2023 Episodes of the Curious Conversations Podcast
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General ItemScreen Time and Young Children with Koeun Choi
Koeun Choi discusses how media affects young children and shares a project using AI to support early reading development.
Date: Dec 11, 2023 - -
General ItemThe History of Holiday Foods with Anna Zeide
Anna Zeide explores the history of winter holiday foods and how personal traditions surrounding them are created and evolve over time.
Date: Dec 04, 2023 - -
General ItemThe Chemistry of Better Batteries with Feng Lin
Feng Lin explains the chemistry of electric vehicle batteries, current production challenges, and how coal might contribute to future solutions.
Date: Nov 27, 2023 - -
General ItemAI as a Personal Assistant with Ismini Lourentzou
Ismini Lourentzou discusses AI, personal assistants, and her student team’s experience in the Alexa Prize TaskBot Challenge 2.
Date: Nov 20, 2023 - -
General ItemThe Power of International Collaborations with Roop Mahajan
Roop Mahajan discusses how international collaborations have advanced his research on graphene and highlights their broader importance to innovation and scientific progress.
Date: Nov 13, 2023 - -
General ItemDriving around Heavy Trucks with Matt Camden and Scott Tidwell
Matt Camden and Scott Tidwell of VTTI discuss the Sharing the Road program, the research informing it, and practical safety tips for driving near heavy trucks.
Date: Nov 06, 2023 - -
General ItemAutonomous Technology and Mining with Erik Westman
Erik Westman discusses how machine learning and autonomous technologies are shaping the mining industry and how Virginia Tech is preparing students for future careers in the field.
Date: Oct 30, 2023 - -
General ItemAgriculture Technology and Farmers with Maaz Gardezi
Maaz Gardezi discusses the importance of developing agricultural technology in collaboration with farmers and shares insights from an interdisciplinary project focused on innovation at the intersection of agriculture and technology.
Date: Oct 23, 2023 - -
General ItemAI and Healthcare Workspaces with Sarah Henrickson Parker
Sarah Henrickson Parker discusses how artificial intelligence and machine learning is currently being used in some healthcare spaces, and what the potential is for the future.
Date: Oct 16, 2023 - -
General ItemAI and Online Threats with Bimal Viswanath
Bimal Viswanath discusses how the rise in artificial intelligence and large language models has changed the online threat landscape, and a project he’s involved with that aims to mitigate toxic language in chatbots.
Date: Oct 09, 2023 - -
General ItemAI and the Workforce with Cayce Myers
Cayce Myers fields questions on artificial intelligence’s impact on the workforce, regulations, copyright law, and more.
Date: Oct 02, 2023 - -
General ItemSpecial Edition: The GAP Report with Tom Thompson and Jessica Agnew
Each year, Virginia Tech produces the Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report, which provides a snapshot of the current state of agriculture and a projection of its future. Tom and Jessica, executive editor and managing editor, respectively, of the report, joined the podcast just prior to the 2023 release to explain what it is and how they hope it's used.
Date: Oct 01, 2023 - -
General ItemThe Metaverse, Digital Twins, and Green AI with Walid Saad
Walid Saad fields questions about the metaverse, digital twins, and artificial intelligence’s potential impact on the environment.
Date: Sep 24, 2023 - -
General ItemSemiconductors, Packaging, and more with Christina Dimarino
Christina Dimarino chats about semiconductors, the importance of packaging in onshoring their production, and what Virginia Tech is doing to excel workforce development in this field.
Date: Sep 15, 2023 - -
General ItemPilot: Electric Vehicles with Hesham Rakha
Hesham Rakha shares insights on what sustainable mobility means, the gas price at which electric vehicles becomes the more cost effective option, and some of his personal experiences with an electric car.
Date: Aug 14, 2023 -

"Curious Conversations" is a series of free-flowing conversations with Virginia Tech researchers that take place at the intersection of world-class research and everyday life.
Produced and hosted by Virginia Tech writer and editor Travis Williams, university researchers share their expertise and motivations as well as the practical applications of their work in a format that more closely resembles chats at a cookout than classroom lectures. New episodes are shared each Tuesday.
If you know of an expert (or are that expert) who’d make for a great conversation, email Travis today.