Technology with Purpose – Barbara Humpton – Part 1

Some Questions I Ask:

• Why is what Siemens do necessary? (03:18)
• What is Siemens doing to help us take advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT)? (09:44)
• Why is it better to make factories more efficient instead of getting cheaper labor? (15:44)
• How would you describe President Biden based on your recent interaction? (19:57)
• Does Siemens use gaming technology to design some of its products? (27:30)

What You’ll Learn in this Episode:

• Why Siemens’ capability to build both software and hardware is an advantage (05:02)
• One of the first inventions by Siemens (07:01)
• An example of a software-hardware connection created by Siemens that’s in use today (08:04)
• Barbara’s meeting with President Biden in the White House (10:58)
• Similarities between video games and the current engineering environment (24:40)

Connect with Barbara Humpton: 

• LinkedIn
• Siemens USA

Connect with Ed Bernardon:

• LinkedIn
• Future Car: Driving a Lifestyle Revolution
• Motorsports is speeding the way to safer urban mobility
• Siemens Digital Industries Software

Ed Bernardon: So, Barbara, you grew up in a family of mathematicians — so, obviously, Math has probably had a bit of an influence on your life. I want you to draw on that mathematical background and I want you to tell me what your favorite equation is. And you cannot pick E=MC2 because Einstein picked that one. Favorite equation.

Barbara Humpton: Oh, no, the quadratic equation. The quadratic equation is how we square everything up.

Ed Bernardon: The quadratic, that’s number one on your list, then?

Barbara Humpton: A quadratic is a hit. And if you want to know my favorite sequence, it’s the Fibonacci series.

Ed Bernardon: Does it have something to do with rabbits and reproduction?

Barbara Humpton: Yeah, the Fibonacci sequence actually describes and represents a relationship that we see all over nature — like a nautilus shell, the sequence of the growth of chambers.

Ed Bernardon: Well, I got an equation and a sequence. See, it’s obvious that math is important for you.

Ed Bernardon: Technology and its connections surround us; it’s constantly evolving. But what is the scale of it and how does it grow to touch the infrastructures of cities and countries and even touching us directly? The global company, Siemens, one of the largest in the world, does so many things: factory automation, healthcare, MRI machines, trains and mobility infrastructure, building systems, engineering software, power distribution, and even EV charging.

Ed Bernardon: With us today is Barbara Humpton. She is the CEO of Siemens, USA. And in her role, she touches on all of these areas. She’s going to explain how all of these Siemens pieces fit together and why this combination of technology and solutions is so important for our future.

Ed Bernardon: Barbara’s trailblazing journey began in the ‘80s when she worked for IBM and Lockheed. She now guides strategy, engagement operations and services in the areas of electrification, automation, and digitalization for Siemens’ largest market: the United States. She views technology with purpose as the key, as well as maintaining her passion for collaboration, expanding the Internet of Things, and elevating the role of humans in our technological landscape.

Ed Bernardon: In Part 1 of this two-part interview, Barbara — a mathematician turned corporate exec — explains her interpretation of Siemens’ mission as a technology giant and how this will impact our future in mobility and life in general. We discuss the impact of automation, her recent visit to the White House where she stood with President Biden to describe how to improve the USA’s infrastructure, video games, and the idea of “glocalization”! Join me, Ed Bernardon, on this episode of The Future Car, as we take a look into the future of technology.

Ed Bernardon: Barbara, welcome to The Future Car podcast.

Barbara Humpton: Ed, it’s fantastic to be with you.

Ed Bernardon: I want to start at the top. Siemens does so many things: software, MRI machines, trains, factory automation, EV charging, power distribution. How would you describe Siemens? What is it that they do? Why is it important?

Barbara Humpton: What I love to tell people is that Siemens brings our know-how in electrification, automation, and digitalization to bring technology with purpose, to build technology that forms the backbone of economies around the world.

Ed Bernardon: So, as a backbone, you don’t always see it then. We built a house a short while ago, and I went downstairs, and there was a big electrical box down there that had a big Siemens sticker on it. And when you’re traveling in Germany, you see Siemens on trains, on buildings, everywhere. You don’t really see it, but it’s everywhere.

Barbara Humpton: That’s right. I think we may be the tech company that a few people even know exists. And it’s because if you think about the role of technology in our lives, especially over these last couple of decades, a lot of technology has been focused on building the internet of people; it’s brought us together in our commercial lives, in our entertainment lives. But now we’re in an era where people are going to be creating the Internet of Things. This is where Siemens has been specializing — the built world around us, the engineering that goes into how we travel, how we communicate, and how we live and work each day. And pretty soon, folks are going to be experiencing that in a much smarter and connected way than ever before.

Ed Bernardon: One of the things Siemens does is software. So, you’ve got this big piece that works on software, but there’s also the hardware piece. And I think any company that works the software and the hardware probably has an advantage over companies that just specialize in software or just specialize in hardware. It’s somewhat unique in that respect that it has such a broad spectrum of things that it does. How’s this an advantage, do you think, for Siemens?

Barbara Humpton: Actually, I’ll take you back because, throughout its long, long history — Siemens is almost 175 years old; we’ll be celebrating the birthday this year — throughout its history, Siemens has really been focused on building physical things. Physical products have been the legacy of this organization. But in 1977, Siemens also connected a turbine via a telephone line for the very first time, and lo and behold, over time when the internet was created, obviously, it was important to get things connected. So, now we’re all experiencing the transformation, the prediction a few decades ago that software would eat the world. What we’re finding is that the more we can make the physical things that we have manageable via software — which, by the way, can be managed remotely — we can benefit from upgrades and continuous evolution of products through software evolution. All of that, as it comes together, means that we’re really combining the real and virtual worlds. And that’s the stage we’re in right now. And Siemens has that unique expertise in both the physical history, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering that are absolutely behind the true physics of how things work, along with the know-how in software to make them accessible and connected.

Ed Bernardon: I think one of the original inventions when Siemens first got started. What was the first name of Mr. Siemens? I forgot his first name.

Barbara Humpton: Werner von Siemens.

Ed Bernardon: So, his invention, I believe, was something that converted the telegraph into a little pointer that would point to the different letters that were coming across. So, that’s a great connection. At least, in those days, it’s connecting sound to something visual. I’d rather, instead of seeing dot dot dot, seeing an S is clearer.

Barbara Humpton: The pointer telegraph, very much like a typewriter, where you could just point to the letter you wanted and the translation would happen. Oh, by the way, Siemens and his brother were also involved in laying the transatlantic cable that got those telegraph signals to be able to span huge distances — so, the first cable connecting India and Europe. And again, as I say, the transatlantic cable that made our connection to the rest of the Western world possible.

Ed Bernardon: Probably, the first time an actual alphabetical letter went across the ocean, and Siemens did that. Can you give us some examples, today, of this software to hardware connection that provides a real advantage that Siemens can provide?

Barbara Humpton: I’ll use one of the biggest, which is when an Amtrak locomotive pulls into one of its stations, Amtrak is able to download data from 600 sensors aboard that locomotive. And what that does is give the managers and operators an opportunity to see whether everything’s operating properly. If there’s preventive maintenance that’s needed, they can intervene and take care of that in the moment, instead of waiting for something to break down. That’s one example, but once you start looking for it, you see this everywhere. The idea that we’re using digital tools, not only in the way we operate really big things like buildings, grids, and train systems but the fact that we can use software to design those things. We can actually, in the design process, begin to simulate how those things are actually going to operate. So, whether it’s an inventor, an entrepreneur getting their first early idea, or whether it’s a manufacturer laying out their flow of the way their plant should work, all the way through to after a product is manufactured, how it operates in the real world, these are all real applications of the combination of the digital and physical.

Ed Bernardon: You mentioned earlier that the Internet of Things is a backbone to a lot of this. If you had to give someone a real quick definition, why should I care about the Internet of Things? What exactly is it? And what does Siemens do to help us take advantage of the Internet of Things?

Barbara Humpton: Yeah, why do we care about the Internet of Things? Well, we often want the things we use to be smarter. We often want them to be connected so that we don’t have to continuously provide information to disconnected and separate objects. I talk to people all the time who are delighted when they can pull into their driveway and their phone can talk to their home system to turn on the lights, maybe adjust the heat; they can carry their music from their automobile into their home uninterrupted. These are the kinds of connections that have made, as I say, our entertainment life a lot more fun. Now, what about if those same capabilities were used to make the built world around us more resilient, safer? These are the advantages of actually creating an Internet of Things.

Ed Bernardon: As part of the infrastructure, we always think of roads and bridges, but now it’s the connections. It’s not just connecting people by driving on roads, but connecting things and the information about all those things seamlessly; “Hey, I’m gonna go from my garage to the house, all my information is there.” You recently met with President Biden. You were at the White House and you were talking about improving and investing in critical infrastructure. Tell us a little bit about that meeting, what you announced there, and what you discussed as far as what Siemens is doing to help with critical infrastructure.

Barbara Humpton: First, I’ll share that we, at Siemens, have had a series of meetings with the President as well as members of his administration. The thing that I just keep finding is that what we’re working on is incredibly well-aligned with our national priorities right now. Whether it’s our colleagues at Healthineers, who are working on creating a world free of the fear of cancer, getting them connected with the White House, a group that’s working on the Cancer Moonshot — that’s something we can do as a real public service to make sure that we share our know-how with people who are in a position to make big decisions on behalf of citizens of the United States. Likewise, I’ve been invited in for discussions with some peers in the industry. One roundtable, as you say, was focused-in on what we should be doing next when it comes to legislation to advance some of these priorities. I had the chance to attend with leaders in the automotive community, leaders in various industries including tech, and manufacturers of many different things that are critical parts of our economy. And in a small roundtable of 12 folks, I was amazed at how aligned the opinions were, that the real priority is for us to be focused on a more sustainable and resilient future. We heard from Mary Barra at GM, from Jim Farley at Ford about the work they’re doing on the electric vehicle transformation. And that became a theme where it’s obvious that we at Siemens have incredible know-how and a lot to offer. As an example, we were already working with Ford to be their partner for the Ford F-150 Lightning. We provided the charging station that supports the system, which includes solar panels that would generate electricity, as well as the truck itself. And when Ford actually rolled out the F-150 Lightning, the announcement said, “A home energy resilience system.” So, we know that we’re working in this space where the convergence of grids, of buildings, of transportation systems are all coming together.

Barbara Humpton: Well, shortly after this, the President was making his State of the Union address and we had been making sure that members of his administration were familiar with the work we’re doing aligned with, as I say, the goals of the administration and the subject of EV charging came up again. Now, we’re making an investment in expanding our manufacturing operations in the US, and in particular, Grand Prairie, Texas, and Pomona, California. Across the two sites, putting about $54 million into expanding our operations in those two locations, so that we could increase our production of the switchgear, the electrical components that are required to make the grid capable of meeting the demand for EV charging. Well, the administration was thrilled to see this. A lot of people would say, “54 million dollars — that’s not big compared to the bipartisan infrastructure law.” But what I heard from Brian Deese, the Head of the National Economic Council, was that the focus that they have on encouraging foreign direct investment in the US was one big factor. As a German company investing in the US, expanding our manufacturing, it’s right in line with the things the administration would like to see across the economy. So, we got the invitation to come and actually make our announcement of this investment from the stage with the President. And it was such a thrill. We had representatives from the IBEW, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who are our staff, both in Grand Prairie and Pomona. We also had their head who works here in the DC area. And we had a member of that union actually get to introduce the President of the United States. It was a fantastic day.

Ed Bernardon: You announced this investment, and it’s obvious to make the factories more efficient — actually more production, better production, higher quality. Why do that when there’s just cheaper labor overseas?

Barbara Humpton: One of the things we’re really focused on when you think about the major trends that are impacting the markets today, one of those is glocalization — the idea that supply chain disruptions have led us to really rethink our global supply chains. Yes, once upon a time, it made perfect sense for us to seek the lowest labor pools in the world to be our providers of all kinds of goods that were needed for production all around the world. And then those products would be shipped around the world, maybe assembled someplace, shipped again, perfected, customized, etc. And what you saw was this constant movement of goods around the globe. And of course, what we saw during COVID was this disruption. It wasn’t just COVID, now we’re also dealing with inflationary pressures of economies that have been disrupted. And we’ve seen the simple facts of shipping logistics can get in the way. So, with all that said, manufacturers everywhere are needing to think about what can they do to shorten their supply chains. Glocalization is the theme that we really think is going to be important in this next decade. So, bringing production closer to the source of demand. And that’s made possible through the use of digital tools. We now have the ability to take advantage of global innovation. We’ve got innovators everywhere working on new ideas, products, and services to be provided. We can create the digital twin of a product to be produced. We can actually share that across networks to a production facility that can be located close to the point of demand. And then, actually, enhancing that ability to produce regionally is going to give us greater resilience in the supply chain.

Ed Bernardon: So, “local” obviously is local, the “G” for global: glocal. Make it at home, locally, but through the use of digital twins — I do want to ask you a little bit about digital twins a little later — but through the use of engineering throughout the world and bringing that information in digitally, you can take advantage of the brain power and the innovation across Siemens and elsewhere, our suppliers, to then bring that innovation power in to make that local manufacturing more effective. So, it’s really taking advantage of both.

Barbara Humpton: It really is. And let me give you just a drill into the example of the EV charger. There are a couple of things that happen, especially in electricity. It turns out there’s not one global standard for electrical components, and the US standard is different than the European standard, different than what gets used, say, in certain parts of Asia. So, with that said, we know already that we’ve had to think and design in multiple regional mindsets. We’ve got know-how actually now in teams around the world and a focus and a business strategy that encourages this kind of local innovation. So, in the case of EV chargers, the global business made the investment to actually manufacture a million EV chargers in the US over the next four years. We’ve got know-how in Wendell, North Carolina and that’s where we’ve put the major footprint. We’re going to be expanding elsewhere in the United States. But what we’re doing is then building local talent pipelines to bring people into this ecosystem, where they’ll learn the engineering skills that are required in order to produce the EV chargers; they’re going to learn the manufacturing techniques that are used, and then they go to work, and that’s jobs in the local community, it’s value added to the local economy, and it’s a real service to this transition to our new EV transportation system of the future.

Ed Bernardon: I do want to touch on one more thing about your meeting with President Biden. So, probably before and after you got a little bit of a chance to chit chat with the President. How would you describe him? Does he like to joke around? Is he a serious person? How would you describe the President as a person?

Barbara Humpton: Warm and engaging. I’ll share with you that as we were preparing to go on stage for our announcement, we wanted to introduce him to the employee who would be doing the Presidential introduction, and we definitely wanted our employee to feel comfortable and not nervous at all. And it was fun because the President asked him, “Hey, how did you come to join Siemens?” And our employee, Johnny Lee, said, “Breakdancing.” The President says, “Excuse me, breakdancing?” And Johnny explained how he would have been in a dance club and he had met someone who worked for Siemens who said, “Hey, you’d be a great talent in our organization.” Lo and behold, he joined the union and he has had a fantastic career progression in the time he has been with us. Well, the President immediately just responded with, “You know, my wife’s a dancer, too.” Somehow the President finds common ground with each of us as individuals. One other quick story I’ll share with you. We really were thrilled to be able to take the podium and have a chance to share our message as we made the announcement of our investment in the US, and we ended the comments with a real focus on people, the idea that a lot of people are afraid of automation, that maybe robots are coming to take over our jobs. And what I love to share with people is nothing could be further from the truth. The idea that investments in technology are actually elevating the role of the human in the loop is really our main message. And I shared that, that day, from the stage. And when I went back and took my place next to the President for him to be introduced next, he leaned over and said, “You know, it doesn’t sound scary when you talk about it that way.” I love that feedback. He’s truly interested in the things that individuals in this country are able to do, the innovation we’re bringing to the table, and then engaging with us in ways that just might not be evident in what you see reported on the evening news.

Ed Bernardon: Well, do you think we’ll hear him say “glocal” at any point in the future?

Barbara Humpton: I have definitely begun to hear members of his administration say “glocal.” It’s fun because we used to talk about globalization, and now we’re talking about glocalization wherever we can. And when people hear it the first time, it makes them stop and think, and then they realize, “You know, this is right.” And what we’re talking about wouldn’t just benefit the United States, this will benefit countries around the world.

Ed Bernardon: Did you make that up? Were you the initiator of “glocal”?

Barbara Humpton: Me, Barbara Humpton? I don’t think so. But did I begin to hear this inside Siemens? For sure.

Ed Bernardon: One part of what you just said was very, very interesting in that the person that introduced President Biden actually got their job through breakdancing. Is that an advantage if you’re a breakdancer to getting a job at Siemens? If you have that on your resume, do you think it will make it easier to get a job?

Barbara Humpton: Well, I will tell you this. At any given point, we have something like 2000 to 3000 open jobs in the US. And what we’re looking for is people with diverse talents. And when somebody stands out as having a passion, if you can find someone who actually has enough interest in something that they engage in a club and go out and participate, that’s a really strong indicator that that’s going to be somebody who’s a good team player. So, I do think that when we think about our whole selves, think about all the things that make us tick, the real question to ask is, “Is Siemens a good match for me?” We’re looking for people with a lot of energy, enthusiasm, the ability to collaborate well, and yeah, Johnny Lee, the breakdancer — perfect candidate for us.

Ed Bernardon: You mentioned this idea about manufacturing being a little bit scary. So, specifically, what’s Siemens doing to give people a better understanding of what we mean about factory and factory automation? We’re not scared. We look forward to it. We’re excited about it.

Barbara Humpton: Well, ok let’s start with this. I’ll be at some public setting and someone in the audience will stand up and say, “Hey, I have a child in high school getting ready to go to college, what should I advise them to study if they want to have a future in the technology that you’re working on?” And I say, “Encourage them to play video games.”

Ed Bernardon: Oh, really? Do you play video games?

Barbara Humpton: I don’t, and I never did.

Ed Bernardon: Wow, you must take your own advice then. You have to start playing them.

Barbara Humpton: Perhaps, but here’s why I give this advice, Ed. When I came to Siemens and I started to learn about the tools of manufacturing, when I saw the work of my colleagues in Digital Industries Software and saw that what they were doing is in essence — I’ll put it this way, imagine encapsulating the history of mathematics and engineering into tools that can be intuitively operated by people in a way that more and more is like playing a video game. And think about it, our kids who are playing Minecraft today; they’re working together, they’ve got an objective, they’re trying to build something, they know what materials they have to use, sometimes they can invent new materials, sometimes they can collaborate with others to put objects together. Frankly, this is exactly what engineering in one of our modern environments looks like. Imagine this future where instead of having to work through all of the mathematics from the ground up, starting with grid paper and a slide rule — the way we had to when I was coming up as a lass — imagine being able to click into catalogs of already designed parts and actually just reassembling those in a new and different way. Maybe, yes, inventing a few things, or maybe even turning the problem over to the computer and saying, “You design this part for me. Here are my requirements: I need it to be this strong, weigh less than this, and be this big. Now, go tell me what’s the optimal design.” The software today will handle all those kinds of things. Hence, my statement that while, of course, we’ll always need people to go off and study electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and advance the underlying disciplines that are encapsulated in these tools, we’re going to need a huge cadre of people who just know how to use them and enjoy the fun of interacting with our computer systems in this very game-way — gamified, is that the right word? — that actually is going to make work feel a lot more like fun.

Ed Bernardon: We actually met, I think it was maybe four or five years ago, and it was at a Siemens conference that I believe it was in New Jersey at one of the corporate technology centers and you were on stage with Mouse McCoy and he was talking about using gaming to design motorcycles. And like you say, the interesting thing about that, especially because you’re playing games with a lot of different people, diverse people, diverse ideas coming together. Is that actually used? Can you give us an example of how that’s used within Siemens? Gaming is used to design some of your products.

Barbara Humpton: So, Mouse is a great example because his vision was two high school kids in a garage can have their own car company in the future. And the fact is, the technology is practically there. In fact, before meeting Mouse, I’d had the chance to meet Ashley Kimball. I don’t know if you remember Ashley, but she was, at the time, a high school student who had used Siemens software to design a prosthetic foot for a Marine who had lost his limb in combat. And Ashley, by the way, is an intern at Siemens this year. She’s gone on to the University of Alabama, at Birmingham, and she’s doing a fantastic job. So, fast forward, we bring all this together into the way things are working today at Siemens. Gamification, Ed, I don’t know that I’ve seen us actually set things up as games. When I think of games, I think of contests almost. But I have seen us turning the job over to the technology. Let me give you an example. A couple of years ago, Siemens was working on electric flight. What would it take to build a motor capable of lifting an airplane? And is the future of aviation electric? Well, the team that took this on as a challenge built a timeline that said, “Hey, by 2035, we should be able to see the first regional jet capable of actually transporting people with an electric motor.” Then they set about setting some very achievable near-term goals — like, “Let’s have the first flight with an electric motor and a little two-seater.” “Oh, that was a quick success.” “Let’s try to set some speed records, some climb records.” “Oh, quick, quick, quick,” you started to see the records fall as it was obvious that this is actually possible, it’s possible to design and build a motor that’s light enough and has a high-enough power ratio, it’s capable of lifting an airplane.

Barbara Humpton: The team was getting further and further into this. And I had the chance to visit one part of the team that was actually resident in Budapest, Hungary. I’d gone for a vacation with my husband and took a vacation from my vacation to go visit the team working on this motor. And they had told me about the debate they had about the best way to design a cooling collar around a major bearing — should air channels go vertical or should they go horizontal? And they eventually decided they would let the computer decide the matter for them. And using generative design, they put this into the computer as “go show us what that design ought to look like.” And when the thing came out, they all stood around and looked at it and said, “None of us would have devised this.” But the software had done thousands of computations and found an optimal configuration that indeed became part of what was then 3D-printed and inserted into the motor and used in the next test flight. It was a wild success. And in fact, what the corporation ended up doing was selling this IP actually to Rolls Royce because it was clear Siemens was not going to be in the business of airworthiness certification and the processes that are required to serve the aerospace industry in this way. But as innovators, we were showing the power of the electrification of transportation and the power of the tools that can be used to help us get there faster.

Ed Bernardon: Not just innovation in the electric motor itself, but the innovation in how it was designed. And the example you gave in generative design is the ability to put material just where you need it, just where the loads are. And then through the ability of 3D printing, you can actually create structures that look like that. But you mentioned earlier, truly this automation of design. And just last week, MIT announced that they had taught this robot that had the capability to walk but it didn’t know how to walk, but they taught it how to learn to walk, but not actually how to walk. It took it three hours to learn to walk on its own by making mistakes, and they thought it would take 100 hours if they had to program it manually. So, let’s take that idea to design. Do you think that it’s possible that we could design software that could actually be creative and design on its own so we can sit back and say, “Hey, I’d like something sort of like this, go out there and make it, design it for me”?

Barbara Humpton: People are already making forays into this world. The first time I saw a real example of programming that was literally designed to enable a robot to learn was in the Princeton Technology Headquarters you mentioned earlier. And what they had was a demonstration — I don’t know if you saw it, Ed — where they were teaching a robot to reach into a box, recognize an object, and figure out how to efficiently extract that object. You’d have to reach through a square hole and maybe pull a square through or reach through a square hole and pull a round object through. What we were demonstrating was this ability to create a framework and have the programming itself facilitate machine learning. So, these kinds of experiments are going on in many, many different places and ways. And now, to me, this is a little bit like the era when the iPhone technologies all came together. We’ve got basic research serving multiple other uses now coming together and saying, “Hmm, what could this do for us in this realm?” So, I believe in this world of manufacturing, built infrastructure, transportation, we now will get to see creative entrepreneurs — and that includes large corporations like Siemens — taking these fundamental building blocks and beginning to apply them in new and different ways.

Ed Bernardon: That’s part 1 with Barbara Humpton. Join us on our next episode when we’ll continue our discussion on how Siemens’ unique combination of solutions and technology will impact our future. And as always, for more information about Siemens Digital Industries Software, make sure to visit us at plm.automation.siemens.com. And until next time, I’m Ed Bernardon, and this has been The Future Car podcast.