{"id":95296,"date":"2019-06-18T15:36:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T15:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=433390"},"modified":"2019-06-18T15:36:32","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T15:36:32","slug":"from-gridiron-to-green-phillip-hale-helps-microsoft-tackle-zero-waste-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/06\/18\/from-gridiron-to-green-phillip-hale-helps-microsoft-tackle-zero-waste-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"From gridiron to green: Phillip Hale helps Microsoft tackle Zero Waste challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

On his first day at Microsoft, Phillip was taken to lunch by his manager. Bussing his table after the meal, he approached three bins labeled compost, recycle, and trash. He\u2019d never been exposed to compost, much less this kind of container array for waste.<\/p>\n

Phillip: \u201cThis is just for food? I\u2019m going to need a second.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manager: \u201cNo worries, everyone has a difficult time sorting their waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

This got some sprockets spinning in Phillip\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

Phillip also began seeing signs for Microsoft\u2019s 2018 Hackathon, held in July. The company-wide event encourages employees to work on new ideas they have to change the world. Phillip was one of more than 23,500 global participants that year. Phillip had an idea for an artificial intelligence solution to help people sort their waste. The project uses a camera to recognize waste items and cue the bearer, likely with an LED light, as to which bin each piece belongs.<\/p>\n

\"AOthers who have attacked the problem have typically focused on automating the process. But it was important to Phillip to include an educational aspect\u2014in<\/span> essence, teaching a machine to teach humans how to sort waste.<\/p>\n

Two Rubik\u2019s Cubes sit on Phillip\u2019s desk at Microsoft. One is the traditional shape, and the other is shaped kind of like the Death Star in \u201cStar Wars.\u201d A blueprint of the first one\u2014the<\/span> original cube\u2014hangs<\/span> on his wall. He has solved the rotating brain teasers so many times since middle school that they now offer a kind of automated mindlessness.<\/p>\n

He says he uses that state to unleash his creativity, something experts say otherwise cannot be summoned on demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a way of broadening the current range of sense experience,\u201d he says. \u201cSpecifically, for me, it activates other creative ideas when I\u2019m stuck on a challenge. \u201c<\/p>\n

The first real puzzle Phillip tackled, so to speak, was his inability to earn a way onto the North Dallas Cowboys select football team in fifth grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting rejected took an interesting toll on me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On his first day at Microsoft, Phillip was taken to lunch by his manager. Bussing his table after the meal, he approached three bins labeled compost, recycle, and trash. He\u2019d never been exposed to compost, much less this kind of container array for waste. Phillip: \u201cThis is just for food? I\u2019m going to need a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[134,50],"class_list":["post-95296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-microsoft-life","tag-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}