The Debugged Podcast

In this episode of Debugged, Medha Gupta chats with Alefiya Master, founder & CEO of award-winning app development program, MAD-learn.  Master shares her incredible journey from being an educator with a vision to an entrepreneur with a mission to enable students to have passion driven career choices.  MAD-learn emphasizes the importance of design thinking and has now impacted over 30,000 students in 30 states and 5 countries.  The pair also discuss the process of creating an ed-tech startup and the importance of building a strong team to make an idea turn into a reality.  Tune into learn how Master is transforming edtech for good and inspiring many as a millennial, woman, minority, and educator turned entrepreneur!

In this episode of Debugged, Medha Gupta sits down with Gabrielle Hibbert, security auditor and researcher at Least Authority, co-founder of Web3 native startup Future Proof Collective, and Fellow at the Decentralized Future Council, to discuss what Web3 is and how both governance and policy play a huge role in this space.  Hibbert shares her unique journey in the technology sector and how she was able to leverage her background in public policy and economics to build an impactful career as a researcher, an educator, and an advocate for Web3 and blockchain.  Be sure to tune in to learn all about Hibbert’s inspiring journey and how you can get involved in Web3!

In this first episode of Debugged, Medha Gupta chats with Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton, state Senator, attorney, and representative of the people of Northern Virginia and Shenandoah Valley for over two decades - AND drumroll please - co-chair of the 2022 Congressional App Challenge!  Rep. Wexton discusses her journey in politics and how her work has improved the lives of Virginia’s children and families. The pair also discuss the meaning of digital citizenship in regards to technology and government and how Rep. Wexton, as founder of the Congressional Task Force on Digital Citizenship, has taken steps toward equipping Americans with tools and resources to use technology responsibly. Tune in to learn about Rep. Wexton’s meaningful work and insight as co-chair of this year’s Congressional App Challenge!

In the second part of the two-part finale of the first season of Debugged, Medha Gupta brings in Aryan Mittal, the first place winner of the 2021 Congressional App Challenge from District CA-45, to pitch his winning app Voluntime to previous guests and investors Rick Lane and David Rosenblatt. In the episode, Mittal discusses his app in-depth with Lane and Rosenblatt and answers a variety of common entrepreneurial questions to test the knowledge of his app. He addresses questions regarding the possible competitors to his product, his inspiration for creating the app, the challenges he has experienced getting schools and nonprofits to adopt Voluntime in their organization. The group talks about the challenges of scaling Mittal’s product for enterprise use via forming a LLC or a sole proprietorship and the importance of following privacy laws and COPPA for apps targeted for children. For anyone interested in taking their idea from an app on the app store to a business used worldwide, this is a must-listen episode.

Thanks for joining us for Season 1 of Debugged. We hope you stay tuned for the beginning of Season 2 in the fall!

In this first part of the two-part finale of the first season of Debugged, Medha Gupta sits down with Rick Lane, a tech policy expert, child safety advocate and CEO of Iggy Ventures and David Rosenblatt, the co-founder of QuickenLoans at Intuit and a managing director at Blackrock to discuss all things investing and entrepreneurship. In the interview, they discuss their path to entering into entrepreneurship and their passion to continue working in the space to this day. They give advice for young students interested in becoming entrepreneurs or venture capitalists as well as critical advice for maintaining and growing an early stage start-up to a big enterprise company. They also discuss the importance of balancing feasibility and profitability of a company with its vision and social good, hinting at future fields like renewable energy that might be hot investing points in the near future.

Stay tuned in 2 weeks for the finale of Debugged where Lane and Rosenblatt give feedback on the pitch of the product of one of our Congressional App Challenge winners this season! This is a two-part episode you definitely don’t want to miss!

In this episode of Debugged, Medha Gupta sits down with Christopher Adams, a drug policy analyst with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), current professor at Dartmouth College, and former antitrust and competition specialist at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Adams discusses the effects of the capabilities of new technology like machine learning on the CBO’s forecasts regarding key U.S legislative decisions and in fields like economics and data analysis. Adams gives his take on why he joined the CBO and his inspiration for working in econometrics and statistics, and his most memorable moments working thus far in both the CBO and FTC. Furthermore, Adams elaborates on the skills needed for students to join the next generation of econometricians at the CBO and his inspiration for learning programming - an important skill in his field. Finally, Adams notes the most impactful research papers in the field of  econometrics. With an all new Pop Culture Byte with host Michael Batavia, this is a must-listen episode of the Debugged podcast!

In this episode of Debugged, Medha Gupta talks to Christine Rushlow, a professor of biology at New York University and director of the WINS program at NYU, to discuss her unique research in the genetics of embryonic development and how it has influenced her to create a program aimed at advancing the inclusion of women in STEM. In the interview, Rushlow not only discusses her passion for this research and its future importance in curing disease but also the skills that high school students and undergrads need to master in order to become a cutting-edge researcher. She further discusses the pivotal role of computer science in any research interest. She elaborates on how students can obtain these skills in the WINS program and network with others in order to learn and grow together in their education with both hard skills and soft skills. Finally, she gives some parting advice for students interested in research with the best way to contact professors to enter their lab! All this and more with an all-new Pop Culture Byte with host Meryl Matthew in Episode 12 of the Debugged podcast!

In this episode of Debugged, Medha Gupta talks to Ramansh Sharma, an undergraduate researcher at the Approximate Bayesian Inference Team at RIKEN and a member of Conex Research. Sharma discusses his experience developing AI-For-Good research projects and the different use-cases of AI research in STEM. Sharma gives advice on the best courses to learn machine and deep learning as well as organizations that can facilitate people’s interests in AI conferences and events. Furthermore, Sharma discusses his interest in astrodynamics and how his specialization in AI has assisted his work in changing the landscape of space exploration. Look for his soon to be published research! With an all new Pop Culture Byte with host Michael Batavia, you won’t want to miss episode 11 of the Debugged podcast.

In this episode of Debugged, Medha Gupta talks to Trisha Prabhu, an undergraduate student at Harvard University and the 21-year old CEO and founder of ReThink™, to discuss her journey creating the company and its special cyberbullying prevention technology that has led to her success nationwide. In the episode, she describes her motivations for creating the technology and how it has positively bolstered students to stand up against cyberbullies. She then gives advice for how students can address similar problems and elevate the scope of the problem to make it a regional or national issue. Prabhu also notes the uniqueness to each generation’s way of solving such dilemmas and how this generation’s greatest asset is technology. Finally, Prabhu notes her experience at the White House and on Shark Tank as well as the lessons learned while being on those national stages. With all new pop culture with host Meryl Mathew, you won’t want to miss episode 10 of the Debugged podcast!

In this episode of Debugged, Medha Gupta talks to Caeley Looney, a space mission analyst at L3Harris Technologies and the founder of Reinvented Inc., to discuss her journey starting Reinvented and the process of creating the eponymous magazine that empowers young girls to pursue STEM fields. She also discusses her job as a space mission analyst, her favorite part of working in aerospace engineering, and how her work in space has influenced her goals with creating the magazine. Moreover, she explains how Reinvented magazine’s mission differentiates itself from other magazines. Finally, we have a return to the latest tech news at the end of the interview with a new edition of the Tech News Roundup with host Michael Batavia. Be sure to tune into this very special Episode 9 of the Debugged podcast!

PLUS this month, Debugged will be featured in Issue 11 of Reinvented and is being featured each Friday on the company’s social media; be sure to check our article and each of our posts out when they are released!