Education

How to battle racism with Janet Stovall

January 22, 2020 — Leave a comment
“It is not about individual bigotry. It’s about systemic racism. Racism is not just bigotry, and it’s not just prejudice. It’s prejudice plus power, so we must disrupt the power structures. It’s not the individual . . . it’s the institutions that our country was built on that.” – Janet Stovall

Overview:

In this episode of Innovation for All, Janet Stovall tells us about her history fighting for inclusion since she was a student at Davidson College through present day, where she is the current speech writer for the CEO of UPS. She discusses the complexities of being a woman of color in the workforce and how to address institutionalized racism.

In this episode you will learn:

  • The history of Project 87 at Davidson College
  • How measurable, quantifiable movements are successful
  • What it’s like to be a “stand-in director of diversity”
  • Experiences of being an Executive Speech Writer for UPS’s CEO
  • How Janet left corporate America to start her own business
  • The business case for diversity
  • Challenges of corporate America
  • Pros and cons of being self employed
  • Overcoming discrimination against women of color in the workforce
  • How not all forms of diversity are equal

Links and mentions:

Connect with Janet:

Open access for academic research with Erica Stone

November 27, 2019 — Leave a comment
“The sooner academics start to advocate for themselves, the sooner we can cut out these for-profit publishers.” – Erica Stone

Erica Stone works at the intersection of writing, teaching, and community organizing. Through collaborative projects, she creates opportunities for scholars, students, and community members to engage in conversations and civic problem-solving with the hope of building a more equitable and participatory democracy. As a researcher, Erica is passionate about making academic scholarship free and accessible. In her 2016 TED talk, she critiques the academic publishing industry, urging academics to engage with popular media and include communities in their research. Erica is a doctoral candidate in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program at Texas Tech University. Her research centers on public engagement in composition classrooms and academics’ role in their surrounding communities.

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In this episode you will learn:

  • The reality of who has access to academic research
  • Erica’s experience during her TEDx audition process
  • What engaging in academia means beyond teaching
  • What the publication process looks like from start to finish for academic research
  • The cost of academic subscriptions
  • The concerns Erica has about popular culture publications translating academic research
  • How different TED chapters and franchises operate
  • How academics are trained to make things complicated and how that impacts public understanding
  • The historical reasoning for tenure and complications of tenure today
  • How to include open access publications to count toward tenure
  • Resources for democratizing and translating research
  • How for-profit companies are hopping on the idea of open access research

Links and mentions:

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Kaveh Azartash – Voice Recognition for Kids

November 6, 2019 — Leave a comment
“We had a really interesting journey coming in from a kids’ language learning background. Understanding the real sound spectrum of different languages, we built a sophisticated sound map.” – Kaveh Azartash, Founder of KidSense.ai

Kaveh Azartash holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, Irvine with a focus on Vision Science. Kaveh’s career has been focused on innovating software applications in the neuroscience and now artificial intelligence domain. He co-founded KidSense.ai in 2015 after realizing children are unable to effectively communicate with the technology around them through voice.

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In this episode you will learn:

  • The story of how KidSense.ai was started
  • Kaveh’s professional and academic background
  • The key components of voice recognition software for kids
  • How AIs can recognize changes in kids’ speech patterns over time
  • How KidSense.ai’s model can be applied to other challenges in voice recognition, like speech impediments or non-native English speakers
  • How KidSense.ai maintains privacy and data security
  • The data collection process required to develop complex AI models that mature overtime
  • Both the acoustic and language components that are behind a voice recognition software
  • Why these new AI technologies are considered valuable
  • The future business goals of KidSense.ai

Links and mentions:

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How are we supposed to teach kids how to interact with the Internet? Featuring Diana Graber

October 2, 2019 — Leave a comment
“Almost anything our kids will do in their future, it’s gonna be via the internet or via their digital devices.”
— Diana Graber, Author of Raising Humans in a Digital World and founder of Cyberwise

What is digital literacy and why is it important for our kids to learn these skills? Founder of Cybercivics.com and Cyberwise.org, Diana Graber, joins the show to discuss theses topics and more. Diana is the author of “Raising Humans in a Digital World: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology.” In this episode of Innovation for All Podcast, we take a look at Diana’s book and the Cyber Civics course she developed for schools.

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In This Episode You’ll Learn:

  • How the Cyber Civics course came to be.
  • What is Digital Literacy?
  • What the Cyber Civics curriculum looks like and why it is important
  • Does the Internet really make new problems?
  • Relationships and development online
  • What to find in the book not covered in the podcast

Links and Mentions