Picture a world where the hum of electricity permeates every aspect of our lives, from the devices we hold in our hands to the vehicles that transport us across vast distances. This is the world of the electrification of everything, a paradigm shift that promises to reshape our relationship with energy and power.

As once analog and unpowered items are augmented with electrical systems, we find ourselves at the precipice of a new era. But with this transformation comes a challenge: the need for power switching and integrated circuits that can keep pace with the extraordinary demands of our increasingly electrified world.

From electric cars to heat pumps and data centers, the appetite for power grows ever more insatiable. Novel technologies like silicon carbide and gallium nitride offer a glimpse into a future where energy density and power density reach new heights, enabling devices to operate at peak performance for longer periods.

Recent news stories highlight the global changes in power demand, as nations grapple with the infrastructure required to support this electrified future. Yet, even as we face these challenges, the pace of innovation offers hope. With each passing day, brilliant minds are developing solutions that will propel us forward, harnessing the power of electricity to create a more sustainable, efficient, and connected world.

How can Microchip Technology help manage the Electrification of Everything?

Links from the episode:

https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/power-management/silicon-carbide-sic-devices-and-power-modules

https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/power-management/silicon-carbide-sic-devices-and-power-modules/design-resources/hardware https://www.microchip.com/en-us/products/power-management/silicon-carbide-sic-devices-and-power-modules/design-resources

Guests:

Clayton Pillion

“Third place”. The term originated in a 1989 book written by sociologist Ray Oldenberg. It refers to a place separate from Work or Home where humans can facilitate social interaction. The need for Third Places has grown and was extremely exacerbated by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Like many other things, the pandemic accelerated increasing trends: loneliness and obesity.

According to the World Health Organization: “High-quality social connections are essential to our mental and physical health and our well-being.” The United States Surgeon General has labeled loneliness an ‘epidemic’. The British Medical Journal published a report in late 2021 that concluded “problematic levels of loneliness are experienced by a substantial proportion of the population in many countries.”

Also according to the WHO: worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975 and as late as 2016, 1.9 billion adults were overweight, of which 650 million were obese.

The good news? Both of these trends are preventable and reversible. Third Places are helping to provide people with the outlet they need to improve their situation and find happiness. There is a Third Place emerging in cities across the world that solves both problems and a lot more: Community Gardens. It could be a rooftop in a densely populated city, or a common area just down the road. Community Gardens provide the benefits of “public relaxation” while also teaching the valuable skill of eating healthy. They also provide a source of STEM education for kids.

How could Microchip Technology help accelerate the growth of Third Places like Community Gardens?

Links from the episode:

Guests:

Ross Satchell

Toby Sinkinson

COVID-19 impacted the world. In December of 2019 news reports out of Wuhan, the capital of Central China's Hubei province, detailed the emergence of an atypical pneumonia-like illness that did not respond well to standard treatments. By January 2020 world health officials had identified the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. By February 2020 the World Health Organization had declared the 2019 Novel Coronavirus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and by March 2020 the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. By April 2020, more than 1 million cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed worldwide. Fast forward to 2023, as of late October there have been over 770 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 - almost 10% of the global population.

But it could have been much, much worse.

During the earliest days of the pandemic, hospital systems were flooded with patients and they simply didn't have the capacity to handle the burden of a global population fighting a mysterious new respiratory illness. Supplies were dwindling and they simply could not get enough of the critical devices they needed to treat their patients. While the world was on lockdown scooping up all the webcams and laptop computers it could find, medical device manufacturers were scrambling to keep people alive.

How did Microchip Technology help hospitals fight the COVID-19 pandemic?

Links from the episode:

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/emergency-use-authorizations-medical-devices/covid-19-emergency-use-authorizations-medical-devices

Guests:

Justin Wilson

Water is the most precious substance on earth and a primary building block of life. Humans can’t live more than a few days without it. Yet in order to grow, cultivate, process, and transport our food, we waste a tremendous amount of it. So much so that we need to pull more of it out of the ground just to satisfy our agricultural needs, making matters worse. A report in the June 2023 issue of Geophysical Research Letters indicates that depletion of groundwater was a significant contributor to sea level and climate change. The majority of the southwestern United States, northern Australia, most of the South American continent, all of Northern Africa and the Middle East and parts of western Asia are in perennial drought. We need water to live, yet we also need water to make the food we rely on to live; and we never seem to have enough of it.

Why the tradeoff? Why so much waste?

Is there a way to reduce our consumption of water with integrated circuits and AI?

How could Microchip Technology help conserve our most precious resource?

Links from the episode:

Guests:

Ross Satchell

Toby Sinkinson

Asthma is a global phenomenon. According to the World Health Organization, Asthma affected an estimated 262 million people in 2019. In the United States alone, the Centers for Disease Control estimates there are over 4.6 million children under the age of 18 with Asthma.

According to the Global Asthma Report in 2022, Asthma is ""well controlled"" in nearly 2/3rds of adults. That number drops below 45% in children aged 5-14.

While it is the most common chronic disease among children, inhaled medication can control asthma symptoms and allow people with asthma to lead a normal, active life. Not surprisingly, areas of lower to middle income are most affected. What if there was a low-cost, reliable, and portable alternative? What would that do to combat Asthma and other respiratory ailments?

How could Microchip Technology help ease the suffering of children around the world?

Links from the episode:

Nebulizer Design Solutions | Microchip Technology

Medical | Microchip Technology

2023 World Asthma Day - Global Initiative for Asthma - GINA (ginasthma.org)

Guest: Zhang Feng

Zhang Feng | LinkedIn

The old parable of the country kid moving to the big city and leaving the farm behind is a timeless yarn of youth, ambition, and Hope. In recent years, that trope has become a reality. The number of farmers in the United States alone has been steadily dropping. The percentage of first-generation farmers is close to 78%. It can be a tough business. Climate cycles are becoming unpredictable and, as in many industries, one just can't find enough workers. That’s where integrated circuits come in. One farmer has the ability in today’s world to augment his efforts through sensors, drones, and microcontrollers to compete and run a farm with what might have required a handful of humans in the past. In fact, only about 1 in 4 young farmers still use the traditional methods passed down over the generations. The reason? Automation and the rise of Machine Learning.

How could Microchip Technology help the farm of the future through automation?

Links from the episode:

Guests:

Ross Satchell

Toby Sinkinson

Severe Storms. Wildfires. Floods. According to Statista, there were 421 natural disaster events recorded worldwide in 2022. Among the most damaging are tropical cyclones, what the World Health Organization would refer to as typhoons or hurricanes. As damaging as the wind can be, the greatest damage to life and property is not from the wind, but from secondary events such as storm surges, flooding, landslides, and tornadoes.

To combat and prepare for these events, world leaders and local governments try to anticipate early warning signs in advance of the event using satellite, radar, and other advanced technologies. Despite their best efforts, these disasters happen. When they do, communities are affected, and the damage can be extensive. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States, 2023 was the most expensive year on record for billion-dollar climate disasters.

What are these towns and municipalities to do? This is where Smart Cities come in.

How could Microchip Technology help bring Smart Cities to life?

Links from the episode:

Power over Ethernet | Microchip Technology

Guests:

Alan Jay Zwiren

When you sit down to eat your next meal, think about how your food got in front of you. Did you grow it yourself or did you buy it from someone? If the latter, was it from a restaurant or a store? Do you ever wonder how it gets from the farm to your plate?

Whether you are a vegan or a die-hard carnivore, your food comes from a farm somewhere. It needs to be grown, harvested, processed, and transported to a place where it is then prepared and offered for sale. This process can be anywhere from days to months and can come from down the road or across oceans and continents. One thing is for certain, it probably involves one or more integrated circuits along the way.

How could Microchip Technology help bring food from the farm to your table?

Links from the episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHpe6pvxtag

Guests:

Ross Satchell

Toby Sinkinson