IEEE Entrepreneurship met up with James Ledbetter, Editor of Inc. Magazine and Inc.com at the Inc. Founder Project Installation during SXSW to discuss the goals of Inc., the journey to founder for IEEE members and the new Founder Project Program and Competition launched by Inc. This is a sneak preview of the soon to be published full interview. 

About the Talk: How do we separate science fact from science fiction? What is the reality of where we truly are with robotics and AI capabilities? How do media portrayals shape our opinions on technology? And how are the ethical and societal implications of technology considered in each realm? In this panel discussion, a roboticist, an ethicist, and a graphic novelist discuss their roles in the messaging around technological advancements. Part of the IEEE Tech for Humanity Series at SXSW 2018.

About the Speakers:

Stephen Cass (moderator) is a senior editor with IEEE Spectrum. He is a veteran technology journalist specializing in computers, electrotechnology, and space exploration. Cass has also spent a significant part of his career exploring the intersection between science fiction and science fact. He has edited critically acclaimed science fiction anthologies commissioned by MIT Technology Review and IEEE Spectrum; is the co-author of volumes one and two of "Hollyweird Science," a series of books examining the representation of science and engineering on screen; and has spoken at or moderated panels on the topic from the San Diego Comic Con to the Hannover CeBIT business festival.

Ryan Jenkins studies the moral dimensions of technologies with the potential to profoundly impact human life. He is an assistant professor of philosophy and a senior fellow at the Ethics & Emerging Sciences Group at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. His interests include driverless cars, algorithms, autonomous weapons, and military ethics more broadly. His work has appeared publicly in Forbes, Slate and elsewhere, and he is currently co-editing two books on military ethics and robot ethics, both for Oxford University Press. At Cal Poly, Jenkins teaches courses in ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of technology, among others. He earned his B.A. in philosophy from Florida State University, Phi Beta Kappa, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Colorado Boulder. His interests are in applied ethics (especially military ethics and emerging technologies), and normative ethics (especially consequentialism).

Lynne Parker is an Associate Dean in the Tickle College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK), and a Professor in UTK’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Prior to becoming Associate Dean, she served for two years as the Division Director for Information and Intelligent Systems at the National Science Foundation (NSF). During her service at NSF, she co-led a White House-commissioned task force that created the U.S. National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan. She also served previously as a Distinguished Research and Development Staff Member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Parker received her Ph.D. in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a leading international researcher in the field of cooperative multi-robot systems, and has performed research in the areas of mobile robot cooperation, human-robot cooperation, robotic learning, intelligent agent architectures, and robot navigation. Her dissertation research (1994) on ALLIANCE, a distributed architecture for multi-robot cooperation, was the first PhD dissertation worldwide on the topic of multi-robot systems, and is considered a pioneering work in the field. For this research, she was awarded the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; she has also received many other awards for her teaching, research, and service. Dr. Parker has been active in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) for many years; she served as the General Chair for the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE RAS Conference Editorial Board, as an Administrative Committee Member of RAS, and as Editor of IEEE Transactions on Robotics. She is a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE).

Robert Venditti is the New York Times best-selling author of the sci-fi graphic novel The Surrogates, which was adapted into a feature film starring Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames. He has written the monthly comic book series X-O Manowar and Wrath of the Eternal Warrior for Valiant, and Green Lantern and The Flash for DC. He currently writes Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. His newest series, Damage, debuted in January 2018.

Recorded at SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX, USA on 9 March 2018. This recording was made possible in part by a grant from the IEEE Foundation.

Randi Sumner of IEEE Entrepreneurship and Andre Comitre of Neocontrol discuss home automation and the future of smart homes at SXSW 2017.

 Neocontrol believes that a home is more than just an investment but a sanctuary where you can feel free and be yourself. Their goal is to provide the marketplace with easy access to their products. They want to make it easy for everyone to carry our products, both as dealers and as customers. Their vision is to become the global name for the home automation industry and to provide everyone with the opportunity to truly enjoy their home. For more information, check out neocontrolglobal.com.

Randi Sumner of IEEE Entrepreneurship talks to Abel Acuna of Macrofab at SXSW 2017.

Macrofab is building the technology platform that will connect thousands of businesses directly to the manufacturing floor of the future. Their software and tools are reshaping the $440 billion contract electronics manufacturing market to create a space where manufacturing customers experience delight rather than frustration. To learn more, visit macrofab.com.

Randi Sumner of IEEE Entrepreneurship discusses augmented reality with Mateus Santos of Lobo at SXSW 2017.

Lobo is a creative design agency in Sao Paulo, Brazil. To learn more about their work, visit http://lobo.cx/info/.

Randi Sumner of IEEE Entrepreneurship discusses the future of VR with Ohmar Tacla of LOOX VR at SXSW 2017.

Loox VR creates virtual and mixed reality hardware, software and content for businesses and consumers. Their goal is to democratize VR, providing great experience, easy setup and low costs for massive distribution. To learn more about the company, visit looxvr.com.

Randi Sumner of IEEE Entrepreneurship discusses the rise of financial technology with Vanessa Ronan Pearce of Fintech Australia at SXSW 2017.

FinTech Australia aims to serve the national Fintech community through a range of services and programs aimed at advocacy, support, education and network development. To learn more, visit fintechaustralia.org.au.

Randi Sumner of IEEE Entrepreneurship discusses bringing wearables to market with Jean Anne Booth, the founder and CEO of Unaliwear, and also discusses what made Unaliwear investable with Sara Brand of True Wealth Ventures, at SXSW 2017.

Focus groups have named the Kanega watch a wearable “OnStar for People” because it provides discreet support for falls, medication reminders, and a guard against wandering in a classically-styled watch featuring an easy-to-use speech interface rather than buttons. To learn more, visit unaliwear.com.

True Wealth Ventures invests in smart female entrepreneurs, from consumer health innovators to sustainable product pioneers. To learn more, visit truewealthvc.com.

Randi Sumner of IEEE Entrepreneurship chats with Samantha Snabes and Matthew Fiedler of re:3D about their large-scale printer Gigabot at SXSW 2017.

re:3D Inc.® is breaking through the current limitations of 3D printing to unlock new applications and growth markets worldwide. Gigabot, re:3D’s flagship technology, enables industrial strength, large format 3D printing at an affordable price point.  With build volumes starting at eight cubic feet and a robust construction, Gigabot can print objects up to 30x larger than competing desktop models. re:3D’s customer base comprises an esteemed group of specialty manufacturers, engineers, designers, universities, and hobbyists in over 50+ countries around the globe. For more information, check out re3d.org.

At SXSW 2017, IEEE Entrepreneurship sits down with Vint Cerf, the "Father of the Internet," and discusses his work with Google and his new ventures with People-Centered Internet.

Vint Cerf is an American Internet pioneer, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-inventor Bob Kahn. His contributions have been acknowledged and lauded, repeatedly, with honorary degrees and awards that include the National Medal of Technology, the Turing Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Marconi Prize and membership in the National Academy of Engineering.

Randi Sumner of IEEE Entrepreneurship talks to Bob Hastings of Bell Helicopter about his company.

Randi Sumner of IEEE Entrepreneurship on behalf of IEEE N3XT™ engages in a conversation at SXSW 2016 with speaker:

Kerry Rupp | Venture Partner, True Wealth Venture Capital

Rupp gives advice to young aspiring entrepreneurs about learniing to adapt to a change in environment and network properly. She further explains what it is exactly that investors look for in coming of age startups!

Randi Sumner from the IEEE N3XT™ team engages in a discussion at SXSW 2016, about intellectual property and its importance in the technology entrepreneurship space with speaker:

Ross Garson | Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig

He provides insightful advice to young entrepreneurs working with an attorney. In addition, Garson discusses several tips to take into consideration when making IP decisions to protect business ideas and prevent intellectual property infringement.

Will you #BeN3XT? Tune in for the launch of the IEEE N3XT™ virtual event series!

Our Panelists:

• Ron Reed | Executive Producer, SXSW Education
• Alexandra Samuel | Writter/Researcher, Harvard Business Review & Wallstreet Journal

In November 2015, IEEE convened a Global Entrepreneurship Summit focused on engaging the startup ecosystem community.

Randi Sumner of the IEEE N3XT™ team engages in a discussion about incentivizing entrepreneurship, at SXSW 2016 with speaker:

Ali Velshi | TV Reporter & Board Member at XPrize

Ali Velshi talks about how contests have helped drive innovation and what XPrize is all about. Outsourcing a solution to a problem and these contests has been around for a very long time. Technology has made it a lot easier for people to solve problems despite their educational background or where they come from. These incentivized competitions exist in order to encourage technological development and award those who have found a solution to a problem.

Randi Sumner of the IEEE N3XT™ team, engages in a discussion at SXSW 2016 to talk about the future of technology and entrepreneurship, with speaker:

Andrew Krause | Co-Founder, EECOSphere

EECOSphere is an online social platform that connects responsible brands with the next generation of conscious consumers with the mission to solve global challenges such as climate change and food poverty. In addition, Andrew gives advice to young entrepreneurs seeking to kickstart their own ideas!

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT™ chats with the GigaBOT team about their work at SXSW 2016, featuring speakers:

Samantha Snabs | Co-Founder at re:3D
Jeric Bautista | Junior Engineer at re:3D
Robert Oakley | Junior Engineer at re:3D

Starting only a year ago, GigaBOT boasts the future of 3-D printing with their tech that differentiates itself from the competition with its capability of large-scale 3-D print jobs. Samantha Snabs states 3-D printing is for everyone and anyone can learn and play with 3-D printing tools to do their own designs.

Randi Sumner from the IEEE N3XT™ team engages in a conversation about the project of speaker: 

Laura Bosworth | Co-Founder & CEO, TeVido BioDevices

Bosworth is developing a mastectomy patient nipple reconstruction for breast cancer survivors. Furthermore, Bosworth gives advice to young women engineers aspiring to become entrepreneurs about finding the partners and systems they need to become successful.   

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT™ learns more about Unaliwear, a smartwatch that is designed to aid elderly in everyday tasks, with speaker:

Jean Anne Booth | CEO at Unaliwear

Jean talks about how her idea for Unaliwear came from her mother and the ways that wearable tech has changed over the years. Jean then finishes by explaining how to be successful entrepreneur with a hardware product.

Randi Sumner of the IEEE N3XT™ team engages in a conversation about incentivizing entrepreneurship and the Visioneering project of speaker:

Jordan Brown | Senior Director, Visioneering at XPrize

Young, aspiring entrepreneurs who want to put their ideas into action are living in the best time to do so. The access to a vast amount of information and technology, has made it a lot easier for innovators with engineering backgrounds to kick-start their company.

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT™ engages in a discussion about a company working on interactive media technology, featuring speakers:

Ivan Gaskin | Co-Founder & CEO, Reflect
Troy Nunnally | Co-Founder, Brain Rain Solutions

A discussion takes place of the useful ways in which Ivan and Troy used to network and reach out to software developers and engineers to work on their start-up. In addition, they provided advice to young, aspiring entrepreneurs on how to pitch themselves out to work in start-up companies.

Randi Sumner of the IEEE N3XT™ and IEEE Entrepreneurship team engages in a discussion with great advice for young entrepreneurs from speaker: 

Amy Balliett | Founder & CEO, Killer Infographics

Learn more about the significance of infographics and how critical it is to use visual information to increase audience engagement. Amy Balliett informs viewers and young start-up companies on how to use infographics to connect with their audience given budget limitations and time constraints.

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT™ engages in a discussion on how IEEE Young Professionals can help entrepreneurs get started with speaker:

Devon Ryan | Founder & CEO, Lion Mobile

He discusses the importance of networking and attending events such as South by SouthWest to expand connections in order to find new contacts. Devon Ryan suggests, seeking out to people who have answers such as mentors and to start taking action in order to build progress.

Randi Sumner of the IEEE N3XT and IEEE Entrepreneurship team chats with Brian Garsson of CLO Private Equities, at SXSW 2016 about what investors look for in technology startups. You can learn more about this topic on the IEEE Entrepreneurship portal, startup.ieee.org, and learn more about Brian Garsson on https://www.aligncapital.com/brian-garrson.

Randi Sumner of the IEEE N3XT™ team engages in a discussion about entrepreneurship in the technology space, and how IEEE can help budding entrepreneurs achieve their goals, with speaker:

Cesar Chavez | Co-Founder & CEO, Petrolog Automation

In addition, he offers advice to students looking to develop a start-up by putting their ideas into action. The importance of working in the industry first to gain knowledge, experience, and expand network is recommended in order to then apply those learning skills into their own company.

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT™ talks with a group of Dutch Media Innovators about their work and the role of entrepreneurship in broadcast technology, particularly in the European marketplace:

Martijn Van Horssen | CEO, 24i Media

Marc Veuger | Angry Bytes

Paul Valk | TNO

The speakers discuss media standards that have helped develop their companies as well as how their companies are expanding technology in the Netherlands and eventually the world. Tune in for more information on how media is evolving in the Netherlands!

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT™ engages in a conversation to talk about the work in the tech entrepreneurship space, with speaker:

Chris Wire | CEO at Krush Technologies

KRUSH is a tech company focusing on connecting humans to machines by using virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. Chris explains how KRUSH developed Proto BuildBar, a collaborative experience center focused on making things. Proto BuildBar offers a friendly maker’s space for people of all ages to get involved in developing the next big idea!  

Randi Sumner from the IEEE N3XT™ team talks to Tanner Avery, the CEO and founder of Gray Matter, about his product.

Tanner Avery | CEO and Founder, Gray Matter

Tanner developed a smart sports mouthguard that sends real time impact data to a phone or mobile device so that the hits athletes receive can be closely monitored. To finish, Tanner gives advice to younger aspiring entrepreneurs looking to sell their pitch.

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT talks to Michael Garel, the CEO and co-founder of eyeQ, about his work in the retail technology space and what it takes to make your tech stand out in a flooded market.

Michael Garel has a track record of defining, executing, launching and marketing award winning rugged analytical computing solutions. Mr. Garel served as Director of Product at Xplore Technologies, he performed extensive market research and drove it to develop and properly position their latest generation of industrial tablet PCs. He was a lead mechanical development engineer of servers and notebook products at Dell, Inc. Mr. Garel received his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT talks to Erik Norwood, the CEO of Curb, about energy technology and how he found success with his company.

For over a decade, Erik Norwood has been building products that push the bounds of technology. From space-based sun trackers to circuit monitoring hardware to energy apps, his product experience transcends the mechanical, electrical, and software continuum. Since 2010, he’s been working to solve one of biggest problems facing our society: wasted energy. As founder and CEO of Curb, a smart home energy management startup, his goal is to create large-scale social change by providing people with actionable data that inspires them to better manage their energy usage and reduce electricity bills.

To learn more about IEEE N3XT, visit the IEEE Entrepreneurship portal: startup.ieee.org

Randi Sumner of the IEEE N3XT™ team engages in a discussion about incentivizing entrepreneurship with speaker:

Kian Gohar | Founder & Executive Director, XPrize: Innovation Partnership Program

Kian Gohar offers advice to large and small companies who want to get involved with Xprize. Identifying the right people to work with is essential in order to succeed. In addition, he explains how IEEE startups can work with a partnership to expand innovation and make a sustainable change.

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT™ learns more about ReviewTrackers, a software platform that helps businesses like restaurants and car dealers track and manage their online reviews to collect customer feedback, with speaker:

Chris Campbell | Co-Founder & CEO, ReviewTrackers

Randi Sumner of IEEE N3XT™ catches up with Chris Campbell, the CEO and co-founder of ReviewTrackers, a software platform that helps businesses like restaurants and car dealers track and manage their online reviews to collect customer feedback. Chris talks about what you need to do to surround yourself with the right team in the start-up process.

Randi Sumner from the IEEE N3XT™ team engages in a discussion about social entrepreneurship's place in the technology space, featuring speaker: 

Yasmine Mustafa | Founder & CEO, ROAR for Good

Yasmine Mustafa gives advice on how to go about developing a start-up , the pitch for it, and her overall journey. Her company originally started off with a prototype and they had see what others thought and what they could do for their company’s growth. It is important to think about the social implications with the technology and work with an accelerator to help the event-start up.