silver tsunami

(37:02) The role of technology in knowledge transfer

(40:26) Jim’s key lessons learned

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Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting dell.com/edge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.

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Over the Edge is hosted by Bill Pfeifer, and was created by Matt Trifiro and Ian Faison. Executive producers are Matt Trifiro, Ian Faison, Jon Libbey and Kyle Rusca. The show producer is Erin Stenhouse. The audio engineer is Brian Thomas. Additional production support from Elisabeth Plutko.

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Edge Solutions | Dell Technologies