Fish Fry 700: Photon-Powered Nanobots, Synthetic DNA Memristors and Minuscule Nanolasers

In this week’s podcast, we’re looking at the future of wireless engineering, and how agentic AI, digital twins, and 6G networks are coming together to change how we design, simulate, and operate connected systems. My guest week is Houman Zarrinkoub, Principal Product Manager of Wireless Communications at MathWorks. Houman and I explore why RF digital twins are moving beyond offline simulations and into live control loops, how engineering tools can keep errors and outdated data from cascading across connected systems, and how specialized AI “skills” can help keep autonomous agents within defined boundaries.

My guest this week is Tom Hazlett from sensiBel. Tom and I explore how sensiBel’s optical MEMS technology is reimagining what’s possible in acoustic performance. Tom and I will dive into how sensiBel’s optical MEMS architecture overcomes the classical constraints of legacy capacitive sensors, real-world applications where being able to detect those subtle sounds and vibrations could make a big difference and we’ll also examine the interesting intersection of acoustic sensing and AI that could open up some pretty interesting possibilities for machine perception.

In this week’s podcast, we're diving deep into the frontier of artificial intelligence and exploring how mimicking the human brain could hold the key to ultra-low-power, highly efficient computing at the edge. My guest is Sean Hehir, CEO of BrainChip. Sean and I explore their groundbreaking Akida neuromorphic processor and how BrainChip's event-based approach processes data only when meaningful changes occur—shifting away from traditional, power-hungry accelerators and paving the way for the future of always-on smart technology.

My podcast guest this week is VectorWave CTO and Founder, Dr. Ron Davis. Ron and I discuss the details of VectorWave’s neuromorphic analog compute platform, how it differs from traditional digital processing, and what it really means to build AI-native connectivity rather than simply adding AI features onto existing wireless systems. We also talk about the challenge of getting more bandwidth out of an increasingly crowded spectrum while consuming less power, and look ahead to where this technology could have the biggest impact.

My podcast guest this week is a powerhouse of the semiconductor industry: Ramune Nagisetty. Ramune, best known for developing the chiplet-based system-in-package architecture concept, joins me this week to discuss her foundational work on chiplet-based system-in-package architectures, the current reality of chiplet interoperability, and the role of artificial intelligence in semiconductor design and manufacturing. We also chat about her leadership at PDF Solutions and her music career in my hometown of Portland, Oregon.