Digital Coffee Sessions

What society needs to be in place in order for what we observe to be not only acceptable but also desirable?

I sit down with Attila Márton. We talk about what captures his attention when he is not teaching at the Copenhagen Business School or researching digitalization of core social phenomena. He shares what we can learn from ecological thinking, shares some ecological perspectives, discusses platforms as an organisational form and highlights some guiding principles a business, start up or individual could follow or be aware of in terms of digitalization.

Attila Márton is a Digital Ecologist. His research focuses on propelling ecosystemic thinking to make digitalization serve humanity. To this effect, he is currently exploring the co-evolutionary dynamics between platforms and their respective ecosystems, the political ecology of digital labour and AI, the sociology of digital knowledge and forgetting, and the re-decentralization of the Internet.

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Related Links or mentioned in this podcast

A digital future of resilience: What can we learn from ecological thinking?

Selected publications

Voyant tools

00:47 Meet Attila Marton

08:07 Shares insights into his writing process 

12:05 Attila’s selected publications: Digital, Information, Platforms and New 

13:22 Discussing Platforms and Sharing Platforms

16:19 Platforms as an organisational form: changing how we are used to organising

18:10 Social media and labour platforms

19:18 Ecologies, a mind set 

27:15 How do ‘ecological systems’ self regulate and what can we learn 

28:48 First principles thinking

29:00 Shares an example, it was not the one I was thinking of

31:04 Discussing resilient and robust, within the system itself 

33:20 Variety and redundancy 

38:25 From an ecological perspective: AI 

45:31 Asked to share one thing he would like us to know

How can we be open to emergence and embrace uncertainty?

I sit down with Loes Damhof. She joins me to discuss her work; within Higher Education and the Emergence Academy, and how futures literacy could be used within a business context. 

Loes Damhof was elected as Lecturer of the Year of all higher education in The Netherlands in 2016, and decided to spend the attached prestigious Comenis Award on developing Futures Literacy pilots. As a UNESCO Chair on Futures Literacy in Higher Education, she consults and trains staff of global organizations such as FutureWomenX, UNESCO, UNFCCC, ClimateKIC, FORMS, UN, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and Oxfam in multidisciplinary projects. As a Futures Literacy Expert, she designs, develops and facilitates so-called Futures Literacy Labs: collective intelligence knowledge creation processes across the globe that challenge and raise fundamental questions on leadership, migration, climate change and technology. She is a Future Fellow at Hawkwood College, a steering committee member of the Futures Oriented Museum Synergies and an editor for the Journal of Futures Studies. 

1:50 Meet Loes Damhof

3:20 Shares her work as a UNESCO Chair on Futures Literacy in Higher Education

7:16 How is futures literacy used within a business context

13:00 Shares her work within the Emergence Academy

19:39 Sensing and sense making  

25:36 Could we slow down?

33:15 Shares what she is presently up to

How can we develop the capability of using the future in the present?

I sit down with Felipe Koch. He joins me to discuss images of the future, anticipation, UNESCO’s Futures Literacy and how people experience time. 

Felipe Koch is an assistant professor of Brazilian Studies and Societal Innovation at the University of Paris-Est Créteil. He has a PhD in Sociology of the Imaginary and has recently been elected as Vice-Dean of the AEI International School, also holding the position of Head of Graduate Studies. He leads undergraduate and postgraduate minors within Management and International Trade at AEI. An expert in; exploring societal impacts of imaginaries, social innovation, and future studies, he is also a senior trainer in Futures Literacy and a keynote speaker.

1:32 Meet Felipe Koch                                                           

4:26 What is Futures Literacy and Futures Literacy Labs    

7:20 What is ‘anticipation’ and how do we use it                

9:00 Felipe's work in Collective anticipation                   

15:25 The compass game and agency                                   

19:22 Discussing how people experience time                   

24:56 Felipe's s advice on building Futures Literacy capabilities              

28:15 AI and imagination

Step into a Futures Literacy Lab; Future of… Enterprise 2074.

Today I sit down with ⁠Beatriz Carneiro⁠. She joins me to share her journey into Futures Literacy and her academic journey. We get to step into a ‘Time machine’ to consider the Future of … in this case… Enterprise in 2074.

Beatriz Carneiro has a degree in Genetics and a MSc in Ecology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She has experience in the intersection between management, biodiversity and climate change. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in Environmental Sciences and Conservation at UFRJ, researching synergies within post-development philosophies and anticipation for future. She participates in the ⁠UNESCO Chair on Futures Literacy⁠, a partnership between ⁠Museu do Amanhã ⁠(Museum of Tomorrow - Instituto de Desenvolvimento e Gestão) and UFRJ.

3:10 Meet Beatriz Carneiro

10:25 Understanding Futures Literacy Labs 

15:48 Step into a Time machine: Explore Enterprise in 2074

22:40 Discussing a Reframe scenario 

30:50 Museu do Amanhã 

41:24 How humans process the idea of the future

We note audio drops between timestamps 3:10 and 10:25.

We are looking into this.

How could Quantum startups begin their business development journey?

In this session, I sit down Nishta R. Nem. Since visiting the Center for Quantum Devices at the Niels Institute in Copenhagen, I was interested in understanding the start-up ecosystem for Quantum. I reached out to Nistha, who was available to speak to us and share her experiences in business development for this developing industry.

Nishta R. Nem is an experimental physicist with a PhD in fusion energy and a secondary specialisation in quantum physics. During her career, she has designed and built many different diagnostics and hardware. After gaining the necessary technical and scientific understanding of deep tech, she now helps early-stage quantum startups as a business developer. She assists first-time founders with the development of their business plans and fundraising and also leads the Venture Lab, Quantum program at Deep Tech Lab. It is an accelerator program for early-stage companies.

2: 39 Meet Nishta Nem                                                              

5: 43 Business development journey                                   

9:06 Diana program                                                                 

11:10 Venture lab Quantum program                                    

13:30 Is a working prototype needed to support the application?                                                                           

16:05 'Founder friendly' and investment cycles               

20:47 The funding landscape: Denmark, EU and US            

24:52 Understanding founder profiles                                

28:00 Understanding a ‘call’ for applications                    

30:30 Connecting to talent                                                    

33:03 Advice to founders

What happens at one of the coldest places in the universe?

For this session, I visited the Centre for Quantum Devices at the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI).

I visited my last guest, Michele Burrello, and today’s guest, Saulius Vaitiekenas at their lab. We took a tour of the lab and of the different quantum devices they develop and test. 

In this episode, I discuss with Saulius the tangible ways in which quantum devices are created, particularly the technology and processes used to develop these platforms and we unpack some of the concepts we previously discussed with Michele.

Saulius Vaitiekenas' research combines different materials, such as semiconductors and superconductors, and constructing devices to create rare or non-natural physical settings. He is an experimental condensed matter physicist and studies emergent quantum phases in hybrid material platforms. A Lithuanian physicist, Saulius studied at the Free University of Berlin and got his PhD in Physics from the University of Copenhagen in 2020.

3:38 Meet Saulius Vaitiekenas

5:43 A day in the lab at the Centre for quantum devices 

7:30 Working in the clean room 

8:30 Using lithography techniques 

10:16 Touring the lab

14:40 Energy scales and observing materials 

17:15 Dilution refrigerators, a technological marvel

20:10 Semiconductors and superconductors materials

24:20 Saulius's collaborations 

24:56 Saulius shares views on how the field could progress: fundamental research, applications 

How does a theoretical physicist design beautiful quantum systems?

In this episode I learn how a theoretical physicist designs quantum devices and explores their physical characteristics. These quantum devices can be used as building blocks for quantum computers to solve some class of problems, like cryptography and logistics. While I was on the search for practical applications, I learn that the motivation for pure research often lies in the beauty of the system that is studied and exploring the border between "what is known and what is unknown". 

Michele Burrello⁠ is currently an Associate professor at the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen, Denmark. He works on condensed matter theory and applications of quantum systems.

He is an Italian physicist and studied at the Scuola Normale of Pisa (Italy) and got his PhD in statistical physics at SISSA (Trieste, Italy) in 2011. He previously worked at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands), the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (Garching, Germany). 

For more information, you can read the following:

• Unbreakable fibre network connection established between DTU and Niels Bohr Institute
• Quantum key distribution using deterministic single-photon sources over a field-installed fibre link

2:28 Meet Michele Burrello                                   

5:32 Discussing what a theoretical physicist does          

6: 37 What is a ‘platform’ and ‘device’ within quantum physic                                                                                   

8:39 Basic research and theoretical aspects                                                                                 

9:00 How basic research could support commercial progress                                                                               

10:24 How ideas could transfer to application       

14:18 ones and zeros… how does information processing change                                                                                     

16:00 What is a ‘platform’ at the level of nano electronics      

22:33 Discussing problems quantum computers could solve                                                                                       

27:00 Error correction                                       

31:12 Michele’s interests in studying hybrid systems                 

33:10 Other branches of quantum technologies       

35:00 A feeling of magic

ITER, fusion energy supply chains and a case for fusion

Søren Bang Korsholm and I sit down to talk about the ITER project, fusion energy supply chains and a case for Fusion.

He is a senior scientist at DTUs Department of Physics, Project manager for the development of the Collective Thomson Scattering (CTS) diagnostic system for ITER under contract with Fusion for Energy.

He is also the co-founder and partner in the BigScience.dk initiative. 

2:42 Meet Søren Bang Korsholm                                   

4:00 Søren’s research within Plasma diagnostics   

8:40  What is the ITER project                                        

15:10 Søren’s role within the ITER project           

16:57 A case for Fusion                                                     

22:33 Fusion energy supply chains                                 

22:55 Søren’s role within BigScience.dk and DANFusion     

25:20 Outlook for the future with respect to Fusion energy

How can we copy the Sun as an energy source here on Earth?

In this episode I learn how Fusion is the energy of the Sun and stars and holds the potential for abundant, clean energy for humanity. However, there are challenges that emerge when trying to reproduce conditions similar to the core of a star here on Earth. 

⁠Matthias Wiesenberger⁠ holds a PhD in physics from the University of Innsbruck, Austria and currently works as a researcher at the ⁠Danish Technical University in Copenhagen⁠, Denmark. He is the author of several publications in theoretical Fusion physics, ⁠numerical analysis and high-performance computing⁠.

1:25 Meet Matthias Wiesenberger

4:07  What is Fusion Energy 

9:30 How can we model the Sun here on Earth 

16:30 Design approaches, Inertial and Magnetic  

26:50 Research within theoretical modelling 

31:30 Leveraging high performance computing 

33:30 Feltor, a software to study fluid dynamics (specifically plasma) and turbulence

35:00 Discussing commercial viability

38:46 Start-ups in Fusion Energy 

Welcome to the Digital coffee sessions. I'm your host, Prichelle. Every month I will delve into topics related to technology and the emerging future. In each episode, I sit down with researchers, entrepreneurs or enthusiasts, from various fields, who share their insights and experiences over a warm beverage in our virtual studio.

So, grab your favourite drink and get ready to embark on an audio journey.

Let's explore together!