OHS 2013: "Open-source hardware in the creative world"

1 Oct 2013

EDN has a great post on the Open Hardware Summit 2013:

Open-source hardware in the creative world

Open Hardware Summit attendees packed the Kresge Auditorium at MIT last Friday with eyes and minds wide open to hear from engineers and makers on their open-source designs and overall thinking on the concept of sharing ideas and knowledge.

EDN spent the day at the Open Source Hardware Association-run event and shares a few of its finds here. Some of the following designs may at first strike one as quirky one-off successes but broader thinking shows extensive opportunities beyond these examples.

I'm glad the article highlights my favorite device from the Summit:

If you want to go far fast, go open hardware

When Ryan Fobel wanted to automate biomedical engineering research at the Wheeler Lab at the University of Toronto, he realized he would have to build his own system. He enlisted the help of his brother Christian, who has a PhD in computer science, to build the Dropbot.

Dropbot is an open-source digital microfluidics (DMF) platform built around an Arduino-based instrument and controlled by Microdrop, a custom software interface.

cheers,

drew

http://twitter.com/pdp7

fustini over 11 years ago in reply to morgaine

That is a good point about the academic research. Hopefully the open source / free culture will eventually gain traction in academic research publishing.
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fustini over 11 years ago in reply to DAB

I think the applications would be related to clinical testing - like making tests cheaper and/or quicker... these seem to be some of the applications: http://microfluidics.utoronto.ca/research.php
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DAB over 11 years ago

Hi Drew,

An interesting idea. Did they indicate where they thought the technology would go from here?

I agree with Morgaine, the potential for biology and medical dosing are very intrigueing.

I also agree that if the public funded the research that the information should be open source. Why should we have to pay twice?

Just a thought,
DAB
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morgaine over 11 years ago

I enjoyed reading about those OSHW projects, and that DMF device is the one that most caught my eye as well because of my interest in nanotechnology research, which crosses over into biotech so such instrumentation is relevant.

There's quite a bit of information on both hardware and software at the Microfluidics site, but I was very disappointed to find that all the information on principles and physics is in the paper in Applied Physics letters, which is not open. That's the real hardware documentation for such science and engineering equipment, so it seems that the concepts of OSHW haven't really caught on very well at University of Toronto. Making University research available only to those who can pay I find utterly bizarre to the point of being barbaric.

Sad.
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