startups

mitx and the future of education

Here is my view of the future of college education. Classes are available for free online, the only things that will cost money are certifications. These certifications may be done by the school (i.e. “MIT certifies that Chris Loughnane passed Calculus I), or by professional institutions (i.e. “The Massachusetts Board of Professional Licensure certifies Chris [...]

Tagged as: education, electrical engineering, MIT OCW, mitx

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investment in protomold?

I was contacted today by an analyst at an investment bank to as me about my experience with Protomold (parent company of First Cut, whom I’ve written about) As I was answering the questions, it struck as something that should be shared: From the analyst: …So I was hoping to get in touch to better [...]

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the economics of AI and your job

Mostly on this site I write about product development; materials, process, manufacturing, design theory, sustainability, mechanics, and so on. Something else I spend a lot of time on is economics. I feel like it can only serve me well to understand at a macro level the general direction things are headed. Usually the economic things [...]

Tagged as: AI, economics, the future

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on Quirky

About a year ago I wrote about Quirky. I had a few criticisms (with some lauding sprinkled in), primarily that they were just a generic design firm with a sales funnel that took advantage of people’s ideas while giving them only token involvement. Well apparently Quirky has a TV show. The TV show itself isn’t [...]

Tagged as: product design, quirky

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when patents attack, and more IP stuff

I’m about 20 minutes deep into ‘When Patents Attack’ on This American Life. It’s a pretty compelling story about how the IP system works or (especially in the case of software) doesn’t work. An interesting listen, regardless of your interest in patents. If the radio story piques your interest, check out what Fred Wilson and [...]

Tagged as: patent law

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Berkeley Bionics: elegs

Some REALLY cool work coming out of Bay Area startup Berkeley Bionics. They’re mission is near and dear to my heart (my capstone project in engineering school was a bionic ankle). Just check out the video…talk about being technically awesome (in the true sense of the word) while doing real good.

Tagged as: doing good, human factors, robotics

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