2023 Episodes of the Curious Conversations Podcast

Anna Zeide joined Virginia Tech’s “Curious Conversations” to chat about the history of foods traditionally connected to holidays occurring during the winter months, as well as the nature of developing personal traditions.

Feng Lin joined Virginia Tech’s “Curious Conversations” to chat about the chemistry behind creating better batteries for electric vehicles. He broke down some of the current challenges to mass producing an effective and affordable battery, and shared his thoughts on the potential for coal in helping overcome these hurdles.

Ismini Lourentzou joined Virginia Tech’s “Curious Conversations” to chat about artificial intelligence and machine learning related to personal assistants, as well as her student team’s recent experience with the Alexa Prize TaskBot Challenge 2.

Roop Mahajan joined Virginia Tech’s “Curious Conversations” to chat about the value of international collaborations to research and innovation, as well as how they’ve contributed to his work advancing the “wonder material” graphene.

Matt Camden and Scott Tidwell of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) joined “Curious Conversations” to talk about the institute’s Sharing the Road program, which has shared tips for driving around heavy trucks with more than 20,000 high school students since 2018. They discussed the research behind the program and shared practical safety tips for drivers of all ages.

Erik Westman joined ⁠Virginia Tech’s ‘Curious Conversations’⁠ to share his insights on how machine learning and autonomous technologies are impacting the mining industry, as well as what Virginia Tech is doing to prepare students for the future of the industry.

Maaz Gardezi joined Virginia Tech’s ‘Curious Conversations’ to talk about the importance of developing agriculture technology alongside and with the input of farmers. He shared details about a current interdisciplinary project he’s working on at the intersection of technology and agriculture, as well as his thoughts on the potential for advanced technology in this space.

Sarah Henrickson Parker joined Virginia Tech’s “Curious Conversations” to chat about how artificial intelligence and machine learning is currently being used in some healthcare spaces, and what the potential is for the future.

Bimal Viswanath joined Virginia Tech’s “Curious Conversations” to chat about how the rise in artificial intelligence and large language models has changed the online threat landscape. He explained how this technology works and shared about a current project he’s involved with that aims to mitigate toxic language in chatbots.

Cayce Myers fields questions on artificial intelligence’s impact on the workforce, regulations, copyright law, and more.

Each year, Virginia Tech produces the Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report, which provides a snapshot of the current state of agriculture and a projection of its future. Tom and Jessica, executive editor and managing editor, respectively, of the report, joined the podcast just prior to the 2023 release to explain what it is and how they hope it's used.

Walid Saad joined Virginia Tech’s "Curious Conversations" to field questions about the metaverse, digital twins, and artificial intelligence’s potential impact on the environment.

Christina Dimarino joined the podcast to chat about semiconductors, the importance of packaging in onshoring their production, and what Virginia Tech is doing to excel workforce development in this field.