Damian Bemben is a senior software developer at AdaMode (named after Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer), where he works on AI for nuclear, renewables and heavy industry. It's a world where you really can't afford mistakes, so the focus isn't the latest shiny model. It's responsible AI: turning complex data that no human operator could take in all at once into reliable, useful insight, and proving it works before it goes anywhere near a live plant. He describes one project he can talk about, helping model how the Solent Cluster could decarbonise heavy industry on the way to net zero.

Damian is candid about his own career. After a computer science degree, a master's and a year in industry at IBM, he nearly gave up on software development altogether because he was spreading himself across too many languages and frameworks. Specialising (in Python and JavaScript) brought the passion back. He and Natalie talk about whether AI will replace developers, why cutting graduate hiring is a mistake, why code that nobody understands can't be maintained, and why the skills that get you promoted include knowing when to say no.

He also shares his side projects: organising Make, an evening of six-minute talks on creative technology with the RSA's Southern Creative Catalyst, a 3D-printed model of Southampton he built from scratch, and an immersive art project involving an AI self-checkout machine that hates you.

Guest: Damian Bemben, senior software developer, AdaMode

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 29 August 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk

Rob Davis is a Southampton software developer who popped into the studio at the last minute for a wide-ranging tour of the local tech and maker scene. He starts with So Make It, the makerspace in Freemantle where members can use 3D printers, electronics kit and sewing machines without buying them, and PyData Southampton, a monthly meetup at Carnival House where he gave a lightning talk analysing Strictly Come Dancing results. He scraped the data from Wikipedia and modelled it in Python to find the stories hidden in the scores (yes, he dances too).

Rob explains open source in plain English, why Windows 10 reaching end of support is a moment to think about your options, and his honest take on Linux: it's only free if you don't value your time. He and Natalie discuss what it means that AI models learn from code developers share publicly on GitHub, whether developers' jobs are at risk, and why this may be another turn of the cycle, like the printing press or the dotcom bubble. They also touch on promising uses such as AI-suggested antibiotics and early cancer detection, and the University of Southampton's public workshops on AI in the city.

Then it's retro computing. Rob hands Natalie her first Raspberry Pi, explains its link to Acorn and the ARM chip, and shares his excitement about the revival of Commodore. He finishes with a round-up of local communities worth joining.

Guest: Rob Davis, software developer

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 22 August 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk

When his eight-year-old daughter complained that there weren't enough games for girls (too much blowing things up, not enough story), Christopher Merrifield took her seriously. Together they turned one of his stories into Kenix and the Cat King, a gentle, story-rich game in which a band of cats with very different abilities team up against the Dog King. His daughter, who had been learning Python, designed 12 of the levels, appears in the game as a cat witch, and insists on her title: CEO.

Chris explains how the game works. There's no single right way through: you choose which feline friend to bring, whether it's the world's smartest cat to solve a puzzle or a sneaky spy to slip through a vent, so children can compare strategies in the playground. It's rated PEGI 3, yet its biggest audience turned out to be women aged 18 to 34, who told him they love that it's relaxing and non-toxic.

He also shares the reality of indie game development on a budget of around £400: teaching himself, editing images pixel by pixel, being careful with AI-generated art because of copyright, hiring a freelance Android developer, and integrating with Steam and Google Play. His advice for aspiring game designers? Start with story and character, not code, because players need a reason to care.

Guest: Christopher Merrifield, co-creator of Kenix and the Cat King (on Steam, Google Play and itch.io)

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 8 August 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk

Richard Gomer is a computer science lecturer at the University of Southampton, and a true local: he grew up in the city, started there as an undergraduate in 2007 and never left, going on to a master's and PhD in web science (a mix of computer science, sociology, economics and more). He now leads a second-year interaction design module for a cohort of more than 300 students, and explains why research-led teaching means he can research something one week and teach it the next.

The heart of the conversation is his team's AI-City project, which asks what AI should mean for Southampton, not according to billionaires, but according to the people who live here. They ran participatory workshops across the area, recruiting through Facebook and Reddit as well as business and community networks. The early findings? People were broadly hopeful but far from uncritical. They'd like AI to help with big sticky problems such as traffic congestion, pollution and the endless digging up of pavements, and they worry about 'computer says no' public services and who is accountable when decisions are handed to AI.

Richard also talks about the challenge AI poses for universities (some academics hide instructions in white text in coursework, which has accessibility downsides for students using screen readers), why AI output often reads as generic, and his idea of humans as the glue that combines the best of AI with the best of ourselves.

Guest: Richard Gomer, lecturer in computer science, University of Southampton (ai-city.uk)

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 1 August 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk

Ian Burgess has worked in ten different sectors, and his career has a thread running through it: understanding how things work so you can make them better. He's now CTO at ProCode, the technology company spun out of energy supplier Utilita, which built its own systems from day one to give prepayment customers (often on low incomes) a fairer deal. When people are topping up every second of every day, the tech has to be resilient, scalable and instant.

Ian also shares stories from his six years running technology at McLaren from 2002, when getting live data from the trackside back to the factory was radical. The team even analysed competitors' engine sounds to work out their gear ratios, and timed rival pit stops to predict their fuel strategy. And he didn't study computing at all. His degree was in agriculture, and he fell into tech because he had a computer for his coursework.

The second half focuses on Canary Care, which uses discreet home sensors (no cameras) to reassure families and care workers that a vulnerable person is up, moving and warm, and which is used by around 150 local authorities. Ian explains how the next generation will link with smart home devices, why keeping someone warm can prevent a hospital stay costing around £500 a night, how energy data used with consent can flag when something isn't right, and why local authorities and the NHS need to stop arguing over who pays for tech-enabled care.

Guest: Ian Burgess, CTO, ProCode (and Canary Care)

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 25 July 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk

Why is a novelist on a tech show? Because Alice G. May's story is remarkable, and technology runs right through it. Told at school that she wasn't creative, she studied environmental science and spent 20 years as a GP practice manager. Then, about ten years ago, her house fell down. Her insurer refused to pay, and Alice, her husband, their four children and two cats lived in a tent in the garden (no wifi, no Xbox), then a caravan, until they rebuilt it 18 months later. Painting helped her recover from the trauma, and painting unlocked the words. Her fictionalised memoir, The House That Sat Down, followed.

After years of rejections she signed a six-book deal with a traditional publisher, sparked by tripping over a mysterious metal object on a walk. It led her to the true story of a secret army of around 300 hand-picked women trained during the Second World War to watch for invaders from hidden bunkers on the British coast. The Resistance Girls is the first in the series, researched at the Imperial War Museum and the Signals Museum.

Alice and Natalie discuss why her publisher's contract rules out AI (she even turned Copilot off in Word), how it felt to discover her earlier novel had been scraped to train AI within hours of publication, and why building trust with a reader is surprisingly like good user experience design in software.

Guest: Alice G. May, author of The Resistance Girls (alicegmay.com)

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 18 July 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk

Susan Hayward is chair of the board of trustees at Southampton Mental Health Network and runs Hayward Hub, where she combines business coaching with a focus on the wellbeing of the person running the business. A Londoner who spent more than 30 years living in Africa, she left a career in sales and marketing in the chemical industry (and 3,000 miles a month of driving) to work for herself. She's now a national trainer for Mental Health First Aid England, and her lived experience of ADHD in her family runs through her work.

Susan starts by unpacking what 'mental health' really means, using the World Health Organization's definition of health as physical, mental and social wellbeing, and the three foundations that support it: sleep, nutrition and physical activity. Her advert-break challenge is a highlight: stand up, then walk around the coffee table, and see how far you can build it.

Then the big question: are you in control of your technology, or is it in control of you? She and Natalie discuss notifications, the pressure of social media on young people (and Australia's move to ban it for under-16s), and fitness apps that encourage rather than judge. They also celebrate the good side: online CBT that cuts waiting lists, repeat prescriptions on your phone, technology that suits many autistic people, learning a new craft from YouTube (which is how Natalie learned to sew), and using video calls to check in on remote colleagues' wellbeing.

Guest: Susan Hayward, Hayward Hub and chair of trustees, Southampton Mental Health Network

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 11 July 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk

Seemin Suleri is VP of engineering at Prima, an Italian insurtech company, and co-founder and director of re:connect, Dorset's only community-led tech conference. When re:connect started there were no tech conferences in the county, so Seemin and her co-founders put in their own time and money. The first year drew around 100 people. This year's event at AFC Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium, with around 200 attendees, features keynote speaker Kevlin Henney (who waived his fee to support the community), a closing talk on agentic AI, and workshops on everything from wellbeing to cybersecurity and game development.

Inclusion is built in from the start: 20 per cent of tickets go free to students, 'pay it forward' tickets support people from underrepresented groups, and volunteers can earn a place. Natalie asks about a recent London conference that turned away a parent with a baby. Seemin, a mother of two, explains how re:connect has a quiet room for exactly that, and why the event achieved an even gender split in its first year without setting targets.

Seemin argues that the real word isn't diversity but belonging, and that making people feel they belong is the organisation's responsibility from the moment they walk through the door. She introduces her Luminary Framework, a people-first approach to tech leadership built on four pillars, and her plan to mentor one aspiring leader for free each year.

Guest: Seemin Suleri, VP of engineering at Prima and co-founder of re:connect (reconnectconference.co.uk)

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 4 July 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk

Phil Clark is a technology procurement consultant by day, but his real passion is TechSolent — a community interest company he co-founded to connect, develop and promote the technology professionals and businesses of the Solent region. Matt Johnson is the director of the South Coast Institute of Technology, a government-backed collaboration of colleges and universities given £17 million to build coherent talent pipelines into the South Coast's three highest-demand sectors: maritime, engineering and digital.

The conversation that follows is candid and wide-ranging. Both guests are tackling the same underlying problem from different angles: a "broken" digital-skills pipeline where businesses can't find people, young people don't know the routes in, and the education system is still catching up with how fast the technology moves — particularly with the arrival of AI. Matt describes the challenge of getting competing colleges and universities to put aside their differences and design curriculum in genuine partnership with industry. Phil talks about what TechSolent is trying to do as a connector — not just a networking group but a deliberate bridge between the business community and the education ecosystem.

There is real optimism here too, alongside the honesty about the gaps. The South Coast has a strong education base, strong employers and genuine appetite for collaboration — the question is whether the joins can be made to stick. Both guests are clear that the region shouldn't have to import its talent indefinitely, and that keeping graduates local after they qualify is just as important as getting them into the system in the first place.

Guests: Phil Clark, TechSolent (community interest company); Matt Johnson, South Coast Institute of Technology

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 20 June 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk

Jen Wright has been in tech since 1999, at the start of the internet boom, and she believes we're now at a similar turning point with AI. In this conversation she makes the case for putting the technology last. Customer-centric design means understanding the people who will actually use a product (not the people buying it or specifying it), finding their real pain points, and checking back with them constantly as you build.

Jen shares examples from her time at BT, translating a huge legacy technology stack into simple modern experiences, and at KFC, where the team built the app and then took the same platform into the in-store kiosks, refining both through analytics, user testing and simply watching customers in store. Natalie describes her own habit of co-creating software with the teams who'll use it, and they agree that workarounds (the extra spreadsheets in the bottom drawer) are often the fastest route to understanding what a system really needs to do.

They also talk about why Jen, now a qualified executive coach, is allergic to the word 'managing'. She builds purpose-driven, remote-first autonomous teams and sees her role as clearing blockers and advocating for them. They discuss the return-to-office debate and why the agile mindset matters more than the agile framework. Her advice for anyone starting in tech: stay curious and open-minded, shape the job you want, and when choosing a technology partner, start with the problem, not the solution.

Guest: Jen Wright, technology leader and executive coach

Recorded for The Technology Show on Voice FM 103.9, Southampton — broadcast 6 June 2025. Listen live on Fridays at 1pm. More episodes: thetechnologyshow.uk