The Next Frontier Podcast

This wide-ranging conversation with Eswar Anandapadmanaban takes us from his roots winning the Google Science Fair, to studying at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology where he invested time in a wide range of projects and internship experiences (at companies including NASDAQ and IDEO), through his award-winning mixed reality work for the US Air Force, and finally, back to his time driving MIT's premier global mixed-reality programs.

Resources Mentioned & Other Links of Interest

Eswar’s Website

MIT Reality Hack Hackathon

VR/AR @ MIT

What is a hackathon?

PTC

Waypoint Labs Acquired By PTC

MIT Online Courses Free (OCW)

Samsung Next Accelerator

WebXR

NASDAQ Innovation Lab

IDEO CoLab

IDEO Designed the first Apple mouse

PillPack Case Study

Design Thinking

MIT Media Lab

MIT Hacks

Eswar Win’s Air Force Competition

AFWERX Challenges

Model UN

7 Amazing Google Science Fair Projects

TheraNIM: A Touchless Respiratory Monitor.

ISEF Science Fair

Eswar on LinkedIn. 

Eswar’s portfolio.

We are seeing an unprecedented wave of innovation resources that are empowering innovators, particularly young innovators, to build & create with (1) higher fidelity, (2) lower cost, and (3) greater speed than ever before. Through the Next Frontier podcast and blog series, I explore precisely where to find these resources and how YOU can efficiently and effectively utilize each resource to execute on your vision. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with these tactical and strategic insights, subscribe here.

During her Bachelor’s degree, Gopika SenthilKumar founded the student product design organization, Insight Wisconsin, and drove the establishment of the multi-million dollar UW Makerspace. After graduating with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Gopika is pursuing her combined M.D. and Ph.D. Beyond maker-centric innovation, Gopika shares her extensive in-lab research experience. Finally, we explore how Gopika built her public speaking skillset bringing her to the TedX and UW-Madison graduation stages. Recorded in May 2019.

Gopika’s TedX Talk

Gopika’s Next Frontier Event Talk

M.D. / Ph.D.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Biomedical Engineering Program

UW Madison Makerspace

Insight Wisconsin 

Product Design

Shadowing Doctors 

Internet Of Things Lab

MCAT

Mock Trial

Lego Mindstorm

MIT Integrated Design & Management

United Way Philanthropic Youth Award

Form Labs 3D Printers

How To Win Friends And Influence People (Book) By Dale Carnegie

Who Moved My Cheese (Book) By Spencer Johnson

You can find Gopika on LinkedIn here.

We are seeing an unprecedented wave of innovation resources that are empowering entrepreneurs & industrialists to create with (1) higher fidelity, (2) lower cost, and (3) greater speed than ever before. Through the Next Frontier podcast and blog series, I explore precisely where to find these resources and how YOU can efficiently and effectively utilize each resource to execute on your vision. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with these tactical and strategic insights, subscribe here.

In this episode Lennon Rodgers, Director of the Grainger Engineering Design Innovation Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lennon shares how he pioneered the world-class design and innovation programs at MIT in Boston, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich; the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland, the Skolkovo Institute in Moscow, Singapore University of Technology and Design, and most recently, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout the conversation, we explore how Lennon used to travel as a resource to build his diverse and unique experience and skillset. Finally, we dive into case studies of Lennon’s hands-on experience building technologies in aerospace, electric vehicles, and automation.

UW Madison Makerspace

NASA JPL

International Design Center @ MIT

MIT Electric Vehicles Lab

NASA SPHERES

Universal Docking Port and Video-based Docking Sensor

Integrated vs Modular Design

Cubesats

Charge (Isle of Man documentary) 

Isle of Man Motorcycle Race

SUTD-MIT International Design Centre

Apply to work at the UW-Madison Maker Space

UW-Madison Design + Innovation Masters Program

Integrated Design and Management Masters Program @ MIT

GE Six Sigma Strategy

IBM Design Thinking Programs

Product Design and Development, 6th Edition (Book) by Steven Eppinger 

You can find Lennon on LinkedIn here.

You can find a comprehensive portfolio of Lennon’s projects here.

You can learn more about the University of Wisconsin-Madison Makerspace here.

Subscribe for More

We are seeing an unprecedented wave of innovation resources that are empowering young entrepreneurs to create with (1) higher fidelity, (2) lower cost, and (3) greater speed than ever before. Through the Next Frontier podcast and blog series, I explore precisely where to find these resources and how YOU can efficiently and effectively utilize each resource to execute on your vision. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with these tactical and strategic insights, subscribe here.

In this episode, Max sits down with Brian “Beam” Maue, co-founder of AFWERX. This wide-ranging conversation dives deep into the frontline innovation happening throughout the United States Air Force. Beam details his innovation philosophy and how he goes about innovation empowerment while sharing hyper-exciting stories of innovation throughout the history of the United States Military. Finally, Beam elaborates on the incredible innovation resources available to entrepreneurs and innovators from all walks of life -- industry, academia, and military -- and how they can get involved with AFWERX.

AFWERX

AFWERX Book

AFWERX Challenges

AFWERX Newsletter

SBIR/STTR Program

The Declaration of Independence

ROTC

The Base of The Future Challenge

The Berlin Airlift

The DIY Commercial Drone Industry

Beam’s Holistic Happiness Udemy Course

Beam’s AFWERX Fusion Talk “Four Key Principles To Drive A Culture Of Innovation”

Brian “Beam” Maue is a founding-father and the first president of AFWERX.

“[Beam] leads a talented, nationally-dispersed mission team who connects innovators and creates accelerated technological and cultural agility for the 680,000 military and civilian members of the United States Air Force. Their AFWERX fusion of capabilities includes a system of "open to the public" innovation hubs, a virtual collaboration network for Airmen, and a network of innovation offices across Air Force bases.”

You can find Beam on LinkedIn here.

You can learn more about AFWERX here.

We are seeing an unprecedented wave of innovation resources that are empowering young entrepreneurs to create with (1) higher fidelity, (2) lower cost, and (3) greater speed than ever before. Through the Next Frontier podcast and blog series, I explore precisely where to find these resources and how YOU can efficiently and effectively utilize each resource to execute on your vision. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with these tactical and strategic insights, subscribe here.

The Next Frontier Thesis

Today’s front-line innovators, entrepreneurs, and creative core (all whom if not already will be tomorrow’s leaders) grow up and learn their craft, not through the traditional academic system (in which many are enrolled), but through a complex web of innovation-enabling resources and infrastructure.

Over the past 20 years, since the dotcom boom, we’ve seen the rise of the novel, memetic innovation tools, infrastructure, and incentives. These innovation tools have helped “entrepre-neers” (entrepreneur + engineer) create billion-dollar-plus companies, billions of dollars of economic value, and save millions of lives.

For example, ever-popular hackathons started in the heat of the dotcom bubble on June 4th, 1999 in Calgary, Alberta when the earliest open software community OpenBSD held the first-ever hackathon. Then in 2005, Make Magazine published its first issue, marking a formal starting point for the powerful maker movement. That same year, the thread continues to Y-Combinator: the first-of-it’s-kind startup accelerator.

These and so many more pieces of the puzzle are critical to the unprecedented wave of innovation we are seeing today.

Through the Next Frontier Podcast, I am attempting to break down the complex web of resources enabling not only rapid innovation but the rapid training of innovators.

I hope that the episodes that follow serve as a hyper-tactical road map for young entrepreneurs, innovators, and creators at the start of their journeys. Further, I aim to emphasize and dive into actionable ways that seasoned entrepreneurs, the corporate world, and other established institutions can tap into the lively energy of young trailblazers through this same complex web of core-level innovation infrastructure.  And finally, I hope that this thesis serves as a north star for parents looking to give their kids the competitive edge of resourcefulness, knowing what resources are out there and how to use them.

Knowledge and awareness are power; please listen on to take the power that is rightfully yours.

Ad Astra,

Max Goldberg

For the next several weeks, I will release a queue of recorded conversations that I have been building up. After that queue is exhausted, I will publish episodes as they are recorded. You can check out the first half-dozen already released episodes at www.maxwellgoldberg.com/podcast.

We are seeing an unprecedented wave of innovation resources that are empowering young entrepreneurs to create with (1) higher fidelity, (2) lower cost, and (3) greater speed than ever before. Through the Next Frontier podcast and blog series, I explore precisely where to find these resources and how YOU can efficiently and effectively utilize each resource to execute on your vision. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with these tactical and strategic insights, subscribe here.

In this episode, Max sits down with Taylor Waddell, a manager, designer, and student maker for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Makerspace, and co-founder of 2twenty5, a Madison-based student-maker consulting group.

• What is a maker?
• How do you get better as a maker?
• What is a makerspace?
• How can maker students and the business community collaborate for networking and other opportunities?
• How businesses can tap into the vast thinking and technical power of college students

[2:00] How did you get into making?

[5:40] Taylor shares how he made the leap from an interested high school junior to newbie maker

[7:06] Building a Maker Portfolio

[8:30] Experiences within the maker community

[13:34] Experiences in a makeathon

[16:00] Building connections with student makers and the business world

[21:08] Why companies should get involved with student makers and makerspaces

[23:40] How can students leverage makerspace to develop their own career

[27:20] Getting into NASA

[31:11] What was it like working at NASA?

[35:43} What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from NASA?

[39:10] What are you most excited about it right now?

[48:17] Why Minecraft sparked his birth as a maker

“It’s always the community. That’s always the focus of a makerspace.”

“The makespace embodies such a variety of different technical backgrounds.”

“It’s almost guaranteed when you walk into that [a makerspace] that you’re going to learn something that you didn’t know before.

“The main thing with makerspace is people and that environment…It’s all about community.”

“For NASA, you’re just given a full-on project.”

“One of the most satisfying things about programming is that it’s just so easy to make mistakes and correct them.”

“ I always wanted that job that made you feel like a part of something bigger.”

“I can guarantee that almost everyone is a maker.”

What is a Makerspace?

Makerspace

FFF Printer

SLA Printer

Arduino

Major League Hacking

Hack Illinois

TreeHacks

What can you get from Makeathons and how to get the most

Insight Wisconsin

MadMakers at Wisconsin

SpaceX

Listen on Apple Podcasts

In this Episode, recent UW-Madison computer engineering graduate Spencer Fricke shares the wisdom and strategies he’s gained from participating in over 35 hackathons around the world. Spencer shares why — and how — he believes everyone can develop a hacker mentality.

• What is hacking?
• The 3 aspects of the hacker mentality
• Who can hack?
• Why failure is an essential part of succeeding at hacking
• The top excuses non-hackers use to stay out of hackathons

[1:06] What is hacking

[1:55] The 3 key aspects of a successful hacking mentality

[3:50] What is the goal of a hackathon?

[4:41] Who can hack? Why don’t more people get into hackathons?

[8:28] A powerfully simple hacking skill that most college students don’t use

[11:20] Key takeaways

“That is what makes you a maker…the willingness to say that you’re not going to stick with the status quo and you’re going to try something different.”

“If you’re good at failing, you will fail on a Thursday night when no one notices instead of in front of your first investor.”

“The later you start, the longer it’s going to take for you to get to a professional level.”

Video of Spencer’s Presentation

Upcoming Hackathons

How to find a Hackathon in Your Area

MadHacks

Equipment you can check out at the UW-Madison Library

University of Wisconsin – Madison – Makerspace

Spencer on LinkedIn

Are you a young entrepreneur looking to access the abundance of opportunities available to you around the globe? Through the Next Frontier podcast and blog series I explore precisely where to find these resources and how YOU can efficiently and effectively utilize each resource to execute on your vision. If you’d like to stay up-to-date with these tactical insights, subscribe here.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

In this episode of the Next Frontier Podcast, Max sits down with his good friend Vlad Bouriakov, a Manufacturing Systems & Engineering Graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in generative design. Max and Vlad to discuss the potential of generative design, and how Vlad took a highly-strategic approach to refine his engineering acumen throughout his undergraduate program, and now during his graduate degree.

[1:46] Introductions. Vlad shares his current job at University of Wisconsin-Madison

[2:20} Current projects and research. Vlad shares his current projects and the bold philosophy that drove him as an engineering undergrad

[4:38] Gearhead. Vlad explains what drove him to choose engineering as a major

[8:05] What is generative design?

[9:04] How did the field of generative design develop?

[12:24] What are the possible connections between quantum computing, generative design and quantum mechanics?

[13:24] Are we seeing artificial intelligence in generative design?

[15:40] What are some advanced tools you use in your work?

[17:28] How does complex machine learning fit into generative design?

[20:20} What kind of computer power is needed for generative power? (How many flops?)

[26:00] What are some tools that are used in generative design?

[42:38] How far are we from creating a simple user interface where we can input the engineering information and pop out a completed part?

[44:57] Vlad shares why he is optimistic about students going into engineering

[45:22] What is bio-mimicry and how can other biological-based principles impact generative design?

[53:04] Crickets & Mantis shrimp. Vlad shares how resilin allows crickets to jump faster & mantis shrimp to pack a really mean punch

[57:21] Where do you get the data for generative design?

[1:00:00] Oura Ring & Sleep analytics

[1:01:00] What promising new applications do you see in generative design?

[1:05:00] Importance of coding in engineering?

[1:06:00] What would you tell a manufacturing CEO and an undergrad student about generative design?

Vlad Bouriakov is a grad student and teaching assistant studying manufacturing systems and engineering and Virtual Reality/3D Scanning Chair of the UW Madison Makerspace,who worked with Max on one of the first prototypes of a hyperloop pod.

Vlad on Instagram<

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Max talks with Van Espahbodi about his career transition from a government career to the co-founder of the first aerospace accelerator (Starburst Aerospace Accelerator). Van also shares how one of his cars ended up in one of the “Fast and Furious” franchises and how his work with Starburst is opening new doors for innovation in the aerospace industry.

Van shares his journey about making the transition from a career in the public sector to working as a start-up founder in the private sector.

[1:33] How did you make that transition from public sector to private sector?

[6:20] What motivated you to pursue a career in the private sector, particularly the startup space?

Max & Van shift gears to talk about investing in the aerospace industry and how the business accelerator he founded (Starburst) is opening doors for others in the aerospace industry.

[9:21] Is venture investing in aerospace increasing or decreasing, compared to the past?                                                              

[11:27] How did your accelerator, Starburst, develop to what it is today?

[14:16] What kind of strategy consulting does Starburst offer for organizations and businesses interested in aerospace?

Max and Van continue the discussion about Van’s past, by diving into the childhood influences that helped steer Van to where he is it. Also, Van shared how his car was featured in “The Fast & The Furious”?

[15:30] What were some of your childhood hobbies that influenced your future choice of career?

[18:43] What kind of car did you have that was featured in the movie “The Fast & The Furious”?

After talking about the past, Max and Van talk about how Van looks at his future, his personal mission. Max began with more in-depth questions about the personal motivation that transformed into a discussion about the future of aerospace and investing

[20:03] Did you experience the same adrenaline rush as a teenager with kids as you moved throughout your career?

[23:20] Did you have any 10x moments (aka “This is one of the best moments of my life) while working at Starburst?

[24:46] What does “innovation lab” mean for the government?

[27:09] Are you helping the Air Force with its space mission?

[29:35] How do you feel about the public’s awareness of space?

[32:37] There’s an abundance of new technology out there and increasing knowledge being shared about this technology. How can entrepreneurs get

Involved in this. Where are some unconventional places they might want to look?

Van Espahbodi is the co-founder and managing partner of the world’s first

In this interview I dive in with Professor Michael Arnold, exploring how to optimally take leverage research opportunities and how he honed into his technical interest. Throughout the conversation, Professor Arnold provides some key insights into what it takes to bring research ideas to reality and make meaningful contributions, at all stages of your journey.

We detail some techniques Prof. Arnold uses to invigorate the creative process, and the tactics he uses to take control of his time.

Professor Arnold leads the Advanced Materials for Energy and Electronics Group at the University of Wisconsin Madison. His research focuses on :

More about Professor Michael Arnold

Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers

More on how to say NO from Tim Ferris