What does it take to connect AI with the physical world? What does it mean to build an AI nervous system? 

Dr. Mark Englund is the founder and CEO of FiberSense, an Australian tech company transforming the way cities operate. FiberSense transforms existing fiber optic networks into a web of sensors that provide real-time detection of risks and threats to infrastructure, whether that’s the tell-tale vibrations of an earthquake or tsunami or emerging disruptions to traffic flows. In the latest episode of the Further, Faster Podcast, Mark joins Antler CCO Bede Moore to discuss the ways in which the world has become machine readable and what the means for the future of the built environment. 

Mark’s fascination with sensors started in the mid-90s when he was invited to collaborate on a solar car project with a team at the University of Adelaide. With the help of sensors that fed into the optimisation algorithm, the car came fourth in a challenge that pitted it against major car manufacturers with vastly superior budgets. That, Mark explains, was when he really realised the extent to which sensing was part of this deeper fabric of intelligence: “And if you get really good guys working on this stuff it can take you to extraordinary places.” 

It was the start of a career that would see Mark develop his expertise in sonar and fibre optic technology, with a focus on understanding the key value drivers for sensor systems. He talks Bede through some of the history of fibre optics—which trace back to the 70s—through to the telecoms boom in the noughties, when hundreds of billions of dollars went into the expansion of the industry. At the time, Mark was running a submarine telecom cable company, which he sold in 2010.

Then came the inspiration for FiberSense, which Mark founded in 2015. He was flying into San Francisco at night, staring down at the lights “that go on forever” and it got him thinking about the penetration of fiber optic that exists in modern cities: “A telecom system in the ground.” 

“That system in the ground – one of the biggest assets up there with road systems, power, sewage, electricity systems – could be converted into a sensing system,” says Mark. 

One of the biggest and costliest problems for any sensing system is how to get the data, he explains. “The epiphany in that frame was, well, that's already built.” 

To learn more about the ways ubiquitous sensors can change the world, listen to the full episode here.

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