Basecamp Networks with Craig Ganssle

Basecamp Networks uses Machine Learning to diagnose easily what kind of sickness or parasite a crop might be suffering. They're powered by Google Cloud Platform, and their CEO, Craig Ganssle, is here to tell Mark and Francesc all about it.

About Craig Ganssle

Craig Ganssle is the Founder and CEO of Basecamp Networks. With over 20 years in the technology industry, Craig has extensive experience developing and deploying wireless networks and designing predictive learning solutions for complex problem solving.

Craig started Basecamp Networks in 2007 providing global wireless network infrastructures as well as creative solutions for difficult and time-consuming IT issues. As a partner with Google since 2008, Craig was one of the original Glass Explorers, Google's original beta test group. In early 2013, Craig advanced to an elite small team for this innovative technology. Since then, under his leadership and Basecamp's agricultural focus, Craig's vision for Glass led his team to develop intelliSCOUT®, the world's first wearable application offering farmers a truly hands-free solution, enabling agricultural problem-solving by collecting actionable insights from the field in a fraction of the time. intelliSCOUT® technology has been demonstrated, in conjunction with the Basecamp Networks' offering, to dignitaries throughout the world, including France, where Craig was personally requested to present this technology to President Francois Hollande. In October 2016 Craig and Basecamp won the Atlanta Telecom Partnership (ATP) Technology Service Provider of The Year Award (in addition to his achievements in agricultural technological advancements).

Prior to founding Basecamp Networks, Craig was recruited by Verizon Wireless in 2001 where he oversaw U.S. Southeast Operations in the network engineering division and was later tasked with deploying LTE in the Southeast United States. Craig's advanced innovative solutions are currently in use across Verizon's entire company footprint today. During this time Craig also received a bachelor's degree from Muhlenberg College in Business Administration, and a Computer Science degree from AIU.

In addition to his contributions in the public sector, Craig served honorably in the United States Marine Corps as an intelligence communications operator with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) 2nd Force Recon Battalion. He was later assigned as a detached "special operator" under the Department of the Navy, to Naval Special Warfare Unit S.E.A.L. Teams as a "joint operator" before being honorably discharged in 2001 for medical reasons. During his six years of service, Craig was highly decorated with various commendations and medals for his service and valor.

Craig is very active in mission work with his church that includes providing internet services in rural and remote locations globally. Basecamp Networks is headquartered in Alpharetta, GA where Craig resides with his wife and children.

Cool things of the week

• Google Cloud Platform launches Northern Virginia region announcement.
• Compute Engine machine types with up to 64 vCPUs now ready for your production workloads announcement.
  • Listen to Episode #41 Descartes Labs with Tim Kelton.
• Terraforming the Google Cloud alexander.holbreich.org.

Interview

• Basecamp Networks
• OpenCV: Open Computer Vision opencv.org
• Tensorflow: An open-source software library for Machine Intelligence tensorflow.org
• Lagom: The Opinionated Microservices Framework for moving away from the Monolith lagomframework.com
• intelliSCOUT: a product of Basecamp Networks intelliscout.io

Question of the week

How can I learn machine learning for free?

Follow this courses:

• Machine Learning by Stanford University coursera
• Deep Learning by Google Udacity
• CS 20SI: Tensorflow for Deep Learning Research Stanford

And more:

• Google Machine Learning Engine and episode gcppodcast #71
• Tensorflow with Eli Bixby gcppodcast #31
• Announcing general availability of GPUs for Cloud Machine Learning Engine announcement

Where can you find us next?

Francesc presented at Gopherfest and the video is already out there! Next he'll be teaching at Onboard Buenos Aires and running a workshop at QCon New York

Mark is currently at Nordic Games Conference, and while he won't be there, if people are in San Francisco they should head over to the Playcrafting & Extra Life 24 Hour Game Fest where we are raising money for the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals.