Future Makers

What if you could carry your electric car charger with you, just like you do with a cellphone charger?

Angina and Ave talk to Theis Lien, one of the founders of Enua, a Norwegian company that develops smart, mobile chargers for electric vehicles. They want to make it easier for people to use electric cars, and such smart systems could give a hand in electricity grid management, too.

Theis visited Switzerland recently, and as a result, there might be some interesting EV charging infrastructure coming to Switzerland in the coming months.

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Angina and Ave got to interview Arthur Woods, founder of the Swiss-based think-tank Astrostrom. Arthur and his company have a big vision: clean and limitless solar energy captured in space, supported by operations on the Moon. What a suitable topic for an episode launched on the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch!

Arthur emphasizes the point that unlike a lot of space activities, his vision isn't (just) about exploration and science but a valid business case. At least if we can wrap our minds around the concept of Greater Earth.

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Angina and Ave interviewed House of Test General Manager Ilari Henrik Aegerter on what software testing is and isn't, what it means to be a cyborg-friendly humanist, how to run a company that believes people are good, and why not to drive a Tesla. Just to name a few topics mentioned.

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Angina and Ave speak to Thomas Käslin, Co-founder and CEO of Cotierra. This startup has developed a reactor that turns biomass from coffee farms into biochar, which can be used to improve soil health at the same coffee farms.

We talk about sustainable supply chains, climate justice, and the challenges of building a startup across continents, timezones and cultures.

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Our lives on Earth are possible because of what happens in space.

Angina and Ave talk to Maruška Strah, Executive Manager of Space Sustainability Rating. Maruška fell in love with space when she realized that space is everywhere: everything we do in the modern world is possible because of something someone has done in space.

We should make sure future generations have the same opportunities.

Maruška’s association helps space actors plan and operate more sustainable space missions. SSR doesn’t invent anything but rather brings together the numerous, already existing standards that operators already try to comply with. This means getting rated is not an extra regulatory burden; it makes life easier for organizations, large and small.

Yulia Sandamirskaya is the head of a cognitive computing research center at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences - ZHAW for short. She is also personally dedicated to creating better robots. Angina and Ave spoke with Yulia about the next challenges in the field of robotics, about how biology inspires computing, and about hospitals and elderly care facilities as a use case for tomorrow's robot assistants.

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Melanie Aregger is the CEO and Co-Founder of Avelo, a start-up that develops breath aerosol analyzers for diagnostics. Angina and Ave talk to Melanie about the technology, having a strong purpose in mind, and whether an entrepreneurial spirit is something you're born with or something you can learn.

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Nicolas Weber is the CEO and Co-Founder of Voltiris, a company that provides greenhouse growers with solar panels that let enough light through for the crops to grow. Angina and Ave talk with Nicolas about spectral filtering, agriculture, and the importance of good relationships when founding a company.

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Space influencer and science communicator Chloé Carrière, a.k.a. Galactic Chloé, wants to bridge the divide between society and science. Angina and Ave talk with Chloé about emotions, authenticity, and the need to go to where the people are.

Chloé gave some tips on interesting science communicators to follow, and here are the links:

Nathalie Moral is the co-founder and CEO of Clima Now, a Swiss foundation that finances climate solutions. Angina and Ave talk with Nathalie about combining a venture spirit with philantropy, the challenges of building a community, and personal career choices.

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Richard Clarke is the founder of Secret Source, an IT outsourcing company that sees happiness as the key to success. Angina and Ave talk with Richard about psychological safety, the difficulty of convincing business leaders about the business case of happiness, the difficulty of letting go, and long summer holidays with the family.

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Jana Fischer is the CEO and co-founder of Navignostics, a data-driven cancer diagnostics start-up. Angina and Ave interview Jana about how valuable and scarce large medical data sets are, and how these can be used to design personalized cancer treatments.

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Hélène Iven is the CEO and co-founder of Digit Soil, a tech startup that offers an easy tool for farmers to estimate how much fertilizers they need based on their fields' soil and weather models. Angina and Ave interview Hélène about high-tech in farming, doing market research on a bicycle, and the social challenges the world will face in the next ten years.

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Manuel Gerold is the COO and co-founder of askEarth, a start-up that is building an AI-powered and user-friendly search engine for satellite images. Angina and Ave interview Manuel about how cool data is, how askEarth uses AI to make satellite images more approachable, and what the world will look like 10 years from now.

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