Big Red Podcast 🐻🎙️

From Classroom to Real-World Action: Marianne Krasny '74, Cornell Professor, teaches action knowledge so students can tackle climate change

From Classroom to Real-World Action: Marianne Krasny '74, Cornell Professor, teaches action knowledge so students can tackle climate change - the difference between systems knowledge and action knowledge, and why action knowledge drives change - climate actions anyone can take today: plant rich diets, reducing food waste, and more - educating the public through cooperative extension and her Food, Farms, and Climate substack join her Food, Farms, and Climate substack! https://substack.com/@marianneelizabethkrasny461632 (0:00) senior capstone course (4:05) action knowledge and system knowledge (4:37) project example, reducing food waste (6:44) project example, writing impactful letters to congress (8:27) what happens after the course (9:30) her book In This Together (12:13) scaling up to organizations (13:16) measuring impact (14:42) scaling up impact (16:21) benefits of plant rich diet (19:44) her substack Food, Farms, and Climate (21:29) reducing food waste, different uses of food waste (26:35) regenerative agriculture and other articles on her substack (28:00) advocacy on federal, state, local levels (30:32) food waste date labeling act (35:00) bridging academia and industry (37:47) public outreach, online courses on environmental education (39:42) her education work over the 40 years (42:39) importance of action-based knowledge (43:52) closing question

Standards for Science: Ruth Cheng ’01 is CEO of ATCC, which creates the standards and reference materials that make biological discoveries reproducible

Standards for Science: Ruth Cheng ’01 is CEO of ATCC, which creates the standards and reference materials that make biological discoveries reproducible. We chatted about: - ATCC's essential role in supplying reference materials for reproducible experiments - how her undergrad research at Cornell shaped her career path into science and leadership - her transition from bench research to the business side of science (0:00) what is ATCC? why is it important for research? (5:06) workflow around ATCC reference materials (7:41) depositing reference materials to ATCC (12:09) over 100k items in catalog (14:49) research experience at Cornell (18:40) scientifically interesting research directions (22:31) getting a PhD (24:58) moving to the business side of science (28:53) importance of making the standards (30:33) 3d model of organ on a chip (34:49) nonprofit governance structure (38:00) AI increases pace of biological data (40:07) closing question

Reweaving the Clothing Industry: Beth Esponnette ’10 is founder of unspun, a Series B startup that's transforming how we make clothing more sustainably

Reweaving the Clothing Industry: Beth Esponnette ’10 is founder of unspun, a Series B startup that's transforming how we make clothing more sustainably - what unspun does, and why it's important for sustainable apparel - why she chose Cornell's fiber science and apparel major - the journey of building a Series B startup (0:00) what is unspun? why is clothing important? (6:00) limits of robotics in clothing manufacturing (11:14) how weaving changes (13:33) onshore manufacturing (15:35) business model (17:27) reduce lead times (19:38) sustainability (23:00) custom fit for expression (26:25) recycling apparel (27:44) wardrobe changes (31:39) creating holistic systems (32:13) startup journey (36:49) growing the startup (41:22) closing question

AI and Health at Weill Cornell: Professor Fei Wang is Associate Dean for AI and Data Science at Weill Cornell

AI and Health at Weill Cornell: Professor Fei Wang is Associate Dean for AI and Data Science at Weill Cornell, we chatted about: - why Cornell is the best university for AI health research - examples of how AI is used throughout Weill Cornell - Cornell's amazing culture of collaboration and innovation (0:00) AI at Weill Cornell (2:21) specific examples of AI (4:55) clinical care improves with AI (6:14) how collaboration happens at Cornell (9:52) why Cornell is the best for AI health research (11:39) integrating AI with clinical workflow (13:40) creating a culture of AI and health (16:13) funding grants, and cross-campus collaboration (19:10) funding sources for AI (24:56) research group organization (28:00) starting as an assistant professor (30:22) balance of industry and academia (34:59) how industry can work with Weill Cornell (37:26) Fei Wang's path to AI and Health (40:23) closing question

Building the Data Layer for AI Agents: Chris Pisarski ’11 is Founder of Crustdata, an AI Startup that provides B2B data for AI Agents

Building the Data Layer for AI Agents: Chris Pisarski ’11 is Founder of Crustdata, an AI startup that provides B2B data for AI agents!! we chatted about: - importance of B2B data in AI workflows, helping AI agents access data - how to think bigger and move faster, to build momentum in the startup - the future of AI agents buying from AI agents (0:00) what is B2B data (3:35) example recruiting website (5:05) more specialized data than foundation models (9:24) listen to customers when market changes rapidly (12:04) marketing to AI agents (18:46) how YC is helpful (22:39) fundraising from position of strength (16:29) co-founder matching (24:19) building momentum (28:04) starting multiple startups (31:01) entrepreneurship learnings at Cornell (32:54) finding the first startup job coming out of Cornell (36:32) where to build an AI startup (38:14) final question