Karen Panetta on Digital Twins, Inclusive AI and Engineering for Impact

Karen Panetta (0:00)

I build engines, like right now, I'm building a artificial intelligent engine. I just put them in different vehicles, and those vehicles are different applications that make an impact to humanity or us have some social benefit. I wanted to teach students that even as students, we can take on any challenge. So I specifically took on solar because I was interested in it. I had zero experience, and I wanted my team to see, look, even I don't know this, but we're gonna do it together and be able to solve this problem.

Young people want to make social impacts, so when they can see how their skills can be used to make impact and benefit humanity, makes a huge difference.

Brian Heater (0:40)

Have you attempted that startup side of things?

Karen Panetta (0:43)

Yes, multiple, multiple times, yes.

One of my current company startups is detecting pathogens on your food using imaging. The firefighting and traffic management is another one, and then I had a whole underwater company looking at the health of the marine life as well as underwater structures. So we use all these different applications, and some of them do become startup companies.

Brian Heater (1:07)

Last time we were talking about biases and physical AI. There are all these companies right now out there moving like really quickly, what can actually be done to address some of these concerns.

Hello everyone, my name is Brian Heater. I am the Managing Editor at the Association for Advancing Automation. We are back with another episode of Automated. This week, we are speaking with Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Tufts, Karen Panetta. She has a fascinating career we're about to dig into. She's worked with a number of humanitarian and ecological efforts, as well as being one of the pioneering forces behind the digital twin. Thank you so much to her. Thanks to you, as always, for tuning in. If you have been enjoying the podcast, the easiest way to support us is by liking, subscribing, telling a friend. I would also encourage you to check out our newsletter of the same name. You can do that over at automated.fm. For now, stick around and enjoy this conversation with Karen Panetta. It's a fun one.

Tell me a little bit about Thacher Island.

Karen Panetta (2:24)

You've been looking at my website.

Brian Heater (2:26)

I've been looking at footnotes. I've been doing a little research. I've been digging in a little bit. I saw a little bit about Thacher Island, I want to know more about the island and more about your involvement with it.

Karen Panetta (2:39)

Well, I look out the window and I can see it. That's how I discovered it. That's a good reason to get involved. That's a very good reason. I discovered Thacher Island years ago when I was looking for projects, for community-based projects to be able to apply solar energy. Thacher Island is the last operating twin lighthouse in the United States.

At the time I got involved, they had sent out a notice that they might lose their designated historic status because back in the 1800s, 1700s, the lighthouses were powered by whale oil, which thank goodness we don't use anymore. But they were using a 6,000-foot underwater cable to power the lighthouses, so it wasn't using any sort of solar power. They couldn't afford to do that anymore.

They would have to hire divers because the cable would sever, and they didn't like paying to heat the ocean. So we decided, Jay, if they're going to lose their historic status because they can't afford to do this, why aren't they using solar energy? So I approached the Thacher Island Association, a non-profit, and I said, hey, I'll come in with my students and we will install solar systems for you. So I met with them and they said, we also have two houses, keepers houses on the island. One is a museum and the other is a keepers house, and those we need energy in as well. And they also had a golf cart that they used. And every year that they would come out, they'd say, we try to restart it and it doesn't work, and batteries, you have to replace the batteries. So I said, okay, well, we'll power the houses, we'll do triple charges for the cart, and then we will make the light houses themselves work off of solar power. And they got freaked out because they were like, oh, you know, a bunch of students coming in, gonna destroy our island. They got very nervous. And then they thought we were also gonna install these huge devices, very expensive, which I came up with and I proposed, of course, I proposed using LED technology, which at the time was relatively new. And, you know, oh, what's this new fangle technology that's gonna break?