Eito Miyamura (Twitter: @Eito_Miyamura) is the President of the Oxford University Blockchain Society and is exploring the intersection of AI and Blockchain. In this 1hr+ session, we discuss web3 and geopolitics, chips and AI, noise and truth. Tune in for a great session!

Time stamps:

00:27 Hackathons all over the world

02:28 Oxford Blockchain Society and web3

18:44 Web3 - Geopolitics and War

24:37 Bits and Atoms - Long Live TSMC

31:26 What are universities? + Learning programming

40:02 Finding truth in a world of complexity

46:00 More AI content than content made by humans?

50:02 Misinformation - premise, argument and conclusion

58:48 Eclectic Eito, Japanese Nationalism, Masayoshi Son of Softbank

01:04:46 Inspirations - Doug Leone

01:07:25 HomeDAO / Oxford Crypto Village

01:009:59 Where to reach out?

Technology has not only advanced the field of science through new methods and inventions, but it has also made podcasting a more accessible and diverse platform for exploring a wide range of subjects. PhD candidate at University College London, Ursule Demael shares her love for biosciences. She topped her year at Oxford in biomedical science and runs the HOLOBIONT podcast. We discuss about T-cells in immunotherapy, biotech and her interests in podcasting.

Links of interest:

https://twitter.com/HOLOBIONT_

https://sites.google.com/view/www-holobiont-com/home

Timestamps:

00:31 The New Year

01:08 Background

05:56 Direction of COVID-19

12:19 T-cells and Immunology

17:30 Holobiont Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/3nGItqmYzJaostOe6imR2A

22:47 Computation and Biology

26:15 Interdisciplinary Research and Nucleate - Empowering Biotech Leaders

https://www.nucleate.xyz/

35:04 Why did you start the Holobiont Podcast

https://anchor.fm/holobiont

39:57 Any other podcasters you listen to?

42:24 Who inspires you?

How to do the impossible!? Dr. Scott Roberts is a materials technologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Materials Development and Manufacturing Technology Group. He develops new materials, processing techniques, and technologies for the use in the aerospace field. He is as close to an inventor as it gets! Listen to a world class expert in bulk metallic glass, porous metal 3D printing and living life! Tune in for a great session!

NASA JPL page: https://scienceandtechnology.jpl.nasa.gov/scott-roberts

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottroberts4/

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LRw8nicAAAAJ&hl=en

Consulting: http://metallicglassconsulting.com/about_us/scott_roberts/

Timestamps:

01:10 Love for cats

05:03 Working at JPL - inventing for space!

10:53 Inventing within the Materials Development and Manufacturing Technology Group (Impossible design specifications)

Metallurgy Facility: https://scienceandtechnology.jpl.nasa.gov/metallurgy-facility

18:11 What is a technologist at JPL?

25:09 Can a metal also be a glass?

Bulk Metallic Glass for robots: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161129103309.htm

Scott’s PhD: https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/8049/

45:54 Flying your technology on space missions

Bulk Metallic Glass Gears for Lunar Night Capable Actuators: https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/survivethenight2018/pdf/7019.pdf

50:49 NASA 2022 Spinoff - ultrasonic + additive manufacturing?

Article: https://fabrisonic.com/fabrisonic-featured-in-nasa-spinoff-magazine/

55:59 The impossible again! - Porous metal 3D printing

Article: https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/nasa-jpl-team-shows-results-of-porous-metal-printing-pbf-process/

01:05:35 The molecular replicator

01:07:30 Technology vs Climate Change

01:14:55 Science is sales

01:22:05 Love of national parks

Utah National Parks: https://www.nps.gov/state/ut/index.htm

01:29:40 Exploring and appreciating cities

01:32:17 Best advice received

01:36:12 Next steps

01:39:44 To find Scott’s work and reach out

‘Reaching back through space and time to Ukiyo-e masters of the past.’

Bram Tan is an artist with an industrial design background. He enjoys thinking broadly about the world and how everything technological works. He also believes that artistic pursuit is an affirmation to oneself that the future WILL be positive and good. He makes Ukiyo-e prints with a 3D printer. Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries.

https://www.bramtan.com/

Timestamps

00:52 Summer in Paris

Andrew Huberman on dopamine and the brain

https://youtu.be/LG53Vxum0as

03:37 Design work - Ukiyo-e - Japanese Art

11:29 Connecting people to artists through space and time

19:20 Science nerd, art, and technology

28:02 What is industrial design? Original Apple computers

38:34 Designing the designer

Grasshopper

https://www.grasshopper3d.com/page/download-1

Algorithms for grasshopper

https://www.food4rhino.com/en

52:16 Contact by Carl Sagan

54:48 Imagining the future!

01:04:43 Difference in living in Malaysia vs UK vs France

01:09:02 Bunker club trip to Poland for Ukraine

01:14:41 Truly realising the war

01:20:22 Discussion around power

01:25:20 War and Art

01:27:35 The Settlers of Catan

01:32:30 Where can people find your work?

Paul Festor is a PhD candidate in computer science at Imperial college, London working on applying reinforcement learning to sepsis. He is passionate about bringing AI and machine learning to the healthcare industry and helping to save lives. In this session, we discuss many topics from ancient civilisations to the pursuit of science to his experience doing a PhD, digging deep during the COVID-19 pandemic, and finding perspective. He also talks about his experience about how we are just a few key actions away from amazing experiences. Tune in for a great session!

Research Group: https://faisallab.org/members/paul-festor

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-festor/?originalSubdomain=uk

Timestamps:

00:55 PhD Project

1:34 Sepsis

3:38 Reinforcement learning on data from ICU beds and sensors

5:06 Framing the reinforcement learning problem and difference with other machine learning methods

10:16 Gamification in healthcare

16:34 Sifting through ICU data

18:42 Motivation for the PhD

21:04 Pure and applied research

Imperial College Professor Eric Laithwaite on superconductors: Magnetic River 1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI_HFnNTfyU&ab_channel=ImperialCollegeLondon

Professor Richard Feynman’s nanotechnology lecture: "There's P lenty of Room at the Bottom”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eRCygdW--c&ab_channel=MuonRay

25:04 Other technologies

27:47 Most difficult part of a PhD / low income SWE?

33:03 Trends in machine learning academia

38:19 Bringing value to the world through data science, AI, and software engineering

39:51 French Tertiary Education system

48:33 Learning Reinforcement Learning by reinforcement

49:32 Thoughts about ancient and modern civilisations

55:32 Nihilism and appreciation of the adventure of life

01:01:57 Doing a PhD, getting stuck, and finding perspective

01:15:58 AI news - Oxford Union debates ethics of AI with an AI

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59687236

01:24:14 Deepmind co-founder Mustafa Süleyman and Inflection AI on conversational AI

https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/13/inflection-ai-led-by-linkedin-and-deepmind-co-founders-raises-225m-to-transform-computer-human-interactions/

01:27:58 AI on mobile devices, productivity, app development

01:37:05 Impact in science communication and making AI and data science more accessible to doctors

01:51:47 Quantifying uncertainty

01:56:02 Piano in stations worldwide and planting seeds

https://www.ted.com/talks/dotan_negrin_searching_for_the_key_of_life

02:05:48 Next steps

02:10:35 Where can people find your work and reach out to you?

Sahasrajit Ramesh is a freelance consultant in business strategy and finance in the power sector, previously working at Aurora Energy Research. He topped his year in materials science at the University of Oxford and did his 4th year at MIT in computational materials. He writes a blog on personal growth and spirituality. He is also looking to launch a coaching business and online products related to spirituality and psychotherapy. He is a deep thinker that is not afraid to share his emotional experiences to help others. Tune in for a great session!

00:45 Working and living in London

02:09 Working at Aurora Energy Research

07:14 How do you think the energy market is going to change?

10:30 Thoughts on COP26

14:29 For purpose businesses e.g Olio

15:35 What is the future of energy? Hardware or software?

19:11 Web3, energy, and infrastructure

22:57 Materials Science at Oxford

30:00 Academics, research and culture at MIT vs Oxford

37:34 How did you top your year at Oxford?

40:21 What is your favourite material?

43:31 Spirituality coaching and psychotherapy

01:13:36 E-book on spirituality and the thoughts of benefitting financially from helping

others

01:32:00 Self-doubt and world views

01:41:00 The myth of the specialist?

01:42:40 Navigating imposter syndrome and introspection

02:00:33 Blog on spirituality, consciousness, and introspection

02:04:17 5 day plan instead of 5 year plan

02:12:12 My journey into consciousness

02:15:02 Where can people find your work or reach out to you?

Michelangelo Valtancoli is an early stage VC investor at Stride.VC and previously the podcast host of Almost Founders, where he provided high quality, straight to the point information on being a founder, raising, and building. He placed top 10 in Bayes Business School and was an avid actor in Italy and Michigan, USA during his year abroad. In this 1hr+ session, we discuss acting entrepreneurship, venture capital, AI in the entertainment industry and approaches to acting. Tune in for a great session!

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelangelovaltancoli

Are you raising pre-seed to series A? Send me your Pitch Deck: michelangelo@stride.vc

VC and Founders

1:15 Early stage VC as a first job

https://stride.vc/

5:29 How would you describe VC (Venture Capital)?

8:04 Building vs VC - the contagious enthusiasm of founders

13:14 Working with and learning from big names in VC

19:31 Why go to VC after talking about entrepreneurship on Almost Founders?

25:15 Almost Founders podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/6EMNZGQ0jbyMJdAQRyFn40

30:44 Getting information - using twitter and finding ecosystems

34:41 Team interactions in EF and VC - how is VC and the startups ecosystem changing?

https://www.joinef.com/

42:49 Keeping on top of new changes and information + generalist vs specialist fund

52:52 Starting another podcast?

1:00:25 Gen Z vs previous generations

1:03:50 What motivates you to help out and work with students?

1:09:25 London vs Europe VC ecosystem

1:11:45 I am a VC t-shirt! Loving VC!

Acting and the Entertainment Industry

1:12:46 Acting experience - does it make it easier to do podcasting?

1:16:58 Stepping into a character, body language, and most difficult character to play

1:27:35 Dissertation on AI affecting the entertainment industry

1:31:48 AI in collaborative storytelling, comedy and non-standard patterns of thinking (Deepmind)

https://computationalcreativity.net/iccc21/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/ICCC_2021_paper_118.pdf

1:40:31 Getting back into the entertainment industry... but as a VC!

Impact and motivations

1:42:48 Curiosity as motivation for creating impact

1:45:23 Michelangelo’s inspirations: Dad >> Matthew McConaughey (What is a son without his father? - Dune)

1:47:54 What are the next steps?

1:49:12 Where can people find your work?

Jack Chong is the President of OX1 Incubator, the only ideation-to-seed stage incubator in Oxford which awards £50,000+ equity-free grants, and is a PPEist at Christ Church, Oxford. In this 1hr+ session, we discuss the entrepreneurial space in Oxford, London and Stanford, philosophy of technology, and the RICH brunch club. He's a builder and thinker at heart fashioning himself as a concept engineer, community engineering, and a token engineer. Tune in for a great session!

Blog: https://www.jack-chong.com/

0:55 Background on how we met

1:50 Jack’s journey from aspiring diplomat to tech founder and the hacker house

https://www.jack-chong.com/aboutme/

7:00 Tech scene in Jordan

7:46 On the FBI candidates in Jordan

9:01 Currently building in web3 and crypto!

10:26 Where do you see yourself in the ecosystem of deeptech, biotech and crypto scientists and engineers?

12:09 What is your theory of ideas people vs objects people vs people people?

13:48 What are the problems with stablecoin and building in it?

17:11 Mental models in tech and how to reduce noise to signal ratio

19:04 Signal to noise ratio on YouTube and Twitter

21:17 Researching topics for the blog - Pret Subscription, Great Man to Great Founder Theory

https://www.jack-chong.com/blog/why-prets-subscription-model-is-great-consumers-but-terrible-for-business/

https://www.jack-chong.com/blog/the-great-founder-theory-musk-bezos-and-instagram/

25:09 On the philosophy of technology. What does it mean?

29:07 Going to a deeper layer of abstraction

31:30 On a new Moore’s law? Improvements in space travel, software and biology

36:56 On Meta/Facebook and being quite meta

40:30 Corporate sector vs startups - why is everyone doing investment banking, consulting etc?

https://www.jack-chong.com/blog/adventurers-imperialism-hongkong/

47:09 What is it about startups and building that gets you excited? How do you think about money?

50:50 A Tale of Two Worlds: Stanford vs Oxford

52:55 Act against entropy: London RICH brunch club and OX1 Incubator

https://www.ox1incubator.com/

1:00:33 What is the RICH house in Oxford?

https://www.jack-chong.com/blog/a-manifesto-to-build-the-rich-house/

https://cherwell.org/2021/11/17/oxfords-first-hacker-house-for-the-rich-by-the-rich/

1:03:47 Next steps - concepts engineer, community engineer and token engineer

1:04:51 Where can people find your work and reach out to you?