The Future And You

Clyde Ward (a mechanical engineer specializing in robotics) is today's featured guest.

Topics: robots he has worked on for nuclear facilities, his successes in the televised BattleBots competitions, early industrial robots and why they seem crude by today's standards, and behind the scenes anecdotes from his recent involvement in teaching robotics to young robotic enthusiasts.

Clyde Ward received his degree in mechanical engineering from Tufts University. He was with the Robotics Group at the Savannah River National Laboratory for 19 years, until he retired in 2005. On the Battlebots TV show, televised on Comedy Central, he was the lead engineer for the robot named Jabberwock. During 2002 Jabberwock reached a ranking of #17 in the World Heavy Weight Division. For the last eight years Clyde has been a mentor with the Aiken County Robotics Club.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 15, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 33 minutes]

This interview was recorded on July 17, 2010 at the University of South Carolina at the B.I.T. (Business, Innovation and Technology) Expo. The Aiken County Robotics Club was prominently featured at the Expo, were they provided demonstrations of many of the robots they had built, including the one that won them the world championship title.

Kelly Russell and Jim Lee (two leaders of The Aiken Robotics Club) are today's featured guests.

Topics: How the Aiken Robotics Club became world champions; how robotics proved therapeutic for one 14 year-old student in a wheel chair; and an eyewitness account of what it was like for the teens to compete In front of an audience of tens of thousands in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in April of 2010 when dozens of robot building clubs from high schools all across The United States and Canada brought their robots to the World Championship First Tech Challenge.

Kelly Russell is the head coach of the Aiken Robotics Club, and teaches mathematics at Aiken High. Jim Lee is a mechanical engineer, and for the last six years has been one of The Aiken Robotic Club's several mentors. The Aiken Robotics Club serves all of Aiken County South Carolina's High Schools.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 8, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 42 minutes]

This interview was recorded on July 17, 2010 at the University of South Carolina at the B.I.T. (Business, Innovation and Technology) Expo. The Aiken Robotics Club was prominently featured at the Expo, were they provided demonstrations of many of the robots they had built, including the one that won them the world championship title.

Nine members of the Aiken Robotics Club (including some of the 2010 International FIRST Tech Competition winners) are today's featured guests.

Topics: How robot building, designing and international competitions motivate students to greater academic activity and encourages them to cooperative team building. Also how--by being a roll-up-your-sleeves and get-your-hands-dirty activity--it's not just for the bookish, but also for kids who enjoy power tools.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the September 1, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 40 minutes]

This interview was recorded on July 17, 2010 at the University of South Carolina at the B.I.T. (Business, Innovation and Technology) Expo. The Aiken Robotics Club was prominently featured at the Expo, were they provided demonstrations of many of the robots they had built, including the one that won them the world championship title.

Robert G. Kennedy and Kenneth I. Roy (engineers and researchers) are today's featured guests.

Topic: (Second of two parts.) Shell Worlds: the methods, benefits, difficulties and vast natural resources to be derived by building comfortable biospheres around airless moons and asteroids, such as our own moon, the planet Mercury, and the countless asteroids of the asteroid belt.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 25, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes] Recorded in front of a live audience on July 10, 2010 at LibertyCon in Chattanooga.

Robert G. Kennedy is an engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Kenneth I. Roy is an engineer with the US Department of Energy.

Robert G. Kennedy and Kenneth I. Roy (engineers and researchers) are today's featured guests.

Topic: Shell Worlds: the methods, benefits, difficulties and vast resources to be derived by building comfortable biospheres around airless moons and asteroids, such as our own moon, the planet Mercury, and the countless asteroids of the asteroid belt.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 18, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 30 minutes] This was recorded in front of a live audience on July 10, 2010 at LibertyCon in Chattanooga.

Robert G. Kennedy is an engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Kenneth I. Roy is an engineer with the US Department of Energy.

Les Johnson (NASA physicist and manager) and Dr. Gregory L. Matloff (professor of astronomy) are today's featured guests.

Topic: (Second of two parts.) How the half million items of space junk orbiting the earth at 25 times the speed of sound have now become a danger to everyone's technologically dependant lifestyle. Or at least to all those who use cell phones, credit cards, checking accounts, the Internet or electricity.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 11, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 37minutes] This was recorded in front of a live audience on July 10, 2010 at LibertyCon in Chattanooga.

Les Johnson is Deputy Manager for the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. In his spare time he writes popular science books and articles. He was the technical consultant for the movie Lost in Space.

Dr. Gregory L. Matloff is assistant professor of physics at New York City College of Technology. He has consulted for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, is a Fellow of the British interplanetary Society, is a Hayden Associate at the American Museum of Natural History, and is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics. His pioneering research in solar-sail technology has been utilized by NASA in plans for extra-solar probes and in consideration of technologies to divert Earth-threatening asteroids. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 research papers and eight books, which have been cited about 400 times. One of his books, The Starflight Handbook (Wiley, 1989), was co-authored with MIT science-writer Dr. Eugene Mallove and helped establish interstellar-propulsion studies as a sub-division of applied physics.

In addition to being scientists, public speakers, and friends, Les and Greg have collaborated on a number of popular books. They joined forces with C Bangs for Living Off the Land in Space (2007), as well as for their latest book Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth (2009). With Giovanni Vulpetti they wrote Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel (2008).

Les Johnson (NASA physicist and manager) and Dr. Gregory L. Matloff (professor of astronomy) are today's featured guests.

Topic: how the half million items of space junk orbiting the earth at 25 times the speed of sound have now become a danger to everyone's technologically dependant lifestyle. Or at least to all those who use cell phones, credit cards, checking accounts, the Internet or electricity. (First of two parts. This week they describe the problem, next week they discuss what can be done about it.) Many other space-related topics are touched upon as well, since this problem effects them all.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 4, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 35 minutes] This was recorded in front of a live audience on July 10, 2010 at LibertyCon in Chattanooga.

Les Johnson is Deputy Manager for the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. In his spare time he writes popular science books and articles. He was the technical consultant for the movie Lost in Space.

Dr. Gregory L. Matloff is assistant professor of physics at New York City College of Technology. He has consulted for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, is a Fellow of the British interplanetary Society, is a Hayden Associate at the American Museum of Natural History, and is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics. His pioneering research in solar-sail technology has been utilized by NASA in plans for extra-solar probes and in consideration of technologies to divert Earth-threatening asteroids. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 research papers and eight books, which have been cited about 400 times. One of his books, The Starflight Handbook (Wiley, 1989), was co-authored with MIT science-writer Dr. Eugene Mallove and helped establish interstellar-propulsion studies as a sub-division of applied physics.

In addition to being scientists, public speakers, and friends, Les and Greg have collaborated on a number of popular books. They joined forces with C Bangs for Living Off the Land in Space (2007), as well as for their latest book Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth (2009). With Giovanni Vulpetti they wrote Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel (2008).

Tony V. Baughman (journalist, DJ, comedian and actor) is today's featured guest.

Topics: surprises he witnessed as a journalist riding on the John Edwards campaign bus; how politicians are now actors first and politicians second; why not being an actor may have contributed to John McCain losing the last presidential election; the danger that future organizations may hoard information; our civilization's vulnerability to its computerized distribution system; how acting a theatrical role alters a person dramatically but at a subconscious level; and one last mention of the cultural significance of events such as Bonnaroo.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 28, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 39 minutes] This interview was recorded at the WKSX studios on July 10, 2010, in Johnston, South Carolina.

Tony V. Baughman has won awards for his journalism and for his stand-up comedy. Formerly a staff reporter for a daily newspaper, today he is Program Director and Afternoon DJ on 92.7 WKSX FM in the Aiken/Augusta market. As an actor he has performed in various regional and community theater productions, and was an extra in Disney's 1997 remake of the movie That Darn Cat and the 2007 movie Who's Your Caddy? As a stand-up comedian he won the 2007 Battle of the Comedians in Augusta, Ga., sponsored by The Imperial Theatre, and has opened for Jimmy Brogan and Mark Schiff.

Tony V. Baughman (journalist, DJ, comedian and actor) is today's featured guest.

Topics: why most kids today don't even own a radio, and yet how it is that many of them love The Beatles; the value of the annual Bonnaroo Music Festival and why some consider it the modern day equivalent of Woodstock; how theater can be considered performance therapy; the lure of acting as a career as opposed to the safety of not striving for its lofty heights; and references to the Spencer Tracy movie Inherit the Wind, and the Meryl Streep movie Doubt.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 21, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes] This interview was recorded at the WKSX studios on July 10, 2010, in Johnston, South Carolina.

Tony V. Baughman has won awards for his journalism and for his stand-up comedy. Formerly a staff reporter for a daily newspaper, today he is Program Director and Afternoon DJ on 92.7 WKSX FM in the Aiken/Augusta market. As an actor he has performed in various regional and community theater productions, and was an extra in Disney's 1997 remake of the movie That Darn Cat and the 2007 movie Who's Your Caddy? As a stand-up comedian he won the 2007 Battle of the Comedians in Augusta, Ga., sponsored by The Imperial Theatre, and has opened for Jimmy Brogan and Mark Schiff.

Tony V. Baughman (journalist, DJ, actor, comedian and program director at WKSX-FM) is today's featured guest.

Topics: a behind the scenes look at the trends effecting newspapers and radio stations; how newspapers and radio stations are responding to the Internet stealing their listeners and readers; the one powerful advantage that all local newspapers and radio stations have over their national and Internet-based competition; and how radio stations are automated to sound like it's a live show when it's not.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 14, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 38 minutes] This interview was recorded at the WKSX studios on July 10, 2010, in Johnston, South Carolina.

Tony V. Baughman has won awards for his journalism and for his stand-up comedy. Formerly a staff reporter for a daily newspaper, today he is Program Director and Afternoon DJ on 92.7 WKSX FM in the Aiken/Augusta market. As an actor he has performed in various regional and community theater productions, and was an extra in Disney's 1997 remake of the movie That Darn Cat and the 2007 movie Who's Your Caddy? As a stand-up comedian he won the 2007 Battle of the Comedians in Augusta, Ga., sponsored by The Imperial Theatre, and has opened for Jimmy Brogan and Mark Schiff.