Stanford Radio

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman

"Scott Delp: Better gait, better life"

A biomechanical engineer explains how new diagnostics and improved understanding of human movement are yielding great leaps forward in the treatment of motor dysfunction.

Engineer Scott Delp first got interested in the details of human movement when he was injured in a skiing accident and spent five years trying to recover.

Back then, today’s powerful diagnostic tools, like MRI, weren’t generally available, and Delp experienced many roadblocks and false starts in his recovery.

Delp turned that challenging experience into a career studying and developing new approaches to motor dysfunction that he puts to use helping people with conditions like osteoarthritis and cerebral palsy to walk, run and move more easily and without pain. His multidisciplinary team includes surgeons, neurologists, roboticists, engineers and computer scientists who use sophisticated computer models to analyze movement dysfunction and to counteract them through surgery, robotics, neurostimulation and other techniques, including the use of Botox.

Delp’s latest focus is on discovering approaches that inspire patients to see better movement as key to better health and view physical rehab not merely as necessary, but actually enjoyable.

Join host Russ Altman and expert in the biomechanics of human movement Scott Delp for a “moving” discussion about the joys and the benefits of motion here on The Future of Everything radio show from Sirius XM. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine.

The Future of Everytying with Russ Altman

"Emma Brunskill: Amped-up education with AI"

Computer programs that purport to help humans learn have been around almost as long as there have been computer programs, but their track record for success has been less than impressive.

Emma Brunskill, an expert on artificial intelligence and machine learning, thinks that less-than-stellar record is about to change and has dedicated her career to finding new and better ways to teach computers to teach humans. Her research creates innovative "reinforcement learning" algorithms in which computers learn through experience to get better at teaching humans. In the process, the algorithms lead people to make better, more-informed decisions that produce better outcomes in the long run.

To Brunskill this is no schoolroom affair, but an endeavor where the stakes are high. She says that better education is key to big societal challenges, like alleviating poverty. She believes that better training of new workers — or retraining of older ones — can yield better paying jobs for more people. What’s more, she’s turning her attention to other fields, namely healthcare, where better decisions can have life-or-death implications.

Join host Russ Altman and Stanford computer scientist Emma Brunskill for a deep exploration of the new age of computer-assisted learning and decision-making. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman

"Sharon Chinthrajah: The air is making us sick"

The connection between bad air and bad health is growing clearer by the day. One allergy specialist says that real change starts at home, but ends on a much larger scale.

Air quality affects our health far more than many would suspect. It’s closely related to asthma, of course, but also to concerns like cardiovascular disease and other lifespan-reducing conditions. It’s a health emergency, says allergy and asthma specialist Sharon Chinthrajah, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford who studies and develops strategies for combatting conditions caused by air pollution.

She says there are a number of ways we all can do better, including changing clothes frequently and showering in the evenings to wash away the day’s detritus collected on hair and skin.

But, she says, those efforts are only stopgaps to truly solving the problem of air pollution. The most effective responses have to come at a societal level, and there, Chinthrajah says, we must target the biggest contributors — motorized vehicles that burn fossil fuels. Eighty percent of California’s air pollution comes from these sources. Often concerns about air quality are accompanied by racial and class aspects, as people of color and the poor tend to live in urban, heavily trafficked areas.

Chinthrajah advocates for large-scale efforts to battle air pollution, particularly a move toward electric vehicles and public transportation. She notes that in California, low-income families can qualify for up to $20,000 in state, federal and local subsidies to purchase electric vehicles, putting clean cars within reasonable reach for the first time.

Join host Russ Altman and allergy specialist Sharon Chinthrajah for an exploration of the connection between air pollution and health, and what we all can do to lessen its influence on our well-being, on the latest episode of The Future of Everything radio show from SiriusXM. You can listen to The Future of Everything on Sirius XM Insight Channel 121, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher or via Stanford Engineering Magazine.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman

"Jelena Vuckovic: Photonics — a light on the computing horizon"

Photonics engineers are working toward a day when fast, energy efficient computers do their mathematics using photons — packets of light — instead of electrons.

Experts estimate that computers gobble up as much as 10% of global electricity. They predict that that share will only grow as data centers expand and the internet of things brings scads of new computer-controlled devices to the world.

Jelena Vuckovic is an electrical engineer who sees a light on the horizon — quite literally. She is building computers that calculate and communicate more with photons than electrons. These “photonic” devices could cut energy consumption in half and empower exciting new technologies, like quantum computing, in the process.

Before that day can come, however, Vuckovic and other proponents of photonics — the science of using light for practical purposes — will have to design smaller devices and improve manufacturing techniques to compete with today’s ultra-small electronics. To hasten that arrival, Vuckovic is turning to artificial intelligence to develop new device designs and new materials that could usher in the age of photonics.

Join Russ Altman and engineer Jelena Vuckovic for a discussion of the power and promise of photonics on The Future of Everything.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman

"Simone D’Amico: “The Swarm” is coming to an orbit near you"

A professor of astronautics foresees a new space age in which distributed space systems made of small satellites work in tandem to replace or augment their monolithic ancestors.

EPISODE NOTES

The geostationary satellites used for communication and weather forecasting today are very large and very expensive — and most are still functioning perfectly when they must be disposed of because they run out of fuel. In their place, Stanford astronautics professor Simone D’Amico imagines an new era of smaller, less expensive, more efficient satellites that work in tandem to accomplish things their bigger brethren never imagined. He calls it distributed space systems — formations or “swarms” of small satellites.

Distributed space systems have breakthrough applications in earth and planetary science, astronomy, and astrophysics, as well as in-orbit servicing and space infrastructure. One task D’Amico foresees for what he calls “The Swarm” is a sort of janitorial role. These “garbage trucks in space” would remove, repair or refuel the thousands of unused satellites orbiting the earth. He says The Swarm could also improve our knowledge of the Sun and its interaction with the upper layers of the atmosphere, leading to better space weather predictions or achieve other important scientific objectives — like detecting life on other planets.

Before this space age can be made real, however, D’Amico and his compatriots in astronautics must figure out how to control these distributed space systems with the required precision in safety, and help develop a new set of “galactic” rules to make space traffic sustainable in the long run.

Join host Russ Altman and astronautics professor Simone D’Amico for a look at “The Swarm” — the changing face of satellites in space — on the latest episode of The Future of Everything.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman

"Bonnie Maldonado: The science is clear. Vaccinations save lives."

An expert in infectious diseases says that vaccinations are more powerful than ever, but better communication by the medical community is needed to combat misinformation.

Stanford professor Yvonne “Bonnie” Maldonado is a medical doctor and an expert in pediatric infectious diseases. She has been fighting and preventing disease her entire career. She says that vaccinations have made remarkable progress in recent years and yet, despite well-known programs that have virtually wiped out once-dreaded diseases like measles, smallpox and polio, a more insidious foe than these diseases has appeared — misinformation that sows confusion, fear and distrust of vaccines in the general public.

The result has been a worrying reappearance of some of the diseases society has worked so hard to eradicate. But the science is clear: Vaccinations save lives and carry very little to no risk for the vaccinated. Meanwhile, scientific advances are making vaccines more effective and less risky by the day.

There is no magic solution, Maldonado says, but evidence suggests that a more personalized communication approach could help by avoiding stigmatizing naysayers in favor of greater understanding and cooperation with dubious audiences. In working with the public, she says, medical providers remain the first and best line of communication with both the scientific knowledge and the public trust to deliver these life-saving messages.

In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s “The Future of Everything” podcast, Russ Altman and vaccination expert Bonnie Maldonado for a clear-eyed look at the future of vaccines.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman

" Michelle Mello: Patient privacy and the law are on a collision course"

A rapidly shifting legal debate is raging in healthcare over patient data and privacy. One legal expert says that even though regulations have lagged, a reckoning is due.

How much control should patients have over who sees their medical records? How readily should researchers share patient-level data from their clinical studies? In today’s world, should the answers to these questions depend on whether the data are “anonymized?”

These are but a few of the ethical and legal conundrums that Michelle Mello, Stanford professor of law and of health research and policy, grapples with on a daily basis. She says that rapidly evolving ways to gather and share medical data are exposing the limitations of laws that protect patient privacy.

Meanwhile, the value of sharing patient and clinical data is growing by the day. Data from multiple studies can be pooled to study subgroups or explore rare conditions that were once out of reach. It could help lower drug prices, too, or identify ways to treat patients with greater precision and efficiency. Mello says that reaping these benefits will require a national conversation about what patients are willing to trade off in terms of privacy and control over their personal health information.

Join Michelle Mello and host Russ Altman for a wide-ranging discussion of the ethical and legal challenges in healthcare on Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything.

Professor Michael Hines discusses how Chicago schools managed classes during the polio crisis in the 1930s that closed schools in the city, and he provides strategies for teachers and parents today.

Originally aired April 4, 2020.

The Future of Everything with Russ Altman

"Alex Dunn: When cells communicate by nudging one another"

New research explores how physical pushing and pulling between cells helps them differentiate into the myriad cell types in the body.

Description: From the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education case to voting rights and education, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) has been the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality since its founding in 1940 by legendary civil rights lawyer (and later Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall. Sherrilyn Ifill, LDF’s President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), will discuss important NAACP cases and issues.

Originally aired on SiriusXM on March 28, 2020.