The Future Of Agriculture: Engineering Plants To Communicate With Farmers

08/03/22 • 46 min

"If you don't try, you fail. And if you want to succeed, you at least have a chance by trying. If you try enough times and have the right team to support you, the right attitude, and the right mentors, you might actually change the world.” - Shely Aronov

These are the kinds of knowledge bombs Shely drops in this conversation. Shely is the co founder and CEO of InnerPlant, a company combing AI, drone technology and gene editing to detect pest infestations on crops in real time. They genetically engineer the plant to fluoresce under certain external conditions (like a pest is attacking them), and this fluorescence is detected by drones in the sky which sends the data to the InnerPlant app to alert farmers immediently. With this approach, every single plant can be individually cared for, and specific nutrients, water, fertilizer and pesticides can be tailored to every single plant instead of entire fields.

In this conversation we talk with Shely about the importance of agriculture, and the big problems with our agricultural system that must be addressed to feed our growing population. We talk about Shely’s path to founding InnerPlant, and the technicalities of how InnerPlant operates. And we wrap up our conversation with Shely’s take on the mindsets of a changemakers, and skills all changemakers should equip themselves with if they want to make an impact in the world.

Shely Aronov | InnerPlant

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Creating The Future (with the help of VR and AR)

Dana Ware | The VOID

What drew Dana to the field of location based entertainment and VR is that it allows the creator to see the big picture. Dana says “VR and AR can give you insight into the future. Future trends. And even draw connections about problems that you wouldn’t have been able to see before.”

Dana a creative director and VR/AR specialist at The VOID, where she is designing the future of gaming, entertainment and virtual and augmented reality every day. In this conversation we talk about Dana about where her inspiration comes from when literally creating the future, and what she does each day to get her creative juices flowing.

We also talk with Dana about the future of AR and VR, and all the areas of our everyday lives that AR/VR will disrupt, and the massive societal changes coming down the road as AR/VR is integrated into [almost] every aspect of society.

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undefined - Will Our Archaic Education System Ever Change? Hear The Answer From The Person Designing The Future Of Education (with AI and smart toys)

Will Our Archaic Education System Ever Change? Hear The Answer From The Person Designing The Future Of Education (with AI and smart toys)

Stefania Druga | X Moonshot Factory

Our current education is an outdated, archaic, system. And while most people accept that education will never change, Stephania Druga, PhD resident at Google X, is designing the future of education.

This episode is our conversation with Stephania, weaving in her work and research about computer supported coding, smart toys, AI literacy and educational platforms with AI.

The central question Ciara and Rachel seek to gain perspective on is: will the current education system ever change? And Stephania says yes.

We dive into the exciting world of how a technology can be applied to solve a problem (how AI and smart toys can change an outdated education system, or how computer supported coding can give thousands of children in Sub Saharan Africa an education.) This is the perfect example of a cool technology being leveraged to solve a hard problem (changing education in the West and access to education in developing countries).

Hear the future of education from the woman building it’s future.