The QTS Experience

Not too long ago, the most popular game on the planet was World of Warcraft. I confess I played it for more years than I care to admit, and my human rogue rags was a joy to play. What never occurred to me was the technology and innovation that made these games possible would someday lead to the hardware that would support blockchain, cryptocurrency, quantum computing and other incredibly powerful tools. And this week, I'm hosting Rob Enderle, a technology futurist, a writer, and to be honest, pretty spectacular character. My favorite kind. Rob has been reporting on technology before. Most of us knew to care about it. Our conversation this week is going to cover that hardware that I mentioned earlier, but also we're going to dove into the 3D Web. What is it? Why should we care? Along with the future of electric cars, which may surprise you, our grid and other important topics. Join us for the conversation on this week's episode of The QTS Experience Podcast.

You and I generate or manipulate data every ten minutes – that’s at least 96 times a day. And the movie, spreadsheet, TikTok, Tele-med, or whatever we interact with – lives in someone’s data center. That makes datacenters the most important part of your world that you never knew existed. Which is why I invited my good friend Adam Knobloch to come help us understand more of this hidden world. Join us for a great conversation – on the next QTS Experience.

One of the most important conversations we can be having today is energy. What type should we use? Its impact on the environment, the economy, its impact on politics, on our independence, and nuclear energy sits right in the middle of that discussion. Fair or unfair, it generates the most controversy.

But should it? Silicon Valley is betting on the future of nuclear energy. Our entire naval fleet runs on nuclear energy. NASA has even sent probes to space with nuclear energy.  So with that in mind, I invited Dr. Anna Erickson to come and help us to understand what the conversation is about. Anna is the Associate Chair for Research and a Woodruff Professor at Georgia Tech.

She received both her M.S. and Ph.D. from M.I.T. and has spent her entire adult life in the heart of this discussion. It's an important and compelling conversation. So join me as I host Dr. Anna Erickson, as we discuss the potential and the risks of one of the most controversial discussions you can have today, nuclear energy.

About Our Guest

Anna Erickson is a Woodruff Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and group leader focused on creating and navigating projects in advanced nuclear reactor design, nuclear security, data analysis and machine learning. She is also the Director of the Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation and a member of the Board of Directors for the American Nuclear Society. She is a strategy leader for problem formulation and execution and is an effective communicator at international conferences and invited seminars.

My conversation this week is with the original Digital nomads Nabeel Mahmood and Phil Koblence, the founders of The Nomad Futurist Foundation and Podcast. In this quick conversation we discuss how the coding within the U.S. Emergency alert system may have tremendous flaws, the emerging AI within Fintech, and the good work The Nomad Futurist Foundation is attempting to accomplish. Please, enjoy the conversation – on this week's episode of The QTS Experience Podcast.

About Our Guests

Phillip Koblence co-founded NYI (www.nyi.net) in 1996. Since then, he has successfully navigated through an ever-shifting infrastructure landscape and grown the company from a single data center in Lower Manhattan to a robust network with executional capabilities in key national and international markets. His leadership over a span of more than twenty years has positioned NYI as a leader in hybrid infrastructure solutions. Part of NYI’s success is due to the strong emphasis placed on building lasting relationships with clients. Through this focus on customer experience, and an ability to cut through complexity and hype, NYI has set the bar in the industry for high-touch infrastructure solutions. Phillip is a frequent speaker at industry events and has been profiled by Data Center Knowledge, TheWHIR, MSPMentor, and NJ BIZ. He has also contributed to CRN and NJ Business Magazine. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, with an engineering degree.

Nabeel Mahmood is a Technologist, Futurist, and a Keynote Speaker. His career is driven by one question – what’s next? He is passionate about the power of technology to deliver competitive and transformational change and the need to develop digital leadership that will create the enterprise of the future. He believes strongly in simplification, with a purpose.

 Nabeel brings 20 plus years of experience leading large-scale global technology organizations through seasons of explosive growth via M&A, global expansion, implementing new business models, and technology innovation. His expertise include leading organizations through transformation changes, connecting IT to the needs of the business, technology innovation, Big Data, Cloud, ERP, IoT, AI, ML, RPA, Mobility, and Data Centers. He brings a unique blend of experiences spanning the entire breadth of technology from Grid to Chip. At heart he’s a true technologist and futurist, he is a proven strategist, winsome communicator, and leader with extraordinary vision and operational expertise within large, complex organizations.

Nabeel is a strategic CXO identifying opportunities that are being underpinned by emerging technologies and is an advisor to CIO’s, CTO’s and CEO’s across a number of industries. He servers on multiple boards of private and publicly traded companies, including United Security Bank.

It's impossible to have a conversation about A.I. or machine learning without also talking about neural networks. The thing is, most of us think we know what it is, and some of us have an opinion on what machine learning is. But very few people actually know what a neural network is; why it matters? Do these networks evolve like the human brain? What are the ethical implications of building an infrastructure like that? Are they secure? My conversation today is with Sergey Plis, a professor of computer science at Georgia State University and the director of Machine Learning at the Center for Translational Research in Neuro Imaging and Data Science (TReNDS). He and his collaborators received funding recently from the NSF and the New Age to study casual connections in the brain. Obviously, Sergey likes to keep things busy. Please enjoy this incredible and fascinating conversation on this week's episode of The QTS Experience Podcast.

About Our Guest

As an Associate Professor of Computer Science and a Director of Machine Learning at the Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging & Data Science, I like to keep things busy. Probably for that reason, I have three kids, two cats and a dog. I travel often, moved a few times recently, and have painted rooms and houses everywhere I go.

My research focuses on developing computational instruments that enable knowledge extraction from observational multimodal data collected at different temporal and spatial scales. I believe we can provide the neuroimaging community with a more robust, reliable understanding of directed connectivity in the brain.

We can’t just poke around in living human brain to see how it works. I and my collaborators are honored to have received $1.3 million from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to study causal connections in the brain. Here are only a few of my other accomplishments:

• Published one of the first demonstrations of the versatile potential of deep learning methods for the field in 2013 and since then my group developed a number of deep learning approaches to neuroimaging.

Imagine you’ve been devastated by a catastrophic weather event. If you’ve experienced or survived something like this in your life time you know how hard it is to be made whole and the impact on the entire community. Obviously restoring humans to physical and emotional health is goal one – but part of that is restoring our homes, our lives. My guest this week is Elizabeth Hoemeke. Her mission is leveraging IoT, Machine Learning, AI, and other Tech to come alongside and help us restore ourselves and our communities quicker. She is currently the CIO of a FinTech Startup and has executive leadership roles in banking, big data, privacy, and others. You’re really going to enjoy this conversation and Elizabeth in particular – one of my favorite people. Please join me for the conversation on the Next QTS Experience.

In my normal life, I talk about the edge, edge compute, edge networking, smart devices; you know, the edge. When Professor Steve Beckwith talks about the edge, he's considering the universe. Professor Beckwith joins me this week for an incredible conversation on how AI and machine learning through tools like the Web and Hubble telescopes are informing us about the universe and all the gory, catastrophic, beautiful and fascinating stories it has to tell us.

It informs the world we live in today, the potential impact of technology as it's evolving. Professor Beckwith should know. He is currently the director of the Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley and has previously served as the director of many other similar institutions here in the States and internationally, including as the Vice President for research and graduate studies for the ten campus University of California system.

About Our Guest

Steven Beckwith is a Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. His 40-year research career spans a many interests including the formation and early evolution of extra-solar planetary systems, the evolution of young stars, and the birth of galaxies in the early universe. In 2004, he led the team that created the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the deepest visual image of the universe, resulting in the discovery of the most distant galaxies ever seen. He has published approximately 200 articles and won several international awards for his work. He lectures worldwide and advises organizations in the United States and Europe on research policy.

The Internet is a network of networks. It's built across fiber, satellite, and subsea cables that span the globe. It seems really resilient; there isn't a single off switch. But you already knew that. What we don't talk much about is the infrastructure that supports it and to some degree, it's vulnerability. This week, I invited Vinay Nagpal to help us understand why internet infrastructure matters so much to us. Vinay is the President of InterGlobix, a data center and fiber consultancy group. He is also the Executive Director and Founding Member of the Internet Ecosystem Infrastructure Committee (IEIC). He's heavily involved in a wide range of industry boards and advisory roles. In other words, he really knows what he's talking about. So join us for a really cool conversation on this week's episode of The QTS Experience.

About Our Guest

Vinay Nagpal is a Data Center and Connectivity leader and visionary with over 27 years of experience developing products and technology solutions and business growth strategies for data centers with a strong focus on connectivity, subsea and terrestrial fiber. He is currently President of InterGlobix, a global consultancy and advisory firm focused on the convergence of data centers, subsea and terrestrial fiber.

He is the Founding Member and Executive Director of the IEIC (Industry Ecosystem Innovation Committee), which is actively leading the development of diverse, resilient Interconnection Ecosystems globally. Previously, Vinay held senior-level business transformation roles at Digital Realty, DuPont Fabros Technology, Tata Communications, Verizon, MCI, Digex, UUNET and Canada.com

Boards & Affiliations:

I'm joined by Matteo Jean Pietrobelli, a structural and systems engineer at Oceanix. Today, he is helping to create a floating city in Busan, South Korea. In and of itself, an interesting topic, but to call Matteo an "engineer" is like calling Tom Hanks a "storytelling guy". Matteo is a master engineer and he has a wide range of experience in 3D printing, The Hyperloop, complex systems, and so much more. He truly is a Renaissance man, and since he's from Rome, he wears the title well. This episode, he and I are going to dive into the sciences, engineering, even the philosophies of these topics and more. I'm sure you'll find the conversation as interesting as I did. Please enjoy the conversation. And now the Matteo Pietrobelli on this week's episode of The QTS Experience.

About Our Guest

Highly driven Structural, Civil and Systems Engineer with a strong track record executing complex multi-billion dollar construction projects, spanning transportation, marine, and highrise (residential and commercial) structures. Led the design, engineering and integration of systems in high-speed train railway-line, multi-building complex and award winning bridge/infrastructure projects, Hyperloop Transportation Systems, and Floating cities and Infrastructures in Asia, Africa, Europe and USA. Experienced in integration of digital and physical infrastructures for the purpose of risk assessment and optimization of system resiliency and performance, such as Structural Health Monitoring Systems, he is able to seamlessly move between disciplines and solve problems related to structural and systems engineering.

I am passionate about exponential technologies and their potential to solve big global challenges.

3X founder of cutting-edge companies focused on concrete 3D printing and advanced structural modelling (Nomogram), and aeroponic and hydroponic fresh produce vertical farming (Agripublica). His skill-set includes R&D, taking products from research to commercialization, interfacing between clients and consultants/contractors developing and protecting IP assets. Proficient in manipulating geometries and wireframes, while utilizing commercial and advanced software.

Currently working as the Chief Engineer and CTO of Oceanix City, a cutting edge Climate/Blue Technologies development and integration company for floating infrastructures, he is leading the design and engineering of the physical and digital systems, with a specific trend towards the development of Smart Floating Cities and Infrastructures integrated through digital twins and Metaverse for multi-tiered environmental, Resilient and Sustainable development.

He has a global perspective and spent more than half of his life working and residing in different countries, including Switzerland, China, Algeria, Togo, Madagascar, Nigeria, India, France, Austria, Slovenia, Italy and USA.

He is fluent in Italian, French (native) and English and speaks a bit of Russian and Chinese.

If you and I were to strike up a conversation about autonomous vehicles or even robots, I presume we would primarily be talking about Tesla or something similar or maybe some of the cool new and let's face it, kind of scary modern robots. So when I met Jeff Smith, I assumed that's where our conversation was going to go. It turns out Jeff built crafts for Saab (submarines, research vessels, drone ships) and they're deployed in the oceans of the world . Jeff's vehicles can be deployed in the harshest environments on Earth, and their capability will blow your mind like it did mine. Join us for an excellent conversation on this episode of the QTS Experience.

About Our Guest

About Saab