OMG OHS! OSHWA's 2022 Virtual Open Hardware Summit Is an Inclusive Delight
From plastics to patent law, solar power to sun bears, CAD to crochet, there was something for everyone!
For the third year in a row, OSHWA's Open Hardware Summit was virtual, in contrast to its prior city-hopping incarnation, and for the third year in a row, it was a resounding success! While much of the world seems to have inexplicably moved back toward the old normal, OSHWA made the decision to keep participants safe amid ongoing spikes and waves, with a single YouTube stream and Discord backchannel providing the day's program over an eight-hour period. From plastics to patent law, solar power to sun bears, CAD to crochet, there was something for everyone!
After opening remarks, the day began with a powerful, inspirational keynote by Ashley Jane Lewis. Ashley named her talk A Few Tools for Re-Imagining the Future, in reference to Octavia E. Butler's essay A Few Rules for Predicting the Future, which states:
…there’s no single answer that will solve all of our future problems. There’s no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers–at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be.
Ashley then shared four rules for re-imagining our future, as well as tools to help support each rule, and invited viewers to share their own tools related to the rule. The talk provided an incredibly thought-provoking and inspiring opening to the event, and comments on YouTube and Discord were gushing with enthusiasm for Ashley's words.
Next up was Hackster's own Alex Glow, with her Earth Day-appropriate A Better Hardware Life Cycle: Build Stuff Without Feeling Like a Jerk! Building on insight received from her guests on the Hackster Café interview series, Alex created and walked us through her wiki of resources for building electronics in a sustainable, ethical, and thoughtful way. Once again, the Discord chat was positively vibrating with ideas as Alex nourished our minds with tips and tricks from her own companion bot and Joule Thief projects.
Joining us live from the Himalayas, Jerry de Vos spoke on How frustration led to Delft Open Hardware — charting his journey in the face of outdated, patent-minded universities, toward embracing a more open approach.
A recurring theme throughout the summit was the sharing of tools and techniques for the creation of open source hardware. Leon Anavi's Open Source Tools for Making Open Source Hardware advocated for the use of open source software tools for EDA and CAD, such as KiCad and FreeCAD, over proprietary, closed-source tools like Altium and Fusion 360. Beyond the the design of physical hardware, Leon also shared tools for collaboration, documentation, and community-building; in fact, his favorite tool overall is source code management tool Git!
After a short break, and an unfortunately-timed power outage, the summit resumed with the incredibly inspiring story of India's M19 Collective. Vaibhav Chhabra shared the initiative's progress, starting from a group of makers who chose to quarantine in their makerspace, to a network of over 150 regional organizations, that collectively produced a staggering one million face shields in 49 days, during a gargantuan open source battle against COVID-19.
re:3D's Helen Little was up next with Material Testing Procedure: How to Recycle All Kinds of Waste Plastic Via Pellet 3D Printing. Helen shared a fascinating amount of detail on her company's material testing procedure, which can be used for evaluating not only the use of cheaper plastic pellets in the place of filament when 3D printing, but also waste plastics, which can be shredded and re-used - over and over and over again.
When imagining new hardware, designers can use tools like Verilog to describe and synthesize their ideas, and any number of IDEs to create software for them. But microfluidics devices — tools that use a microchip to analyze a very small amount of liquid — are far more difficult to develop — or at least, they were, prior to the introduction of tools like the Verilog-inspired description language for microfluidics, FLS, or the cloud-based Neptune IDE. In the same way that modern software frameworks accelerate the development of new ideas by researchers, startups, and hackers, this suite of tools aims to increase the accessibility of microfluidics beyond academia.
After lunch, the Wilson Center's Alison Parker shared her insight on building a bridge between open source hardware and governmental organizations. Alison described initiatives such as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation-funded THING tank, and resources like Science Stack and Open Sourced Science that help convey the impact of low-cost, open source solutions in the scientific community and beyond.
While modern software development often involves combining a few building blocks with a little custom functionality to create a new product, designing new hardware often means starting from scratch, or at least wrangling a bunch of different modules that are not particularly inclined to talk to one another. In Introducing an Open Systems Assembly Protocol, or, a proposal regarding how to build OSHW’s modular, networked future, Jake Read coerces hardware and software into virtual modules that communicate via a common routing scheme, regardless of underlying busses.
Creator of the open source DIY MNT Reform laptop, Lukas F. Hartmann, was up next, with Question Everything: How we Shipped an Open Hardware Laptop by Breaking the Rules. Having spent the past four years prototyping and evolving "an alternative portable computer that is repairable, user-controlled and as open and documented as possible," Lukas shared the tenets that have emerged from the process. From focusing on local "small batch" creation instead of outsourcing, to protecting his open source brand through the "MNT-based un-brand," Lukas gave attendees the benefit of his experience to better equip their own open source hardware production.
Proximate geographically as well as temporally, fellow Berliner Robert Mies shared his team's vision for the creation of a Wikipedia-like platform for free sustainable technical knowledge. With tools such as an advanced search engine and the delightfully-named Open-O-Meter scale for ranking projects, OHO aim to facilitate the location and comparison of open source hardware. OHO have also recently taken over stewardship of the OSHdata initiative, and will resume publishing its annual State of Open Hardware report.
After some technical problems and a short break, Dr. Alexander Adams gave an eye-opening talk on Equity-Driven Design. Alex expounded on the many important considerations that are often left out of product design, for example BMI-measuring devices which only work on certain body types and genders, or pulse oximeters that only work on certain skin tones. In addition to describing the many issues that are often overlooked, Dr. Adams shared strategies for incorporating equity-driven design principles into the creation of products, with a focus on the open source project PuffPacket (and testing platforms PuffBot, Lil Puffy, and Puff Daddy!) — a tool for gathering metrics from e-cigarette usage.
Andy and Kitty Quitmeyer followed, with an incredibly high-energy and cute session on Open Source Toys for Endangered Animals. While Open Hardware Summit attendees may be seasoned hardware developers, chances are they have not had clients like Valencia the tapir or Lucio the spider monkey, whose devices have unique concerns, like weather-proofing, and ... tiger-proofing! Andy inspired his audience to get involved with conservation efforts, while keeping in mind principals like The Four F's (Fighting, Fleeing, Feeding and ... Mating). Also, we learned that sun bears are a thing!
Continuing the outdoor theme, Kathrin Weihe and Michel Langhammer shared their experience building open source, renewable energy systems. In addition to open hardware and software, their Libre Solar project aims to provide learning materials and build a community where anybody interested in renewable energy can get started without requiring a ton of technical expertise. The two also shared their experience with leveraging local makerspaces to help non-technical folks build open source hardware.
One of the most delightfully-named talks of the day, Anuradha Reddy's Knotty (Naughty) Hardware advocated "yarn as hardware" — pointing to both historical examples like Apollo's woven core memory, and her own modern QR code crocheted towels. Further, she demonstrated encoding of logic using knots (such a Morse code sweater) and private key encryption using crocheted keys!
The last talk of the day was Christin Lundgren's Can Pretty Antennas be Practical? Designing cuteformal antennas for WiFi/Bluetooth integration. Christin shared her process for calculating, designing, and testing "cuteformal" (conformal for the purpose of being cute) antennas that work just as well as boring ones, but with the additional advantage of looking super cute!
Rounding out the stream was an hour-long panel discussion on Open Hardware and Health Tech, followed by an OSHWA update and closing remarks.
But that wasn't the end of festivities! After a break for dinner (or other time zone-relevant meal), attendees teamed up for a hardware-focused Trivial Dispute quiz on Twitch.
Teasing our brains with obscure trivia while collaborating with friends and attempting to out-nerd temporary rivals was the perfect end to an amazing day. Prizes were given to the winners of each round, and to the overall champions, Too lazy to cheat.
A huge thank you to the organizers, sponsors, and participants for an amazing day of learning, camaraderie, and inspiration, in celebration of open source hardware.