The Innovators with George Davison

What started as two entrepreneurs trying to improve farming by attaching tractors and trailers to steam engines is now one of the most recognizable construction and mining companies in the world—Caterpillar. Caterpillar has been at the forefront of innovation and technology since its founding in 1925.

In this episode of The Innovators, host George Davison talks to Denise Johnson, a Group President at Caterpillar, about engineering, summer internships, autonomous mining vehicles, and more.

For more information on autonomous mining vehicles, head to TomorrowsWorldToday.com.

One of Idaho National Laboratory’s many functions is to create nuclear energy systems for NASA to use in remote and hostile environments in space like on the moon or by Pluto and Saturn.
This is what Stephen Johnson, the director of the Space Nuclear Power and Isotope Technologies Division at the Idaho National Laboratory, is responsible for. On this episode of The Innovators, host George Davison talks to Stephen about his work on the Mars Perseverance rover, the importance of communication skills and working hands-on in STEM-related fields, how we will get humans to Mars, and more.
For more information about nuclear energy in space, head to tomorrowsworldtoday.com.

The role of the Department of Energy’s National Labs is to innovate science and technology that eventually is applied in industries to solve big problems and challenges.
No one knows this better than Kathy McCarthy, the Associate Laboratory Director for Fusion and Fission Energy and Science at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In this episode of The Innovators, host George Davison talks to Kathy about women in STEM, how fusion is like bringing a star to Earth, the similarities between engineering and music, and more.
For more information about nuclear energy, head to TomorrowsWorldToday.com.

Have you ever heard of pneumatics? Even if you haven’t, pneumatics, which is the use of compressed air, affects the world around you and the tools you use every day. In this episode of The Innovators, we talk to John Halvorson, the Director of Marketing at SMC, about pneumatics and robotics, grandfatherly advice, engineering, and everything in between.

Over 50 years ago, SMC was founded by one person who wanted to solve customers’ needs in the industrial automation industry. Today, SMC and its over 18,000 employees have revolutionized pneumatic automation, finding ways to curb the manufacturing industry’s carbon footprint.

For more information on pneumatics, head to TomorrowsWorldToday.com.

What do you do with your old laptop when you buy a new one? Trade it in? Throw it away? Put it in a box in the basement where it collects dust? On this episode of The Innovators, host George Davison talks to Jim Levine, president and founder of Regency Technologies. Fifteen years ago, Jim noticed that landfills were piling huge amounts of electronics waste. His company, Regency Technologies, created an electronics recycling process that is still helping to save the planet today.
For more information on electronic recycling, head to TomorrowsWorldToday.com.