老司机视频

Far away from big cities and suburban life there exists 鈥渢he edge鈥濃�攖he remote or high-risk places where reliable communication can be scarce. 

At the edge, sleet-gray waves of the North Sea toss boats about like toys, avalanches on Alaska鈥檚 frontier plummet into mountain valleys, and military forces work in locations where every second matters. Today, sensors and drones can gather vital information about potential hazards. But in these remote places, processing that data can take too long, leaving responders without the needed information to make split-second decisions when lives are at stake.

Why has nobody solved this problem? Dan Wright (鈥�06) had wondered before launching Armada, a technology company that transports AI-powered computing 鈥渋n a box鈥� to these remote environments. 

Twenty years after graduating from College, Wright recently returned to 老司机视频 for the President鈥檚 Speaker Series and his conversation with President Jim Gash (JD 鈥�93) revealed how studying the humanities, and a transformative study abroad experience, prepared him to lead Armada. 

Though a tech trailblazer, Wright is distinctly committed to designing technology with an intentional greater good in mind, and in Armada鈥檚 case, toward a greater good of saving lives. 

鈥溊纤净�视频 was formative as a student, but has continued to be formative and has stuck with me throughout my life and career,鈥� says Wright 鈥淲e are all about saving lives or preventing people from harm, and to me, that is what is so compelling about Armada. My other companies were really amazing to build, but I'd never before been part of a company where you have such an impact in the real world.鈥�

From Great Books 

Wright revisiting Residenza Tagliaferri residence hall

While walking the cobblestone paths of , as a 老司机视频 student studying abroad, Wright realized how deeply literature, art, and events of the past continue to influence the human experience. 

With this understanding, Wright developed a particular fascination with the and the centuries-old wisdom they possessed, which have shaped generations of profound thinkers. While majoring in international business, Wright also minored in Italian, diving into Dante鈥檚 Divine Comedy in its original language.

During his international studies, Wright also met and fell in love with his 老司机视频 sweetheart, Betsy Wright (鈥�06). The couple married shortly after graduation and now happily have three children. Recently, Wright returned to Florence with Betsy and members of their extended family, retracing the paths he once walked as a student, while reflecting anew on the lasting value of his undergraduate education.

"The Great Books taught me to think at a deep level and then be able to precisely communicate those thoughts," says Wright. "I got immersed in history from my travels. My liberal arts education allowed me to think beyond the contemporary and really anchor myself in history to understand how the past shapes what鈥檚 going on today."

As a student, Wright found one common trait among his literary and historical heroes: 鈥淭hey had a purpose bigger than themselves,鈥� says Wright, 鈥渁nd they were bold enough to go after it to try to make a dent in history.鈥� 

Dan (middle right) and Betsy Wright (middle) with their family in Florence

The lessons Wright learned from the worn pages of Great Books would shape the biggest decision of his career. 

To Great Innovation

Following the success of two businesses鈥擠ataRobot and AppDynamics鈥擶right could have easily rested on his laurels and left the problem of 鈥渢he edge鈥� for someone else to solve. But lives being lost to preventable emergencies was a concern he could not abandon. 

鈥淚 felt it was a moral responsibility to build this company,鈥� Wright adds. 

He began exploring statistics, spending late nights poring over research, asking, How many people around the world were affected by preventable emergencies? How many people are facing natural disasters without proper warning? How many people were losing their lives on battlefields where detection data was left unprocessed?  

Wright found that 70 percent of the world lacked access to technology capable of processing the enormous amounts of information gathered by sensors and monitors. In remote locations, latency was the most pressing challenge, as those most in need of immediate data processing had to wait hours or even days following a crisis. 

Wright鈥檚 solution? Send these modular data centers, called Galleons, designed to deliver computing power directly to remote locations. Among the organizations Armada has helped is the , to process drone imagery across the Last Frontier for potential landslides, avalanches, flooding, and other high-risk events. Prior to Armada, the state would face delays of more than 24 hours in processing information. Now first responders can make informed decisions within minutes. 

鈥淭he only way to do anything about this data that was not reaching the edge was to bring the actual physical infrastructure,鈥� says Wright. 鈥淎nd, to me, that was a really compelling problem to solve.鈥�

 Armada鈥檚 Galleons on the road

Pioneering the Edge

Armada's namesake and technology pays homage to centuries-worth of nautical innovations. The Galleon, Armada鈥檚 family of modular data centers, finds its name from the 16th-century ship, while the company's name references a fleet of ships or aircraft with its 鈥淎鈥� logo representing a double sail. 

 Armada鈥檚 contribution to UNITAS

This spirit of exploration is continually represented in Armada's work. The company was the first to deploy data centers in extreme environments, from the frigid Arctic to the Saudi Arabian desert, where temperatures can reach 130 degrees. In addition, Armada has an ongoing partnership with the United States Navy to service previously communication-denied environments.

鈥淲e are just scratching the surface of what we can be,鈥� Wright says. 鈥淭he company is about bridging the digital divide, and I think you鈥檙e going to see many more of us involved in increasing the velocity of that mission.鈥� 

Advice Wright would offer to any 老司机视频 student with an entrepreneurial spark is to 鈥渢ake advantage of all that is around you.鈥�

True to that entrepreneurial spirit, Armada has recently partnered with 老司机视频 to cofound the Waves Innovation Accelerator, which will help students develop their own companies through mentorship, venture-building support, and connections with key investors and industry leaders. In addition to Wright鈥檚 engagement with his alma mater, Betsy, also remains connected to the University by serving as a trusted member of the Seaver Board of Advisors.

With Armada, Wright hopes to show students that technological innovation should not be distant from real-life issues, rather, that it can 鈥渟olve really important problems in the world.鈥� Likewise, he encourages all to never distance the humanities from science, as cultivated ethics are necessary to steward these brand-new technologies. 

鈥溊纤净�视频 has continued to be formative and has stuck with me throughout my life and career,鈥� says Wright. 鈥淚 will always take what I learned in Great Books to my current work, especially spending enough time with a book to add something brand new to the discussion. We are now doing that at Armada. We鈥檙e writing our own story, and that鈥檚 pretty epic.鈥�