WEBVTT

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Can I get a show of hands --

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how many of you in this room
have been on a plane in this past year?

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That's pretty good.

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Well, it turns out that you
share that experience

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with more than three billion
people every year.

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And when we put so many people
in all these metal tubes

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that fly all over the world,

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sometimes, things like this can happen

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and you get a disease epidemic.

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I first actually got into this topic

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when I heard about the Ebola
outbreak last year.

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And it turns out that,

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although Ebola spreads
through these more range-limited,

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large-droplet routes,

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there's all these other sorts of diseases

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that can be spread in the airplane cabin.

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The worst part is, when we take
a look at some of the numbers,

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it's pretty scary.

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So with H1N1,

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there was this guy that decided
to go on the plane

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and in the matter of a single flight

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actually spread the disease
to 17 other people.

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And then there was this
other guy with SARS,

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who managed to go on a three-hour flight

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and spread the disease to 22 other people.

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That's not exactly my idea
of a great superpower.

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When we take a look at this,
what we also find

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is that it's very difficult
to pre-screen for these diseases.

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So when someone actually
goes on a plane,

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they could be sick

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and they could actually
be in this latency period

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in which they could actually
have the disease

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but not exhibit any symptoms,

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and they could, in turn,
spread the disease

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to many other people in the cabin.

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How that actually works is that right now

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we've got air coming in
from the top of the cabin

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and from the side of the cabin,
as you see in blue.

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And then also, that air goes out
through these very efficient filters

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that eliminate 99.97 percent
of pathogens near the outlets.

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What happens right now, though,

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is that we have this
mixing airflow pattern.

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So if someone were to actually sneeze,

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that air would get swirled
around multiple times

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before it even has a chance
to go out through the filter.

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So I thought: clearly, this
is a pretty serious problem.

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I didn't have the money
to go out and buy a plane,

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so I decided to build a computer instead.

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It actually turns out that
with computational fluid dynamics,

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what we're able to do
is create these simulations

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that give us higher resolutions

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than actually physically going
in and taking readings in the plane.

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And so how, essentially, this works
is you would start out

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with these 2D drawings --

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these are floating around
in technical papers around the Internet.

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I take that and then I put it
into this 3D-modeling software,

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really building that 3D model.

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And then I divide that model
that I just built into these tiny pieces,

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essentially meshing it so that
the computer can better understand it.

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And then I tell the computer where
the air goes in and out of the cabin,

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throw in a bunch of physics

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and basically sit there and wait until
the computer calculates the simulation.

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So what we get, actually,
with the conventional cabin is this:

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you'll notice the middle person sneezing,

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and we go "Splat!" -- it goes
right into people's faces.

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It's pretty disgusting.

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From the front, you'll notice
those two passengers

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sitting next to the central passenger

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not exactly having a great time.

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And when we take a look
at that from the side,

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you'll also notice those pathogens
spreading across the length of the cabin.

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The first thing I thought was,
"This is no good."

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So I actually conducted
more than 32 different simulations

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and ultimately, I came up
with this solution right here.

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This is what I call a -- patent pending --
Global Inlet Director.

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With this, we're able to reduce
pathogen transmission

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by about 55 times,

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and increase fresh-air inhalation
by about 190 percent.

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So how this actually works

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is we would install this piece
of composite material

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into these existing spots
that are already in the plane.

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So it's very cost-effective to install

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and we can do this directly overnight.

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All we have to do is put a couple
of screws in there and you're good to go.

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And the results that we get
are absolutely amazing.

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Instead of having those problematic
swirling airflow patterns,

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we can create these walls of air

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that come down in-between the passengers

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to create personalized breathing zones.

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So you'll notice the middle passenger
here is sneezing again,

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but this time, we're able
to effectively push that down

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to the filters for elimination.

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And same thing from the side,

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you'll notice we're able to directly
push those pathogens down.

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So if you take a look again now
at the same scenario

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but with this innovation installed,

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you'll notice the middle
passenger sneezes,

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and this time, we're pushing
that straight down into the outlet

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before it gets a chance
to infect any other people.

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So you'll notice the two passengers
sitting next to the middle guy

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are breathing virtually
no pathogens at all.

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Take a look at that from the side as well,

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you see a very efficient system.

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And in short, with this system, we win.

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When we take a look at what this means,

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what we see is that this not only works
if the middle passenger sneezes,

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but also if the window-seat
passenger sneezes

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or if the aisle-seat passenger sneezes.

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And so with this solution, what does
this mean for the world?

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Well, when we take a look at this

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from the computer simulation
into real life,

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we can see with this 3D model
that I built over here,

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essentially using 3D printing,

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we can see those same
airflow patterns coming down,

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right to the passengers.

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In the past, the SARS epidemic
actually cost the world

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about 40 billion dollars.

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And in the future,

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a big disease outbreak
could actually cost the world

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in excess of three trillion dollars.

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So before, it used to be that you had
to take an airplane out of service

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for one to two months,

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spend tens of thousands of man hours
and several million dollars

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to try to change something.

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But now, we're able to install
something essentially overnight

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and see results right away.

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So it's really now a matter of taking
this through to certification,

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flight testing,

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and going through all of these
regulatory approvals processes.

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But it just really goes to show
that sometimes the best solutions

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are the simplest solutions.

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And two years ago, even,

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this project would not have happened,

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just because the technology then
wouldn't have supported it.

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But now with advanced computing

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and how developed our Internet is,

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it's really the golden era for innovation.

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And so the question I ask all
of you today is: why wait?

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Together, we can build the future today.

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Thanks.

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(Applause)