NASA Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

AI Visionary – Lee Yearsley

April 11, 2024April 12, 2024
by Claire

Every now and then we meet with a guest who blows us away by the scale and worthiness of their vision. And there’s no doubting this week’s guest is one of those.

Lee Yearsley is an AI veteran and entrepreneur with a unique track record that speaks to her skill of anticipating the future. Raised in Zimbabwe and South Africa, Lee sold her last AI company 10 years ago to IBM. It was the first company in the world to deploy AI in businesses such as banks, insurance companies and health care.

And now Lee’s at it again channelling her philosophy of building a global AI company that the world will need, not today, but in 5 years time. Her vision is big; she wants to reach more than 100 million customers worldwide.

Lee’s business is called Akin and her determination to use technology for good has seen her incorporate as a public benefit corporation (that’s an American legal entity that embeds a business model that benefits both shareholders and society).

Akin is bringing a new and more advanced type of AI to market, called Adaptive Reasoning.

It already has customers ranging from NASA to healthcare companies with disabled clients.

Now despite the fact Lee has a track record of founding and exiting several businesses, she shares with us just how difficult it is to raise funding as a female founder.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Lee was positively dissuaded, if not barred, from studying computer science at Uni because she was a woman
How she says she ignores the accepted wisdom of how to build a successful startup and that others should ignore it too
How pervasive AI systems already are and how much they’re influencing the decisions we make in a negative way; and
The creative and unique way Lee goes about envisioning, building and growing her business.

We were lucky to spend time with Lee after she spoke at the Impact Investment Summit in Sydney recently.

Enjoy this episode with the visionary and genuinely pioneering Lee Yearsley.

Useful Links

Akin AI

Lee on LinkedIn

Credit top left photo – Dion Georgopoulos

Interview

Katrine Marçal – How Including Women could Fix almost…

September 21, 2021September 21, 2021
by Claire

Our guest for this week’s episode is Swedish best selling author, financial journalist and women’s economic champion, Katrine Marçal.

Katrine’s two books, ‘Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner’ and her latest book – ‘Mother of Invention – How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men’ explore how women’s roles and contribution have been systemically ignored over time.

Katrine has a fun and engaging way of telling stories that show just how much we’ve missed out on by overlooking the value women bring to the table. Not surprisingly, she also shares how frustrated she is that we’ve missed out on countless potential innovations because there haven’t been enough women involved in the process.

Katrine’s first book was named one of The Guardian’s Books of the Year in 2015 and she was named as one of the BBC’s top 100 women in the same year. Her latest book builds on this impressive record.

In this fascinating discussion you’ll learn:

How the founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, overlooked one very important factor when he came up with his ‘self interest’ theory and what impact that’s had on women and what we’re paid,
How innovation history has overlooked or re-written women’s vital role in computer science and the founding of software,
How and why a company that specialised in women’s underwear won the contract to make the spacesuits that took the Apollo astronauts to their history making landing on the Moon; and
How Katrine herself comes up with her original ideas and perspectives.

So sit back, enjoy and be prepared to have your eyes opened by the insightful and engaging Katrine Marçal.

Useful Links

Katrine’s website – find her books here

SheEO home page

Interview with Vicki Saunders, CEO of SheEO

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Chasing Equality

March 9, 2021
by Claire

This week’s mini episode is in honour of International Women’s Day.

We don’t know about you but this feels like a bit of a watershed year in terms of gender equality and sexual harassment issues rising to almost boiling point in multiple places around the world.

Now is the time to call out inequality, injustice and gendered violence when we see them in action.

In this episode we reflect on:

Why we still need to keep gender equality on the agenda and why IWD is important
How the pandemic created a triple whammy for women
Great advice on how you can call out bias when you encounter it at work, and
How virtual meetings haven’t necessarily improved things for women’s voices being heard.

You’ll get to hear some advice from us and from one of our favourite guests, NASA’s Trudy Kortes, so enjoy this Future Proof Me episode.

Useful Links

Womens March 4 Justice website

Petition to Australia’s Prime Minister on Gendered Violence

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Calling Out Bias

October 27, 2020October 27, 2020
by Claire

Brought to you by Microsoft’s The New Next

How do you go with sensitive conversations? They’re not easy are they?

This week’s mini episode shares how NASA executive Trudy Kortes has learnt over time to call out gender bias when she experiences it.

If you’ve not heard one of these bite-sized episodes before, the idea is to focus on the most valuable insights, gems of advice and ideas from our incredible guests . . . all focusing on the theme of future proofing ourselves and our careers.

Trudy’s advice includes some great principles for all difficult conversations, so make your next difficult conversation a little easier with this bite-sized nugget of wisdom and experience.

Useful Links

Trudy’s orig episode: A Career in Space and Real Life Moonshots

Trudy Kortes – A Career in Space Exploration and…

July 30, 2019July 30, 2019
by admin

We’re excited to share this week’s episode featuring someone who’s had an extraordinary career at the cutting edge of space exploration. Trudy Kortes is the Chief of the Human Exploration and Space Operations Division at NASA. With her day job, not only is Trudy working on real ‘moonshots’ she is also developing new technologies that will undoubtedly have an incredible impact on our lives in the future.

An aeronautical engineer by profession, Trudy has spent about 30 years working for NASA focusing on helping the space agency develop many super- sophisticated technologies to explore our galaxy. Today Trudy leads a team of around 200 people working on a range of projects including advanced communications, propulsion and the crew module, to name a few.

What we love about this episode is Trudy’s ability to translate the super complex work she’s been involved with in her career to date, into easy to understand and inspiring stories about the valuable lessons she’s learnt along the way, and about what’s possible in the future.

In this episode you’ll learn:

The really unusual reason why Trudy decided at high school she wanted to work for NASA
How Trudy has found her authentic and humorous self, and why it matters
What she’s learnt about having difficult conversations
What it’s like being a senior woman at NASA
And how she feels about the project she’s working on to send the first female astronaut to the moon in 2024

So click below, sit back, buckle up and enjoy fascinating stories and insights from the wonderful Trudy Kortes.