Speakers show diversity at HardwareCon3
February 2015 – The first annual HardwareCon3 had a variety of speakers and sponsors showing their products and expertise at the event. The lobby had exhibitor tables setup for companies supporting the prototype and production communities and then there were break out rooms with individual experts, and the main hall with panels & keynotes. The first speaker was conference founder Erik Katz.
HardwareCon Founder Eric Katz at Inaugural Event
Some of the sponsors that had big crowds at their tables were Autodesk, Britehub, EZRobot, Product Realization Group, Panasonic, Spark, Fathom and Go Engineering. Major events sponsors were Panasonic & Autodesk followed by Smack Happy Design, the City of San Leandro, Go Engineering, Berkeley Sourcing Group, Tandem Investment, TransmediaSF and Britehub. The sponsors also had an opportunity to speak at the event.
Notable amongst the exhibitors were EZRobot and Britehub. EZRobot has created not only an open source robot that 3D pintable parts, but also simplified the programming of the robot. Using high level drag and drop function libraries, that can be modified and supplemented by the user community, the robot’s actions can be easily controlled. Behaviors and Actions like walking; using visual sensors; getting up after falling and moving in a path can be quickly implemented and sent to the robot. This system works whether the robot is a two legged or multi-legged unit, as the modular code blocks and control talk to the actuator units through the body encapsulated smart brain making the robot aware of its pieces. The open source community adds new code, new 3D printing designs for pieces, new robot designs, and a global forum to share the results. There is a dashboard – called ez-builder – on both laptop and mobile devices for controlling the robot. Further information can be found at http://www.ez-robot.com/
Also in the exhibit area was Britehub. The software platform is a bridge between the needs of the designer and the capabilities of the suppliers & custom manufacturers. Started by Dorian Ferlauto, who was at the event in the booth, the software product allows parts that need to sourced for production, to be input and then it matches suppliers that can provide the product and creates an RFQ and manages the responses that come back. In 2014, Dorian was recognized by Newsweek as one of 13 “Disruptive Women” paving the way for the future of the industry in which they work. As such, the product incorporates domestic and international suppliers and education guides for both suppliers and designers to help them optimize their relationships and product logistics.
On the speaker side were industry personnel like Charles Albert of Creativity Inc. His firm has specialized in helping designer transition their ideas from one-up prototypes to high volume, age appropriate materials and designs for the toy industry. He has worked with endpoint clients like Leapfrog, Mattel, Hasbro, Fisher Price, Wild Planet and others. The company has a strong history in helping turn robots into toys that fit both the cost and safety issues in this marketplace. They are found on the web at http://www.creativityusa.com/
Another speaker and community participant was Sophi Kravitz from Hackaday. The group operates two sites – http://www.hackaday.com which features stories and http://www.hackaday.io which is a posting site for projects. The sites are aimed at being entertainment for engineers and engineering enthusiasts. Hacking is an art form that uses something in a way in which it was not originally intended. This highly creative activity can be highly technical, simply clever, or both. Sophie was talking about the community of Hackers which is parallel to and sometimes overlaps the Maker community, but both end up on the path to production of the a large number of the ideas. Her discussion and 1:1 conversations focused on the community aspects of the design process for hardware designers.
These are several examples of the type of speakers and the information being dispensed at this first year event. Subsequent years should have a bit more focused tracks in the breakout sessions, but the goal is to keep the main panels and keynotes on the broader themes.
Additional images of the event can be found in the gallery for HardwareCon3.
