Shanel Wu, also known as S, is currently a PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder in the ATLAS Institute, which is an interdisciplinary engineering program for “creative technology design”.
S is very passionate about: making things that are both useful and beautiful, and exploring technical complexities through handcraft. Their research focuses on designing e-textiles (or “smart” textiles) and wearables, technologies that combine fabric and other squishy, fluffy materials with electronics. They received their bachelors in physics from Harvey Mudd College, where S self-learned how to knit to pick up a relaxing hobby. Textiles and craft gradually took over their life as a secondary field of study, until they ended up in their current position – part self-taught fiber artist and knitwear designer, part design researcher, part engineer. In addition to owning many esoteric weaving tools, S is also a proud co-parent to a flock of chickens and ducks.
Their open hardware project is the Loom Pedals, an embedded interface to a computerized Jacquard loom, the TC2 by Tronrud Engineering. It started as a hack to make sampling and prototyping their woven designs faster. As a member of the Unstable Design Lab, S connected with a community of experimental weavers who also tinker with their tools and practice open-source sharing. The actual Loom Pedals are a system of modular foot pedals (expanding on the TC2’s existing single foot pedal) that give the weaver options for editing and improvising on a design, without having to step away from the loom and revise files in CAD. This project was always intended to be open-source, like many other projects from the lab. After all, the modern craft renaissance wouldn’t be possible without free resources like YouTube, and perhaps most importantly, textiles wouldn’t be one of humanity’s fundamental technologies without people sharing their techniques and knowledge with each other for millenia.
As an OSHWA fellow, S aspires to explore ways to do both open source hardware projects and PhD research. S firmly believes in sharing knowledge outside of traditional institutions as widely as possible, and that their work will be more impactful if it is openly available. They encourage fellow students to open source their research hardware. Much of the time and effort spent developing clear instructions and maintaining repositories will be well worth the community that is gained, when research is often a solitary activity.
Museduino Creator Miriam Langer Named OSHWA Trailblazer Fellow
Museduino Creator Miriam Langer Named OSHWA Trailblazer Fellow
The idea of the Museduino was born in early 2015. The Cultural Technology Development Lab (CTDL), an ad-hoc team of faculty and students in the Media Arts and Technology at New Mexico Highlands University had been grappling with the role of supporting the development of responsive exhibits for museums, historic sites, and traveling exhibits. The team found they were repeatedly making versions of the same thing – different sensors (proximity, capacitive touch, buttons) and actuators – lights, audio, motor movement, video – similar processes with different inputs/outputs. The challenge was often the maintenance, cost, and the footprint size (ie- sensor in a doorway, actuator across a gallery space). So, after lots of discussions and proof-of-concept work, Stan, Rianne, Miles, and Miriam developed the Museduino.
In the summer of 2015, Rianne Trujillo and Miles Tokunow, then graduate assistants leading the project, shipped version 2.0 (1.0 was internal) to some friends who had agreed to try it out. After receiving feedback the team built some “first one is free!” demos for their cultural partners, and continued to develop and refine a modular, open-source Arduino shield with external boards that could respond with no detectable delays using CAT5 cable at distances of up to 100 feet from the central microcontroller.
The team led Museduino workshops at ASTC (Association of Science and Technology Centers) in 2015, Museums and the Web in 2016, and INST-INT in 2017. Since the CTDL was something all members squeezed into their full-time academic schedules, they posted documentation and tutorials as they could, but finding the time to fully document both the technical iterations, code examples, and project demos/tutorials was difficult. The OSHWA Trailblazers Fellowship will be dynamic resource to revitalize the project after 18 months of being away from the lab due to COVID restrictions of state museums being closed.
The OSHWA Trailblazers fellowship will allow the current team, Rianne Trujillo (research/technical lead), Miriam Langer (PI, researcher) and Becca Sharp (graduate assistant, technical assistant, exhibit designer) to update the online documentation (museduino.org and GitHub repository) including tutorials, schematics, soldering instructions, and project examples. Along with this, each team member will be writing a textbook – with case studies from our various projects with museums, national parks, historic sites and installation artists, addressing issues around design, installation, and example applications. This document will be posted on the Museduino site, and distributed through OSHWA, along with partners at a few other universities and organizations.
Like most OSH projects, Musedino’s work would benefit from a larger community of users/practitioners who could modify the work, make changes specific to their needs, and share back to GitHub or another shared repository.
Internally at NMHU, they are working with faculty in the Forestry Institute to help their students work with sensors spread out over a large area (where wireless communication is impractical). It may seem that running CAT5/6 cables is impractical, but it does take some uncertainty out of the hardware setup, and Museduino easily accommodates 50+ meter runs in four directions from the central microcontroller (operating on battery or w/ solar).
Primarily many may think of Museduino as an OSH tool for arts/culture/exhibits – as they say, “The street finds its own uses for things”, or in this case, the forest does (apologies to William Gibson).
About the team:
Miriam Langer (she/her) is a professor of media arts/cultural technology at New Mexico Highlands University, an Hispanic Serving public institution in northeastern New Mexico. Miriam has been a professor of multimedia & interactivity with a focus on cultural technology at NMHU since 2001. In 2005, she initiated a partnership with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and has since worked with cultural institutions (museums, historic sites, national parks and libraries) around New Mexico (and elsewhere) to use emerging technology and open source solutions for these organizations. Since 2005, 268 projects have been completed at 62 cultural institutions. She is one of the founders of the Museduino, along with Rianne Trujillo, Miles Tokunow, and Stan Cohen – an open hardware platform for responsive exhibits and installation art. Her partners for this fellowship are Rianne Trujillo, instructor of software design and co-developer of the Museduino and Becca Sharp, an MFA student in Cultural Technology.Museduino.org, cctnewmexico.org
Rianne Trujillo is a professor of Software Systems Design at New Mexico Highlands University where she teaches web programming languages, experimental interfaces, physical computing/ internet of things. As the lead developer of the NMHU Cultural Technology Development Lab, Rianne has worked on Museduino and several exhibits for cultural institutions using open source software and hardware.
Becca Sharp (she/her) is a physical computing and fabrication artist with different focuses such as conservation and technology as well as technology and mental health. She has created projects using recycled materials, reused electronics and information about climate change, and is currently focused on mental health. During her undergraduate studies she had her first gallery showing and was in multiple art shows. She strives to create her work based around empathy and understanding. Her work often places one in “another’s shoes” to help spread information about current matters that need attention. She works primarily with 3D modeling, video game design, generative art through coding, soldering and physical computing. She has worked with museums and visitor centers around New Mexico including Bradbury Science Museum (2017), Meow Wolf (2018), Jemez Historic Site Visitor Center (2019), and New Mexico Museum of Art (2020). She is currently working on her MFA with mental health and technology as the center of her thesis, she is also teaching a course in her program using open-source softwares Unity 3D and Blender.
Playful Learning Lab Director AnnMarie Thomas Named Trailblazer Fellow
Playful Learning Lab Director AnnMarie Thomas Named Trailblazer Fellow
AnnMarie Thomas, the founder/director of the Playful Learning Lab (PLL) at the University of St. Thomas was awarded the OSHWA Trailblazer’s Fellowship.
The PLL is an undergraduate research lab that focuses on the intersection of Art, Technology, and PK-12 Education. I’m fortunate to work with faculty colleagues from other departments such as Music Education, Physics, and Emerging Media. Over the years some of our projects/collaborations have included:
- Partnering with OK Go to develop OK Go Sandbox (the band’s videos and lesson plans for educators),
- A nearly decade-long partnership with Metro Deaf School developing STEAM classes, camps, and programs for their students (who are Deaf and DeafBlind) (such as the afterschool program shown here
- The development of engineering classes and demonstrations that use Flying Trapeze (and other circus arts) to explore physics
Most relevant to her work with open source hardware, though, is the Squishy Circuits project. Over a decade ago, Annmarie was wanting a way to teach young daughters about circuits, and with the help of an amazing first-year undergraduate engineering student, Sam Johnson, we created a method for building simple circuits that relied on two recipes for homemade sculpting dough; one that was very salty (and conductive) and one that was not salty (and worked as an insulator for electricity.) We decided to share all of our recipes and parts lists on line, and the team was amazed by how quickly the idea was embraced by teachers and parents around the world. This was the Playful Learning Lab’s first foray into open source hardware (or as we preferred, “open source squishy ware.”) This work led to the creation of a company, that is run by a former PLL member.
Annmare was an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at the time her team developed Squishy Circuits, that project played an important role in my tenure portfolio. Happily, I received tenure, and have gone on to become the rank of Full Professor, in both the School of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Opus College of Business School of Entrepreneurship. She also teaches in the university’s School of Education, in both the Engineering Education program (which she co-founded) and the Education Leadership department.
The focus of the yearlong trailblazer’s project for her will be examining the what and the where of Open Source Hardware in PK-12 Education. Her team of undergraduate researchers, overseen by Annmarie and my PLL faculty colleagues (Douglas Orzolek, Jeff Jalkio, and John Keston) are undertaking a large-scale literature review process to see where PK-12 usage of Open Source Hardware is showing up in scholarly peer-reviewed publications. They will also be compiling in-depth case studies on how some of these projects were developed in academic settings (by faculty and graduate/undergraduate students.) PLL are also aware that many of the teachers and extracurricular programs that use open source hardware are not publishing this information, so PLL will also be developing and distributing surveys to educators in hopes of getting a fuller picture of the ways in which they use open source hardware, and why.
This program gives opportunities for talented undergraduate students to actively learn about open-source hardware.
Dr. Kevin Eliceiri named Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellow
Dr. Kevin Eliceiri named Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellow
UW-Madison
Innovation in scientific instrumentation is an important aspect of research at
UW–Madison, in part due to efforts of researchers such as Kevin Eliceiri, professor of
medical physics and biomedical engineering.
Eliceiri, who is also an investigator for the Morgridge Institute for Research,
member of the UW Carbone Cancer Center, associate director of the McPherson Eye
Research Institute and director of the Center for Quantitative Cell Imaging, was recently
named an Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellow by the Open Source Hardware
Association (OSHWA).
Open hardware refers to the physical tools used to conduct research such as
microscopes, and like open software, helps to ensure that scientific knowledge is not
just found in research settings, but that it supports the public use of science as is the
mission of The Wisconsin Idea.
“Kevin Eliceiri is a pioneer in open source hardware and software design that
allow for richer data collection than traditional methods and support innovative research
on campus and around the world,” says Steve Ackerman, vice chancellor for research
and graduate education. “Open hardware allows for interdisciplinary collaboration and
for a research enterprise to start small and then scale up to meet their needs. Open
source hardware is a good investment and holds promise for accelerating innovation.”
The OSHWA fellowship program seeks to raise the profile of existing open hardware
work within academia, and encourages research that is accessible, collaborative and
respects user freedom.
The one year fellowship, funded by the Open Source Hardware Association,
provides $50,000 and $100,000 grants to individuals like Eliceiri who will then document
their experience of making open source hardware to create a library of resources for
others to follow. The fellows were chosen by the program’s mentors and an OSHWA
board selection committee.
Eliceiri says “ There is 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 can often be
effectively a black box. In this age of the quest for reproducible quantitative science the
open source concept should be applied to the complete system including hardware, not
just the software used to analyze the resulting data.
Universities often try to recover the costs associated with developing new
scientific instrumentation through patenting, commercialization and startups. This
process works well at times. But for some highly specialized instrumentation, the
traditional model can be too time consuming and costly. Thus, some highly useful
innovations never reach other labs.
Open hardware and sharing designs for instruments without patenting — as an
alternative to the traditional model — is growing in popularity. Three open hardware journals have come of age in the past five years, offering venues to share how to build
research instrumentation that can be tweaked for a specific use, instead of starting from
scratch
With open hardware, anyone can replicate or reuse hardware design files for free
and this increases the accessibility of hardware tools such as specialized microscopes.
The infrastructure of desktop 3D printers is another example of how open
hardware can accelerate and broaden scientific research. The National Institute of
Health (NIH)’s 3D Print Exchange is a library designed to advance biomedical research
by allowing a researcher to print hardware on site. With local production, there is a
reduction in cost and supply chain vulnerabilities.
Since 2000, Eliceiri has been lead investigator of his lab known as the Laboratory
for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI), with a research focus developing
novel optical imaging methods for investigating cell signaling and cancer progression,
and the development of software for multidimensional image analysis. LOCI has been
contributing lead developers to several open-source imaging software packages
including FIJI, ImageJ2 and μManager. His open hardware instrumentation efforts
involve novel forms of polarization, laser scanning and multiscale imaging.
Using the open hardware laser scanning platform known as OpenScan Elicieri
plans to evaluate 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.
Eliceiri, a highly cited researcher, has authored more than 260 scientific papers
on various aspects of optical imaging, image analysis, cancer and live cell imaging.
Robotics for the Streets: From Outreach to Education to Research
Robotics for the Streets: From Outreach to Education to Research
Dr. Carlotta Berry
Engineering has a diversity problem. It has for a really long time. Despite many years of programs and interventions, the number of Black and Brown people pursuing degrees in engineering has remained relatively flat. It is more than just a broken pipeline, it is an obstacle course with pitfalls, daggers, darts, and detours that lead to dead ends. People are lost at every step of the journey due to lack of a sense of belonging, no mentors and role models, not being able to see the relevance of the work they will do, and how to relate it to real world applications. My purpose here is to propose we devise more novel and innovative approaches to get more minds, hands, and eyes on STEM.
Engineers solve the problems of a global and diverse community so they must reflect that community to come up with the best and most unique solutions. When this doesn’t happen, there is the potential for bias, discrimination, and injustice to creep into our technological solutions. In recent years, we have seen artificial intelligence technology used to falsely identify the perpetrator of a crime, eliminate women candidates for job interviews and inaccurately identify individuals most likely to reoffend.
As an Open Hardware Trailblazer fellow, my approach for doing this is to remove the barrier to knowledge and resources for all ages. I want to be for others what I did not have as an engineering student. Show them that they can be what they can or cannot see with a bit of diligence, dedication, and discipline. Remove the barrier that keeps some individuals from ever seeing themselves in this field and make it more accessible.
A robot is a mechanical system that uses electronics and software to achieve missions and tasks in the world, it connects several disciplines. Therefore, one of the greatest benefits in using robots for open-source hardware development is the fact that it is used for multidisciplinary collaboration. The documentation of robotics projects can be generalized to academics in engineering, computer science, human computer interaction, informatics, sociology, psychology, and cognitive science. Since my area of research focuses on controls, software development, kinematics, as well on electronics it touches on many such fields. In the past, academics have used robotics to teach design, controls, physics, mathematics, mechatronics, and programming so the opportunities are endless. In addition, since robotics is taught in so many different ways with no standardized curriculum, this is one way to unify the community around best practices. By having a shared repository online, users will be encouraged to not only consume content but also contribute their innovations.
This multi-pronged approach to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in STEM technology will meet people where they are. Through a repository of social media posts, videos, lectures, assignments, labs, code, workshops, and curricula, it lowers the barrier for educators and users. By documenting and disseminating the use of open-source platforms for research, it will illustrate to academics that it is not necessary to raise massive amounts of money, purchase expensive hardware or get patents to make an impact.
In conclusion, my work as an open hardware trailblazer fellow will illustrate to universities and academics that there is more than one way to produce and share intellectual property. It will cause a paradigm shift that illustrates that there is just as much intellectual merit in producing open source hardware as there is in getting patents or publishing in journals, conferences, or technical magazines. In addition, using open source hardware will produce greater visibility for universities as well as yield broader impacts for the STEM community. By exploiting these non-traditional avenues for disseminated projects, it will enable a more diverse segment of the population to engage. In this way, open source hardware creates more diversity, equity, justice, and inclusion in STEM. For example, individuals who cannot afford a college education, will now benefit from some of the knowledge garnered from engaging in open source hardware projects that would have previously only been accessible to the university community. It is my hope that by promoting and using STEM to make connections with various communities and bring more people to STEM, we will change the face of STEM and diversify the profession.
Why you should use Free and Open Source Software to design your hardware
When you design hardware, it is very likely that you want to share your design files with others. At the very least, you may want to open your files and edit them in the future. This blog entry explains the advantages of using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) if you want to make sure you always have access to your files.
Commercial not the opposite of FOSS
‘Commercial software’ is not the opposite of ‘FOSS’. The opposite of ‘FOSS’ is ‘proprietary software’. A proprietary program is one for which you do not have meaningful access to the source code. You can buy support for FOSS, and then it’s commercial FOSS. In fact, many argue that it’s a winning combination: you avoid lock-in situations because it’s open-source, but you contribute to the sustainability of the project and you don’t expect people to work for free, which unfortunately is often the case with open-source projects.
The problem with proprietary tools
The most important issue with proprietary tools is the dependency on an external entity, typically a software company, to be able to open and edit the content you created to begin with. We are so used to accepting this that we don’t see anymore how unnatural it is. Imagine you kept a hand-written diary. Some of these diaries come with a lock for privacy reasons. Now imagine that every time you wanted to open your diary you had to ask a company for the key to the lock. The company could ask you for regular payments to continue giving you the key every time you asked for it, and if you stopped paying you would not have access anymore to the years of content you might have already written in those pages. Even if you were willing to pay, the company could go belly-up, or their priorities could change, and you might lose access to your diary. Sounds ludicrous, right? Yet, this is what we accept every time we generate content using a proprietary tool. The current trend for design software to be ‘in the cloud’ and for licensing to be subscription-based gives tool providers even more control over who can access files and when.
But my EDA vendor gives me this super-good deal!
Some people invoke low prices of a given proprietary Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tool as a reason not to worry too much. Versions of the tools with limited capabilities are sometimes even available for free! EDA vendors can give extreme discounts to users as part of their commercial strategy. For example, academic institutions often get very good deals because vendors know that these tools have a steep learning curve and once a user has developed the muscle memory to be super-efficient, they are very likely to ask for the same tool in their next job, which may be in a company paying the full standard license fee.
Does that mean that you are safe provided you work in an academic institution? Ask people working there, and you will find out that changes in the strategy of EDA providers (for example as a result of new management) can easily result in abrupt license fee increases. The feeling of helplessness in those cases is hard to describe, especially if you already have a huge number of designs done with that tool.
Zero or very-low license fees create the illusion that you will not lose much if you have to change tools as a result of a price increase, because you never paid them much to begin with. This may be true unless you and your colleagues have invested a big effort learning the tool and creating content you may not be able to access again. For example, a single PCB design might have taken hundreds of hours and multiple iterations to be completed; you might still have the Gerber files for production, but if you need to make a small modification, there is a significant cost to starting the whole layout project again.
If, on the other hand, you think that you may be willing to accept a steep increase in fees to be able to keep access to your files, I have bad news for you: your EDA vendor may be doing that very calculation for you as you read this. One cannot blame a commercial company for wanting to make more money. That’s what companies do. Whether your interests and theirs are aligned enough for you to purchase a proprietary license to their software is for you to judge. At this point it is worth noting that many users absolutely want to pay in exchange for the assurance that they will get technical support if they need it. This is a reasonable expectation when one uses a tool for important design work. As I mentioned earlier, it is very possible to buy that kind of support for an open-source tool. It is also an excellent way to help the project, funding software development work while maintaining the benefits of FOSS. Proprietary licenses typically conflate two aspects which are largely independent: the ability to open and edit your files on one hand, and the support if anything goes wrong on the other. You can certainly get the latter without compromising on the former.
Call to action
Every designer wants to be able to share designs with their future self. If, in addition, you are designing Open Source Hardware (OSHW), your motivation to use FOSS should be even stronger. Open-source tools are sometimes lacking in features and quality. This may be partially explained by the fact that developers are often volunteers who join a project to ‘scratch their own itch’. As a result, conceptual integrity and user experience may get less priority than they should. You can help develop a good open-source tool in your domain (mechanics, electronics or other) in many ways. Contributing code, helping fund development or steering these projects to make them more organized and scalable are just some of the ways people are already doing this. In software development, many of the best tools are open-source. Awareness of the importance of FOSS in guaranteeing easy sharing and absence of lock-in is a first step. This blog entry, necessarily limited in scope and depth, is meant to raise this awareness. A longer version, describing Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design to make things more concrete and tackling the important subject of file formats, is available here. So, what next? If you would like to discuss further and see how we can get organized and reach critical mass in this important endeavor, feel free to post your questions, ideas, suggestions, etc. in the OSHWA Forums. Let’s make FOSS the standard way of sharing OSHW designs!
Revoking Certification for mini:: hardware family
Today OSHWA is revoking the certification for the following hardware:
mini::bike DE000107
mini::lab DE000106
mini::base DE000093
mini::pit DE000096
mini::grid DE000095
mini::out DE000094
We are taking this action because the documentation is no longer publicly available and the parties responsible for the hardware have indicated that they are not in a position to republish it. The absence of the documentation was brought to our attention by a member of the open source hardware community.
In the past, we have fully removed decertified hardware from the certification directory. However, this time we are keeping the listing in the directory and making two changes:
- We are adding “(revoked)” after the hardware name to make it clear that the hardware is no longer certified.
- We have updated the documentation links to point to versions of the documentation OSHWA archived at the time of certification.
This second change is possible because OSHWA started archiving documentation as part of the certification process a number of years ago. This archived documentation is usually stored privately. OSHWA does this, in part, in order to avoid creating an alternative (and not updated) documentation archive that competes with the creator’s active documentation. In cases where the documentation is no longer available and OSHWA has an archive copy, OSHWA will add documentation for decertified hardware to https://github.com/oshwa-terminated-cert-docs-repo as part of the decertification process.
An effective certification program requires ongoing monitoring of certified hardware, both by OSHWA and by the larger open source hardware community. OSHWA prefers to work with responsible parties to resolve problems with certified hardware and views decertification as a last resort.
We discuss the decertification process in more detail in our blog post about the first decertification. You can learn more about the certification program on the certification page and certification FAQs. Finally, if you have questions about the certification process, or want to report a problem with a piece of certified hardware, you can always reach out to certification@oshwa.org
Congratulations to the Open Hardware Trailblazers
OSHWA recently announced a call for Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellows. Thanks to the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, OSHWA is taking a giant step towards expanding open source hardware in academia through the Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellows initiative. The one-year fellowship provides 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.
The call was incredibly competitive. We received truly amazing submissions. The fellows were chosen by the program’s mentors and an OSHWA board selection committee.
Congratulations to the Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellows!
Dr. AnnMarie Thomas is a Professor at the University of St. Thomas, in the School of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) and the Opus College of Business (Entrepreneurship.) She is the director of the Playful Learning Lab, a multidisciplinary undergraduate research group focusing on the intersection of K-12 education, art, and technology. She is the co-creator of Squishy Circuits, and author of “Making Makers: Kids, Tools, and the Future of Innovation.” She served as the founding executive director of the Maker Education Initiative, and is the co-founder and executive director of OK Go Sandbox. Current collaborators include Metro Deaf School and the Minnesota Children Museum.
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Dr. Carlotta A. Berry (she/her) is a professor at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Dr. Berry has always been an advocate for multidisciplinary robotics education as well as diversifying STEM. As part of her efforts, she co-founded the multidisciplinary minor in robotics and Rose building undergraduate diversity scholarship and professional development program. During her recent sabbatical, she also co-founded Black In Engineering and Black In Robotics non-profit organizations and started an educational consulting company, NoireSTEMinist®. She has degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering from Spelman College, Georgia Tech, Wayne State University, and Vanderbilt University. Dr. Berry has given extensive service to her community and profession through FIRST robotics, VEX robotics, Girl Scouts, IEEE and the American Society of Engineering Education. She has numerous awards for her work and was recently recognized as an ASEE fellow and TechPoint Foundation For Youth Bridge Builder.
Dahl Winters (she/her) has been a leader in science R&D and technology initiatives with over 15 years of experience in IT and systems development services. She brings a wealth of expertise with strengths in big data, artificial intelligence, and innovation strategies for research and development. Dahl obtained her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Duke University where she received the Reginaldo Howard full-tuition scholarship for academic merit and leadership. She also holds a Master of Science in Ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a predoctoral fellow of the National Science Foundation. She is currently completing Ph.D work in Systems Engineering from Colorado State University. Dahl is also an active member of the OpenAir Collective, a community of over 700 volunteers working to advance carbon removal policy and R&D.
Jonathan Balkind (he/him) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he co-directs the ArchLab. His research interests lie at the intersection of Computer Architecture, Programming Languages, and Operating Systems. Jonathan received his PhD and MA from Princeton University and his MSci from the University of Glasgow. He is the Lead Architect of OpenPiton and its heterogeneous-ISA descendant, BYOC, which are productive, open-source hardware research platforms with thousands of downloads from over 70 countries worldwide. Jonathan was a Class of 2018 Siebel Scholar and recipient of the Gordon Y.S. Wu Fellowship in Engineering. Since 2021, he has served as a Director of the FOSSi Foundation.
Kevin Eliceiri, Ph.D., is the RRF Walter H. Helmerich Professor of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is an investigator in the Morgridge Institute for Research and member of the UW Carbone Cancer Center. He is also associate director of the McPherson Eye Research Institute and director of the Center for Quantitative Cell Imaging. His laboratory (known as the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI)) is a biophotonics research group dedicated to the development and application of optical and computational technologies for cell studies. They are contributing lead developers to several open-source imaging software packages including FIJI, ImageJ2 and μManager. His open hardware instrumentation efforts involve novel forms of polarization, laser scanning and multiscale imaging. Eliceiri has authored more than 260 scientific papers on various aspects of optical imaging, image analysis, cancer and live cell imaging.
Manu Prakash (he/him) is a professor at Stanford University. He is a physical biologist applying his expertise in soft-matter physics to illuminate often easy to observe but hard to explain phenomena in biological and physical contexts and to invent solutions to difficult problems in global health, science education, and ecological surveillance. His many lines of research are driven by curiosity about the diversity of life forms on our planet and how they work, empathy for problems in resource-poor settings, and a deep interest in democratizing the experience and joy of science globally.
Miriam Langer (she/her) is a professor of media arts/cultural technology at New Mexico Highlands University, an Hispanic Serving public institution in northeastern New Mexico. Miriam has been a professor of multimedia & interactivity with a focus on cultural technology at NMHU since 2001. In 2005, she initiated a partnership with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and has since worked with cultural institutions (museums, historic sites, national parks and libraries) around New Mexico (and elsewhere) to use emerging technology and open source solutions for these organizations. Since 2005, 268 projects have been completed at 62 cultural institutions. She is one of the founders of the Museduino, along with Rianne Trujillo, Miles Tokunow, and Stan Cohen – an open hardware platform for responsive exhibits and installation art. Her partners for this fellowship are Rianne Trujillo, instructor of software design and co-developer of the Museduino and Becca Sharp, an MFA student in Cultural Technology.
Museduino.org, cctnewmexico.org
Shanel Wu (they/them) is a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder researching smart textiles, wearable electronics, and sustainable futures for these technologies. They are a member of Laura Devendorf’s Unstable Design Lab in the ATLAS Institute at CU Boulder, contributing to the lab’s open-source weaving design software, AdaCAD, and open textbook for prototyping smart textiles. Devendorf is Wu’s PhD advisor, and will also be a partner on the fellowship, representing the lab’s introduction to open hardware. Wu received their Bachelor of Science in Physics from Harvey Mudd College, with a focus on applications to computing technologies. Of note, they also became a self-taught fiber artist during their undergraduate years, which informs their current research focus on textile-based circuitry and fabrication. Whether their hands are working with yarn, solder, fabric, or silicon, Wu embraces an open-source philosophy as a way to meld STEAM and community-driven social justice.
Zsuzsa Márka (she/her) is a scientist at the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory. She works on the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) project, the experiment that in 2016 announced the first direct detection of gravitational-waves. At Columbia University, Márka led the project that built the LIGO and KAGRA timing distribution systems, key subsystems for instrument control and gravitational wave data acquisition. Márka works with members of the Columbia Experimental Gravity group on various aspects of gravitational-wave multimessenger astrophysics with a special focus on joint high-energy neutrino and gravitational wave searches. She is also involved in the development of new technologies through the Columbia BioOptics Group with a focus on combating disease transmitting vectors via optical and acoustic technologies and a murine model of neurodegenerative diseases.
Congrats to our Trailblazers in Academia Mentors
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.