#2 - Antony Della Vecchia - Software and Mathematics

Modern Conversations - A podcast by Daniel Norman

In this episode, I speak to Antony Della Vecchia - a mathematician who got into the world of programming.We discuss the following topics:- His work on analysing satellite imagery to asses infrastructure risks.- Advances in satellite technology and their application in satellite image analysis- The role of techniques such as machine learning and stereo imaging in analysing images.- Open source libraries for stereo imaging- Antony's journey with an academic background in mathematics into software engineering learning software development practices, e.g. Continuous Integration, Git, Frameworks.- Learning JavaScript and Python.- Implementing heat calculations using the finite volume method in JavaScript.- The challenges of developing software for companies with no technical background.- Moving from Canada to Scotland and finally to Berlin.- Leaving the software world to explore ideas from his Master's in geometric group theory.- Mathematics and the exploration of all true statements within it.- The construction of meaning within mathematics and Kurt Gödel incompleteness theorem.- Counter intuitive ideas in mathematics and physics.- His exploration of new ways to define groups and his use of the geometrical shape torus as a way to reason about groups.- Transformations between multi-dimensional spaces. The separation of the dimension of geometry and the space its embedded in.- Maths doesn't care about the laws of the universe.- Combinatorial geometry and Permutohedrons.- Groups and symmetry.- Blackholes and quantum effects at the event horizon.- General relativity- Large Hadron Collider- The standard model of physics.- How string theory got its name- Gravitational waves- Emergence and statistical mechanics- Advice to his 20 year old self.- Technologies and scientific discoveries his looks forward to.