7: Conor McGinn - Robotics Expert

In the same week that the first photographs of a black hole were successfully taken, the Be Grand podcast continues this commitment to expanding the boundaries of human knowledge as robotics expert Conor McGinn drops in for a chat.  Conor is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the Robotics & Innovation Lab at Trinity College Dublin whose pioneering work is changing the future. Topics include how to make a robot funny, the need for diversity in engineering and his team’s remarkable work constructing a robot to combat loneliness.  Then there’s the question on everyone’s* mind: in the event of a robot apocalypse, is Wicklow safe?  Tune in to find out what elements of a machine uprising are movie nonsense and what possibilities should genuinely trouble us.  Will this be the episode when Andy’s galaxy brain ascends to a higher level of consciousness or will this be the moment when the frontier pushes back? * Andy’s

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Andy Gaffney is not very clever. And not in a cute “How old were you when you realised…” way – more in a “didn’t know Barcelona was in Spain” way. But maybe he can fix that! BE GRAND: THE LEAVING CERT RESIT is the show where Andy invites very clever talented people onto the show to relive their school days, talk about how they ended doing what they do and along the way, they can earn some completely pointless points by answering Leaving Cert questions from the year they did it. All in the hope that Andy’s sponge-like brain soaks up this new knowledge! That and provide some sweet sweet light entertainment of course…