Hasta La Gadget!

Triinu Magi is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Neura, a company leading the Internet of Things trend. As a business leader with an extensive background in mathematics and technology, Triinu serves as the visionary behind Neura’s interoperable solution.
Prior to Neura, Triinu held several computer and network security positions throughout her 15 years in the field. Most notably, Triinu played a key role in shaping the Estonian e-government services, created an independent security analysis for Estonia’s e-voting system and worked in research for Israel’s RSA Security.

How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
My life experience has definitely helped mold me into the leader I am today. I come from an environment that instilled in me that everyone has the opportunity and availability to create his or her own life, happiness, success, etc. The notion of paving my own path and being responsible for my decisions has motivated me throughout my life, particularly when I moved away from my childhood home in Estonia to pursue my education.

My exposure to different cultures has also greatly shaped my career path and made me a well-rounded leader. When I moved from Estonia to Israel, I had my previous experience and knowledge of how things should be done, but I quickly learned there are many different ways to make things happen successfully. I believe these cultural experiences opened my mind and made me more open to accepting new ways of doing things and solving problems.

How did your previous employment experience aid your position at Neura?
I have worked in the technology industry for over 15 years, with a focus on innovative and cutting-edge technologies. Prior to Neura, I held several computer and network security positions. Most notably, I played a key role in shaping the Estonian e-government services, created an independent security analysis for Estonia’s e-voting system and worked in research and innovation for Israel’s RSA Security.

Without these experiences, I would not be able to hold the role I do at Neura. I consider each of these roles to have been stepping stones that have led me to where I am today.

How do you maintain a work/life balance?
The true answer is that I do not J. I am always passionate about my work, so it’s easy for me to work many hours a day, read about it and think about it. But, overall, I aim to split up my day doing only the things that are important to me in life.

For example, I do not have TV at home and I don’t read books for entertainment– I only read books that give me new knowledge. But I do have my hobbies, sports, friends and family that are very important to me, so I enjoy sharing my time with the ones I care about, and doing the things I love.

What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Neura?
With any start-up company, there are many ups and downs.

In the early days of Neura, the second floor of my home became the office. This was challenging because my home was the office and the office was my home. (Ohhh so many dirty dishes J!)

But there are certainly good times as well. As a company, we’ve always felt that we are one step ahead of the competition. While the connectivity of devices was under discussions within the Internet of Things space, we were already working with the intelligence of the devices and services. When we were receiving feedback that people believed in our team and its mission, it always added motivation to our busy days.

Through trials and tribulations, I enjoy working with our team. We have been working together for three years now. The majority of the team has known each other since the first grade. We are a tight-nitch group and I’m excited every day to be working towards transforming the technology space with them.

What advice can you offer women seeking a career in the technology sector?
In my professional career, I have worked mostly with male co-workers. However, the women who do work in technology are great people who aren’t afraid to take on any challenge. If women are interested in working in technology, I urge them to follow their passions, do what they love, and work hard. Women in the technology field remarkably excel at managerial and analytical skills, and provide a great deal of value in this growing industry.

What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
The biggest issue for women in the workplace is home and work life balance. Traditionally, women are responsible for the care of the family and the home. Globally, I think women often feel responsible to act as the primary caretaker in the home and the workplace, creating mounting pressure and little time for themselves. However, as we move toward a progressive future and gender roles blend, I think this balance will be easier to maintain and uphold.

What are your thoughts on Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In book and movement?
I identify with her talks and stories on a personal level and agree that we as women should “lean in.” I believe that we should be the change that we want to see happening. I’m glad that Sheryl Sandberg has taken this step, and put forth the effort in order to bring more attention to the topic and behavior. She is an incredibly strong women and is empowering and inspiring other women to do what they love and achieve great success. Many stories of women in business and technology have become public and, even if we do not have many women colleagues in our field, we no longer feel alone and this is very powerful.

How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
I have been inspired by many different people from varying places, cultures, religions and professions. I don’t think I can credit one single person for shaping and mentoring me, rather, it was a collection of many different people in my life. The commonality among all of these people is that they challenge me, and encourage me to think critically, and adopt news ways of viewing things in life. They are all an inspiration to me.

Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
These days, there are so many strong and confident women paving the way in their respective fields, it’s so hard to choose. I feel that any woman who is confident in her abilities and follows her passion is an admirable leader, and I am inspired by them.

What are your hopes for the future of Neura?
I believe that Neura will be the solution that enables the Internet of Things movement to provide trustful, intelligent and adaptive services to connected devices’ users. This is the future of technology, bringing intelligence to connected ecosystems, and we’re very excited to be a part of it.

Say what you will about cupcakes, but we’re not over them. And apparently neither are you. Like any trend, the cupcake trend soared so high and fast that naysayers and supporters alike started questioning its status. “How long can the cupcake trend really last?” they asked. “What’s so great about cupcakes, anyway?” And then the question that nobody can stop wondering, “What’s the next cupcake?”

Everyone and their mother wants to speculate about the “next cupcake.” Whoever guesses right, after all, may be able to capitalize on another lucrative food trend. Cupcakes have always been popular, but in the early 2000s, gourmet cupcakes started exploding (don’t worry, not literally). When the ladies of “Sex and The City” ate Magnolia cupcakes on screen, the world became obsessed, and Magnolia became the go-to place for cupcakes. Magnolia has since expanded the New York cupcake brand all over the world, with locations from Los Angeles to the Middle East. Cupcake stores multiplied across New York City and the whole country, and everyone found a way to latch onto the trend.

Google Trends says it all:

Today the cupcake trend is still going strong, so of course people love to hate on it. All anyone wants to say is that “cupcakes are over,” and “X” dessert is the new king. People have been thrown countless desserts into the arena to contend as the “next cupcake.” So which one’s it gonna be?

First everyone said it was the whoopie pie — that classic American sandwich cookie of icing sandwiched between two rounds of chocolate cake.

Then it was the macaron — that colorful French confection of buttercream or ganache sandwiched between two meringues — which has had a steady following building for a while.

Then it was the fancy doughnut. We’re not talking old fashioned cake doughnuts, but the gourmet, crazy-flavored doughnuts, like the Peanut Butter and Banana Cream or Tres Leches doughnuts from NYC-based Doughnut Plant, or Hibiscus and Dulce de Leche from Brooklyn’s Dough.

For some reason people keep getting excited about cake pops, until they realize real cake is far superior and forget about cake pops again.

That’s right: REAL CAKE.

Sorry, folks. It looks like the next cupcake is… THE CUPCAKE.

According to Google Trends, cupcakes are still wildly more popular than any of these desserts. Even though they’re all worthy contenders, none of them have topped the cupcake yet, and it looks like they don’t really have a fighting chance either. Better luck next time, whoopie pie.

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We’ve baked a lot of cakes in our day: Crepe cakes for co-workers’ birthdays; wedding cakes for close family members; and just-because cakes for when we really needed a piece of cake. We love our cakes to be full of butter and frosting and then more butter — bonus points for being chocolate.

But when summer time hits, we’re ready to take a break from our traditional cake, because baking and summer heat don’t make the best of friends. Especially when there’s a cake that’s made of towering fruit and requires absolutely no oven to be enjoyed. Ladies and gents, let us introduce you to the cake you’ll be eating all summer long. Take a look at this beauty:

This cake has no flour, no butter, no sugar and no chocolate. What it does have is fruit — watermelon, guys — presented in the most beautiful of layers. When the days are hot and long, this is the cake that’s going to get you through. And, it’s one you can feel good about eating. Plus, no baking skills necessary.

One of our favorite food bloggers, Ashley Rodriguez from Not Without Salt, made this beautiful creation for her son’s 6th birthday. When he asked for watermelon and peaches for his birthday dessert, the pastry chef in Ashley turned that request into this most perfect summer cake. While there’s not much of a recipe that goes into a dessert like this, head on over to her blog to see how she put it together.

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We just began the first formal Senate-House conference committee hearing on veterans’ legislation in fifteen years. I am proud to be a part of such an important meeting. Read my entire opening statement for the conference committee hearing below:

Thank you, Chairman Sanders and Chairman Miller, for appointing me to this conference that is so important to the care of our veterans. This meeting marks the first time in fifteen years since the Senate and House have come together for a formal conference on veterans’ legislation.

I have been in the Senate for nearly thirty years. And I have been a proud member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee all this time. While much has changed throughout my years in the Senate, the circumstances that brought us here today are, sadly, all too familiar.

When I became Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee in 1993, I resolved that we would do all that we could to assist veterans who had been neglected or forgotten. After I heard from veterans suffering from undiagnosed illnesses related to their service in the Persian Gulf, I called for the Committee to hold the first hearing on Gulf War Illness. It was a long fight, and one that is still ongoing.

At that time, veterans were told that their ailments were “all in their heads.” We later learned, through special investigations by Committee staff and multiple hearings over several years, that soldiers had been exposed to nerve agents and forced to ingest untested drugs by their own government. We still do not know what truly causes Gulf War Illness. But we do know now that Gulf War Illness is a real disease and, because of the Persian Gulf War Veterans’ Benefits Act, veterans today are able to be treated for their undiagnosed illnesses.

Every war has unanticipated health care costs, and in every war, our veterans must live on with those unintended consequences.

• When I first entered the Senate in 1985, we faced atomic veterans dying from radiation poisoning from tests during World War II.
• Later, we began work on behalf of veterans suffering from the effects of Agent Orange.
• 9/11, we have heard from soldiers exposed to burn pits and sodium dichromate.

You can trace a direct line from these issues to the present day.

I don’t think anything underscores the vital need for VA services today more than PTSD. This is a devastating illness.

When I go home to West Virginia, I make it a point to sit down with veterans – without staff and without press – to hear their stories. I can tell you that their stories are truly heartbreaking. What is worse is that many of these veterans waited months for a decision by the VA.

That is unacceptable.

However, let me be absolutely clear in what I am saying: we need to improve the VA, not tear it down. Without the VA, veterans would struggle to find the same level of care for mental health issues and the many other illnesses unique to our veterans’ population.

The VA has come a long way. In the 1980s and the 1990s, the VA was an outdated and failing system that relied too heavily on inpatient hospital-based care. After we were able to win passage of eligibility reform legislation in 1996, the VA transformed itself into a network of hospitals and Community-Based Outpatient Clinics. This enabled the agency to care for many more veterans across the country, something that was particularly important to rural states like West Virginia.

If I have learned anything about how we in Congress can improve care for veterans, it’s that you need to listen to veterans and understand what they need. Then we have an obligation to come back to Washington and do everything possible to address their needs. What I am hearing from veterans today is that the VA provides specialized care that rivals or exceeds that of the private sector, but it also needs help recruiting, hiring, and retaining quality health care professionals.

Yes, I am deeply troubled by reports of widespread misconduct at the VA. But the fundamental issue here is not that the VA is unable to provide the care our veterans need. Indeed, only the VA can provide specialized care for veterans in a place where they can relate to other patients who have undergone similar experiences.

Addressing the root causes of this problem means finding the political will to properly fund this agency – and that is something Congress has been sorely lacking.

I realize that some of you will say that the VA has enough funding, that if it was managed better, then its problems will go away.

That is wrong.

We have spent roughly $2 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade. Less than one percent of that has gone toward caring for our veterans. Tens of thousands of our troops continue to come home – some with mental health problems or severe, debilitating wounds – and yet we are funding the VA at only half of our entire military budget. Even then, its funding has increased by an average of 3 percent over the past several years. That doesn’t even cover the annual increase of overall health care costs – around four percent.

I understand that as we draw down from Iraq and Afghanistan, we are beginning the process of putting those wars behind us. In our closure, however, we cannot close the door on our veterans – as we have done so many times before.

Pain medication is many, varied, confusing and, on occasion, ineffective—which is researchers around the world dedicate their lives to working out how to treat our discomfort better. This documentary takes a close look at where new drugs come from, and how they might help us all in the future.

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