The TechEd Podcast

Higher education faces a difficult equation: fewer traditional students, intensifying competition, and rising questions about the value of a four-year degree, even as industry struggles to find technical talent. For Dr. Eric Baumgartner, the challenge is to preserve what works while building an institution capable of responding to technologies and workforce needs that are still taking shape.
In Part 2 of this conversation, Baumgartner, president of the Milwaukee School of Engineering, explains how MSOE is approaching that responsibility with an applied, industry-driven strategy. The goal is not to treat AI as a standalone specialty, but to combine it with the engineering, nursing, business and construction knowledge required to solve real problems. 
The conversation also examines what colleges provide when information itself has become a commodity. Baumgartner argues that subject-matter expertise is not enough without strong teaching practices, hands-on application and learning environments that require students to think, collaborate and test ideas.
Listen to Learn:
Why higher education must rethink its value proposition 
How MSOE is integrating AI into technical disciplines 
Why applying knowledge matters as much as acquiring it
Why access to information is changing the value of subject-matter expertise 
What separates strong teaching from simply delivering information in a classroom
3 Big Takeaways:
1.       The value of higher education increasingly depends on what students can do with what they know. Access to information alone is no longer enough to distinguish a college education. At MSOE, that means creating learning experiences where students apply what they know through hands-on and work-based learning.
2.       AI becomes more valuable when it is paired with domain expertise. Rather than separating AI from the rest of the curriculum, MSOE is integrating it with fields such as engineering, nursing, business and construction. The technology becomes a tool students can apply within a discipline, while technical knowledge gives them the context to determine when and how to use it.
3.       Subject-matter expertise alone does not make someone an effective teacher. As access to information becomes easier, the value of an educator increasingly comes from how that knowledge is taught and applied. For Eric Baumgartner, that meant creating an environment where students are challenged to think, collaborate and test ideas rather than simply receive information.
Resources in the Episode:
Learn more about Milwaukee School of Engineering
Other resources mentioned:
·        Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
·        The Alchemy of Growth: Practical Insights for Building the Enduring Enterprise
·        The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery
·        NVIDIA
More links & resources on the episode page:
https://techedpodcast.com/eric/
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Unlike most engineers, growing up, Eric Baumgartner wasn't the kid building things in his garage. And yet, his love for science fiction and Carl Sagan books opened a world of possibilities beyond his small hometown, eventually leading to a fascinating career driving rovers across the surface of Mars.
Today, Dr. Eric Baumgartner is president of the Milwaukee School of Engineering. But before returning to academia, he turned that childhood fascination with space into a decade-long career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, helping develop the robotic arms for Spirit and Opportunity and becoming one of the first engineers to drive the rovers on Mars.
In this episode, Baumgartner takes host Matt Kirchner behind the scenes of a job few people will ever have, from sending commands millions of miles away to working a schedule built around the Martian day. He shares one of his most nerve-racking days, when he promised he could place a spectrometer on a tiny Martian “blueberry” before he actually knew how to do it. His eventual decision to leave JPL and return to academia brings his story full circle and sets up Part 2 of the conversation.
Listen to Learn:
How a future roboticist found his childhood inspiration in books
What it means to "drive” a rover millions of miles away on Mars
Why driving a Mars rover meant living and working on Martian time
How a Martian “blueberry” helped scientists uncover evidence of Mars’ watery past 
Why extraordinary engineering applications still rely on foundational principles
3 Big Takeaways
1. Inspiration can come from unexpected places. Baumgartner wasn’t a childhood tinkerer or builder, yet his fascination with science fiction and Carl Sagan led him toward a career in engineering at NASA. Seeing possibilities beyond his own experience gave Baumgartner a direction long before he knew how he would get there.  
2. Good engineering anticipates problems before they happen. Driving Opportunity meant building command sequences on Earth before sending them to Mars, where the rover executed them autonomously. For Baumgartner, that meant thinking through what could go wrong on Mars before he would have the chance to respond from Earth.
3. The more advanced the application, the more important the fundamentals become. At JPL, Baumgartner initially saw the work as “crazy engineering,” but came to recognize that the extraordinary part was the application: putting a robotic arm on Mars and positioning a spectrometer on a target only millimeters across. Underneath those extraordinary applications were the same foundational engineering principles he had learned years earlier.
Resources in this Episode:
Learn more about Milwaukee School of Engineering
Learn more about NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Other resources mentioned:
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
More links & resources on the episode page:
https://techedpodcast.com/eric/
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Established companies have scale, capital, infrastructure and decades of experience. Startups have the benefit of fresh thinking and fewer constraints. But disruption and winning in 2026 and beyond doesn't belong to either one. The advantage goes to organizations willing to question assumptions, eliminate complexity and move fast.
Slate Auto is disrupting an established market. They're challenging the price and complexity of buying a car. They're redesigning vehicles to be a blank slate (pun intended), with full customization in the hands of the customer. 

It all comes back to their mindset of being fast, frugal and scrappy. 

Slate Auto board member and employee #1 Rod Copes shares the inside scoop on the unconventional auto company disrupting everything we knew about the market. 
Listen to learn:
How to find blue ocean opportunities and white space, even in established markets
What “fast, frugal, and scrappy” looks like as an operating philosophy
Why speed matters more than size in today's competitive environment
How customer obsession and simplicity can be the keys to a great product
How established organizations can bring startup speed and ingenuity into their own business
3 Big Takeaways
1. The most successful organizations find the white space in their market. Instead of entering a saturated market, smart organizations find customer needs that the existing marketing isn't serving. Slate Auto did exactly that with affordable EVs that remove the complexity from buying while making them totally customizable to the buyer.
2. In manufacturing, the simpler the process, the better. A typical new vehicle has 2,500 to 3,000 incoming parts, while Slate Auto has reduced that to roughly 600 to 800 by designing parts to serve multiple functions. Fewer parts also mean fewer buyers, engineers, invoices and supply chain demands, so the savings extend far beyond the assembly line.
3. “It’s not the big that eat the small; it’s the fast that eat the slow.” For Rod Copes, speed is every bit as important for established companies as it is for startups. Being “fast, frugal, and scrappy” means questioning extended development cycles, staying focused on the critical path and refusing to accept slow processes simply because that’s how it's always been done.
Resources in this Episode:
Learn more about Slate Auto
Other resources mentioned:
Rivian
Smart Automation Certification Alliance (SACA)
More links & resources on the episode page:
https://techedpodcast.com/copes/

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School funding, teacher pay, CTE, Workforce Pell, competency-based education, technical careers, automation and industry credentials are all part of a changing conversation about education in Wisconsin.
In this episode, host Matt Kirchner sits down with Tom Tiffany, U.S. Congressman and candidate for governor of Wisconsin, to discuss how he would approach education and workforce policy at the state level. Tiffany shares his views on education funding and accountability, teacher compensation, alternative pathways into teaching, federal support for shorter-term workforce training and the role of private investment in schools.
The conversation also looks at what modern career and technical education can include, particularly hands-on learning, robotics and automation, competency-based education and stackable credentials that connect high school, technical colleges, universities and careers. We discuss examples already operating in Wisconsin, including Whitehall School District, UW-Stout and the Smart Automation Certification Alliance, as well as existing state programs that fund CTE and industry-recognized credentials.
Note: The TechEd Podcast does not endorse political candidates. Tom Tiffany’s opponent has also been invited to join the podcast for a conversation about education.
Listen to learn:
How Tom Tiffany would approach school funding and accountability in Wisconsin
His ideas for increasing teacher pay and expanding alternative routes into teaching
How Workforce Pell expands federal support for shorter-term technical training
Why competency-based education comes up as an alternative to fixed-time learning
How robotics, automation and stackable credentials fit into modern CTE pathways
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At IACMI, aerospace companies, material suppliers, startups, universities, and national laboratories gather around the same table, often with the same goal: finding the next composites breakthrough.
In this episode of The TechEd Podcast, Matt Kirchner sits down with Chad Duty, CEO of IACMI - The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, to explore the materials, technologies, and partnerships shaping the future of advanced manufacturing. Chad explains how composites are being deployed across aerospace, automotive, energy, infrastructure, and national defense applications, and how nearly 200 member organizations work together to move ideas from research into commercial production.
We also explore innovation in America - from the big OEMs to small startups - and how the U.S. needs to get back to building. Chad describes an innovation ecosystem that includes organizations such as Northrop Grumman, Google, Airbus, Volkswagen, ExxonMobil, universities, national laboratories, and small manufacturers. He argues that manufacturing capability remains one of America's most important competitive advantages, but only if the country continues developing the talent pipeline needed to sustain innovation, production, and economic growth.
In this episode:
Breakthrough innovations in composites and their uses that will blow your mind
Why major manufacturers increasingly look to startups for innovations they can mine
Why early exposure is key to both getting more individuals into manufacturing and ensuring they're successful on Day 1
Where the U.S. has strayed from our roots as innovators and builders, and how we can fix it
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. Many of manufacturing's most important innovations originate in small and mid-sized companies.
IACMI's network includes nearly 200 organizations ranging from startups and family-owned manufacturers to companies such as Northrop Grumman, Airbus, Google, and ExxonMobil. Chad describes large manufacturers using consortium meetings as a form of "innovation mining," searching for solutions developed by smaller firms with specialized expertise. The result is an innovation ecosystem where breakthrough ideas often move from small manufacturers into some of the world's largest industrial organizations.
2. Composite materials are expanding into industries and applications that most people would never associate with advanced manufacturing.
Learn about where composites are being used in innovative ideas today, from carbon-core transmission lines being explored to meet growing data-center power demands, to corrosion-resistant infrastructure and a composite bridge that can be monitored in real time through embedded sensors. Chad also points to projects such as a lighter composite liftgate for Volkswagen and Army Corps of Engineers applications where durability and corrosion resistance can dramatically extend infrastructure life.
3. A nation that stops making things eventually loses its ability to innovate.
Chad argues that innovation and manufacturing are inseparable because companies learn by designing, building, testing, and improving products in the real world. That belief shape IACMI's workforce strategy, which begins with elementary-school exposure, continues through online learning and boot camps, and extends into internships, apprenticeships, and industry experiences. Rebuilding America's manufacturing capacity, in his view, requires rebuilding the pipeline of people capable of participating in it.
Get all the resources & links on the episode page: https://techedpodcast.com/duty

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