Researcher's Night 2017

The field of non-invasive Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) is gaining massive momentum as startups, companies and researchers are pushing hard. The race on BCI research is on improvement of the efficiency and the accuracy of the systems, while some of the first commercial efforts are testing the waters with several affordable devices already available to consumers. Professor Bin He, a pioneer in the field of Biomedical Engineering, talks about the ground-breaking research currently being done at the University of Minnesota in decoding brainwaves more accurately and reliably using non-invasive interfaces. We discuss the already impressive results of a  brain-controlled helicopter experiment, some of  the present challenges and the upcoming breakthroughs in the field of Brain Computer Interfaces. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks central.

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TTC #109 Your brain as the ultimate controller, Prof. Bin He

James Tagg, author of the book ‘Are the Androids Dreaming Yet?’ presented in front of an audience his own beliefs on the Singularity issue. He started out by answering his own question ‘Can a Machine think Creatively?’ and argued mathematically on how much artificial intelligence has progressed, which are the crucial parity point dates and why he doesn’t believe that machines can surpass the creativity of humans. The speech was conducted during a Heroes of Mobile event organised by its founder Helen Keegan, on the 2nd of March at the Talent Garden(TAG).


TTC #145 Are The Androids Dreaming Yet, James Tagg

Background, context, and poem text: http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/28/keeping-quiet-sylvia-boorstein-reads-pablo-neruda

Excerpted from https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/what-we-nurture-with-sylvia

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Sylvia Boorstein reads "Keeping Quiet" by Pablo Neruda

Marcello Melgara Responsible for International eHealth Projects, Italy /
Karima Bourquard, IHE-Europe Director of Interoperability, France

How does compliance with the European Interoperability Framework(EIF) help a National health system’s sustainability? At what percentage would you say your country’s NIF is aligned w/ the EIF when it comes to eHealth? What are the obstacles? Does your country have a published eHealth Strategy and what are its core objectives? In what percentage is it being implemented?


TTC #204 Interoperability & eHealth Strategies In Italy & France

Dimitra Liveri, Network and Information Security Expert at ENISA /
Marcello Melgara Responsible for International eHealth Projects

European eHealth companies have a huge potential to grow, by approaching an ever growing market inside and outside EU borders. Apart from the obvious innovation potentials in a broad number of health & patient care sectors, markets like that of the US, Latin America and China have come ‘closer’ due to international agreements. What kind of impediments will European eHealth companies have to overcome, in order to reach these markets effectively?


TTC #205 Extroversion of eHealth Companies

George Crooks, Medical Director for NHS24 and Director of the Scottish Centre for Tele-health and Telecare. President of the European Telematics Association (EHTEL) & leader of the Integrated Care Action Group of the European Innovation Partnership for active and healthy ageing for the European Commission

George Crooks responds to our questions on whether Scotland has a published eHealth Strategy and what are its core objectives. Also, how does compliance with the European Interoperability Framework(EIF) help a National health system’s sustainability? 


TTC #210 George Crooks on Scotland’s eHealth Strategy & Interoperability

Grab a cocktail, put on your favorite karaoke track, and let’s talk some more about disentangling audio data!

The Cocktail Party Problem

Centuries ago, Germany came up with a way to keep books that contained "dangerous" information without releasing them to the general public: The Giftschrank.
The word, a combination of "poison" and "cabinet," has a variety of meanings in different contexts. At its most literal, a Giftschrank is a space for storing controlled substances in places like pharmacies. Colloquially, it can refer to spaces reserved for all kinds of hidden and forbidden objects, ideas or stories.

203- The Giftschrank

So... about those bots. Bots bots bots. Bots!

In this episode of the botcast, a16z partners Benedict Evans and Connie Chan -- along with Chris Messina, longtime advocate of the open web and more -- pull apart various threads related to the topic of bots, mobile, and beyond: the (evolution?) from web to apps to messaging to bots; chat as an interface; “conversational commerce”; and so on. They also discuss why framing messaging through the lens of WeChat both reveals useful things (what works/ might not work) and not-so-useful things (such as seeking the “WeChat of the West”).

More importantly, how can we keep bots, and what they represent, in perspective -- beyond the fad? Especially when it comes to considering innovation on the 'web' vs. 'mobile' (remember the mobile browser!) and when it comes to removing friction (vs. adding limited interaction). What contexts (like customer service) are most useful for thinking about bots? And how can we even know, given it’s early days yet and we haven’t moved much beyond the command-line interface... 

Finally, as computing moves outside the classic work-centric paradigm to room- and urban-scale, how do we think about integrating online and offline, ubiquitous and “diffuse” computing through bots?

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a16z Podcast: Bots and Beyond

What is going on in diabetic research? Can we revitalize pancreatic stem cells to prevent kidney failure and help diabetes patients? Dr. Garyfallia Drossopoulou offers valuable information on these very important issues for numerous people all over the world, based on her team research, which is supported by Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical company leading in diabetic treatment. She talks about the social impact of their results, the significant improvement of the current therapeutic treatment and their effort for a better quality of life for all these people. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

TTC @ ERN2017

TTC #337 Pancreatic Stem-cells as a Source of Hope for Diabetes Patients

Combustion processes (SCS) are advantageous for the production of nanomaterials, as an express and simple technology; using this method, which allows the creation of a unique morphology and metastable phase composition, particles of high purity can be obtained. Senior researcher at NCSR “Demokritos”, Professor Galina Xanthopoulou, talks about the application of this technology for tuning crystal lattice structure, nanoparticle size; explaining how this could be an efficient breakthrough for the production of nanomaterials with ordered properties. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #336 Breakthrough for the Production of Nanomaterials, in Waiting...

Nassos Katsamanis, researcher at the ILSP Lap for the Athena Research Centre, and VP of Engineering for the Behavioral Signals startup, discusses the origins of the team and their research. He explains how the US based startup is using speech data, AI and deep learniing for behavioral modeling, in real time, and how their findings can be used by companies who produce large quantities of speech data. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #339 BehavioralSignals Going Beyond Emotion Recognition in Speech

Modern powerful computers open a whole new era for the application of the Monte Carlo method for the simulation of physical systems of higher complexity. The Monte Carlo simulations are important computational techniques in many areas of natural sciences and have significant application in particle and nuclear physics, quantum physics, statistical physics, quantum chemistry, material science, among many other multidisciplinary applications. In the heart of the Monte Carlo simulations are Pseudo Random Number Generators (RNG). The primary objective of the proposed network is a systematic development and implementation of the state of the art new generation of Pseudo Random Number Generators based on Kolmogorov-Anosov K-systems, which demonstrate excellent statistical properties, into a multidisciplinary usable product. Senior researcher George Savvidy explains how this rather theoretical problem also finds many applications in everyday life. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #338 The Many Useful Applications of Monte Carlo Simulations

Anastasia Krithara, research associate at the Insititute of Informatics and Telecommunications (IIT) of NCSR "Demokritos" talks about IASiS, an EU funded project that seeks to pave the way for precision medicine approaches by utilising insights from patient data. It aims to combine information from medical records, imaging databases and genomics data to enable more personalised diagnosis and treatment approaches in two disease areas – lung cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #340 Precision Medicine for Lung Cancer & Alzheimer’s Disease

The Tech Talks Central web radio covers all the hot topics and trends in the connected world and features interactive interviews with thought leaders, as well as movers and shakers of the tech industry.
It’s a joint venture between entrepreneurs working in the mobile and technology field and people who love the radio waves!

TTC #337 Pancreatic Stem-cells as a Source of Hope for Diabetes Patients

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