The Third Angle

We’ve headed to Sion in Switzerland to meet H55, a Swiss company pioneering electric propulsion systems for aircraft, from energy storage to battery management. Founded in 2017, they operate across Switzerland, Canada, and France and have a vision for a cleaner, quieter, more efficient aviation industry.

At the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa, humanoid robots are no longer just science fiction, they’re being developed for tasks such as assisting human workers in factories and even flying into disaster zones. We head inside IIT’s robotics lab with Daniele Pucci, Head of Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence to wave hello to some of the robots and explore how these advanced machines could become an integral part of our world in the next decade.

Open Bionics is developing 3D printed prosthetics designed to enhance people’s lives and display their creativity. Rather than making prosthetics which attempt to look like real limbs, Open Bionics are unashamedly robotic. Their products are fully customizable and include designs from popular brands like Marvel and Disney.

Iconic British designer Dame Vivienne Westwood set up her fashion brand in the 1970s, reflecting the rebellious spirit of the era and embracing punk and counterculture. Its motto is “buy less, choose well, make it last.” We head to the Vivenne Westwood HQ in Milan to talk to meet Giorgio Ravasio, the brand’s Country Manager for Italy, he walks us around the shop floor of their flagship store and talks about how the company is embracing technology to stay at the forefront of a highly competitive fashion industry.

In this special episode of Third Angle, we’re looking back at some of the innovative tech, toys and gadgets we have featured on the podcast. From model kits that contain life-like details of fighter jets, to ear buds with 360 degree spatialized sound, to top-of-the-range electronic keyboards, to interactive robotic toys, we are celebrating the future of gifting.

We head to Gröbenzell in this episode, to explore hydrokinetic power generation with Energyminer. Energyfish is a crucial part of Energyminer's offering, providing turnkey power plants composed of schools of Energyfish, which harness river currents to produce sustainable energy 24 hours a day, all without disrupting aquatic ecosystems.

In this episode, NASA give us very special access behind the scenes at Kennedy Space Center. NASA has been pushing the boundaries of space exploration for decades, and today, the Artemis program is the next giant leap. With a mission to return humans to the moon and venture even further into space, NASA is embracing cutting-edge digital engineering to make this vision a reality.

We’ve taken a trip to the French Alps to learn all about the future of one of the newest forms of transport - a visionary, chainless vehicle with an advanced pedaling system creating a new world where they want everyone to be physically active.

YCOM, a leader in motorsports and lightweight composites, has pioneered the world's first fleet of racing e-scooters for the Electric Scooter Championship (ESC). Listen in to learn about their unique approach to product development, which involves rapid prototyping and collaboration with former MotoGP riders.

In this episode of the Third Angle, we head to Italy’s Motor Valley to explore the engineering prowess of Dallara, the legendary manufacturer behind some of the most advanced racing cars in the world.

Join us as we explore the future of personal aviation with Hill Helicopters, a company aiming to redefine the helicopter industry with their groundbreaking designs. Discover how they combine sleek, luxury design with cutting-edge technology to create helicopters that are not only beautiful but incredibly easy to fly. Hill Helicopters’ ambition is to become the “Aston Martin of the skies,” making flying accessible to newcomers while maintaining top performance.

Join us as we learn all about KTM’s X-BOW, a sports car which contains all of the innovation and design features of a modern racing car. With its iconic jet fighter canopy, five-cylinder engine, removable steering wheel and carbon fibre monocoque.

Muddy Machines, a pioneering company tackling the challenges of modern farming with agricultural robots. Join us as we learn how its innovative robot, Sprout, is improving asparagus harvesting, whilst reducing soil damage, cutting emissions, and addressing labor shortages in agriculture.

A special episode highlighting outstanding companies making significant improvements to our everyday lives. From enhancing experiences for the deafblind community to changing the way we rest for a refreshed and ready start to the day. We highlight the innovative and creative efforts making the world a better place, one product at a time.

In this episode, we’re taken into the enchanting world of Hasbro, the globally famous toy and games company. We visit their HQ in Rhode Island and uncover the magic behind the design of some of the most iconic toys ever created.

Discover how NanoVoxel’s advanced technology is transforming micro-manufacturing, from creating intricate micro-parts to prototyping and mass production for those working in the medical world and tech sector.

We're catching the wave - literally - with CorPower Ocean, the trailblazers of wave power technology. Join us as we explore how this pioneering company is leading the way with a carbon-free solution that balances supply and demand more efficiently, requiring less generation capacity, storage, and grid infrastructure

In this episode, we place the magnifying glass on the electrifying world of motorcycles with Maeving Motorcycle Company. Tune in and learn about the importance of removable batteries – giving flexibility and the freedom to charge whenever, wherever.

Explore Marks & Spencer’s 100 year journey from essential retailer to fashion icon and hear how they’ve embraced sustainability and tech, like AI bra fittings - revolutionizing the industry. From its inception, M&S has evolved beyond merely selling life’s essentials to becoming synonymous with quality and sustainability in clothing.

Eight Sleep is at the forefront of transforming the way we rest - come on a journey with us as we delve into this new sleep technology with their latest innovation, the Pod 4 Ultra. The new AI generated mattress can regulate your temperature, detect, and prevent snoring and, reminiscent of a reclining chair, it can adjust to alter your body position.

Welcome to the world of FarmBot where technology meets agriculture. This robotic tech can plant, water, and nurture your crops until harvest - all through the use of a savvy app - with just one click.

Club Car, a brand known for its gold carts, are at the forefront of electric vehicle innovation. The company is reinventing utility vehicles that work just about anywhere you can think of, and designing vehicles that are fun, practical and of course eco-friendly. You can spot their rides zooming around golf courses, resorts, farms and even college campuses.

In the modern world, we have an abundance of technology that helps us with our communication, information gathering, and entertainment needs. But most of this is inaccessible for DeafBlind individuals whose primary language is tactile sign. Tatum Robotics is advancing accessibility by developing a robot hand that can communicate with DeafBlind people through tactile sign and allow them to access the internet.

Having clean, drinkable water is essential for everyone, no matter where they are. For some on-site workers on remote oil and gas drilling sites, this means transporting in large amounts of bottled water. The result is too much plastic waste from the bottles and air pollution from the extra traffic. WaterFleet provides an alternative solution.

In 2004, a group of Belgian engineering students built a solar car to compete in the World Solar Challenge, a 3021km endurance race through the Australian Outback. Twenty years later, the Innoptus Solar team is still going strong, with new students coming together to build new solar racing cars. They are currently double World Champions with their tenth solar car, the Infinite.For the team, success is all about collaboration and innovation, constantly refining the design of their car to make it faster and more efficient.

Wind power is playing a huge role in the global renewable energy landscape. With higher than ever demand for wind energy, wind turbines are getting larger. However, that creates its own challenges, not least ensuring the whole supply chain stays sustainable. In this episode, we find out how Vestas is taking on that challenge through initiatives such as ensuring crucial components like blades are recyclable, or that wind turbine towers can be made using low-emission steel.

With many governments making commitments toward zero-emission targets, more and more of the trucks on our roads are becoming electric. Whilst good news for the environment, it can present challenges for emergency responders, who may not be familiar with how these types of trucks are built. Volvo Group is the market leader in the manufacture of electric trucks in Europe, and as has been the case for decades, they’re improving safety through clever innovation. They’ve developed an app for use at the scene of an emergency which guides those on the scene around the important components of the truck using 3D images as well as augmented reality.

A special New Year listen back. Here on The Third Angle, we’ve highlighted stories from all over the globe about how companies have used PTC technology to design a greener future. From the architects using clever design to create low-energy use homes to the engineers revolutionizing electric transport in Africa, we’ve heard from some inspiring people. In this episode, we’re taking a listen back to some of those stories.

Jabra’s wireless earbuds are full of cutting-edge technology such as advanced noise cancellation, wind cancellation and of course essential for the runners, sweat resistance. They even manufacture some of the toughest, most durable headphones on the market. One of the latest advances though is spatial, or 3D audio, meaning sound it’s just left or right, it can be a 360 experience for the user. We visit the Jabra sound labs in Copenhagen where testing for many of the products takes place, including two anechoic chambers which cancel out outside sound completely for a completely controlled audio environment.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was founded in 2010 by the sailor Ellen MacArthur, with the aim of driving forward a circular economy. In this special episode of The Third Angle, Paul sits down in the studio to speak to Joe Iles, Circular Design Programme Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. He tells us about the work the Foundation is doing to promote the circular economy and talks about the main things designers should keep in mind when designing something truly sustainable.

When a fighter pilot is flying a high-speed jet, every second counts. In futuristic TV and movies we’ve got used to seeing pilots reading displays right in front of their eyes, think Iron Man and Top Gun. Well real life is catching up with the revolutionary Striker II Digital Helmet-Mounted Display made by BAE Systems.

Integrated digital production facilities are a critical infrastructure that will accelerate domestic and global innovation and draw top talent to the manufacturing sector. VulcanForms, an MIT-born company, brings forth metal additive manufacturing as a scalable industrial process, and as a cornerstone of breakthrough digital production systems.

If you are injured in a disaster zone, it is critical that you receive medical care as urgently as possible. But what if the environment is not safe for medics to enter? The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) has created pioneering robotics technology to get medics into difficult-to-access areas to triage patients using medical telexistence (MediTel) technology.

If you’ve been to East Africa you may be familiar with “boda bodas.” If not, they’re small taxi bikes, commonly used by couriers or to transport people. There are 1.2 million of them in Kenya alone, that’s a lot of combustion engines on the roads, and removing them is the problem that Roam Electric are helping to solve.

From James Bond to Mission Impossible to The Great Escape, chances are you have probably seen a Triumph motorcycle on the silver screen. Triumph’s most famous bikes are probably their iconic 1960s Bonneville range, but they make a wide range of classic, urban and adventure bikes, and also supply engines for racing bikes, with some models having even broken land-speed records.

Around the world, over 3 billion people don’t have access to motorized transport. This means that farmers in emerging economies can struggle to get their produce to market. OX Delivers is working to change all this by allowing farmers to rent space in their electric OX Trucks. As the farmers are only paying for the space they need, the system remains affordable and allows them to take more goods to market and make more profit.

Imagine being able to race round all the world’s top Formula One circuits and feel every bump and bit of understeer without having to travel anywhere. Or to be able to test drive a road car that hasn’t been built yet on the motorway. Dynisma creates driving simulators that make this possible. Our podcast host, Paul Haimes, went to the Dynisma office to learn more.

Since the launch of the Casiotone keyboard in 1980, the electronic keyboard has become a popular addition to our homes. A more affordable and portable option to the classic piano, it opened up an exciting new era of musical expression to a generation of consumers. Their latest model, the PX-S7000 in “harmonious mustard” from the Casio Privia range, is not only going down a storm with musicians but it’s also a thing of beauty winning design awards for its unusual look.

Education is vital for inspiring the engineers of tomorrow. In this special episode of the podcast, we ask: are we encouraging enough young people to go into engineering to meet the demand for innovation? We speak to Jordan Cox from PTC’s Education segment about the importance of inspiring the next generation to study STEM subjects, and how the company is supporting academia in creating the engineers of the future.

Airfix is a much-loved brand well known for bringing hours of entertainment to would-be modellers, by putting immensely detailed model planes, cars and ships in their hands. But how do they achieve such life-like accuracy? And in the age of computer-aided design, how have their models evolved over the years?

Athletes who play American Football regularly face high-impact tackles, the force of which can feel like being hit by a baby whale. Xenith’s unique approach is to use adaptive technology which allows the helmet to move independently to the athlete’s head on impact, protecting them from the majority of the force.

Did you know that buildings account for 39% of all global energy related carbon emissions? From the energy used in central heating to the materials used in their construction, our homes are a huge contributor to our carbon footprint. So how do we create sustainable homes for the future? Architectural firm Warehome, based in East London, is trying to answer that question.

Technology has become integrated into every aspect of the way we work. But whether you’re updating a document on your iPad, or dialing into Zoom from your laptop, this tech is not hands free. So frontline workers like paramedics, engineers, mechanics—people who have their hands tied doing their job—often miss out on the edge and convenience of computers. That’s where Assisted Reality and RealWear’s incredible suite of hands-free, voice-enabled head wearables comes in.

Withings is a company developing some of the most technically advanced health trackers on the market. But it’s not all about smartwatches and fitness straps—Withings’ smart scales are state-of-the-art, and their pioneering urine monitor is one-of-a-kind.

It wasn’t always easy owning an electric car, with the constant fear of running out of juice weighing on your mind. But those fears are fast vanishing, with unbelievable growth and innovation in charging technology.

You may not see women on the track racing in Formula 1 right now, but that’s all set to change. F1 Academy is a brand new all-female series which is helping women progress to new levels of competition. And in this episode we meet one of the women likely to make history.

Our eyes contain a vast amount of information about our health, but they’re an untapped resource. Assessing the eye requires contact, and that can be uncomfortable and unsafe, so it’s often avoided. That’s why Occuity’s technology is game-changing.

IT solutions company isento is opening robotics up to everybody with pib - their printable intelligent bot. Pib is a 3D printed robot with a humanoid face, moving arms and a torso - but the hope is that one day it’ll be so much more. We meet the visionary behind pib and CEO of isento Jürgen Baier. In this episode he explores the features of pib, and how he’s enlisting the help of the global community to achieve isento’s bold ambitions for the project.

Flying cars have long been the poster child for the future - a sign that we’ve reached an incredible milestone in technological advancement. But that vision of the future has been confined to science fiction for many decades - until now. PAL-V is building the world’s first road-legal flying car, and it’s extremely close to liftoff. The aim is to make general aviation practical for everyday mobility.

Satellites are an essential part of keeping our modern lives running, allowing us to navigate, connect and observe the world from a phenomenal vantage point. But when a satellite is launched into space, it can take many months to get into position in order to start its mission. That was until D-Orbit changed the game.

If you think electric motorsport lacks emotion, prepare for an awakening. The passion pouring out of Cupra Racing’s head of racing, coupled with the incredible sounds recorded in the driving seat of their championship racing car will show you why electric racing is earning its place in the mainstream.

Our homes are sacred, and when we modify them or bring in new things, we want to know that the change will be seamless. This is especially true when you need a stairlift installed for the first time, a piece of equipment you may never have imagined would find a place in your home. Stannah know this and are working with augmented reality to bring comfort to its customers.

It’s not enough that we can see and hear the virtual world, to become truly immersed we need to feel it - to interact with all our senses. That’s exactly what Actronika is doing with its haptics vest, Skinetic. It incredibly recreates the sense of touch on your skin, using advanced technology to make your experience ultra-realistic.

Fighting cancer is not an easy task. Each body responds differently, and each tumor is unique - so, treatment must be personalized and precise. But companies like Elekta are pushing forward advancements in the field, cancer care is becoming more targeted and effective than ever before.

Ever been awoken by construction sounds? In our latest podcast, we met with the team at Volvo Construction Equipment working to solve this problem, amongst other challenges that the construction industry faces.

Beginning life as a passion project, Genesis Custom Sabers has since grown into Rob Petkau’s full time job, and he now places only the highest quality sabers in the hands of wannabe Jedis.

Ever wondered what a fully electric racing motorcycle sounds like? A group of passionate British engineers have tapped into the design power of PTC Creo to bring the world’s first fully electric neo-cafe racer to market, the Vector.

How do you build a fully electric motorcycle with no compromises on performance? How can we truly experience what the virtual world feels like? What does it take to design the first commercially available flying car? And how do you build a lightsaber? These are some of the questions this podcast answers as we meet the brilliant minds behind some of the most innovative products around the world.