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Congrats to our mentors for the Open Hardware Trailblazers in Academia Fellowship. Our mentors will be selecting the fellows (along with our board panel), guiding the fellows through our process, and reading the fellows’ work. We are super excited to have them on board and thank them for their commitment to open source hardware!

Mentors (in alphabetical order by first name):

Brandon Stafford

Brandon is an engineer who lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. He grew up north of Boston and spent a lot of time building tree forts and skateboard ramps as an adolescent. After a degree in English and a few years of teaching high school math, Brandon went to grad school in mechanical engineering.

Since grad school, Brandon has worked at the Stanford Robotics Lab, Mindtribe Product Engineering, and as a consultant for various renewable energy startups. For five years, he ran Rascal Micro, a startup building small computers for art and science.

At Tufts, Brandon teaches hands-on courses in electronics (ME 30) and mechanical design (ME 93-DF).

César Garcia Saez

Bio: César García Sáez. Speaker and researcher specialized in digital fabrication, Internet of Things and maker movement.

Host at La Hora Maker, a podcast in Spanish focused on Maker Movement and digital fabrication. Co-founder of Makespace Madrid. FabAcademy graduate at Fablab León. Madrid Mini Maker Faire organizer. Co-founder of Madrid IoT meetup group. Exhibitor and speaker at European events like European Maker Faire, FabFestival (Toulouse). Author of the books “Digital Fabrication, maker movement and the future of work”, “We need to make (almost) everything – A social and education look at Fab Labs and the maker movement”.

Appointed by COTEC Foundation, focused on Innovation at a national scale, as Expert in 3D Printing for Societal and Economical impact. Mentor at European Social Innovation Challenge.

Before switching roles to my current position, I worked at System Administrator for 14+ years at Madrid City Council. I won the first ever intra-entrepreneurship innovation challenge for public workers in our city, using a design thinking approach.

Chris Chronopoulos

Bio: Chris serves as the Director of Instrumentation at the recently launched Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics, a non-profit research lab focused on fundamental neuroscience with a commitment to Open Science practices. In this role, he manages a team developing instrumentation hardware and software, ensuring that it meets the evolving needs of scientists while also adhering to open source standards, so to share tools widely in the spirit of scientific collaboration.

Chris is also president and board member of Interstitial Technology, a public benefit cooperative and consulting firm that develops open source technology as a force for good, with a focus on environmental sustainability and human rights. Through Interstitial, he has carried forward a number of hardware projects into OSHWA compliance, and also spoken at the Summit on the topic of Open Standards.

Before this, he was an engineering project manager at LeafLabs, which developed one of the first Arduino-compatible ARM dev boards (the Maple) in addition to subsequent open-hardware projects.

Clarissa Redwine

Bio: Clarissa is the Grant Program Manager for the Decentralized Wireless Alliance, leading ecosystem development. Before joining DeWi, she was a Fellow at NYU Law focused on open source hardware, led Kickstarter’s Design and Tech outreach strategy across the US, and served as Program Manager for the Qualcomm Robotics Accelerator.

Elizabeth Hendrex

Bio: Elizabeth Hendrex is the CEO of Great Scott Gadgets. Her leadership and hands-on approach help with financial oversight, process improvements, logistics coordination, and people management. She has been an integral part of helping GSG grow in its mission to put open source tools into the hands of innovative people since joining the team six years ago. Elizabeth received a Bachelor of Science degree in Technical Communication as a non-traditional (single parent, career-changing, working adult) student at Metro State University of Denver. She chose this path because of her interest in technical writing and aviation technology, and shortly after discovered a passion for open-source hardware that would become her career. When she’s not at her desk, she’s probably driving the kids around, practicing yoga, watering the orchids, or learning a new song on the guitar or keyboard.

Huaishu Peng

Bio: Huaishu Peng is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Maryland, College Park. His multi-disciplinary research interests range from human-computer interaction, mixed reality, and robotic fabrication. He builds software and machine prototypes that make the design and fabrication of 3D models interactive. He also looks into new techniques that can fabricate 3D interactive objects. His work has been published in CHI, UIST and SIGGRAPH and won Best Paper Nominee. His work has also been featured in media such as Wired, MIT Technology Review, Techcrunch, and Gizmodo.

Jinger Zeng

Bio: Jinger Zeng is currently the contest manager at Hackster.io. Prior to joining Hackster, she was the community manager of the PX4 open source drones community, and the founder of hardware company Dronesmith Technologies. She is an active advocate in the open hardware space, and have a wide range of experiences in working with different stages of companies from startups to corporates, academia, manufactures, and organized events from meetups to developer summits. 

Joshua Pearce

Bio: Joshua M. Pearce received his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. He then developed the first Sustainability program in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and helped develop the Collaborative Applied Sustainability graduate engineering program while at Queen’s University, Canada. Then he was the first Richard Witte Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and a Professor cross-appointed in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the Michigan Technological University where he inaugurated and was the faculty advisor for the Michigan Tech Open Source Hardware Enterprise and ran the Open Sustainability Technology Research Group. He was a Fulbright-Aalto University Distinguished Chair and is a visiting professor of Photovoltaics and Nanoengineering at Aalto University as well as a visiting Professor Équipe de Recherche sur les Processus Innovatifs (ERPI), Université de Lorraine, France. He  is the John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation at the Thompson Centre for Engineering Leadership & Innovation. He holds appointments at Ivey Business School, the top ranked business school in Canada and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Western University in Canada, a top 1% global university.

The open source hardware community has exploded since the first Open Hardware Summit way back in 2010.  In just over a decade we’ve seen open hardware in space and under the sea, hardware made of electronics and hardware made of yarn.  This growth has been fueled by the open source hardware community clustered in companies, nonprofits, basements, research organizations, and hackerspaces.  

Today, thanks to the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, OSHWA is taking a giant step towards expanding open source hardware in academia with our new Open Hardware Trailblazers Fellowship program.  The Fellowship is the culmination of the Higher Education program we announced at the 2020 Summit, and builds on the information we learned from the survey of the academic community in 2021. The program recognizes open source hardware community members as they succeed in academia, supporting them as they make it easier to follow their path.

The one year fellowship provides $50,000 or $100,000 grants to individuals who are leading the way as open source hardware expands into academia.  Documentation is key to open source hardware, and these Fellowships will support the development of documentation for how to successfully make open source hardware work across a broad spectrum of academic environments and departments.  

You will find the full RFP below.  The application form is here.  Fellowship applications are due April 7th, and this time are limited to applicants with a demonstrated record of success using or supporting open source hardware in US-based academic settings.  If you have questions, please email alicia@oshwa.org.

Request for Proposals: Open Hardware Trailblazers Fellowship

The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) invites applications to its Open Hardware Trailblazers Fellowship. The one year Fellowship provides $50k or $100k grants to individuals who are actively leading the development and application of open hardware within universities. The goals of the program are to recognize and connect a peer cohort of these leaders, and to create a library of resources representing best practices in open source hardware in academia. The Open Hardware Trailblazers Fellowship recognizes academic leaders in open hardware, providing support for those leaders to share how they have done their work, and supports the production of documentation and best practices to make it easier to expand open hardware at academic institutions more broadly. Fellowship applications are due April 7th.

Background and Approach

Open hardware is accelerating the pace of research in academic settings.  Three open hardware Journals have come of age in the past five years.  The Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH) is transforming the development of open hardware scientific equipment.  Open hardware’s use in academia has become an area of study in and of itself.   

However, many academic institutions are not yet aware of open hardware techniques and do not actively support their adoption.  The Fellowship program will raise the profile of existing open hardware work within academia, and make it easier for others to take similar paths.

Applications should identify existing efforts to expand the use of open hardware within an academic setting, and outline proposals to grow and document those successes. OSHWA’s definition of success within the context of the Open Hardware Trailblazers Fellowship focuses on the academic context. While that can include commercial success, more relevant success is tied to professional advancement, awards and other recognition for contributions, or hardware created. We expect to fund meta-level research on hardware, but not the production of hardware directly.

Networks and communities can be helpful when embracing new territory.  Fellows will be part of a cohort, creating a network focused on growing institutional support and expanding the impact of individual projects. The Trailblazers Network is designed to:

1. Recognize existing leaders
2. Give those leaders tools to expand their work
3. Encourage the leaders’ institutions to recognize and value their work
4. Identify and accelerate the development and dissemination of information about developing open hardware within the context of universities 
5. Leverage diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice initiatives to broaden the community of open hardware practitioners at universities 
6. Pair leaders with industry mentors to share knowledge when applicable

What to expect if you’re accepted as a Fellow

The purpose of this funding is to give the Fellows the time needed to document their work with open source hardware in a way that allows others to adopt similar techniques. All Fellows will attend regular virtual meetings with their Fellowship cohort, including two in-person meetings with travel costs paid for by OSHWA. Fellows will be introduced to mentors or collaborators from industry with relevant expertise. The Fellowship will build a beneficial network to share work being done, ask questions, and gain feedback from each other. Each Fellow’s documentation will be a valuable piece of the resource library produced within this Fellowship. 

Example Questions and Outputs

Example questions that could be answered as part of the Fellowship include, but are not restricted to: 

• What documentation practices help academics share and disseminate their open hardware projects?
• What makes hardware more replicable in academia and what is missing from current documentation standards?  
• How do various fields of study approach problems, such as licensing, around open hardware in their departments and what are common threads seen at other academic institutions?
• What is the business case of open hardware in academia and how has open hardware developed in academia thus far?

Example outputs could include, but are not restricted to: 

• A guide or playbook for how a specific successful open hardware project was created in academia and lessons learned that can be extrapolated to Fellow academics. 
• A case study and blown out diagram to describe every piece of meta information that goes into the creation of open source hardware. 
• A case study of metrics that could be used by departments to determine a person’s contributions to open source hardware and how those might fit into service criteria
• A how-to guide for talking to tech transfer offices and deans about opening up IP for hardware

Fellowship funding is not intended to fund new technical development of individual hardware projects. Applications that ask for funding hardware development costs will not be funded. Furthermore, Fellowship funding is not intended to fund tools for developing hardware. Proposals for building tools such as documentation platforms will be considered out of scope.

Upon completion of this project, the work from the Fellowship will be compiled into a physical or digital library of resources which may include books, guides, instruction sets, maps, or diagrams. These resources will be disseminated more broadly to help people create and advocate for open hardware at their academic institution. 

We welcome applications from individuals affiliated with all kinds of departments and institutions ranging from Engineering to Arts and Sciences to Business Schools, and from R1s to primarily undergraduate institutions. 

Fellowship applications can cover the costs for multiple people working together as teams, but each application must specify a lead Fellow. For example, we imagine that Fellows might be faculty but that the Fellowship will fund work conducted by students.

Eligibility

Open source hardware’s diversity is one of its strengths.  As such, we encourage applicants to interpret “projects related to open source hardware” broadly and creatively. OSHWA defines open hardware broadly, and invites applications from non-engineering or -science disciplines.  People who are eligible to hold funds at their academic institution are eligible to apply to this Fellowship. We have attempted to make the initial application process relatively brief in order to encourage experimentation.

That being said, applicants should have a demonstrated record of success in the use and/or support of open source hardware in academic settings.  They do not need to be project leads, however, they do have to be in a position of leadership sufficient to develop and implement the proposed project. Since this program is designed to help create examples for others to follow, we also value a demonstrated interest in mentoring or other types of community leadership.  We recognize that opportunities for community leadership are not equally distributed and therefore understand that term broadly.  

By applying, applicants are indicating that they have the time and capacity to implement their proposed program, participate in regular Fellow cohort meetings, and document their work so that it can serve as a guide to others. Applicants are also indicating that they understand that all work created as part of this program will be made publicly available under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license, or a similarly permissive license, and open hardware referenced meets the guidelines set forth in OSHWA’s Open Hardware Definition.

Awards will be disbursed as unrestricted gifts to the academic institution and are not intended for overhead or indirect costs. OSHWA expects the main expenditures will be allocated to personnel.

Apply!

Applicants should use this form to submit their initial applications. OSHWA will then invite finalists to present a more detailed proposal. For questions or additional information, please email alicia@oshwa.org.

OSHWA believes that the open source hardware community is strengthened by its diversity and, as such, encourages people of color, women, the LGBTQIA+ community, persons with disabilities, and people at intersections of these identities, from across the spectrum of disciplines and methods, to apply.

Estimated Timeline 

• Application Deadline: April 7th
• May 2022: Fellows are selected and awards are announced
• June 2022: Initial in-person Fellow meeting
• August 2022: Fellows present on their in-progress research
• November 2022: In-person Fellow meeting with cohort
• December 2022: Fellows present on their in-progress research
• May 2023: Final presentation of research outcomes

FAQ

How long do we have to conduct the research?

The Fellowship is a one year program.

How many grants are being awarded?

Eight in total: Five $100,000 grants and three $50,000 grants.

Who can receive the $50,000 grant vs. the $100,000 grant?

If you meet the requirements sent forth in the Eligibility section of this RFP, you are eligible for either amount. We expect Fellows given $100,000 will have longer or multiple outputs. 

Can I use this for summer salary?

Yes.

I’m a postdoc, can I apply?

Yes, if you are able to receive academic institution funds, or partner with someone who can. 

I’m at a community college, can I apply?

Yes, as long as you are able to hold funds at your community college.

Can I use this to make this [really cool hardware project]?

No, but you can use these funds to document how you were able to make a project open source.

I have an open hardware project that isn’t completed, can I apply?

Yes, but keep in mind that funding is not intended for hardware development. 

I would like to use the Fellowship to manufacture existing hardware, distribute it, and then evaluate how it is used by others in a way that would advance open hardware in academia, is that okay?

Yes, this is acceptable, as long as the primary contribution of your work is the evaluation and advancement of open hardware in academia. 

Can I apply for the funding with a partner at my or another institution?

We encourage you and your partner both to apply for the Fellowship separately, but you can mention that you’re hoping to partner with another institution.

I am based at an institution outside of the United States. Can I apply?

After careful consideration, we have limited the first round of the Trailblazers Fellowship program to US-based institutions.  

This was not a decision we made lightly.  OSHWA is an international organization for the international open source hardware community.  Our goal is to be able to extend this program to members of our community around the world.

However, the Trailblazers Fellowship is also a new program for OSHWA that involves coordinating a number of people and institutions in ways that we have not done before.  We hope that limiting the first round of the program to US-based institutions will make it easier for us to learn and be well positioned to expand the program in the future.

I have another question! Where can I ask it?

Email Alicia Gibb at alicia@oshwa.org with any further questions.

I’m interested in being a mentor instead, how do I do that?

Please view our mentor committee post here. Applications to mentor will be due March 30th.

Thank You

Thank you for taking the time to consider this Fellowship. 

Thank you to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the program funding to make the Open Hardware Trailblazers Fellowship possible. 

The Open Hardware Creators in Academia Fellowship was a great opportunity for me and the researchers in my laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to formally explore and implement open hardware concepts in our microscopy development work.

For the last twenty years we have been active in the open source imaging software community but our efforts in the open hardware space have been less formalized and in great need of researching the best practices for our work. While we have been involved in a number of custom microscopy building efforts the dissemination efforts behind these projects largely relied on traditional paper publication which greatly restricts the how the important build process can be shared. When we have tried making our plans available it has been through videos of systems and online part lists that don’t allow other builders to fully observe the build process or share their own adaptions.

We are grateful to the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) for funding and advising on our OpenScan project as a fellow project to allow us to investigate this important problem. Over the last year OSHWA has provide the funding and expert support needed for us to focus on making OpenScan a open source system beyond just the software part. OpenScan is an open source platform for controlling laser scanning microscopes and consists of control software and hardware.

Before receiving the trailblazer award the open source concept in our lab (like most in the imaging community) had largely been applied to the software collecting and analyzing our image data and not the complete system with all the necessary hardware. In our field there was already widespread community support for making the protocols for any published scientific study open and carefully documented but the hardware used for most experiments whether homebuilt or commercial is most cases effectively a black box.

We are very interested in pushing forward in our imaging community the concept of releasing open-source hardware designs using OpenScan as example. Open Source Software has been very impactful in our imaging community (and science overall) but open hardware is still an emerging effort. Lots of groups share drawings of parts but when building complex systems, the efforts have been less. Using the open hardware laser scanning platform known as OpenScan our group over the last year evaluated what are the most relevant best practices from open source software that can be applied to hardware and what are unique open hardware criterion needs that have to be implemented for
successful sharing of open hardware.

As well on a personal note interacting with the many great fellows, mentors and leadership of OSHWA including open hardware perspectives from many different fields has given a bigger perspective on shared challenges between open hardware builds. I’ve enjoyed the many interactions at the in person and virtual OSHWA meetings and hope to stay involved with this community.

Find Kevin’s work

The OHCA Website: https://ohca.oshwa.org/kevin-eliceiri

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-eliceiri-0757064/

Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation: https://loci.wisc.edu/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2FUWMadisonLOCI

Become an OSHWA member today to vote on nominees!

This year, we have 4 open seats on the OSHWA board. Board members will hold a 2-year position. Once board members have been chosen by the OSHWA member community, the board will appoint a President, VP, and Secretary. As every nominee answered “Yes” to having 5-10 hours a month to give to the board, we did not include that question in each nominee’s data. Board responsibilities include fundraising, advising on goals and direction, and carrying out compliance of the organization’s purposes and bylaws. Please find details of our election process here.

The vote will be open on Oct. 17th-23rd. Members will be emailed a link to vote. Here are the nominees in no particular order:

Nadya Peek

Why do you want to be on the board?

I strongly believe in creating and maintaining technology that supports personal agency. To this end, I support the development and maintenance of tailorable, reusable, modular, extensible, and accessible technologies. I support the use of this technology for any (unintended) purpose; I believe that robust technological infrastructure is critical for supporting a diversity of ideas and applications. Open Source Hardware plays a crucial supporting role in working towards these goals by establishing and advocating for best practices around sharing, documentation, and collaboration. I would like to serve on the board of the Open Source Hardware Association, as I believe it to be an organization uniquely suited to advancing open standards for technology design, manufacturing, use, and dissemination.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I am running for re-election to the OSHWA board, where I have served several terms. I have been an active open source hardware developer for almost two decades! I develop open-source hardware machines, controllers, and software in my group Machine Agency at the University of Washington. I’m an engineering prof and teach digital fabrication and physical computing. My group shares their research widely—besides academic publications and conferences we also can generally be found at things like Hackaday Supercon, Crowdsupply Teardown, RRFs, and CCC. I got my PhD at MIT in the Center for Bits and Atoms, where I helped set up many fab labs and makerspaces. I have helped organize the OSH summit many times and love the community we bring together there. I think I am qualified to be on the board because of my technical expertise and my experience with community organizing, fundraising, and promoting OSHW.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

A major goal of mine is broadening the participation of women, racially underrepresented people, and people from disadvantaged socioeconomic statuses in engineering and particularly Open Source Hardware. As a woman engineering professor of mixed race and ethnicity, this matter is of both professional and personal importance to me. To achieve this, I dedicate time to organizing events to address structural racism at my workplace, to mentoring groups who have historically been excluded from engineering, and to policy making efforts that can further goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In these actions, I bring my experience in hardware communities outside of the global north and leverage my position of privilege and power as a professor at a public US university to bring about change. I value and support the past inclusion efforts of OSHWA such as the Ada Lovelace fellowship, and would work to further them were I to be elected to the board.

Wendy Ju

Why do you want to be on the board?

I have found it very fulfilling to be an OSHWA board member from 2021-2023. I specifically enjoyed working to help get the Trailblazers program started and helping OSHWA apply for NSF funding from the Platforms for Open Source Ecosystems call. For the coming term, I want to continue to grow the role that OSHWA plays in creative entrepreneurship and to work on initiatives to help open-source solutions that encourage the reuse of e-waste.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I am an Associate Professor of Information Science at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech in New York City. I teach a graduate course in Developing and Designing Interactive Devices. My research focuses on designing interaction with automated systems; I frequently use interactive technologies to prototype the future. I have developed and shared curriculum to teach Arduino and Raspberry Pi in the context of making interactive musical instruments, far-out Mp3 players, and robots of many flavors.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

The fields of engineering, computer science, and STEM greatly benefit when they draw people from different racial, geographical, and socio-economic backgrounds. Increased access to the tools of production can be transformational to people from underprivileged backgrounds, and so I am committed to break down barriers and address inequity.

Andrew Quitmeyer

Why do you want to be on the board?

I deeply love open culture and find the thought of locking up information from other human beings to be viscerally disgusting. I love building things and documenting them and sharing them back with the world, and have been trying the best I can to help build silly or useful things I can contribute to our collective understanding. I would like to be on the board because I see it as another layer of service I can provide to the Open Source community. My other goal is to continue trying to make connections between the various open source communities I have worked with, and being on the board would help me to better serve as a bridge of information and opportunities between groups.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I served as an inaugural member of the GOSH community council (which seems to be a somewhat analogous position to this like-minded group), and I have been working as a member of GOSH to help host big events like their conference in Panama. I have also been a member for many years now and participated in the voting and discussions when I can. My personal work of creating and sharing stuff, combined with my experience in academia, industry, conservation work, and non-institutional groups gives me a robust background of not only just hardware experience, but also experience in things like finding sponsorship, legal stuff (getting sued for millions by patent trolls), and policy. I have also cultivated a nice network of communities and friends that I proselytize open source hardware to constantly! 🙂

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

My core draw to open source philosophies comes from its ability to disrupt existing power dynamics. I have never been interested in things that are only available to “elite” audiences whether this is certain types of art, hardware, hobbies, etc… Instead, I’ve noticed my joy derives from the liberation of these concepts and activities such that everyone can play.

Thus I take this core belief into my own work on the social side of things as well. There are massive power structures (many visible, but many obscured) that exist in our society to prevent many from getting the opportunities I have been afforded (white, cis, abled, straight-passing guy). I work to channel my energy towards fighting back against these power structures by creating new opportunities for those who would not have been able to receive them. A key reason I quit my job as an academic professor was that I found that despite the significant backing of a large institution and decent salary, very little of these resources were able to get funneled towards people who could actually make use of them. Instead the way things were structured, at the end of the day most of what I was pushing my energy and resources towards was doing more to reinforce the power structures already established. I found I could actually give back more to society making a paltry salary and volunteering 80% of my time towards causes that would be otherwise overlooked.

My goal is to use the privileges I have to identify these power structures and to fight against them, and then in turn put in work to creating paths that support marginalized persons to act and speak as they would like to.

Katherine Scott

Why do you want to be on the board?

I’ve been on the OSHWA board off and on for a number of years; and have served as one of the more active board members. My interest and affiliation with OSHWA started shortly after its inception, and I believe that over the past decade we’ve laid the groundwork necessary to finally become a larger and better funded open source organization. The world, and more importantly larger NGOs and government organizations, have finally become more amenable to open-source philosophy and practice; we’re at a pivotal time for both open source and OSHWA. I would like to continue serving on the board (or as a volunteer) to help see the organization through this period. My professional role, as a developer advocate for the open-source software and hardware project ROS (Robot Operating System) puts me in a unique position of being able to serve both communities and advocate for our shared ambitions for the future.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

In terms of my academic background I hold undergraduate degrees in both computer engineering and electrical engineering, and a masters degree in robotics and computer science. Professionally, I have been an open source contributor and advocate for my entire career. I have co-founded two reasonably successful startups and have worked at a number of others; all at the intersection of hardware and software. Presently, I am a developer advocate at Intrinsic, an Alphabet subsidiary, focused on democratizing robotics. In practice, my job entails acting as the developer advocate for the Open Source Robotics Foundation’s two big open source projects Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo. My practical experience in this role, and in my previous roles, provide me with a deep understanding of how to effectively operate open-source organizations. I am often the board member bringing practical open source community experience to bear at OSHWA. On a daily basis I find myself working with a number of other open source orgs, like the OpenCV foundation and the Drone Code Foundation, and acting as intermediary between the broader open-source community.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

I take diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice very seriously, and believe that part of OSHWA’s role is to act as a megaphone and stepping stone for marginalized and oppressed communities. I’ve seen first hand how open source can be used to address inequity, highlight the contributions of marginalized groups, and act as a bridge into technology for those from underserved communities. In our previous efforts at OSHWA – from putting together the summit, to distributing grant funds – we’ve made every effort to cultivate the talent of, and represent the important contributions from, marginalized groups and individuals. I hope to continue these efforts, and further expand our practices for years to come.

Ramon Roche – Video Application

Why do you want to be on the board?

I want to continue supporting the aerial robotics industry, by establishing the validity of open hardware.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I’ve been working with Pixhawk for the last 7 years, currently leading the program creating open hardware and open standards for the drone industry.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

Respect for the rights of others means peace.

Nikolas Kameník

Why do you want to be on the board?

I want to be on the board of the Open Source Hardware Association because I believe in the power of open source to democratize technology and empower people to create and innovate. I have a passion for open source hardware and have been involved in the community for many years. I am also a strong advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, and believe that the open source community should be a welcoming and inclusive space for everyone.

The Open Source Hardware Association is a keystone organization that supports and ensures the success of open hardware in academia, industry, and finally – but perhaps most importantly – individual passion projects which have future potential to educate and help others. The association does this by providing resources, networking opportunities, and advocacy for open hardware. I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in the open hardware movement, and I am committed to working towards that goal.

Seven years ago, I left my career in the space industry as a research analyst, moved to Prague, and have since fully been applying myself to keeping additive manufacturing accessible through open source ideals at Prusa Research. I now am looking to extend my passion beyond 3D printing, into broader domains of open source and apply my experience to help open hardware succeed at every scale of its application.

I am confident that I can make a positive contribution to the Open Source Hardware Association and help to advance the open source hardware movement. Thank you for your consideration.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

Prior to moving to the Czech Republic, I was the Finance Manager of the NewSpace conference, where for three years I helped organize an annual event with 50+ sponsors and several hundreds of attendees. As an appointed advocate of the Space Frontier Foundation I aspired to progress commercial involvement in the space industry, furthering political strategies for the success of the space startup ecosystem.

Shortly after moving to Prague, I was provided an opportunity to help Prusa Research and I have continued to be involved with the company in every way possible. I’m proud to have had a role in the company’s growth from less than 50 to now more than 800 employees and am currently helping lead a team of 73 people. In addition to overseeing the development of several of our internal software systems, I also gather the experiences of our many hundreds of thousands of active users across all channels, present reports to all departments within the company, ensure effective communication, and endeavor to achieve the greatest satisfaction possible for every user of our open source software and hardware.

My previous experience working with a non-profit in the United States and now as a manager in a successful open source hardware company, uniquely positions me to help ensure the integrity and success of the Open Source Hardware Association. I believe that my involvement in the open source community, as well as my skills in management, communication, and advocacy; make me an ideal candidate for the board. I look forward to the opportunity to contribute to the success of the association and to help advance the open source hardware movement.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

I believe that the open-source movement should be a beacon of accessibility, welcoming everyone irrespective of their background, ethnicity, age, or sexual orientation. Simply striving for inclusion is not enough, each individual should also know and feel they are valued. I aspire to speak for underrepresented voices, and wish to help keep open source as a realm that truly embraces the diversity of human experiences, as all should.

Open-mindedness has always been one of the key qualities which I try to apply in every situation. One of my most favorite aspects of my current work is having the opportunity to travel and attend many events every year. I love the openness and inclusivity fostered by everyone at RepRap Festivals, Maker Faires, and other open source events and conferences. I also often attend and support LGBTIQA+ events and charities with my partner.
On social media, I am usually found under the username of nik0tron and my enthusiasm for meeting and talking with people about their passions and projects has no limits. I consider myself to be exceptionally accepting of alternative views, as long has they do not restrict the freedoms, success, or happiness of others.

As one of the Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellows, I hope that my experiences can be informative, or at least bring some sense of solidarity, to other PhD students working on open hardware (OH). PhD programs seem to be isolating experiences by design. After all, you’re supposed to do original research — by definition, doing something that nobody else has ever done. How do you find community when you’re the only one doing what you’re doing?

I think my answer is to find connections with other people who are making things with similar features, and asking similar questions. I try to ignore traditional labels and disciplinary silos like “researcher”, “artist”, “engineer”, etc. so to some, the connections I make might seem like big reaches. My research in textiles and maker tools falls under the human-computer interaction (HCI) umbrella, and building hardware is my way of ensuring that my output research can not only support textile makers in their designing processes, but also play a part in the physical fabrication of those designs. Through the Trailblazers fellowship, I met academics who were working on very different projects, but we found unexpected connections anyway. I was the only person working with textiles, but everyone struggled in their own way with staying on top of documentation and hustling for recognition. Meeting with the other fellows during our cohort meetings gave me comfort that I wasn’t alone, even if I felt like my project was weird and niche. Moreover, most of the other fellows were faculty rather than students and many of the mentors worked outside of academia, so I had constant reminders that the stress of my PhD studies was only temporary, and open hardware would lead to much more exciting places in the future.

However, sometimes doing open hardware and PhD research added more stress to my plate, despite the community I found. Because my research focuses more on the design theories around and qualitative evaluation of the hardware in question, my writing needed to mostly discuss these aspects and heavily streamline the implementation details. Thus, I couldn’t use much of the technical documentation I wrote for the OH project for my academic writing. I essentially had twice the writing to do. And I already had a lot of writing to do.

I noticed other conflicts between academic output and OH output when judging how “ready” the work was. For the Loom Pedals, my advisor suggested that it was “publishable” once I had a proof-of-concept prototype. The Loom Pedals were nowhere near their current level of functionality and polish: I hadn’t designed the PCB yet, the enclosures were an earlier boxy version, and I was still ironing out the software interface. The crux of the manuscript was to be the “novel” concept of creating a customizable interface for a Jacquard loom. If I were to post about the project online, as I have with some personal hardware projects, I would’ve waited until I had documented things better and organized my files — a “pushable” state. Maybe this is just my perfectionism speaking, and/or specific to publishing in HCI, which is so focused on “novelty”. 

Lastly, I can’t forget my dissertation. This fellowship lined up with my final year as a PhD student, so for my final few months, my primary focus was just putting together my dissertation. I hope I’m not sounding repetitive because all of my issues have been with writing. But writing has been the single most prominent aspect of academia that I wouldn’t think about so much if, say, I was working as an engineer in a start-up.

Starting with this one parallel, I’ve been thinking about other ways that academic tasks mirror open-source practices; and going even further, ways that academic spaces could learn from open-source communities to become more nurturing and collaborative. 

As a minor example, I ended up putting my dissertation (LaTeX files, images, and other assets) into a Git repository because I was overwhelmed by organizing my files and tracking changes in response to my committee’s feedback. On a whim, I made it public on GitHub, like so many other projects that I’ve just thrown online. I’ve already sent the link to a few other students who wanted ideas for their own dissertation processes. I’ve realized that I want my academic work to include my process to transparently show the mess that preceded a polished manuscript. I want to be honest about my struggles, so I can share and create resources with others (like a living dissertation template that will be updated every year, not every decade). I want my work to exist outside of paywalls and institutions. And most of all, I want to dispel the myth that academics are solitary geniuses who periodically emerge from their wizard towers, publications in hand — a myth which only perpetuates elitist, exclusive institutions that isolate and burn out prospective academics who lack certain privileges.

I recognize that some (maybe most) of my feelings of isolation stem from doing my PhD during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conferences were moved online or outright canceled, and in a field that heavily emphasizes publishing in conference proceedings, I missed out on a lot of networking, commiserating, and collaborating with other students that would normally take place at in-person conferences. Nevertheless, I would love to talk with others who might feel similarly and brainstorm ideas to support each other. Discord server? (entirely serious)

If you would like to commiserate about PhD angst and lament about not having actual wizard towers, you can find Shanel Wu at: (website) sminliwu.github.io / (Github) @sminliwu / (Instagram and Discord) @pipernell / (email) sminliwu@gmail.com

Become an OSHWA member today to vote on nominees!

This year, we have 5 open seats on the OSHWA board. Board members will hold a 2-year position. Once board members have been chosen by the OSHWA member community, the board will appoint a President, VP, and Secretary. As every nominee answered “Yes” to having 5-10 hours a month to give to the board, we did not include that question in each nominee’s data. Board responsibilities include fundraising, advising on goals and direction, and carrying out compliance of the organization’s purposes and bylaws. Please find details of our election process here.

The vote will be open on Oct. 18th-25th. Members will be emailed a link to vote. Here are the nominees in no particular order:

Harish Kumar K

Why do you want to be on the board?

Technology Delivery to the Needy and Poor

What qualifies you to be a board member?

My Experience and Skills

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

Reach of Technology to All

David Ray

Why do you want to be on the board?

I feel that as a low to medium volume manufacturer that tends to gather the most business from the ElectronicsTwitter community, I may be able to provide a strongly informed opinion on the state of Open Source Hardware from within the entrepreneurial perspective.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

General Manager – Cyber City Circuits

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

If you teach people to make things, they will start to make things. If you want true and organic innovation in a community, teach people to make things.

Thea Flowers

Why do you want to be on the board?

To build a culture of open source hardware in the worlds of music technology and small scale manufacturing.

Music tech has long held its secrets close to the chest, despite the incredible DIY ethic of musicians. I want to encourage and empower DIY designers and builders to share their work as open source so that anyone who wants to create music hardware has the resources to learn, create, and build on decades of experience.

Small scale, distributed manufacturing has become increasingly common in our current world as supply chains and customer expectations shift, however, the process of manufacturing at small scale has not gotten easier. I want to build a community around open source hardware that empowers this kind of manufacturing such as pick and place machines, reflow ovens, and test jigs.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I have been involved with the software side of open source for most of my life. I have lead and contributed to multiple high-profile open source software projects. I have been named a Python Software Foundation fellow because of my work in open source.

I have previously been a staff engineer in developer relations at Google. I have over a decade of experience in open source, community organization, and technical writing. My experience as the founder of an open source hardware company brings a personal perspective to the challenges faced by those who wish to build open source hardware in a sustainable way.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

I believe that open source – software and hardware – is for everyone. Knowledge and technology are capable of being incredibly empowering when used with careful intent. Each of us has a moral and ethical obligation to humanity to build a community and industry that is beneficial to us all – especially those that have historically been discriminated against.

Our shared knowledge can not be kept away in universities and wealthy corporations. Our knowledge must be freely available to everyone, especially those who are marginalized.

David Slik

Why do you want to be on the board?

The open source hardware movement, lead by the OSHWA, has a unique opportunity to rapidly grow the availability of open and re-usable hardware designs and knowledge. Together, the community is collectively building a library of open hardware products and hardware building blocks that dramatically reduce the barriers to learning and creating. The OSHWA is uniquely positioned to both promote open source hardware, and to connect and build a community based around learning, sharing and re-use. I would like to contribute through a board position to help build and promote the registry of OSHWA certified hardware, and specifically, to promote the concept of re-usable hardware modules: schematics, PCB layouts and design documentation that can be combined and remixed to rapidly build more complex hardware, similar to how open source libraries accelerate development the software world.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

My qualifications for participating as a board member include over 25 years in the embedded systems, distributed systems, hardware platforms and R&D industries, combined with years of experience creating hardware as a personal hobby. As part of running the research devision of a Fortune 500 company, I also was responsible for community outreach, liaison with universities and researchers, public presentations, and collaborative standards development. I have participated in numerous standards bodies, contributed to multiple ISO standards, and am familiar with the patent process and other intellectual property challenges related to free and open hardware. I am also a senior member of the ACM, and have served as secretary for a volunteer association, so I am familiar with the responsibilities and roles associated with a board position.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

Any endeavour related to creating and sharing knowledge and creative work is stronger the more diverse it is. Open source hardware grows stronger from a diverse and inclusive community, and open source hardware fosters increased diversity, equity, inclusion and justice by making hardware more approachable, and easier to get started in. By reducing barriers that disproportionately prevent under-represented communities and individuals from becoming involved in hardware, open source hardware is a positive force towards equity and inclusion.

Eugene Pik

Why do you want to be on the board?

Since the beginning of 2021 I worked with OSHWA in regards to the open source hardware project Uniqopter. I met many great individuals who helped me to get up to speed with the open source hardware. Now is my turn to pay back, to help OSHWA.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I have 10 years of a board experience as an executive board member of CSCL (Canadian Society for Creative Leathercraft), an organization founded in Toronto in 1950 to promote the beauty of leather along with excellent craftsmanship and unique design.

As the CEO of Uniqopter I’m responsible to create an open source hardware program that targets to create a full size air ambulance. This is going to be a 1st open source hardware program of that scale. As the OSHWA board member I hope to use Uniqopter to promote the open source hardware movement.

Also I have experience with information technology (software, hardware, programming) and if needed can help in that area.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

I truly believe that all people are equal independently of their race, language, color of their skin or eyes, their religion or place of birth. As a Jew from USSR I personally experienced bullying, hatred and other forms of unequal behaviour toward different people. One who experienced that on their own skin has better understand of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice.

Jinger Zeng

Why do you want to be on the board?

To make more impact in the open source hardware community.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

Trailblazer fellowship mentor, ex-hardware entrepreneur, go-to-market strategist for open source hardware, advisor to startups, Techstars Alumni, understand global distribution (currently at Hackster.io, an Avnet company) and manufacturing (worked with various Chinese manufactures in the current and past capacities).

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

As the 1.5 Chinese immigrant from China, I have a big personal curiosity and journey in understanding how tech and cultural background affects human emotions and well-beings. As the tech-savvy, multi-cultural, well-traveled new generation, when I interact with older generations of immigrants (including very biologically closed of my own), when I see their struggles, it often daunt on me on how far we still have to go to make an assertive effort to make everything more inclusive! I have a belief system to work in the direction that drives tech for all, and it’s not only just based on color of our skins or gender type within US or English speaking world, but how it is globally and locally treated and received.

Michael Weinberg

Why do you want to be on the board?

I want to continue to support OSHWA’s goals and community. I’m also excited that OSHWA is now able to support one full time employee, and hope that it is moving towards a place where the organization can support a broader full-time staff. OSHWA is what it is because of volunteers, which is fantastic. That being said, there are many more things that the organization could be doing with more capacity. I also want to keep helping to manage OSHWA’s certification program, which continues to expand and reach more communities.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I’m interested in open source hardware and excited to be part of the community. I’ve been involved with OSHWA for a number of years as a community member, board member, and board president. I’m also the person who oversees OSHWA’s open source hardware certification program.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

While I try to be supportive of OSHWA’s DEI+J initiatives and welcoming to a diverse set of community members, there is no getting around the fact that I’m a straight white male living in the global north. It would be completely reasonable to not have me on the board in favor of someone who brought a more diverse set of experiences to the position.

Oluwatobi Oyinlola

Why do you want to be on the board?

I would love to continually support OSHWA as a board member, most importantly take open hardware to places that have never been before in Africa. I am super excited about the work we’ve done so far, my potential goal is to keep pushing for open hardware using OSHWA framework worldwide and do more to encourage hardware developers to build open innovations.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

My past experience in the hardware space is always solutions that could contribute to the greater good in an open and inclusive way. I see the positive shift in open hardware, especially in Africa and underserved communities, I am excited to see more of it and I would love to keep pushing the impact beyond border with OSHWA.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

I am committed to building a sustainable diverse community without any limitations either by gender or the color of their skin.

Craig Polk

Why do you want to be on the board?

Provide help for grant writing. I believe HW should be available and accessible to all

What qualifies you to be a board member?

Have done grant writing for other nonprofits

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

passionate about bringing opportunities to children of all backgrounds to enrich their lives through education

The Open Source Hardware Association ( OSHWA) recently announced our Open Hardware Trailblazers Fellowship. The one-year fellowship provides $50,000 or $100,000 grants to individuals who are leading the way as open source hardware expands into academia. The fellows will document their experience of making open source hardware in academia to create a library of resources for others to follow.

OSHWA is recruiting open source hardware professionals and practitioners from both inside and outside of academia with diverse backgrounds to serve on the mentor committee.  The committee will review applications, make recommendations on fellowship awards, and advise fellows through their year-long Open Hardware Trailblazers Fellowship.  The mentor committee will work with the OSHWA board selection committee, two non-voting members of the Sloan Foundation, and two non-voting staff members at OSHWA to recommend fellow applications. 

The mentor application is due March 30th.

Responsibilities

• Read, reflect on, and discuss the fellowship applications. 
• Work with the OSHWA selection committee members to recommend a list of applicants to the OSHWA board. 
• Attend virtual and in-person meetings through the course of this grant as determined as a group.
• Read the guidelines / best practices / case study or other documentation written by your fellow and offer suggestions throughout the year.
• Mentor, offer suggestions, and be a sounding board to a paired fellow throughout the year.

Process

The mentor application is due March 30th.

The mentor committee will be appointed by an OSHWA board selection committee. Mentors will be given a $5,000 stipend. Travel for proposed in-person personal meetings will be covered by OSHWA.

Thank you to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for their generous support of this program.