The future’s around the corner at KC’s Compute Midwest

Bold ideas with the promise to revolutionize tomorrow are heading to the City of Fountains for a growing technology conference.

Photos by Simon Kuo

Now in its fourth year, Compute Midwest is set to explore technologies and ideas transforming the future, including space travel, self-driving cars and artificial intelligence. In addition to learning about the latest in technology, Compute Midwest founder Michael Gelphman said the conference aims to create the next generation of big thinkers.

“We want to bring amazing people together to stretch ideas that can help shape what the world is going to look like in the future,” Gelphman said. “When you bring this like-minded community together, who knows what can happen. The purpose of this is to inspire people.”

Among the ideas that hope to inspire futuristic thinking are autonomous vehicles. Bryant Walker Smith, an assistant professor of law at South Carolina University and expert in self-driving cars, plans to discuss not only the tech within autonomous vehicles but also their complex legal implications.

Kansas City-based Integrated Roadways will also discuss technology entering the transportation industry and smart infrastructure. Integrated Roadways founder Tim Sylvester will also discuss his company’s technology, which inputs sensors into roads to extend their service life, provide weather information and capture traffic analytics.

Other topics relate more directly to brainpower. Daniel Kish, president of World Access for the Blind, plans to discuss how he overcame blindness with a technique he calls “Flash Sonar,” which affords him the ability to navigate the world through echolocation.

Scheduled for Oct. 22 – 23, the conference continues to grow each year and is expecting up to 1,500 technologists from around the world, Gelphman said. Compute Midwest attracts a diverse crowd, including software engineers, designers, students, investors and entrepreneurs, he added.

Gelphman said he hopes the conference will help attendees step back from their careers and industries to gain fresh perspectives.

“People get caught up in their everyday lives just trying to keep up today, but we all need to be looking at what’s happening tomorrow to capitalize on those opportunities of how the future is going to look,” Gelphman said. “These ideas are exciting and we want people to get inspired by them.”

In addition to international speakers, Compute Midwest also will feature a “hackathon” event in which attendees can compete to create new technologies. To learn more about Compute Midwest, click here.