Podcast

Battery level: 300%! Get ready for an extra charge of From Know-How to Wow: our show now has three hosts as Melena returns from maternity leave. However, sometimes a charged battery can be a problem. To recycle batteries from electric cars, they need to be completely discharged. Surprisingly, this is easier said than done. A deep discharge can take 24 hours and more. But Sebastian Krieger of Bosch Rexroth has helped develop a solution that deep discharges batteries in mere minutes. This opens the door to a streamlined recycling process and prepares the recycling industry for an influx of millions of EV batteries in the coming years. This episode also includes a chance to test your knowledge of lithium, one of the valuable metals that can be recycled from lithium-ion batteries. Ready for an extra knowledge boost?

How do you teach an AI the difference between a PET bottle and an HDPE bottle? The Bosch team around Sidharta Andalam combined several sources of information to increase the accuracy of their system. Camera images and terahertz sensor signals are combined to decide if an item should get picked out of a waste stream. To get the necessary labeled training data, the engineers used the experience of trained workers at a recycling plant in Singapore. If you haven’t listened to the previous full episode about this topic, we recommend starting there for additional context.

An X-ray-like machine, but for waste. That’s what Sidharta Andalam and his team at Bosch Research in Singapore have developed. Instead of X-rays, it uses harmless terahertz waves to identify recyclable materials, help make recycling more profitable, and, in turn, divert recyclables like plastic bottles from landfills. Based on the terahertz images, an AI separates different types of plastic. In addition, Shuko and Geoff learn where plastic can be used wisely: Steven Greenall explains why plastic trombones are more climate-friendly than brass trombones.

RideCare companion is more than what’s in the box. With two pieces of hardware, live emergency assistance, a driver app and online data storage, the RideCare ecosystem is steered by a cloud service. Geoff’s voice avatar and Bosch software developer Sarah Uttendorf dive into the engineering challenge of making a safety critical mobile device as reliable as possible and keeping the system in sync.

Buckle up, listeners! In the latest episode of our “FROM KNOW-HOW to WOW” podcast, Geoff hits the road with test driver Matt Gutie to learn how our RideCare companion is improving ridesharing safety. Bosch engineer Sarah Uttendorf is one of the developers of the new system. She tells us how the product came to life. Equipped with a connected camera that records both inside and outside the vehicle, as well as a wireless SOS button, the RideCare companion enhances that drivers and passengers alike can enjoy safer rides. Thanks to AI algorithms, the system automatically detects the start and end of each ride and even notifies the driver if the camera view is obstructed.

Want to get to the bottom of how a magnetic field quantum sensor works? Learn more in this deep dive episode. Geoff’s voice avatar picks the brain of Bosch physicist Riccardo Cipolletti to uncover some of the key principles of the new technology. It relies on the Zeeman effect, a Nobel-prize worthy discovery on the effect of magnetic fields on the energy levels of electrons. Warning: This episode contains a mathematical formula!

A quantum leap in the history of From Know-How to Wow! Shuko and Geoff hear from Riccardo Cipolletti, a physicist at Bosch Quantum Sensing. The team he’s a part of is developing magnetic field quantum sensors that are 1,000 times more sensitive than today’s MEMS sensors. They can, for instance, easily measure the tiniest magnetic fields inside our own bodies like those caused by neuron activity. Neuroscientist Marc Dingman explains why data like this could help doctors better understand some conditions that today just seem bizarre. Along the way, our hosts try to get a feeling for what a “femto Tesla” is, what autonomous cars can learn from migratory birds, and what it takes to control a quantum system.

In this deep dive of our latest episode, Geoff’s voice avatar has some trouble wrapping his head around the sensor fusion algorithms in head-tracking devices - in part because as a voice avatar by nature he neither has a head, nor a body ;-) Fortunately, Bosch expert Ye Lu is excellent in explaining how different sensors can help correct each other’s errors and why school mathematics has its limits when you want to accurately determine rotation angles. In this deep dive, we also learn why the inventions of old geniuses like Foucault, Euler and Gauss are still relevant for state-of-the-art VR headsets, earbuds and other wearables. Listen in!

Woooosh! Sounds are all around us, but when we wear headphones we are no longer moving through a soundscape, but carry the sounds with us, in our head. Head-tracking technology changes that. You want to know how? Then listen to Bosch expert Ye Lu aka “Kimmi”. She has developed the head-tracking feature in Bosch’s BHI 360 sensor and takes us on a journey of challenges, successes and new challenges. Constantin Popp from the University of York explains how 3D sound can help gamers win. Come join Shuko and Geoff for an auditory and emotional rollercoaster ride!

Kaching! Your car just earned its own gas money. In the Economy of Things, cars and other machines and devices can become independent economic actors. As they interact and do business, they need to trust each other’s identities and that contracts between machines are executed as agreed upon. Web3 technology can enable these scenarios. Bosch researcher Dr. Nik Scharmann and our virtual host, Geoff’s voice avatar, dive into the challenges and opportunities of the Economy of Things.

Cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more relevant, but they’re only a small part of what is called Web3, a decentralized internet, based on distributed ledger technology. The idea behind Web3 is that in a highly connected world, the key to be successful is to find the right balance between cooperation and competition, a so-called “copetition”.
At Bosch Connected World in Berlin, Shuko and Geoff talked about this to Bosch’s Chief Digital Officer, Tanja Rückert. From Cafer Ince they learned how Bosch Mobility Solutions is developing Web3-based applications. Marcel Kaiser provided some insights into the collaboration between the startup he works at, PolyCrypt, and Bosch. Is the industry warming up to the idea of a Web3-based marketplace?

This is a first! From now on, we’ll bring you a monthly shortcast in addition to our regular “From KNOW-HOW to WOW” episodes. Nerd alert: here’s your chance to dive deeper into one specific aspect of the previous episode. This time, we’re back at Bosch Connected World in Berlin to learn more about software-defined vehicles. A whole hackathon was organized around this topic with teams using open-source tools to develop automotive applications. Guess who’s hosting our deep dives. Hint: it’s neither Shuko nor Geoff, but someone – or something – similar. Tune in and find out!

What are the benefits of “software-defined vehicles”? Find out in this special “From KNOW-HOW to WOW” episode, which took place LIVE at the Bosch Connected World event. Our hosts Shuko and Geoff were joined on stage by Christian Uebber, Chief Technology Officer of the Bosch subsidiary ETAS GmbH, and Christian Heissenberger, SDV Innovation Lead Architect at ETAS. They talked about the characteristics of these vehicles, and the challenges our teams face in making cars more software-driven. Software is already an integral part of almost every function in modern vehicles, whether it's for electrically adjusting the seat, recharging the vehicle, deploying the airbag, or listening to the radio. But there's so much more to software-defined vehicles, such as over-the-air updates that could improve software-based functionality - just like your smartphone's software updates. Listen in to find out more!

Throwing and catching are human skills that we not only use in sports, but also as a shortcut — saving time compared to walking a few steps. What if robots could do the same? Bosch Research engineer Timm Linder helps explore this in an EU-funded project called DARKO. In collaboration with research labs across Europe, he and his team are developing a robot that will toss items into bins at a warehouse, while aiming to make the robot behave more intelligently among humans and equipping it with a better 3D perception and semantic scene understanding of the environment it is deployed in. Perhaps the robot can learn some lessons from Ceola McGowan: The world champion in double-bit axe throwing has some advice on how to precisely throw oddly shaped objects and shares her technique with Shuko and Geoff. Our hosts are already dreaming of robots that can toss the laundry into the washer…

Automated cars become more and more advanced. But this shift toward vehicles that will eventually be autonomous means major architectural changes in how cars are developed. In this episode, Shuko and Geoff are joined by Axel Schwarz, Director for Engineering of L4 Sensors, and Kay Stepper, Senior Vice President for Automated at Driving Bosch North America. Both explain how cars can use a cycle of “sense, think, act” to move autonomously. And Ben Peters, Cofounder of the Bosch subsidiary FIVE, discusses how he builds special simulation environments that help test drive future vehicle technology. Intrigued? Then let's hit the road!

What’s the future of more sustainable truck driving? Hydrogen! In this episode, Bosch engineer Michael Marino explains how he and his team develop fuel cell stacks that convert hydrogen into electricity. Each fuel cell produces less than 1 Volt, but hundreds of fuel cells stacked on top of each other can power long-haul trucks. For example, Nikola Motor Company have trucks with Bosch fuel-cell technology on the streets of the United States. These vehicles are quieter and accelerate faster than trucks with a combustion engine, and have zero local CO₂ emissions. Moreover, Shuko and Geoff (virtually) visit a farm — a hydrogen farm. Kore, a startup in California, is working on producing green, sustainable hydrogen made from farming waste.

Not to scare anyone, but this episode contains — cold showers!!! Keeping the chills away is Bosch product manager Christoph Bauerdick’s mission. With Bosch’s HomeCom Pro solution, he helps installers keep tabs on the heat pumps, boilers and other heating systems they have installed and ideally fix issues before they lead to cold showers, or worse: no heating at all. HomeCom Pro uses data that appliances generate every twelve seconds. Analyzing these masses of data and bringing them into a human-readable format is the responsibility of Alexandre Chambel. He explains to Shuko and Geoff how data can help customers save energy.

Imagine being able to remove odors and bacteria easily and on the go, without needing to wash your clothes. In the latest episode of our “From KNOW-HOW to WOW” podcast, we talk about how our FreshUp device uses plasma technology to remove odors from fabrics simply by brushing over them. Plasma occurs naturally in the universe. During the show, Tobias Wende, a Bosch electronic system engineer, talks about how they were able to incorporate plasma technology, which releases active plasma particles to dissolve simple odor molecules, into a device the size of a glasses case.

What an unpleasant smell is, however, differs from one nose to another, says Antonie Bierling, researcher at the Universities of Dresden and Jena. She works on finding out more about which molecules stink and which ones have a lovely scent and shares her know-how with Shuko and Geoff. Smells like another electrifying episode, doesn’t it?

What do the components of a car have in common with a jazz band? Getting them to play together in unison can be pretty challenging. This is something that car manufacturers know well. For future electric vehicles, two Bosch engineers want to make manufacturers’ lives easier. To understand the challenges and to improve component integration, a cross-divisional team around Bosch system engineers Erik Goerres and Dieter Schwarzmann decided to follow the learn-by-doing approach and build their own research-only prototype vehicle. They call it the “Rolling Chassis”. One product that came out of it is the Advanced Driving Module, a package solution with all the Bosch components you need to make an electric vehicle move. Let’s get this episode rolling!

Ever used a claw machine on a funfair? Grabbing an item is no easy task — especially when the machine is rigged against you. But how would you design a claw machine that works every single time? In the latest episode of our “From KNOW-HOW to WOW” podcast, we explore this with Bosch Research expert Christoph Marx, who built a robot system for warehouses, called Smart Item Picking. His challenge was to build a system combining hardware components, vision sensors and software algorithms that can handle millions of different parts with a high variety in shape, size, weight and many uncertain parameters. Christoph tells us how using artificial intelligence and a 3D scanner lead him and his team to the solution. ... and what does all of this have to do with the moon landing? Listen in and find out!

Shuko has a passion for motorcycles and takes Geoff on a (virtual) weekend ride on curvy mountain roads. What helps make their ride safer and more comfortable is ARAS, Bosch’s Advanced Rider Assistance System. Two of its developers, Yuki Oshida and Daniel Vetter, explain how they transferred ideas like adaptive cruise control from passenger cars to motorcycles. Turns out, 2-wheelers have peculiar physics! Victor Manuel Rivera knows that, too. He pushes the limits of the laws of physics during his motorcycle circus act: The Globe of Speed. No risk, no fun? Wrong, says Shuko. After an exclusive test ride with Daniel, she is convinced that electronic systems can mitigate some of the risks inherent to motorcycles without reducing the fun. Warning: this episode might evoke a passion for motorcycles in listeners as well!

What is the Industrial Internet of Things and can it help connect a whole factory, even when it’s equipped with lots of old machines? The first step to finding this out is to call Marian Demme. The IIoT expert helps companies digitalize manufacturing with NEXEED, Bosch’s software portfolio for Industry 4.0. Proving its value, Tobias Pfister talks about how production lines at the Bosch plant in Bamberg, Bavaria boosted their efficiency thanks to NEXEED. With this software, just one small valve for a motor can have a record of 1,000+ data points attached to it. Get ready and join Geoff and Shuko in exploring the world of IIoT!

It was early one morning when Bosch associate Tobias Riedel walked to his car and saw that something was wrong. The window smashed. With the steering wheel, multimedia system, and everything else missing. A few days later, Tobias had an idea. He developed a mobile alarm system. That was the moment Bosch’s new and unique in all the world security assistant spexor was born. In the latest episode of our podcast, Tobias will tell you the whole story of this one-of-its-kind device.

Testing, testing, one-two, one-two, can you hear me? Whether we’re in a huge stadium, or our cozy homes, making our voices heard above the noise can be quite difficult. Few people know this better than musician Daniel Kemish. Daniel is a huge fan of gear from Electro-Voice, Bosch’s own brand of professional microphones and loudspeakers. In the show, Electro-Voice expert Bob Rieder explains the challenges of making voices and music sound great in a stadium, while engineer Andrew Pardoe tells us how he found solutions to these problems with the help of a computer farm. Andrew used these lessons to develop MTS, a giant loudspeaker that brings HiFi sound to massive venues.

Chilling! Yes, that applies to both the autumn weather where our hosts Shuko and Geoff live, and the suspense in this episode: Will Bosch engineer Tom Collins find a climate-friendly way to heat homes in Britain? He has struggled for years to find an answer, until one day one meeting changed his thinking about what isn’t feasible and what is. Spoiler alert: Heating with hydrogen could be a solution…Speaking of the challenges of sustainable heating, we also talk about the Princess Elisabeth research station in Antarctica which can be heated with just solar and wind power. Guus Luppens has installed some of the solar panels with his own hands and tells us about his plans to make the station even less dependent on fossil fuels in the coming years. Get yourself a nice hot cup of tea (or coffee, cocoa, or cider) and listen!

Who am I? An existential question that is especially hard to answer in a connected world. Proving who we are online is complicated, when our ID cards are still physical. Plus, we gave up some control over our online identities, simply for convenience. A technology that is in development could help us regain control using a special form of digital wallet: Self-sovereign identities, or SSI, use cutting-edge cryptography, including zero-knowledge proofs. Bosch researcher Christian Borman explains how SSI will not only increase privacy but also have a positive impact on B2B interactions and supply chain management. Meanwhile, our host Geoff meets mentalist Thorsten Havener. Will he reveal Geoff’s true identity?

In our new episode of “From KNOW-HOW to WOW”, we are talking about change — which is often exciting, but rarely frictionless. Our e-mobility experts Bruno Schuster and Jan Alsmeier, who works in process management, explain why they swapped silicon for silicon carbide in semiconductor production. Spoiler alert: this was a pretty challenging change. In any case, it could be a true leap forward in e-mobility technology because tiny amounts of silicon carbide in an electric car can have a big impact on the vehicle’s weight and energy efficiency. To learn more about the material, we also take you to space: Siddharth Tiwari from the German Start-up Tiwari Instruments explains why silicon carbide also has a lot of potential for satellites and telescopes. ...and speaking of change: this is also the first episode of our new co-host Shuko. Will there be any friction between her and Geoff? ;-) We’ll find out!

Pop quiz: what does the term “Milky Way” make you think of? Probably many things, like the galaxy or a candy bar, but what about breast milk? Or even IoT? Believe it or not, in the story of our new podcast episode of From KNOW-HOW to WOW these have more in common than you’d think: “Many mothers in Vietnam are facing the challenge of squaring their work with the wish to keep breastfeeding beyond maternity leave,” says Bosch senior delivery manager Dinh Thi Kim Thoa. That’s why she and her team in Ho Chi Minh City have developed Milky Way, a breast milk delivery service between the mother’s workplace and the baby’s daycare. The solution is based on a cooling box with smart Bosch sensor technology. A combined humidity, temperature and pressure sensor helps ensure both the freshness and safety of the milk. Bosch expert Thomas Block will share countless intriguing details about this 2.5 mm small Sensortec wonder.

This episode revolves around fire. Specifically, how to detect and fight them. Firefighter Shan Raffel is a true luminary. He teaches Melena and Geoff the language of fire. Bosch expert Soeren Wittmann also teaches how to read fire, but instead of firefighters, he smartens up security cameras. His team has enabled a camera system to visually recognize fire and smoke. It outperforms other fire detection devices in speed and is particularly superior in buildings with high ceilings. Multiple algorithms are involved with the detection, feeding an artificial intelligence system for alarm decisions. The next camera generation will also be equipped with a deep learning model. With all this intelligence, Aviotec is much more than video-based fire detection.

Pedal to the metal, folks! Join us at the race tracks of the world’s most vibrant cities, where the energy is electric and the vehicles too. We meet with Nico Müller, racing car driver from Dragon / Penske Autosport Formula E Team. Bosch works with them, providing technology, software and support for their electric race car. And at the brain of this race car is the vehicle control unit (VCU), which not only controls individual functions and the sensors, but also ensures maximum energy recovery rates. And what our engineers learn here, can be taken straight to our own cars back home. Bosch associate Christian Schimpitz tells us all about it.

In part two of our “factory of the future” special, we dive into the world of data that lies beneath Bosch’s new wafer fab in Dresden. In addition to being one of the most modern wafer fabs in the world, it’s also Bosch’s first AIoT factory. And the fab has also got a digital twin! Solution architect Enrico Neuber joins us to explain what it means to build a data-centric factory and how AI will help find the important bits of information in a giant lake of data. Enrico also helps us understand how data and AI play a crucial role in solving the challenges of producing chips (ranging from automation in the clean room to high product standards), and why Bosch's billion Euro factory is a vital investment for future mobility.

On June 7, 2021, Bosch opens our new 300mm wafer fab in Dresden, where the chips for tomorrow’s mobility will be made. This factory sets new standards for software and technology: It’s fully automated, uses augmented reality, AI, IoT and is probably one of the cleanest places in the world. Why? Because wafers are divas: They are so sensitive that they have to be manufactured in a dust-free environment. And that’s why at the heart of the wafer fab, there’s a clean room measuring 10,000 square meters, that is virtually free of any dust. We hear from the fab’s project manager, Otto Graf, about how this has been accomplished, why digitalization plays a key role in it, and how all this relates to dinosaurs. Yes, dinosaurs. Listen to find out for yourself!

Nee-naw. Pin-pon. Tatü-Tata — how many sirens can you recognize? If you were a fan of the emergency vehicle as a child then you will have no problem naming a few, but the variations across the World make it a trickier quiz! This episode of From KNOW-HOW to WOW is all about the sound of sirens - and how Bosch researchers Andreas Merz and Thomas Buck equip cars with ears, figuratively speaking, in order to recognize sirens on the road. You’ll learn why that’s both necessary and surprisingly difficult to accomplish. Another guest on the show: science journalist Andreas von Bubnoff of the Pandemic Silence Project. He demonstrates the impact of sounds on how we perceive our environment, and how lockdowns during the pandemic have changed the sound of the world. And now: listen up! Wee-woo-wee-woo.

Sure, this is a tech podcast. That shouldn’t stop us from talking about knitting, though. Why, you ask? Because our guests Emily McNeil and Justin Connelly use knitting as a form of data visualization. Their temperature displaying tapestries convey the consequences of global warming more effectively than any statistics. Because seeing is believing. Bosch uses the power of visuals in order to create safer and more robust Artificial Intelligence.

This episode makes Melena and Geoff sweat, training not only their muscles to beat the “coronatine” but their Bosch fitness trackers as well. The world’s first self-learning AI sensor for wearable tech is based on Edge AI. Having an “edge” like that on your wrist makes your fitness tracker individually tailored to you and the way you move. With each movement it adjusts itself. The sensor provides more reliable analytics and reduces the need for data storage space, eliminating data transmission to the cloud. Keeping you in control of your data. Melena and Geoff learn from Bosch product manager Kaustubh Gandhi and research scientist Thomas Nilsson what went into the development of this new approach to fitness trackers. That jumping jacks sometimes can get out of control, however, is a different story. Melena can tell you about it.

What can you, what can everyone contribute when it comes to protecting our planet? How could technology help us live a more sustainable life? That’s what we investigate in this episode of From KNOW-HOW to WOW. Our hosts Melena and Geoff are interested in one aspect in particular: using water responsibly. They meet Bosch engineer Harald Moschütz in the laundry room, where he debunks some intractable laundry myths. Melena and Geoff also talk to Emily, who writes the “Accidental Hippies” blog. Her family only has a limited supply of water and she explains why it’s not that difficult to use less. Our hosts are particularly impressed by Khagendra Thapa. He so effectively recycles waste water at Bosch in Australia, that he can “harvest” valuable nickel and copper from it.

It's what made Marty McFly the envy of all kids in the 80s — and one of the most iconic sci-fi gadgets ever: the hoverboard. Sam Rogers always wanted to fly on such a board, too. In this episode of From KNOW-HOW to WOW, Sam shares how he made his dream come true. But while he wore a jet suit when "hoverboarding," experts at Bosch are now making hovering platforms levitate with the help of AI…

Like a story straight out of Hollywood, in this week’s From KNOW-HOW to WOW astronaut Mike Foale chats to Melena and Geoff about living on a space station with no power after a crash with a cargo ship — and how he is still here to tell the tale. And for the techie stuff, Mike also explains why space engineers rely on fuel cells to power space shuttles, while the Bosch experts Tobias Beck and Markus Ohnmacht tell us how a Solid Oxile Fuel Cell (SOFC) can support the renewable energy landscape down on earth now.

One of the keys to fighting the coronavirus pandemic is to rapidly identify sources of infection. This episode of “From Know-how to wow” introduces you to Vivalytic, a universal platform for molecular laboratory diagnostics that allows to test a wide variety of samples and to perform fully automated analytical procedures within a very short timeframe.

What is smaller than your pinky finger nail but packs a big punch? The answer: Microelectromechanical systems or MEMS sensors. In this episode, our hosts Melena and Geoff will focus on one of the most interesting MEMS: the rotation sensor or gyroscope.

Jason Zink sheds light on how Bosch is innovating the 95-year-old sun visor. Melena and Geoff also learn more about our sense of sight as they talk to the stage lighting artist, Marc Brickman about the use of lighting in the theater. Additionally, you’ll hear from Ivan Schwab, author of “How Eyes Evolved,” as he shares all about exactly that — the evolution of eyes.

This episode is all about sound — more specifically about seeing with sound. Three guests share insights with how they use sound in their daily lives to overcome vastly different challenges. Our journey takes us into the depths of crime, into the heights of flying — and even into space, where Bosch technology is listening for malfunctions…

Welcome to the Bosch Global podcast! Get to know our resident show hosts Melena and Geoff in this trailer. In each show, they will meet first-class tech experts taking you on a deep-dive into their smart world. Be curious. Be wowed!