Technology Untangled

We’ve spoken before on this podcast about cyber security and protecting yourself from cyber crime - but what is being done to tackle the phenomenon internationally? That’s what we’re looking at in this episode. We’ve bought together some of the most senior global figures on cyber crime to find out how international collaboration and public/private partnership is taking the fight to the criminals.

It’s a big task. It is predicted that cybercrime will cost the global economy over 9.2 trillion dollars in 2024. The number of firms targeted by ransomware attacks has increased by almost 20% in the last five years, with 72% of organisations being hit in 2023.

Deepak Verma is Head of Product for HPE Data Protection. He says it’s not just the big financial players who are being targeted; in fact education and healthcare are the main victims of cyber attacks. Because cyber criminals don’t have to contend with geographical borders, attacks can be instigated from anywhere, to target anywhere.

Which is why, as Joanna Bouckaert, from the Centre for Cybersecurity of the World Economic Forum says, bringing governments and organisations together from across the world is imperative to protecting ourselves from the growing complexity of cyber attacks; as is increasing awareness within the private sector.

But there’s more to reducing the number of cyber attacks than prevention alone. Craig Jones is a law enforcement official working for Interpol as Director of Cybercrime. He says building a network of co-operation with different countries has been a key part of bringing down gangs of cyber criminals across the world.

Sources and statistics cited in this episode:
Cybercrime global cost - https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1280009/cost-cybercrime-worldwide
20th anniversary of the Budapest Convention - https://www.coe.int/en/web/cybercrime/20th-anniversary-budapest-convention
Bank thwarting billions of pounds worth of cyber attacks - https://www.ft.com/content/cd287352-cb3b-48d8-a85b-668713b80962
Schools hit by cyber attacks - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2022/educational-institutions-findings-annex-cyber-security-breaches-survey-2022
Stuxnet malware - https://www.cfr.org/cyber-operations/stuxnet
NIS2 Directive - https://www.nis-2-directive.com/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20NIS%202,cybersecurity%20across%20the%20European%20Union.
Cyber security spending prediction - https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/cybersecurity/worldwide#:~:text=Revenue%20in%20the%20Cybersecurity%20market,US%2492.91bn%20in%202024.
HPE logs 2.6 billion events every day - https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/blog-post/2023/04/hpe-showcases-data-security-initiatives-via-the-2023-cybersecurity-report.html

In this episode we are looking at the challenges AI technology faces when it comes to becoming, and then remaining sustainable.
The benefits of AI are unquestionable: from improved medical assistance and increased efficiency in the workplace, to autonomous transportation and next-level gaming experiences. But the more expansive the abilities of AI become, the more data storage that’s required.

That data storage uses a lot of energy. In fact, it has been predicted that AI servers could be using more energy than a country the size of the Netherlands by 2030.

For HPE Chief Technologist, Matt Armstrong-Barnes, the rate at which AI has grown in recent years has had an environmental impact, and he believes that’s down to people rushing into training large language models without thinking about longevity, or the need for future change. And that, in turn, has led to data being stored that is no longer needed.

The sustainability issue is something that is also a main focus of Arti Garg, Lead Sustainability & Edge Architect in the office of the CTO at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Like Matt, Arti has kept a keen eye on the exponential growth of AI data storage and the effect that is having on the environment, and agrees that the key to a more sustainable future is in how we train models.

However, whilst training models well is important, the tech itself is a key component in more efficient AI. Shar Narasimhan is the director of product marketing for NVIDIA's data center GPU portfolio. He believes that a combination of openly available model optimisations and chipsets, CPUs, GPUs and intelligent data centers optimised for AI is a key piece of the puzzle in avoiding energy wastage, and making AI more sustainable all round.

Sources and statistics cited in this episode:
Global AI market prediction - https://www.statista.com/statistics/1365145/artificial-intelligence-market-size/#:~:text=Global%20artificial%20intelligence%20market%20size%202021%2D2030&text=According%20to%20Next%20Move%20Strategy,nearly%20two%20trillion%20U.S.%20dollars.
AI could use as much energy as a small country report - https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(23)00365-3?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2542435123003653%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
Industry responsible for 14% of earth’s emissions - https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JICES-11-2021-0106/full/html
Number of AI startups - https://tracxn.com/d/explore/artificial-intelligence-startups-in-united-states/__8hhT66RA16YeZhW3QByF6cGkAjrM6ertfKJuKbQIiJg/companies
AI model energy use increase - https://openai.com/research/ai-and-compute
European Parliament report into AI energy usage - https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2021/662906/IPOL_STU(2021)662906_EN.pdf

In this episode, we’re taking a look at how the explosion in our demand for data storage has led to needing more capacity than ever before, and whether long-vanished ideas from our computing past could influence technological innovation in the future. 

In 2022 the world generated 97 Zettabytes of data. It has been predicted that, by 2025, that number will almost have doubled to 181 Zettabytes. Although at the rate generative AI and machine learning is expanding, that figure could be even higher.

As the Head of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise storage division, Senior Vice President Patrick Osborne has storage at the forefront of everything he does. He sees just how much his customers' needs are growing every year and is always actively looking for new methods and fabrics to meet those needs.

Alongside those requirements for greater data storage also sits the need for faster data processing - and there are a number of technologies nearing maturity which could revolutionise the space. Aidong Xu is Head of Semiconductor Capability at Cambridge Consultants, and is keeping a close eye on these technologies, especially in the memory space. For him, the big challenge is combining performance with efficiency.

However, whilst we’re looking at the future of data storage, it’s hard not to draw parallels with the past. Colin Eby from the National Museum of Computing knows a thing or two about that, guiding us through the history of the storage technologies which marked our pathway to today - some of which, in the decades since they fell out of favour, may have come round once more.

But what if the future of data storage isn’t data at all, but something more organic. Mark Bathe is a professor of biological engineering at MIT, specialising in DNA storage, and what that can mean for the future of our digital archiving needs. 

Sources and statistics cited in this episode:
Zettabytes usage - https://www.statista.com/statistics/871513/worldwide-data-created/
Sales of storage units - https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1251240/worldwide-storage-unit-sales-volume
Hard drive shipment figures - https://www.statista.com/statistics/398951/global-shipment-figures-for-hard-disk-drives/
Random access DNA memory using Boolean search in an archival file storage system - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-021-01021-3

In this episode, we'll explore how technology is changing the way we communicate. But much more than that, we're going to be looking at how it's actually changing our relationship with language itself.

Ever since the first pictograms which date way back over 5000 years, we've been searching for technologies to communicate with each other in more widespread, more efficient ways. The printing press, the telegram, the telephone, and the internet have all evolved into what we're now using today: live streaming; chatbots; VR and AR technologies and, of course, social media. The thing is, the pace of change has grown remarkably in recent decades. We're more connected than ever.

And nothing is changing that faster than AI, in particular generative AI. It’s a core area of interest for HPE Chief Technologist, Matt Armstrong-Barnes. He can see the incredible potential for globe-spanning communication that AI brings, from instant translation to live captioning, but he’s also wary of taking the human out of the loop and losing the important context, nuance and difference that makes language so special and effective.

That’s also a challenge for Courtney Napoles. She’s Linguistic Engineering Director at Grammarly, an AI-enabled software platform which aids human writing. Despite being a tech firm with a strong machine learning underpinning, they rely on humans in the loop to ensure that communication remains effective for us, rather than trying to pull us towards homogenised, machine-learning inspired writing styles.

The rise in assistive technology is having unintended benefits, too – in particular, it’s opening up the door to greater representation in the workplace, and bridging communication barriers when it comes to accessibility needs. Rob Koch is a data engineer and principal at Slalom Build, and heads the group Deaf In The Cloud Dot Com. He’s seen a remarkable breaking down of barriers in the last few years as technology has enabled him to communicate more effectively with colleagues and customers. There’s a way to go, but he’s optimistic about the future.

And speaking of the future, where are we headed next? Leslie Shannon is Nokia’s head of trend scouting. She’s keeping a keen eye on the way we communicate and the language we use, and is seeing a stark generational shift away from text and towards video and augmented reality solutions, embracing the additional context that body language and gesture can add to traditional, ‘flat’ conversations – and changing the way we speak to our tech and the language we use in the process.

Statistics and sources cited in this episode:
Global communications market value: https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/communication-services/worldwide
US communcations market value: https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/communication-services/united-states
Size of the Digital Acessibility market: https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/digital-accessibility-software-market

Sports and data are closely intertwined – and that’s especially true for spectators. So how can data, analytics, IoT and connectivity create better experiences fans? In this episode, we’re taking a look at how major sports venues and events are using technology to create the perfect experience for their customers.

It's something that’s been a recurring goal for clients of HPE Aruba Networking over the last few years. Simon Wilson is their Chief Technology Officer for the UK, and helps clients bring exceptional connected experiences. He explains that, in part, the demand has been driven by our own improved connectivity: In particular, smartphones are now used for everything from payments to ticketing. And thousands of devices means there’s a demand for rock-solid Wi-Fi and private 5G networks.

And that’s particularly important over large, outdoors sporting arenas where connectivity can be naturally spotty. Michael Cole is the Chief Technology Officer for the European Tour Group and Ryder Cup Europe. Not content with being responsible for laying tens of kilometers of cabling and fiber optic lines for golf’s marquee events, he’s been developing the concept of an Intelligent Course – a vast network of connected sensors and IoT devices which allow central control over every aspect of the event, from assessing queue length to measuring wind speed to account for wayward golf balls and moving spectators out of the way. 

Daniel Brusilovsky is on a similar mission. He’s the vice president of technology for the Golden State Warriors and Chase Center in San Fransisco. Their campus contains over 700 Wi-Fi access points, connecting upwards of 18,000 devices at key points. These devices not only provide seamless access, they allow the Chase Center to use intelligence and insight to perfect the flow of people through their site. Insight and analytics from the data they collect is being used for everything from stocking concession stands to streaming fans’ phones right onto the largest score screen in North America.

And that idea of fan experience is what really excites Leslie Shannon. She’s Nokia's head of trend and innovation scouting, and is impressed by some of the connected fan experiences that sports teams are trying out, from 3D cameras positioned on top of the goal posts, to apps using Augmented Reality to overlay a player’s stats and map their previous performance whilst they are playing.

Routes into STEM – Could apprenticeships solve the tech talent crunch?

There’s an acute shortage of candidates for tech jobs – in fact, research suggests tens of millions of potential roles are going unfilled. In a poll with global technology chiefs conducted by MIT’s ‘Technology Review’, a majority found that they weren’t getting enough candidates for roles, and those who did apply lacked necessary skills. 

Clearly, there’s a problem here. So what can tech companies do to bring more talent through the door? Could building a baseline of investment in new, or even unqualified, talent be a solution?

Maninder Randhawa believes so. He’s the Early Careers Leader for Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the UKIMEA region, and spends his time building programmes to upskill the organizations new talent. He believes that, whilst there’s absolutely a place for old hands, the fresh ideas and ability to adapt and mould that new talent brings makes them more than worth the investment.

A case in point is Stu Franks of Alces flight, an HPC services provider. He began at the firm at age 18 as a school leaver, and now heads a team building and marketing services and solutions. He believes apprenticeships, like his own, offer a route to great talent that’s not suited to academia but has all the practical talent and intelligence needed to excel in the field, and values demonstrable skills, personality and attitude above degrees and certificates.

In order to attract young people into the STEM fields, though, they need to know about it. That’s where outreach groups like Stemettes come in. They are a UK-based organization dedicated to reaching out to underrepresented groups in schools across the country, with programs to engage young people in STEM careers as an option, and provide mentoring and support for them to take their first steps. Floriane Fidegnon got into tech through the work of the group and now sits on the board, something her employer encourages as it creates a virtuous cycle of bringing in new talent, and encouraging existing talent like Floriane to become engaged ambassadors for the field.

But what about the kind of soft skills that come with a degree – just not one in STEM topics? Erin Young is a case in point. She’s a lead researcher for the Alan Turing Institute, which is dedicated to solving societal problems with technology. She came into the field from a background in classics, where her skills in research, reasoning and analytics, combined with a love of data analytics, made a move into tech a great – if seemingly disconnected – jump. 

Sources cited in this episode:

85 million unfilled tech roles by 2030: https://www.kornferry.com/insights/this-week-in-leadership/talent-crunch-future-of-work

MIT Technology Review poll with tech leaders on talent shortages: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/09/21/1079695/new-approaches-to-the-tech-talent-shortage/

STEM apprenticeships in the UK increased by over a quarter in the last decade: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships

The National Science Foundation report on the STEM workforce between 2011 and 2021: https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23315/report/the-stem-workforce#:~:text=The%20size%20of%20the%20STEM,2011%20to%2024%25%20in%202021

UK government report into diversity and inclusion in STEM: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/34531/documents/190060/default/

You've heard it from us before on this podcast, but we'll say it again. AI is transforming our world.

Depending on which market research you look at, AI in healthcare is already somewhere from a 14-21 billion dollar industry in 2023, which is almost double what it was worth just two years ago. By 2028, it's set to be a 100 billion dollar global industry, growing some 40% year-on-year. That's astonishing, even in the already skyrocketing AI sphere. In this episode, we'll be looking at a wide spectrum of expertise to get a sense of where the field is right now, what the future looks like, and some of the cool technologies which might fill it. We’ll be looking at the ways in which AI is making healthcare more efficient, and overcoming roadblocks, as well as examining the ethics of letting algorithms influence human outcomes.

We’re joined in this episode by Mike Woodacre, Chief Technologist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. He starts by spelling out the origins of this explosive growth during the COVID Pandemic, which ushered in a new world of collaboration and inter-disciplinary use of AI and High Performance Computing to look at new vaccine options, as well as examine scientific research looking for patterns. He urges caution, though, in relying on AI solutions which haven’t been adequately trained in the locales they are being used in and so may not account for regional factors such as more or less common versions of a disease.

That’s something Andy Cachaldora, General Manager for Northern Europe at GE Healthcare, agrees with. They’ve seen an incredible expansion of AI tools not just in diagnostic machines, but also in making sure that every second of a healthcare professional’s time is being used wisely. For him, AI is about taking out the grunt work and uncertainty from running clinics, giving better outcomes all round. Again, however, he urges caution in the way AIs are trained and implemented, with poor data collection and poor planning a route to disaster.

The idea of good, global data sources to train AI is something that has inspired Joachim Schultze, professor of systems medicine from the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Medicine. In collaboration with HPE, he’s been working on a blockchain-based system of machine learning tools to analyse Leukaemia scans, which keeps the data in-hospital to ensure data protection, but sends the insights of the scans to dozens of other institutes worldwide to train their own machine learning algorithms. That’s ensuring that everyone’s AI is collaboratively being trained on the widest, global dataset possible, with no risk to patient privacy.
But where’s the human in all this? Well, right at the centre of it all. After all, any AI requires training, and the training in most cases is still provided by human medical experts, for use by their peers down the line.

And a fascinating new piece of research suggests that the reason AI imaging works so well is that the expertise of a dozen doctors looking at cases together – in clinic or when training Ais, are better than one. A kind of swarm intelligence or swarm learning experience. Rutwik Shah worked on the research at the Center for Intelligent Imaging, which found that by training with swarms of doctors, not only could inexperienced groups of junior doctors analyse scans more reliably than the best AI, they were as effective as groups of doctors with decades of experience. It’s fascinating work, which could revolutionise the way AIs are trained and behave, as well as changing the way scans are analysed.

It's a fascinating world. Come with us on the journey.

Citations:
00:57: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-burnout-stress

01:55: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/artificial-intelligence-healthcare-market-54679303.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw5_GmBhBIEiwA5QSMxOR1CRaYz_g_dcLRAd1aJwxb3tbPBUYcQ0l9mrrtZsRv93yUzWkJTRoCruUQAvD_BwE
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1334826/ai-in-healthcare-market-size-worldwide/

06:19: https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/pressures/nhs-diagnostics-data-analysis#:~:text=There%20is%20not%20enough%20diagnostic%20staff%20in%20the%20NHS&text=According%20to%20the%20Royal%20College,11%2C370%20additional%20staff%20by%202025.

30:28: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-90292-6

The dawn of the exascale computer has arrived. In May 2022, a computer named Frontier was switched on at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA. At well over twice the computing power of the previous world record holder, it has ushered in a new era of supercomputers, with at least two more to follow in the coming months and years.

In this episode, we’ll be looking at why this undeniably impressive milestone actually means, and more importantly, why it matters. We’ll also be looking at some of the challenges remaining as we enter the exascale era – namely, how do we actually use computers at this scale?

We’re joined in this episode by Mike Woodacre, Chief Technologist at HPE. He starts by spelling out some of the core statistics underpinning the Frontier exascale computer and its 60 million parts, as well as some of the challenges endemic to computing at the cutting edge of technology.

We also meet Doug Kothe, former Director of the Exascale Computing Project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He’s hugely excited about the possibilities of exascale as a source of incredible compute in-depth with the ability to return answers to complex questions and simulations in almost real-time. At the same time, he’s also keen to use Frontier as a gateway to open up HPC and supercomputing to more and more organizations, via an ‘app store’ which allows potentially thousands of users simultaneous access to Frontier for their own needs.

For different reasons, Professor Rick Stevens is also excited to be entering the exascale age. He’s Argonne National Laboratory’s Associate Laboratory Director for Computing, Environment and Life Sciences. He’s keen to put their upcoming Aurora exascale computer to work on projects to revolutionise cancer treatments, from diagnostics to drug discovery, through his CANDLE program. Rick’s also cautious, though. Whilst he appreciates the promise that exascale offers, he knows that it’s not an end-goal, but a stepping stone to the next generation and new technological advances.

That’s a sentiment shared by our final guest, Cristin Merritt. She’s the Chief Marketing Officer at Alces Flight, an HPC solutions provider. She’s keenly across worldwide demand for supercomputing power, and sees an evolving landscape of commercial demand and supply growing out of the innovations that exascale offers. She’s cautious, though – right now, exascale is too experimental and non-standard to be commercially mass-market. With time, though, she believes that might just change.

The world’s energy supply is in a state of flux. Australian coal is being bought up by China faster than it can be mined, Europe is coming to terms with Russian gas being shut off, and the US is grappling with how to produce more energy whilst meeting green targets and keeping people in mining areas employed. 
 
 It’s a tough balancing act. In the last episode we looked at how to produce more energy. But how do we make the most of the energy we already have? This time, we’ll be talking to experts and organizations using tech to reduce our consumption and get us all a little greener without resorting to drastic societal change - and save our organizations money at the same time. The focus, for this episode, is on how we transform the IT industry, and how we transform domestic usage.
 
 We start off by meeting HPE's John Frey, Chief Technologist for Sustainable Transformation. He explains that, in terms of the IT industry, there's sometimes a disconnect or lack of awareness from customers around the power-saving technologies that are put into the devices we use, from laptops to servers. There's a habit in large organizations of overriding or deleting manufacturer-built controls which could save tens of thousands of kilowatt-hours per year, and the first step in transforming our energy usage as an industry is simply to turn them back on. He also argues that the way we code could be a game changer - with more efficient languages and processes drastically reducing the amount of compute required to run them - by up to 90% in some cases. 
 
Joe Baguely agrees. He's the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Europe, the Middle Eastern Africa at VMware, a provider of (among other things) virtualisation solutions (in a siilar manner to HPE Greenlake) which allow for far more data and functionality to be run on less hardware, drastically increasing energy efficiency. VMWare is also leading the charge in local power generation and sourcing their electricity from renewable or green suppliers. 
 
Joe and John also argue that it's imperative that IT departments actually understand the cost of their energy usage, which has traditionally been the responsibility of buildings management or operations teams. Only with the advent of Cloud computing have IT departments become responsible for their own budgets, and that has drastically improved awareness of just how energy-intensive our organizations' IT infrastructure can be. 
 
Finally, on the domestic side, we meet Devrim Celal, CEO of KrakenFlex, part of the Octopus Energy Group. Devrim points out that in a world of renewables, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to make energy when we want it, so a new era of smart co-operation is needed to balance the grid and avoid wasting energy – or causing shortages at peak times. They are pioneering smart technology which pairs our energy-intensive devices, generators, and storage facilities (think electric vehicles and wind turbines) to ensure that the hungriest consumers aren’t using electricity at the most inefficient time, spreading the load through the day by telling the EV, for example, when to charge.

They are also pioneering ‘gamifying’ our energy use, to encourage consumers to care about how much they use, and their role in the wider, national picture. 

The world is in a state of flux when it comes to energy production. Australian coal is being bought up by China as fast as it can be mined, Europe is coming to terms with Russian gas supplies being a bargaining chip in international politics, and the US is grappling with how to produce more energy whilst meeting green targets and keeping people in mining areas employed. 

It’s a tough balancing act. So how can countries realistically become more energy independent in a sustainable way with the tech that’s viable today? This is the first of a two part special. Next time we’ll be looking at how to make the most of the energy we already have.

We start off by meeting Doug Kothe, a Nuclear Scientist who, until recently, headed up the Exascale computing team at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US. He's hugely excited by recent developments in the field, but is also a realist who understands that Fusion energy is still a way off being commercially viable and scaleable. 

So what are the alternatives? Professor Patricia Thornley from Aston University is Director of the Energy & Bioproducts Research Institute. They look at the energy potential of waste biomass - sewage and agricultural by-products - to provide not only electricity, but also materials such as plastics, and fuels such as gasoline, diesel and even jet fuel and hydrogen. Their research shows enormous promise -  up to 45% of the UK's energy needs could be provided in a carbon-neutral or even net negative way simply by processing agri-waste. In many parts of the world, close to 100% is achievable. 

But what about countries where land is at a premium? There's alternatives here, too. Carnegie Clean Energy is an Australian-based engineering firm who are perfecting their CETO wave-generation technology. They use submerged bouys pulling on cords to generate energy in an environmentally non-destructive way. As Carnegie CEO Jonathan Fievez explains, the difference in their technology is that the generators can pull on their own cords to raise, lower or angle themselves. That lets them both generate more electricity, and protect themselves from the bad weather and turbulent seas which have traditionally made the tech difficult to implement commercially. 

They do this via an ingenious AI tool called reinforcement learning, whereby an AI learns to control the bouys by being rewarded for the amount of energy they generate. Testing is currently ongoing, but early results suggest a 20-40% performance improvement with less wear and tear, which could be a lifeline for remote and island communities currently relying on diesel generators. 

Driving this AI technology is Hewlett Packard Enterprise Labs, who have been working in partnership with Carnegie. Christian Temporale and Maria Ridruejo have been implementing the project for HPE, and are excited by the progress that's been made. They believe that machine learning techniques such as this could make significant improvements in other technologies, such as 'smart' wind turbines, and developing better forms of solar panels.

2022 saw 421 registered natural disasters worldwide, including floods, drought, famine and earthquakes. It also saw new or escalating conflicts in Sudan, Syria and Ukraine. Thousands of NGOs, activists and charity groups do what they can to help those in need, whilst Governments and research groups try to come up with better ways of predicting, mitigating and avoiding disasters.

But you may be surprised to know there's a whole heap of ways that tech can help with rebuilding and prevention efforts. In this episode, we look at how grassroots groups and major organizations work together to leverage lateral thinking, agile mindsets, and technological expertise to mitigate the effects of societal upheaval, and even help in rebuilding efforts.

This episode was inspired by meeting Valerie Kuzmenko, a tech executive from Donetsk, who had to flee when the area became the epicentre of the original Ukraine war in 2014. In 2022, she found herself in Kyiv at the start of the invasion, and had to flee to London with her family and nothing more than a suitcase. Since recording this episode, she's found work as the Chief Marketing Officer at ScaleLabTech. 

Using tech to rebuild society is a field which draws together large and small organisations in partnership. At the larger end of the scale are organizations like Airbel labs. They are the research arm of the International Rescue Committee. Atish Gonsalves heads up their EdTech wing. Airbel partner with a number of large organizations such as Whatsapp to provide educational solutions in areas where schooling is difficult, and work hard to provide not only resources for children who would otherwise be out of education for long periods, but also to help teachers continue to operate through tough times and disaster recovery. 

Likewise, Hewlett Packard Enterprise use their technological expertise to provide solutions and assistance on some of the most pressing humanitarian issues, for example working with the American Red Cross to use AI to help route and maintain supplies of donated blood. However, HPE Head of Global Social Impact and Deputy Director of the HPE Foundation Fred Tan explains, it's by helping provide solutions and partnering with smaller, grassroots organisations that can encourage new ways of thinking and problem solving which can make a truly global difference, as well as encouraging HPE to think about its own operations.

And on the ground, small organizations are doing truly remarkable work with technology. We're joined by Oksana Simnova and Vatalii Lopushanskyi of RebuildUA and UADamage respectively. These two groups grew out of very different fields - RebuildUA was in Argitech working on drone mapping Ukraine's enormous farms, and UADamage grew out of a team working on Neural Network and AI applications. They now work closely together, using drones and satellite images to map out damage to buildings in Ukraine, and then logging and assessing the damage caused and matching it against pre-war imagery to assess the need for repair. They are hopeful that their findings will help rebuild Ukraine, but also be useful in mine clearing activities in future war zones. 

Bad AI is becoming a major headache for organizations. Tech is a male-dominated sphere, which means that it produces, inherently, male-skewed AI driven by unconsciously biased datasets. The effects of this can be measurable. Run through the same AI, women can receive worse credit or loan agreements than their male counterparts, be pushed out from job openings, receive worse medical treatment, or even receive performance penalties for doing the same work as men to the same standard. So how has this situation emerged and, more importantly, what can be done about it?

In this episode, we speak to Erin Young, research scientist from the Alan Turing Institute, who are dedicated to solving societal problems using technology. Their research has found deep structural inequalities in the field of AI, including higher attrition rates for women, who are generally filling lower paid, less prestigious jobs than their male counterparts. 

That's having a tangible, real-world effect. Anjana Susarla is a professor in Responsible AI from the University of Michigan. She's been tracking instances of biased AI finding its way into society, including documented cases of women in common-property states where spouses incomes and assets are joined being given lower credit limits on cards than their male counterparts. She also documents several cases of poor AI decision making in AI-assisted hiring and HR systems.

So should these systems be using AI at all? Well, Ivana Bartoletti argues that sometimes, AI isn't the answer. She's the Global Chief Privacy Officer at WiPro, and an expert on bias in AI. She notes several cases where institutional bias has been backed up by AIs which reflected existing societal pre-conceptions, for example in AI giving lower exam scores to pupils from poorer backgrounds in the UK, and lower state benefits to migrants in the Netherlands.

So what should be done? HPE's Chief Technology Officer Fidelma Russo argues that, as project leaders and managers, a lack of diversity in AI and the creeping problems it's causing should have been identified by the industry some time ago. She says drastic change is now needed to fix the problem. Fortunately, it's one the industry is rapidly becoming aware of and is now at pains to fix.

Welcome to season four of Technology Untangled from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. A new series means a new format, so join your hosts - yes, plural - Michael Bird and Aubrey Lovell in unravelling the stories and technologies which are changing the way we work. Every two weeks, we take a look at an emergent story in technology and interview experts from across the field to get behind the headlines and find out what's going on and why it matters. 

Coming up in this season, we'll be looking at bias in AI, the rise of Exascale computing, and revolutions in healthcare among many more. 

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We hear a lot about Big Data. But what does it actually mean? Is it, quite simply, lots of data? Or is there more to it than that? Spoiler alert, there is. A lot more. In this episode, we're taking a look at the age of insight, and how Big Data has evolved from a technical concept to a way of extracting enormous value from the fumes of data meant for other purposes. We'll be meeting some of the people who have been taking raw data and adding context and insight to open up a world of value and possibility. We'll also be asking whether Big Data can get too big, and at what point it simply becomes too much to economically handle. We'll also be looking at whether there's a line to be drawn between collecting insights, and invasive mining of our lives for their data value.

In this episode, we'll be meeting with Professor Vedran Podobnik, lecturer at the University of Zagreb and Global Lead for Data, Analytics & AI at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Vedran has been in the field of data, analytic and AI for over 15 years, and understands how the field (and the definition of Big Data) has evolved and grown over the years. He also understands better than anyone the unique challenges that a 'bigger, faster, better, more valuable' approach to our data can bring.

Heather Savory probably understands big data in practice better than anyone. In an incredibly varied career, she was the deputy national statistician for Britain's Office for National Statistics. She's also worked on Big Data for the United Nations, and currently sits as the Non Executive Director for the UK Parliament Information Authority. In short, she knows a lot about Big Data, and has spent much of her career transforming big public bodies to take advantage of it and embrace the age of insight. As the spearhead of the drive to open up data in British politics, she has seen first hand the incredible results which can be achieved when disparate and siloed datasets are combined, layered, and opened up to the outside world. She also understands first hand the challenges involved in convincing people to open up their data to scrutiny, and the challenges that can present organisations.

But is data alone enough? Well, no. Insights require human expertise to analyse, verify and act on them. That's where Dr Louise Blair comes in. She's the senior analyst and Head of Vaccines and Variants at Airfinity, a data analytics and insights company specialising in healthcare. Airfinity compares data from drug trials, medical reports, news articles and disease heatmaps around the world to offer advice and insight which helps Governments, the pharmaceutical industry and health services plan for the future and expect the unexpected. Taking data from as diverse sources as livestock markets, they are able to offer advice in a way that's never been possible before - by using human intuition to compare vast siloed datasets from different sources. 

Combining datasets can also be invaluable when it comes to predicting future threats in other spheres. George Webster is Chief Security Architect at HSBC (you may remember him from our last episode, on Ransomware). George has a background in using AI and insight to drive human efficiencies when it comes to cyber security, thinning out the field of false positives and helping identify genuine threats. He understands that a reliance on data alone isn't enough, and that even in the digital sphere, big data and the insights we can gain from it is best utilised to help, rather than replace, human expertise.

The long show notes for this episode can be found here: https://community.hpe.com/t5/hpe-blog-uk-ireland-middle-east/big-data-more-than-just-a-number/ba-p/7184566#.ZBA-7HbP2Ul

Cyber Security is big business. In fact, it's estimated to be worth $160 billion. But that's likely to be peanuts compared to the value of cyber crime, which is estimated to cost the global economy $600 billion in 2022 - nearly 1% of the global economy. And just one corner of that - ransomware - costs the same in damage and paid-out fees as the entire cyber security industry: $160 billion. In fact, if ransomware was a country, its GDP would be higher than Morocco or Kuwait. 

In this episode, we'll be examining the rise of ransomware, where the risk lies in modern-day attacks, who is behind them, and what we can do about it.

For Hewlett Packard Enterprise Senior Vice President and Global Chief Security Officer Bobby Ford, defeating ransomware is a constant and growing battle because its a straightforward payout for criminal gangs - there is no need to try and sell stolen data on the dark web or to foreign governments, you simply sell the victim back their access. He argues that the key to protecting ourselves is twofold. Firstly, use two-factor authentication wherever possible to guard against human weak-points such as opening infected emails. Secondly, be prepared to defend yourself. Be aware of the threats and where they are coming from, and mitigate them where you can, so long as it doesn't affect the running of your organisation. Beyond that, have a plan in place for being attacked, be that data recovery or, unfortunately, paying up. 

Chris Rogers is a Technologist at cyber security firm Zerto. He agrees that ransomware can be hard to avoid because humans are an inherent weakpoint, and ransomware attacks often come through human social engineering rather than password cracking. He points out that even momentary downtime can cause millions of dollars in damages. He agrees with Bobby that robust, quickly spooled up backups are an essential part of doing business. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done: Backups can sometimes be limited access, which is great for security but leaves organisations vulnerable if the key holder isn't immediately available. Beyond that, backups have to maintained incredibly regularly, as even a day's lost work for a large organisation can be a major blow. On the other hand, any back-up is better than no preparation at all. 

But how are cyber security threats like ransomware being treated at the very top of the tree? When it comes to cyber security, it doesn't get much more high value or (hopefully) secure than financial institutions. George Webster is chief Security Architect for HSBC. His office is tasked with quickly assessing threats, in particular APTs or Advanced Persistent Threats, and providing tools to counter them. He argues that the primary risk increase of the last couple of years has been people working from home, in situations where there are distractions and their security awareness may not be as strong as it was in the office. He also argues that on a wider level, it's not just staff who become more vulnerable as they are spread out: As ransomware becomes an increasing problem internationally, no organisation is safe anywhere in the world and being aware of the risk is key to countering it without shutting yourself off from the outside.

The long show notes for this episode can be found here: https://community.hpe.com/t5/hpe-blog-uk-ireland-middle-east/ransomware-should-we-be-worried/ba-p/7183709#.Y_3FpHbP1PY 

2022 has not been a straightforward year. A war in Ukraine has seen the world divided and global energy and food supplies disrupted. International tensions between China and Taiwan have reared their heads again. Recession is looming in many parts of the world, and whilst it makes less headlines, Covid is still very much a part of our lives.

But organisations exist to solve problems and provide solutions. So, to mark the end of a rollercoaster year, we're pulling together leaders from three organisations to talk about the challenges they've faced this year, and how they are moving forward into 2023.

For Hewlett Packard Enterprise Senior Vice President and Global Chief Security Officer Bobby Ford, it's been a year of building bridges. Amid growing security threats from criminal gangs, individual players and even nation states, Bobby has been reaching out across conflict lines to build partnerships and understanding among his industry peers. He's also been on the lookout for the next potential threat - be that online or in the 'real world', from geopolitical instability to forces of nature, he is setting his sights on planning for the unexpected in 2023.

Nicole LaPointe Jameson is the CEO of Evil Geniuses, one of the world's premiere eSports teams. Amid a huge growth in the sport around the world, as an international team they've faced challenges in crossing borders and keeping their team safe and united. They've also felt the ongoing effects of hardware shortages which have plagued the tech industry over the last two years: In particular, a shortage of graphics cards and even equipment as basic as computer mice has had a lasting knock-on impact on the team. On the other hand, as a growing sport that's rapidly entering the big leagues financially, 2022 has been a great year for Nicole and eSports at large, and as the value of the sport grows, it's increasing professionalisation - insight driven scouting, training and welfare - becomes more viable and important. For Nicole, 2023 is all about building on that success.

And finally, to the other end of the spectrum and a sport where data, detail and design matters more than any other - Formula 1. Christian Horner is the CEO and team principle of Oracle Red Bull Racing, who in 2022 overcame logistical challenges and international tensions to take their first constructors championship since 2013, and driver Max Verstappen's second consecutive drivers championship.

For Christian, 2022 has been a year of spinning plates - the team was forced to prioritise winning the 2021 season above developing their 2022 car, and so had some catching up to do early in the season. With major new regulations coming into play for 2023, the team once again has its work cut out to develop a new car and tailor it to the precise needs of the driver and race - as well as bring a team of hundreds along with watch-like precision.

This is 2022 Untangled. 

You can find the long show notes for this episode here: https://community.hpe.com/t5/hpe-blog-uk-ireland-middle-east/lessons-from-2022-turning-challenges-into-opportunities/ba-p/7182094#.Y9z8qnbP1PY

Autonomous vehicles are a hot topic. Their incredible ability – and at times lack of it – is a source of controversy as much as a source of wonder, from avoidable crashes to drivers literally sleeping at the wheel. What's undeniable is that you can now theoretically sit in a car and let it take control as it guides you along the road. But is that actually a good idea? Is technology truly ready to take the wheel? In this episode, we’ll be meeting some of the people and organisations aiming educate us about the limitations - and build appropriate levels of trust - in autonomous vehicles.

We'll be meeting with Dr Claire Blackett of the Institute for Energy Technology in Norway, an expert in human-centred design who is keen to ensure that the flawed human driver isn't forgotten in the race for automation. We'll also be chatting to Dr Lionel Robert of the University of Michigan, who specialises in building trust in autonomous vehicles, and sees a near future of blended driving where driver and machine will share the burden as we slowly build to full automation.

We'll also talk to Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chief Technologist, Matt Armstrong-Barnes, to discuss how far away we truly are from real AV's (spoiler, it's decades) and ways we can safely transition to a driverless world through small steps, and an increasing use of emerging AI technologies.

And finally, we'll be talking to Erik Coelingh, head of product at Volvo-Owned automotive safety firm, Zenseact. They are focusing on using incremental steps in autonomous vehicle technology and AI to make humans the best drivers they can be in a world where automotive technology increasingly encourages us not to concentrate.

The long show notes for this episode can be found here: https://community.hpe.com/t5/HPE-Blog-UK-Ireland/Autonomous-vehicles-are-we-steering-in-the-right-direction/ba-p/7170668#.YtZUTXbMKUk 

Since 1990, the global rates of extreme poverty have gone from around 40% to around 10%, and ending World Poverty entirely by 2030 is one of the UN’s Key Sustainable Development Goals, announced in 2015. However, progress is slowing, and 710 million people around the world still live in extreme poverty - currently earning below $1.90 per day. So how can technology help? In this episode, we’ll be meeting some of the people and organisations aiming to eradicate poverty through the use of technology. 

The long show notes for this episode can be found here: https://community.hpe.com/t5/HPE-Blog-UK-Ireland/World-poverty-Is-technology-the-great-leveller/ba-p/7169364#.Ys7vh3bMKUk

Ending World Hunger by 2030 is one of the UN’s Key Sustainable Development Goals, announced in 2015. We’re now half way to the final milepost, but estimates still put the number of people in the world who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition at around 811 million, more than 9% of the world's population. So how can tech help? In this episode, we’ll be meeting some of the amazing people at the cutting edge of ending world hunger through the use of technology.

A view from above:

Satellite technology could be a game-changer in connecting remote rural communities to the outside world, helping small-scale farmers produce better yields, and allowing them to more effectively ship and sell their produce. Mark Jarman, CEO of Colombia-based satellite project development firm AgriTierra, shares his thoughts on how the emergence of small, cheap constellations of satellites allows constant, real-time monitoring of land and economic conditions in ways which weren’t possible just five years ago - even to those with only the bare minimum of connectivity.

Uniting the public sector and private business:

Speaking of bare-minimum of connectivity, one of the most important ways in which rural economies can grow and become more efficient and productive is to get access to communications technology, a aunting task when they don’t necessarily have the financial ability or education and training to do so. Combating that is Isabelle Mauro, Head of Information, Communications & Technology (ICT) Industries at the World Economic Forum. The WEF is the world body bringing together the public and private sectors, and has been pushing for greater co-operation and work on lifting developing communities out of hunger and poverty. Isabelle believes that the practical means to connect communities exist: rather, the challenge is to provide a financial incentive for companies and Governments to reach out to poorer areas where the business case for connection might not be so obvious.

IoT in the soil:

One of the firms leading the charge to bring rural communities into the digital age is Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Brian Tippens is their Head of sustainability, and has been working closely with WEF, and partners around the world such as Purdue University, to bring HPE’s experience in data and connectivity to the farm, with solutions as diverse as networked soil-sample and moisture analysis units, which can tell farmers exactly what the conditions are like in any part of their farm (or in the community as a whole) at any one time. Their end goal? For the field to act almost as a data centre in itself, storing and analysing data at source, and in real-time.

Meat the Future:

But what about advances away from the farm, or produce supply chain? The world has an insatiable appetite for meat, and one which is only growing as people are lifted out of poverty. That puts a huge strain on farmland and the planet due to the intensive effort required to raise livestock, and the poullution that causes. However, with the advent of STEM cell technology and improved compute power and data analysis, another option is on the horizon: Cultured or lab-grown meat. Daan Leuning is Co-Founder and CTO at Meatable, a company which is scaling up the production of lab-grown beef and bacon to commercial levels, using cutting edge technology. They believe that creating cruelty-free meat with low-space and energy requirements could revolutionise the way we eat, as well as eventually providing cheap, nutritious food to large parts of the world.

So whether we’re looking down from space or down into a petri-dish, there’s plenty of exciting developments which could help end world hunger by 2030. Will it be enough? Well, that depends on the appetite of those in power to make a change.

Key takeaways:

• Within the last five years, satellite and connected communications technology has become more available, low-cost, and low-latency - to the point where it can now help poor farmers in remote areas.
• The best way to lift the world out of hunger is through public-private partnerships which provide funding and a business case to spread this technology through the developing world.
• Within a decade, non-traditional vertical and cultured farming could revolutionise the way we consume food, as well as drastically reducing the environmental impact of storing, shipping and producing what we eat.

Links and resources:

The UN Sustainable Development Goals

The World Economic Forum’s Edison Alliance

What if we could solve world hunger? An article by HPE CEO, Antonio Neri

Tech Impact 2030 - How HPE is driving positive change through technology

Meatable - revolutionising the way we think about meat.

AGRITierra - Empowering digital solutions for a resilient agricultural and environmental future

Satellite Applications Catapult - A digital archive of work into satellites and agriculture

Daan Luining on LinkedIn

Brian Tippens on LinkedIn

Isabelle Mauro on LinkedIn

Mark Jarman on LinkedIn

Professional sport is a world where individuals can earn as much as a decent-sized business, and teams have evolved to become multi-national corporations. And where there's money, technology follows. 

In this episode, we'll be meeting with amazing people at the cutting edge of sports technology to look at how data has become a key part of the field - and looking at what organisations around the world can learn from the performance analysis revolution.

We're speaking to Professor Steve Haake of Sheffield Hallam University about the revolution in data capture and analytics that came about with mobile computing and wearable tech, and how the data revolution has augmented the materials revolution in sports for everything from training routine optimisation to predictive injury prevention.

That's something Hawk-Eye Innovations are also exploring, alongside their better known video capture and virtual refereeing systems. Global Commercial Director Peter Irwin talks us through how mass video capture from hundreds of data points and generating real-time virtual skeletons for every person on a pitch is not only helping enforce the rules, it's predicting injuries and giving strategic insights in real time.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chief Technologist Matt Armstong-Barnes talks us through in more detail how AI and humans are interacting to create better athletes and sportsmen, and how the future of sports technology is athletes whose skills are allowed to flourish by having compute take over some of their workload. He argues AIs are getting better, but the optimum performance still comes from humans and AIs working together, especially in motorsport. 

No-one understands that better than Lucas Di Grassi, driver for Formula E team ROKit Venturi Racing. He's used to taking to the track in one of the most technically advanced cars in the world, but believes that human rules are holding the sport back. He's keen to see AI take on more of a role in the field, and to that end, is leading the charge with self-driving racecars, in his 'robo race' project. 

We also talk about how businesses can take advantage of a revolution in insights - getting the best data from a set to the right end users, in such a way as they can get the best advantage out of it. 

The long show notes for this episode can be found here: https://community.hpe.com/t5/HPE-Blog-UK-Ireland/Technology-in-Sport-A-race-against-the-machine/ba-p/7167448#.Ys7r7HbMKUk