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Processing Data at Warp Speed with David Knight, President & CEO of Terbine
In this episode, David explains how his company, Terbine, is working to revolutionize the way data is exchanged and interacted with in everyday life.
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David is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, filmmaker, and experienced startup executive with a history of innovation and market development, and a background in core technologies including multi-spectral sensing and communications, messaging, enterprise software and distributed systems.
His work ranges from digital entertainment to defense, including setting global communications standards, introducing the first commercial email servers, pioneering online mass storage and more. Knight also has been involved in the new space industry, including initiatives in the formative stages of digital audio, setting communications standards and the creation of the first commercial e-mail server, online mass storage, the original XPRIZE team and more. As an original member of the XPRIZE team that literally helped launch the private spaceflight industry. An ardent supporter of STEM education, he is a Trustee of the California Science Center Foundation, involved in building a large new Air & Space center for the Western U.S.
David has founded, co-founded and held leadership roles in tech companies with exits including two IPOs, two M&A buyouts, and two recession-triggered meltdowns. Now helming Terbine, a big data & AI startup, he recently moved from SF to Las Vegas.
This episode of Over the Edge features an interview between Matt Trifiro and David Knight, President & CEO of Terbine, a data exchange for the physical world that has built a highly scalable system enabling wider use of data to inform and radically reshape many industries and everyday life.
David is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, filmmaker, and experienced startup executive with a history of innovation and market development. He has a background in core technologies, including multi-spectral sensing and communications, messaging, enterprise software and distributed systems. David has founded, co-founded and held leadership roles in tech companies with exits including two IPOs, two M&A buyouts, and two recession-triggered meltdowns. He now leads Terbine, a big data & AI startup.
In this episode, David talks about his journey from working on ham radios to being a pioneer in the early days of digital entertainment. He also discusses his involvement in the beginning of online storage, helping to launch the private space race, and dedicating himself to dealing with, analyzing, and processing the overwhelming amount of data that comes out of everyday life. David explains how all of this led to founding Terbine, and how the company has partnered with the City of Las Vegas to help propel the world to prosper through insight, communication, and emerging technologies.
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Key Quotes:
“They really want to make Vegas a place where they work on smart city technology and next generation communications. And, they’re really investing in it, but more importantly, they’re inviting startups and large companies to work together. And, so if you’re thinking of a city as a platform, which is not a normal way to look at a city, we are really trying to help the city itself become smart and also sustainable. You don’t necessarily think of Las Vegas as a sustainable city, but if you think about it with things like the water shortage is coming up, it’s a place that really needs to be sustainable.”
“The most interesting applications, which absolutely are going to be dependent on very rapid edge processing with low latency communications, are going to be in things that move. And, it could be a human moving. It could be commercial things. The first applications that we’re actually looking at, and we will be doing very soon are in the commercial world.”
“What we’re trying to do is say, look, we’ve already said, we’re going to take the pulse of the earth, so now we’re going to wire the physical environment into the digital twin and then collectively you can now navigate around it.”
“The more we can help the cities learn about the past, the present, and then extrapolate into the future, the better. So, it’s not just the hedge funds that are going to make future bets. It’ll be the cities themselves.”
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Show Timestamps:
(02:45) Getting into technology
(03:30) Arc to current role
(05:55) Working with new computing technology
(02:43) Early days of email / Start of Click to Send
(08:30) XPrize Competition development and execution
(19:17) What is Terbine?
(21:10) Breaking apart the problem space
(22:10) Looking at issues in 3D
(25:15) Breaking down data silos
(26:10) Dealing with fear and greed
(27:06) Motto – ‘Take the pulse of the earth’
(29:30) There are sensors everywhere
(32:30) Mobile Edge Computing
(36:28) Processing data and storage
(41:48) Compression algorithms
(43:15) Sharing data
(44:40) Solving business and technology problems
(45:30) Tech Startups in Las Vegas
(49:30) Las Vegas Smart City Showcase
(52:00) Terbine and Las Vegas partnership
(53:30) Las Vegas as a privately funded smart city
(54:30) How Las Vegas conducts business
(56:30) Vegas loop
(57:30) Brightline rail from Las Vegas to California
(58:52) Uses for Terbine platform
(01:03:30) Using Drones
(01:05:30) Digital Twin implementation and uses
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Sponsor:
Over the Edge is brought to you by Dell Technologies to unlock the potential of your infrastructure with edge solutions. From hardware and software to data and operations, across your entire multi-cloud environment, we’re here to help you simplify your edge so you can generate more value. Learn more by visiting DellTechnologies.com/SimplifyYourEdge for more information or click on the link in the show notes.
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Links:
Connect with David on LinkedIn
