Lightning Talks: Sarah Sausan

by Sarah Sausan

In her lightning talk at RailsConf 2021, geologist Sarah Sausan shares her passion for renewable energy, particularly geothermal energy, and how it led her to embrace Ruby and Rails for data accessibility in this field.

Main Topic:

Sausan discusses the significance of geothermal energy as a reliable and cleaner alternative within the renewable energy spectrum, highlighting its potential amidst other traditional sources like solar and wind.

Key Points:

- Understanding Geothermal Energy:

- Defined as energy generated from the Earth's underground heat.

- Reliable and provides 24/7 energy output, making it suitable for powering cities or countries.

- Comparison with Other Renewable Sources:

- Unlike solar and wind, which are dependent on weather conditions, geothermal energy offers a consistent energy supply.

- Less land is required to harness geothermal heat, which underscores its scalability and environmental benefits.

- Current Challenges:

- High costs hinder widespread adoption of geothermal energy, making it less competitive with other renewable sources.

- The need for lower costs can emulate the development cycles seen in solar energy technology.

- Role of Software & Programming:

- Sausan emphasizes her journey into software, particularly how her experience as a former product manager aided her understanding of technology.

- Her interest in Ruby and Rails developed when she realized programming could help lower costs associated with accessing critical geological data, thus improving geothermal energy feasibility.

- She encourages viewers that one doesn’t need to know all aspects of programming to create something useful, paralleling her journey in geology.

- Community Reflection:

- Expressed gratitude for the Ruby community and shared the joy of participating in RailsConf 2021, highlighting the connections and learning opportunities within the tech space.

Conclusions:

Sausan's talk encapsulates how interdisciplinary engagement, combining geology with software development, can drive innovative solutions in renewable energy. Her journey exemplifies the integration of different fields and encourages others to explore the intersections between their passions and technology.

RailsConf 2021

00:00:04.860 thank you

00:00:06.540 um hello everyone my name is Sarah I'm a

00:00:08.760 geologist and today I'd like to talk to

00:00:11.099 you talk to you about my passion in

00:00:13.139 renewable energy and how it LEDs me to

00:00:16.020 fall in love with Ruby and reels so

00:00:19.380 if you

00:00:21.300 hear the term renewable or renewable

00:00:24.000 energy I bet what you think about is

00:00:26.640 solar wind might be not clear or

00:00:31.520 biomass or Hydro but did you know that

00:00:34.860 there is another type of renewable

00:00:36.300 energy that's called GEOS so geo means

00:00:40.920 Earth and thermal means heat so it's a

00:00:43.739 type of renewable energy that's coming

00:00:45.540 from the Earth's underground heat and

00:00:48.539 I'm really passionate about this in fact

00:00:50.760 that was the reason why I get into

00:00:52.559 geology in the first place and it's

00:00:55.199 because it has so much potential so for

00:00:58.199 instance

00:00:59.219 uh renew of geothermal is reliable it

00:01:02.879 gives out 24 7 energy output for decades

00:01:06.720 so it's good if you want to power entire

00:01:09.479 city or even entire country

00:01:12.060 um the problem with solar for instance

00:01:13.439 is it's inevitable that you cannot

00:01:16.040 generate power for at least half a day

00:01:18.600 and even with win

00:01:20.580 um the weather is very hard to predict

00:01:22.920 and therefore it's very hard to have a

00:01:24.840 consistent energy output every single

00:01:27.479 time

00:01:28.860 um geothermal also use very small amount

00:01:30.900 of land because the way that you access

00:01:32.759 the heat underground is by adding Wells

00:01:35.880 to to the underground and you can add

00:01:38.700 these Wells as you go so it's scalable

00:01:42.420 and also it's clean the only white

00:01:44.579 byproduct of it is water

00:01:47.579 now if if it is so cool then why are we

00:01:50.960 really heard of it well it's because

00:01:53.780 unfortunately it's still expensive so

00:01:57.479 therefore not very competitive compared

00:01:59.399 to other variables but I see this as a

00:02:03.299 challenge because this is what we've

00:02:05.880 been uh it is not a new problem in fact

00:02:08.700 solar was having the same issue up until

00:02:11.940 they become cheap enough to be

00:02:13.819 ubiquitous and also even Brian in the

00:02:17.459 rails Keynotes he mentioned a similar

00:02:20.160 thing in the cloud space so I was

00:02:23.400 obsessed with this problem for a good

00:02:25.319 year and one of the things that I

00:02:28.140 realized is that we can help lower the

00:02:30.840 cost of geothermal by

00:02:33.060 um lowering the cost of the access of

00:02:35.940 its data so geological data physical

00:02:38.520 geochemical data environmental data

00:02:40.800 things like that and that brings me to

00:02:43.800 How I Met Your Mother which is how I met

00:02:47.400 Ruby and rails

00:02:49.500 um I'm actually not a stranger with

00:02:51.360 software in fact I was a

00:02:53.519 I am a product manager and in my old

00:02:56.640 company we use

00:02:58.140 um single page application we built in

00:02:59.940 single page application with multiple

00:03:01.860 databases on microservices architecture

00:03:04.739 with agile framework so for this one I'd

00:03:08.879 like to try something else please and

00:03:12.300 um it's amazing how now I can actually

00:03:15.300 build the thing and it feels a sort of a

00:03:18.360 miracle and what I learned along the way

00:03:20.400 is that programming especially in Ruby

00:03:23.459 is super fun and also I was intimidated

00:03:26.700 by how much I should learn but what I

00:03:29.459 figure is that to make something useful

00:03:31.500 I don't need to know everything about

00:03:33.540 programming and in the same way I don't

00:03:36.060 need to know all the rocks in the world

00:03:37.560 to be a good geologist and also I I was

00:03:41.040 glad I believe in my mission on Jose

00:03:44.220 Mall because it does lead to many many

00:03:47.220 wonderful things for instance being able

00:03:50.280 to talk with you with you all today um

00:03:53.459 in railscon so I want to say again thank

00:03:56.459 you very much for welcoming me to the

00:03:58.440 community and I hope I see you guys

00:04:00.540 again on the other side bye