Amelia's Weekly Fish Fry

The Future Will Be Open Source: How QuickLogic Is Changing the FPGA Landscape

In this week’s Fish Fry podcast, Brian Faith (CEO - QuickLogic) joins me to discuss Qomu: Open Source SoC Dev Kit That Fits in Your USB Port. Brian and I delve into the details of this new kit, examine its role within the QuickLogic Open Reconfigurable Computing (QORC) initiative, and how this kit is turning FPGA development on its head in more ways than one. Also this week, we take a closer look at a new desktop 3D hologram printer developed by LitiHolo and how you can start creating your own 3D printed holograms. 

For the Love of Coffee and Design Verification

Happy Engineers Week! In this week’s Fish Fry podcast, we are celebrating with a whole lot of design verification and even more coffee! Vanessa Cooper (DVCon US 2021 Program Chair) joins us to discuss the details of DVCon US 2021, what’s new with this year’s conference and all of the cool stuff you will learn by attending. Also this week, we check out a new research study that contends that drinking coffee every day may affect our cognitive hardware and reduce the volume of grey matter in our brains. (Spoiler Alert: This might not be a bad thing.)

 

For the Love of Design: Kickstarter and Sydney Ahn Mai’s Passion for Purposeful Interactions

Here at Fish Fry, we love Kickstarter! In this week’s Fish Fry podcast, award-winning Kickstarter product designer Sydney Anh Mai joins us to discuss her passion for purposeful interactions, how her experience in the world of dance has set her up for success in high tech, and how she navigates the unique challenges of designing for this global crowdfunding platform. Keeping with our Kickstarter theme, we also check out the Lucon: a connected lamp kit for connecting people.  We take a closer look at how this wifi connected lamp kit, as part of Kickstarter’s popular yearly Make 100 project, brings together one hundred anonymous people through light and touch.

 

To The Skies And Beyond: Securing the Mission Critical Edge and A New Rocket Thruster to Mars

“If you’re not living on the edge, then you’re taking up a little too much space.” - Morgan Freeman

This week’s Fish Fry podcast is all about mission critical edge and solar flare-inspired rocket thrusters. (Mars here we come!) First up, we take a closer look at a groundbreaking idea for a new type of rocket thruster that could take us to Mars and beyond. We investigate why this technology is different from current space-proven propulsion devices and how this new kind of rocket thruster could make long distance space travel a reality. Also this week, Arun Subbarao (VP of Engineering - Lynx Software) joins us to discuss the challenges facing mission critical security today, what their LynxSecure separation kernel is all about, and where Arun thinks mission critical security is headed in the future.

The Business Of Making Sensors Smarter: PICMG, MicroSAM, and Bringing Plug and Play into IIoT

In honor of Embedded Tech Trends (one of my favorite conferences every year) open standards take center stage in this week’s Fish Fry podcast. Doug Sandy (Chief Technical Officer, PICMG) joins us to discuss the role that open specifications play in the future of Industrial IoT. Doug and I dig into the details of PICMG’s new MicroSAM and check out how this new microcontroller-agnostic, ultra-small form-factor module will bring plug and play into the sensor domain. 

A Mesh By Any Other Name Just Isn’t the Same: Breaking Rules and Making the Impossible Possible with Ansys HFSS Mesh Fusion

In this week’s Fish Fry podcast, we're making the impossible possible! We start things off with a closer look at the world’s first metamaterial developed by a team of researchers from EPFL Labs. We investigate the unique properties of this new metamaterial and how this research could pave the way for the development of advanced forms of mechanical metamaterials. Also this week, Matt Commens (Ansys) joins us to discuss HFSS Mesh Fusion. We check out the details of this new mesh fusion technology including how it will open up new avenues for simulation, and why it will help engineers break old rules to overcome the most challenging design obstacles.

Full Stack Future Proofing: How LEVL is Changing the Device Identity Game

Step right up ladies and gentlemen! We’ve got all sorts of EE fun lined up for this week’s Fish Fry podcast. Tim Colleran (LEVL) joins us to discuss LEVL-ID, what sets this device identity technology apart from MAC randomization, and why full stack device Intelligence is key to its success. Also this week, we check out a new research study from Georgetown University that contends that mirroring human visual learning will be key to helping AI software to think more like a human brain. 

 

Brain-a-Palooza! Advancements in Brain-Hand Communication and Your Brain on Code

In our first Fish Fry podcast of 2021, we sit down with Dr. Scott Frey (University of Missouri) and chat about the challenges and newest advancements in brain-hand communication. We take a closer look at how Dr. Frey and his team are helping to personalize recovery from ‘lost’ limbs and the details of a new wireless device that could help people with severe upper limb injuries live better lives. Keeping with our brain-related theme this week, we also investigate a recent study from MIT that reveals that reading computer code is a brain beast of its own and does not precisely replicate the cognitive demands of language or math.

 

It’s All About Confidence: System on Chip Verification and Building Trust into Neural Networks

How do we know that what our neural networks are telling us should be trusted? Can we build confidence into our neural networks so they can answer that for us? According to a new study out of MIT and Harvard, we can and it won’t break the computational bank! In this week’s Fish Fry podcast, we first check out a new way for deep learning neural networks to quickly estimate confidence levels in their output. Keeping with our verification theme, Moshik Rubin (Cadence Design Systems) also joins us to discuss the challenges of SoC verification, the increasing need for system level solutions today, and where he thinks chip level verification is headed in the future. 

 

Return of VPX - Standards, Trends and Supply Chain Security

In this week’s podcast, we have a virtual grab bag of electronic engineering goodness. We start things off with a story about the unique exploration of the Bennu asteroid. We take a closer look at how  NASA’S OSIRIS-REx mission successfully mapped out Bennu's gravity field and how this information has provided vital clues about the formation of asteroids. Also this week, Rob Persons (Smart Embedded Computing) joins us to discuss supply chain security and Xavier Marchand (Interface Concept) and I chat about the trends trends encouraging change in the VPX backplane technology.