Post on 14-Jul-2015
transcript
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
ACROSS BORDERS
ALSO IN THIS ISSUEJapanese Researchers Advance Articial Heart Design
US Reenters Manned Space Flight
Teacher Designs 3D Printed Prosthetic for Student
Engineers Join the Battle to Control Ebola
Winter 2015
YOUNG ENGINEERS SOLVE PROBLEMS AND BUILD TRUST
Winter 2015ndash Table of Contents
08Japanese Researchers Advance Artificial Heart DesignThe race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts is on and Takashi Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo are taking the lead with the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
US Reenters Manned Space Flight For the first time in over 40 years NASA has designed and tested a capsule to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit and return them safely back home
12
A Handy Tool Teacher Designs 3D Printed Prosthetic for a Student A 3D printing project turned into a life-changing experience for teacher Ryan Dailey when he met McKayla Shutt a 10-year old born without a full-sized left hand
16
Engineers Join the Battle to Control EbolaThe convergence of technology and medicine is growing and engineers are being called upon to meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other conta-gious and often deadly diseases
20
Why Smart Connected Products Means Big Change for ManufacturersSmart connected products are enabling breakthroughs in operational effective-ness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastruc-tures But what effect will this have on manufacturers
24
Why Girls Need to Build Break and Make ThingsRobots are advancing rapidly but women are underrepresented in the field Sampriti Bhattacharya named one of the 25 women to watch in robotics has some ideas on how to change the status quo
28
Feature Article
Young Engineers Solve Problems and Build TrustHumanitarian group Engineers Without Borders leads college students in designing and implementing sustainable engineering projects while offering real-world experience to young engineers who want to make a difference
ACROSS BORDERS
Winter 2015 ndash Letter from the Editor
South Sudan Nigeria Sierra Leonemdashone hears the terrible stories of war and disease out of these countries every day and wersquore all familiar with the humanitarian organizations that take on great risk to dispense much needed supplies and medical treatment to those communities
But an epidemic a natural disaster and even war have a limited shelf life in our conscious minds a moment in the headlines and then theyrsquore forgotten Often wersquore unaware of the decades-long struggle left behind after such eventsmdasha failing economy a devastated workforce lack of resources and infrastructure and extreme poverty
Engineers Without Borders operates in some of the most underserved communities across the globe working with local people to build practical solutions to all kinds of problems from sanitation and water supply to energy agriculture and information technology
For this issuersquos cover story writer Maria Doyle takes a look at how young engineering students from two US colleges are getting involved with EWB the philosophy behind the organization and the real-world benefits of working in the field
Also in this edition senior writer Jon Marcus reports on what it takes to design an artificial heart and how one Japanese-made pump could hold the key to saving more lives Environmental reporter Gary Wollenhaupt takes a break from green tech to review NASArsquos recent launch of the Orion spacecraft and Americarsquos renewed quest to get astronauts beyond low Earth orbit
And finally resident Internet of Things expert Andres Rosello tackles a subject that connects all these stories From aerospace and agriculture to medical devices and infrastructure the IoTmdashor smart connected prod-uctsmdashis infiltrating every area of engineering and manufacturing Rosello explains how the IoT can provide a huge competitive advantage and why businesses should be paying close attention
Sincerely
Nancy PardoEditor in Chief
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTLETTER FROM THE EDITOR NANCY PARDO
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
BY MARIA DOYLE
Young Engineers Solve Problems and Build TrustBorders Across
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Students William Jameson and Christopher Lombardo repair leaking water supply pipe connections
Borders
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Engineering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communitiesrdquo
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Casey Grun carries bentonite to a well to create a water tight sanitary seal
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Japanese
Researchers
Advance
Artificial
Heart
Design
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
BY JON MARCUS
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Winter 2015ndash Table of Contents
08Japanese Researchers Advance Artificial Heart DesignThe race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts is on and Takashi Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo are taking the lead with the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
US Reenters Manned Space Flight For the first time in over 40 years NASA has designed and tested a capsule to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit and return them safely back home
12
A Handy Tool Teacher Designs 3D Printed Prosthetic for a Student A 3D printing project turned into a life-changing experience for teacher Ryan Dailey when he met McKayla Shutt a 10-year old born without a full-sized left hand
16
Engineers Join the Battle to Control EbolaThe convergence of technology and medicine is growing and engineers are being called upon to meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other conta-gious and often deadly diseases
20
Why Smart Connected Products Means Big Change for ManufacturersSmart connected products are enabling breakthroughs in operational effective-ness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastruc-tures But what effect will this have on manufacturers
24
Why Girls Need to Build Break and Make ThingsRobots are advancing rapidly but women are underrepresented in the field Sampriti Bhattacharya named one of the 25 women to watch in robotics has some ideas on how to change the status quo
28
Feature Article
Young Engineers Solve Problems and Build TrustHumanitarian group Engineers Without Borders leads college students in designing and implementing sustainable engineering projects while offering real-world experience to young engineers who want to make a difference
ACROSS BORDERS
Winter 2015 ndash Letter from the Editor
South Sudan Nigeria Sierra Leonemdashone hears the terrible stories of war and disease out of these countries every day and wersquore all familiar with the humanitarian organizations that take on great risk to dispense much needed supplies and medical treatment to those communities
But an epidemic a natural disaster and even war have a limited shelf life in our conscious minds a moment in the headlines and then theyrsquore forgotten Often wersquore unaware of the decades-long struggle left behind after such eventsmdasha failing economy a devastated workforce lack of resources and infrastructure and extreme poverty
Engineers Without Borders operates in some of the most underserved communities across the globe working with local people to build practical solutions to all kinds of problems from sanitation and water supply to energy agriculture and information technology
For this issuersquos cover story writer Maria Doyle takes a look at how young engineering students from two US colleges are getting involved with EWB the philosophy behind the organization and the real-world benefits of working in the field
Also in this edition senior writer Jon Marcus reports on what it takes to design an artificial heart and how one Japanese-made pump could hold the key to saving more lives Environmental reporter Gary Wollenhaupt takes a break from green tech to review NASArsquos recent launch of the Orion spacecraft and Americarsquos renewed quest to get astronauts beyond low Earth orbit
And finally resident Internet of Things expert Andres Rosello tackles a subject that connects all these stories From aerospace and agriculture to medical devices and infrastructure the IoTmdashor smart connected prod-uctsmdashis infiltrating every area of engineering and manufacturing Rosello explains how the IoT can provide a huge competitive advantage and why businesses should be paying close attention
Sincerely
Nancy PardoEditor in Chief
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTLETTER FROM THE EDITOR NANCY PARDO
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
BY MARIA DOYLE
Young Engineers Solve Problems and Build TrustBorders Across
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Students William Jameson and Christopher Lombardo repair leaking water supply pipe connections
Borders
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Engineering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communitiesrdquo
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Casey Grun carries bentonite to a well to create a water tight sanitary seal
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Japanese
Researchers
Advance
Artificial
Heart
Design
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
BY JON MARCUS
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
Share this eMagazine
copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Winter 2015 ndash Letter from the Editor
South Sudan Nigeria Sierra Leonemdashone hears the terrible stories of war and disease out of these countries every day and wersquore all familiar with the humanitarian organizations that take on great risk to dispense much needed supplies and medical treatment to those communities
But an epidemic a natural disaster and even war have a limited shelf life in our conscious minds a moment in the headlines and then theyrsquore forgotten Often wersquore unaware of the decades-long struggle left behind after such eventsmdasha failing economy a devastated workforce lack of resources and infrastructure and extreme poverty
Engineers Without Borders operates in some of the most underserved communities across the globe working with local people to build practical solutions to all kinds of problems from sanitation and water supply to energy agriculture and information technology
For this issuersquos cover story writer Maria Doyle takes a look at how young engineering students from two US colleges are getting involved with EWB the philosophy behind the organization and the real-world benefits of working in the field
Also in this edition senior writer Jon Marcus reports on what it takes to design an artificial heart and how one Japanese-made pump could hold the key to saving more lives Environmental reporter Gary Wollenhaupt takes a break from green tech to review NASArsquos recent launch of the Orion spacecraft and Americarsquos renewed quest to get astronauts beyond low Earth orbit
And finally resident Internet of Things expert Andres Rosello tackles a subject that connects all these stories From aerospace and agriculture to medical devices and infrastructure the IoTmdashor smart connected prod-uctsmdashis infiltrating every area of engineering and manufacturing Rosello explains how the IoT can provide a huge competitive advantage and why businesses should be paying close attention
Sincerely
Nancy PardoEditor in Chief
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTLETTER FROM THE EDITOR NANCY PARDO
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
BY MARIA DOYLE
Young Engineers Solve Problems and Build TrustBorders Across
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Students William Jameson and Christopher Lombardo repair leaking water supply pipe connections
Borders
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Engineering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communitiesrdquo
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Casey Grun carries bentonite to a well to create a water tight sanitary seal
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Japanese
Researchers
Advance
Artificial
Heart
Design
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
BY JON MARCUS
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
BY MARIA DOYLE
Young Engineers Solve Problems and Build TrustBorders Across
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Students William Jameson and Christopher Lombardo repair leaking water supply pipe connections
Borders
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Engineering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communitiesrdquo
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Casey Grun carries bentonite to a well to create a water tight sanitary seal
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Japanese
Researchers
Advance
Artificial
Heart
Design
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
BY JON MARCUS
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Students William Jameson and Christopher Lombardo repair leaking water supply pipe connections
Borders
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Engineering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communitiesrdquo
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Casey Grun carries bentonite to a well to create a water tight sanitary seal
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Japanese
Researchers
Advance
Artificial
Heart
Design
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
BY JON MARCUS
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
Share this eMagazine
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J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Engineering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communitiesrdquo
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Casey Grun carries bentonite to a well to create a water tight sanitary seal
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Japanese
Researchers
Advance
Artificial
Heart
Design
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
BY JON MARCUS
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on sustainable energy Hersquos also helping to build ceramic water filtration systems in Guanajuato Mexico
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders but less widely known EWB has nearly 300 chapters in the United States made up of 14700 student and professional members Projects span 47 countries on five continents and to ensure that a communityrsquos needs are met the EWBrsquos chapters establish five-year commitments with developing communities
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr Bernard Amadei EWB designs and implements sustainable engineering projects while offering a real-world experience to young engi-neers who want to make a difference
ldquoI think EWB is unique in how it provides students an opportunity to gain an international context for their studies with such an in-depth cultural and technical immersionrdquo Dupre says ldquoThat is a truly invaluable experience for engineers scientists and in businessrdquo
EWB projects are composed of seven broad project typesmdashagriculture civil works energy information systems sanitation structures and water supplymdashand range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda Many of the projects are related to bringing clean drinking water to communities where it is scarce Today there are more than two-billion people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation
Dupre joined Northern Illinois Universityrsquos EWB as a freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization on campus The group has 25 active members and three international projects in the worksmdashone in Tanzania Africa and two in Mexico Taylor has been focused on Guanajuato Mexico and over the past three years his work has had a huge impact on his life
ldquoThe biggest thing that we have done so far is help re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-munities in which wersquove worked So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing nations with little regard to the true needs of the communities they are trying to help and that kind of work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse off in the long runrdquo Dupre says
ldquoWe have been working in the communities of Guanajuato for four years now and have established solid lines of communications and real relationships with the peoplerdquo he continues ldquoTaking this approach lets the communities know that we are in it for the long haul and that we wonrsquot leave until they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that we have done with themrdquo
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his education and his global perspective Prior to joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the country and his understanding around how engi-neering projects are carried out in other parts of the world was non-existent
ldquoI think the greatest shift in my perspective has been the importance of staying humble and aware of the true impact being experienced during a projectrdquo he says
His next project A boyrsquos orphanagemdashalso in Guana-juatomdashearmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array installation as well as structural improvements to the dormitories
Continuing EWBrsquos mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when he was a student at the University of Maryland in 2004 and continued while doing graduate and post-graduate work at the University of Texas Today as assistant director for undergraduate studies in engineering sciences at Harvard Lombardo leads a team of students as EWB faculty advisor
About 30 students are involved in the program with eight to 10 making up the executive board But engineering students arenrsquot the only ones involvedmdashover a quarter of the students are from other disciplines like humanities and life sciences
Lombardo describes EWB as ldquoa cross between a student club a professional society and an extra-curricular projectrdquo noting that some students earn credits for their on-site project involvement The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half despite the fact that only about 34 percent of the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard are women
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito Dominican Republic for about two and a half years The goal of the project is to upgrade the water quality and distribution system after a previously built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well failed possibly due to improper installation or clay and sediment clogging and destroying the pump
The students first evaluated different options for water sources After considering tapping springs and water purification for the river they decided to dig another groundwater well and tap into the existing water tank and distribution system Lom-bardo and a team of seven students traveled to Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well and the team traveled back in August to augment the piping system and check on the quality and quantity of the water
ldquoThere was no bacterial or chemical contamination to the water a much higher flow rate than expected and the community members are extremely pleased about the quantity and quality of the waterrdquo Lom-bardo says ldquoNow theyrsquore not using their relatively limited economic income to purchase bottled water for drinkingrdquo
The community decided that this resource would be strictly for household use and water from the river would still be pumped up to water crops The students also made sure that the community leaders were well-trained to keep the system operational
ldquoEWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give backrdquo Lombardo says ldquoOur students and engi-neering students throughout the country and the world have an enormous capability to partner with under-served communities We can provide engi-neering expertise to help alleviate some of the infrastructure issuesrdquo
ldquoThe work brings a certain perspectiverdquo Lombardo continues ldquoOur students really become globally aware of the impact of engineering projects throughout the worldmdashincluding health economic agricultural impactsrdquo
Casey Grun carries bentonite to a well to create a water tight sanitary seal
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Japanese
Researchers
Advance
Artificial
Heart
Design
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
BY JON MARCUS
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
Share this eMagazine
copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
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PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Japanese
Researchers
Advance
Artificial
Heart
Design
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
BY JON MARCUS
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
Share this eMagazine
copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
At the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designerrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of the mechanical heart
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Among the problems artificial hearts are often rejected by host bodies or impede blood flow and can cause strokes Theyrsquore also very expen-sivemdashthe AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million dollarsmdashand typically is more than twice as big as a human heart
The risk of infection is high as well and the more elements implanted the higher the risk
For these and other reasons doctors have come to prefer ventricular assist devicesmdashwhich can help the patientrsquos own heart pump bloodmdashover full-scale artificial hearts says William Wagner director of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
For an artificial heart to compete with that ldquoit would have to do very well to justify taking out a patientrsquos own heartrdquo Wagner says
Thatrsquos key in the global competition to find the next generation of a permanent replacement artificial heart
In the United States Abiomed whose AbioCor is the market-leading total artificial heart is develop-ing the AbioCor II The French company Carmat is already testing its new total artificial heart in a human patient BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium heart in the animal-experiment stage and a team in South Korea is also in the running
The demand is huge Heart disease is the planetrsquos leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization killing 74 million people annually That has sent the need for donor hearts skyrocketing even as the Registry of the International Soci-ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation reports that the number of hearts avail-able is flat and falling
Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-neering he does is a little like watching TV
But it isnrsquot entertainment itrsquos deadly serious Isoyama is in an international race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo Graduate School are using three-dimensional software to precisely model the heart complete with animation that can show the way blood will flow through itmdashdone with CAE software
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts are turbo pumps and ldquoyou can imagine that designing a turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficultrdquo Isoyama says ldquoThree-dimensional models accelerate the process of designing the bladesrdquo
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has already been implanted into a goat He says the final model for animal use could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years down the road
Some 4000 people in the US and 3400 in the Europe-an Union are waiting for donor hearts the US Department of Health amp Human Services and the European Commission Department of Health estimate
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used sparingly and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart becomes available Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago only 1413 have been implanted or barely 30 per year
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce disputes between clinicians who want to install heart pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate them and cardiologists who prefer to wait avoiding the risks of stroke or infection Wagner says
Thatrsquos the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions
Although the power source is still outside the body the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with blood instead of oil with the idea of extending its life (Carmatrsquos uses hydraulic fluid)
This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a record 100 days
It also required precision engineering
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft and a bearing The 3D models sped up the process Isoyama says and made it easier to export the plans to computer-aided engineering software such as ANSYS for the next step precision-ma-chining the parts
The technology also lets the group conduct ldquonu-merical fluid dynamics simulationsrdquomdashanimating the flow of blood which Isoyama likens to watching it on TVmdashaverting the kinds of eddies that can give it time to clot and cause strokes
Such modeling which other artificial heart research-ers have also adopted to varying degrees ldquohas really advanced thisrdquo Wagner says Predicting the flow previously ldquowould take a lot of number crunchingrdquo
Isoyama says itrsquos been ldquoessentialrdquo
ldquoAt the research and development stage animation is effective to show the intention of the designer and to discuss in the development teamrdquo he says
Not only that Isoyama says in the clinical stage the animated models can be shown to the patients themselvesmdashwhose human hearts are about to be replaced with mechanical copiesmdashldquoto give them a sense of securityrdquo
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is transported to launchpad 37 to mate with the Delta IV Heavy rocket
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
Share this eMagazine
copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft in deep space
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Even though he isnrsquot old enough to talk Larry Pricersquos grandson speaks for many Americans As he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff the toddler signed his equivalent of ldquomorerdquo
As the deputy program director for Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft program Price wants more manned spaceflight too He has devoted much of his working life to helping the United States return to space He has been part of the team since 2004 and prior to that he worked on other projects including the cancelled X-38 International Space Station lifeboat
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in Florida the Orion capsulemdashdesigned in PTC Creomdashflew to space with the help of the Delta IV Heavy rocket The four hour 24-minute test flight was meant to test the capsulersquos systems in a live environment The two highly elliptical orbits were designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to test the onboard gear
ldquoThe exploration flight test was designed around maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far away from the Earth as possible with existing launch systemsrdquo Price says
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than 40 years The spacecraft is also the first capsule built by NASA designed to transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit such as asteroids the moon and eventually Mars and return them safely back to Earth
Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of the Apollo program or even the shuttle Todayrsquos smart phone has more processing power than the computers onboard back then
The power of technology available today com-pared to the 1960s is just staggering Price says NASA had to invent much of the technology at that time Now there are off-the-shelf systems that can be adapted for space flight such as the guidance system derived from one used in com-mercial airliners
ldquoWe upgraded the equipment so it could operate in the harsh environment of space and operate faster than it needs to for a commercial airliner because the spacecraft comes into the Earth entry interface at 20000 miles per hourrdquo Price says
When Apollo 13 radioed ldquoHouston we have a problemrdquo ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the available gear on board the capsule to help design a solution Now therersquos a collaborative human immersion lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model
Another difference is the plethora of sensors and cameras that captured every aspect of the test flight Some 1200 onboard sensors captured data about everything from the effects of space radia-tion on the avionics to the environment inside the crew cabin
On reentry a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to splashdown in the Pacific Two helicopters with cameras configured to monitor the temperature of the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60000 feet and 10000 miles per hour and tracked it to the surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja California
There were myriad cameras on the capsule inside and outside One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window pointed outside the craft During the descent through the atmosphere the
team on the ground could see the superheated air form plasma around the spacecraft
ldquoIt looks like a Hollywood movie wormhole the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flamesrdquo Price says
The post-flight analysis will include synching the video of the plasma to the data from firing the reaction system control jets that steer the capsule
ldquoYou can see the glow from the firing and see how it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle because of the flow disturbance from firing the jetsrdquo Price says
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-tive heat shield with the data from the instruments to connect the predicted performance models with actual outcome of the shield that protected the spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere
ldquoWe will update the models so we can predict the future a lot more accuratelyrdquo Price says
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test which will use three powerful motors capable of pulling the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away from an emergency on the launch pad
The first manned missions with the Orion system are expected to blast off in the early 2020s with a manned Mars mission slated for 2030
With a successful test flight on the books Price hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who watched the launch will get to see their wish of Americarsquos return to manned deep-space flight come true
ldquoIt was a very worthwhile test it says wersquore back in human space flightrdquo he says ldquoWe have a vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit and it worked
ldquoIn this environment you can look through goggles and think yoursquore working in the spacecraftrdquo Price says ldquoAnd you can put that environment anywhere in the worldrdquo
Also therersquos an electronics lab that duplicates the flight electronics and software
ldquoIf therersquos an anomaly you can infuse that anomaly into the lab and run tests cases to see how you would remediate itrdquo Price says
During Apollo launches rooms of people calculat-ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding machines On the Orion launch the orbital mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-ries each second during the booster rocketrsquos 25-minute burn
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL Teacher Designs 3DPrinted Prosthetic for a Student
The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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The kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their devicerdquo
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquoPhoto courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle for the first time
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
Share this eMagazine
copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
When his high school in Hudson Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer engineering instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it Hersquod worked on small 3D printing projects with his students in the past but wanted to move on to something more ambitious
Thatrsquos when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead Mass whose father had created a prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer ldquoAs soon as I saw thatrdquo says Dailey ldquoI knew I was making one no matter whatrdquo
But what started out as simply a ldquocool projectrdquo turned into a life-changing experience when Ellen Schuck the Hudson districtrsquos director of technology intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-thesis that she rarely used and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her ldquolittle handrdquo she and her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the 10-year-oldrsquos quality of life
ldquoTraditionally children with upper limb differences are given a hook because itrsquos the least expensive of the prosthetic devices and itrsquos pretty durablerdquo says Jean Peck an occupational hand therapist who is part of a research team at Creighton University that creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic hands on children ldquoBut itrsquos not attractive it gets in their way and they can actually be pretty functional without itrdquo
ldquo3D printed prosthesis may be less durable but they are way more attractiverdquo Peck continues ldquoThe kids get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they are very proud of their device So in that sense theyrsquoll wear it more than the hook because it looks cool and they can be proud of itrdquo
Peckrsquos research team led by Dr Jorge Zuniga developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D printed hand called the Cyborg Beast and made its files available for free on Thingiverse for research and personal use McKaylarsquos hand is based on the Cyborg Beastrsquos design
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beastrsquos original blender files and then inserted the measure-ments of McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo wrist forearm and her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic He then 3D printed a gauntlet the wrist component of a prosthetic hand and a palm piece to test the fit
ldquoOnce those parts were sized properly with the padding and the strapping it was just a matter of printing the fingers getting cabling and putting on the small mechanical pieces that are involved to make the hand moverdquo explains Dailey ldquoOnce all of that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to get the grip to close properly After the second session McKayla was able to pick up a bottlemdashwhich I think was about 1 12 inch diametersmdashhold it in her hand and take a drinkrdquo
After all the fittings and re-configuring McKayla was finally presented with her new hand about one month after her initial meeting with Dailey The prosthetic made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make (a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3500) is attached with straps at the palm and wrist When McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of the prosthetic pull close and when she releases her hand the prosthetic opens
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it printed in her two favorite colors pink and teal
ldquoWe offered her any color she wanted and said we could make it as close to natural as possible but she was adamant about pink and teal as the colorsrdquo explains Dailey ldquoThe kids around her are used to her having her lsquolittle handrsquo so for her to suddenly have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-bly have been more shocking to them than having a plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks more like a glove I do know some people want the natural look but others want to have as much fun with it as possiblerdquo
McKayla got her new hand in June and Dailey asked her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her feedback on the handrsquos functionality The journal information is still being collected but McKayla has already reported myriad benefits of using her new prosthetic
ldquoIt helps me carry my school books and do many things at home like play Legos with my brother or carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sisterrdquo she says ldquoBut some improvements I would like to have in my next version are to be able to carry more books and to write with a pencilrdquo
For Dailey itrsquos clear the first version of this 3D print-ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-ect ldquoAfter McKayla talked to me about what shersquos interested in and we got the chance to learn about who she was it became a question of lsquoWhat can we do to make these future iterations of her hand more functional for herrsquordquo Daily explains
An improvement Dailey is already working on creating a three-digit hand ldquoAs of right now the fingers are two digitsmdashwhere the top and middle knuckle are solid and then therersquos the bottom knuckle thatrsquos flexiblemdashand there are certain limitations that wersquove seen for herrdquo he says ldquoIt doesnrsquot quite close tight enough onto objects for her to be able to be manipulative with things so right now wersquore looking for a hand design thatrsquos more than two digits so that she can brush her hair or hold a pencil And if therersquos not we are going to take the current design and break it downrdquo
McKayla also plays softball (shersquos a catcher) so another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with one hand which limits her control over the bat and how hard she can swing
For Dailey and the students involved in the project being able to create these lsquocoolrsquo new iterations of a 3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away
ldquoThe process itself was one of the more rewarding things Irsquove done in teaching This was something where you got to really see the result of your work first-handrdquo says Dailey
ldquoI got to see the look on her face when she picked up a bottle for the first time with her left hand it was a very overwhelming experience And seeing the impact it had on the people around me not even the people who were directly involved but the admins and those who were around during the course of the process Just seeing the impact it had on them it was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I was glad to be a part ofrdquo
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKaylarsquos ldquolittle handrdquo using CAD software
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Photo credit John TlumackiThe Boston Globe via Getty Images
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
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PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
that used to be kind of pie in the skymdashsome things that were conceptual and cool and fun but not really practicalmdasha lot of those things have developed furtherrdquo
Take AERO a robot developed at Worcester Poly-technic Institute (WPI) Engineering faculty and students there are reprogramming it to decontami-nate medical workers and are working with coun-terparts at other universities to develop robots that could also handle waste removal deliver food and water bury the dead and make up beds The initia-tive is being pushed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
ldquoEngineers are problem-solvers We just need to be near the problem to realize what can be done or not be donerdquo says Taskin Padir a professor of robotics at WPI
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian organization Meacutedecins Sans Frontiegraveres But he says they havenrsquot had to take all of the initiative medical doctors have sought them out for help
Until Ebola Padir says ldquothey did not even realize we had those solutions The key here is to bring these communities together to tackle the problemsrdquo
Denver engineer Clive Smith who spent eight years inventing that new stethoscope says he has always been interested in medical applications of technolo-gy inspired in part by relatives and friends who are physicians
ldquoI donrsquot know that therersquos been a lack of communica-tion between the two fields but therersquos no question that more is betterrdquo says Smith whose company is
When the first Ebola patient was brought into the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha among the many challenges for the medical staff was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the function of his lungs
The lowly stethoscope whose design has not been changed in 150 years couldnrsquot be used with the hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear to prevent them from coming into contact with the patient and risking getting the disease themselves
By the time the second patient arrived Kyle Hall the hospitalrsquos director of telehealth had found a solution a little-known radically new kind of stethoscopemdash developed by an electrical engineer and released only in the spring of 2014mdashwith ear-bud headphones doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to speakers or to physicians in another room
Itrsquos one of the ways engineering is being called upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola and the worldrsquos other aggressively contagious often deadly illnesses
The convergence of technology and medicine is not new of course but Ebola and viruses such as bird flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such as photonics and robotics that medical profession-als had previously dismissed
ldquoJust the number of ideas Irsquove seen has been incrediblerdquo Hall says ldquoThat stethoscope is just a perfect example of how some things in healthcare have been the same for so long and people havenrsquot thought outside the box But now some technology
called ThinkLabs ldquoItrsquos a fantastic thing for engineers to be thinking about medical issuesrdquo
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the diagnosis of Ebola Collaboration between the engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-sity for example has resulted in a way to detect viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their size and shape
Across town at Northeastern University chemical engineering department chairman Tom Webster thinks he may have come up with a method to not only detect Ebola but cure it by creating nanoparti-cles that could be attached chemically to the virus and stop it from spreading His lab is also working on nanoparticles that would serve as ldquodecoysrdquo diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing ldquois stimu-lating people to pick up the phone just to say lsquoLetrsquos collaboratersquordquo Webster says ldquoItrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
President of the Society for Biomaterials Webster says that once Ebola hit the headlines he made sure the organizationrsquos annual April conference in Charlotte North Carolina added a joint panel of engineers and medical professionals to talk about more ways they can collaborate
Even the hazmat suit called the PPE (or personal protection equipment) is being re-engineered in a series of hackathons connecting engineers virolo-gists and medical workers prompted in part by a $5 million prize offered by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development for a new design
Many of these things may take a while to get into the field Robots are expensive and hard to transport for example and the BU diagnostic technique now being tested in a lab at the University of Texas will take an estimated five years to win approval
But Hall in Nebraska says ldquoThe saviors for health care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds who are going to be asking lsquoWhy are we still doing it this wayrsquo Ebola has made that into a necessityrdquo
Itrsquos not new that clinicians and engineers have been collaborating but every time something comes up thatrsquos a crisis it stimulates even more people to collaboraterdquo
Photo credit Michel du CilleThe Washington Post via Getty Images
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
76milesh
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Products are now first- class participants in their own value chainsrdquo
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
In the November cover story of Harvard Business Review How Smart Connected Products Are Trans-forming Competition authors Jim Heppelmann president and CEO of PTC and Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how the changing nature of products is altering industry structure and the nature of competition
According to the research smart connected prod-uctsmdashproducts that have both physical components ldquosmartrdquo components and connected compo-nentsmdashare enabling breakthroughs in operational effectiveness and differentiation and redefining value chains and technology infrastructures
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their own value chains Theyrsquore talking to their creators in engineering and manufacturing to the people who service and operate them and even to the sales and marketing department about the customer
The greatest impacts on the value chain are
New principles of product design An entirely new set of design principles is needed (eg designs that enable personalization through software-based customization designs that incorporate the ability to support ongoing product upgrades etc)
Redefined customer relationships Insights from data analytics tools let firms segment their market in more sophisticated ways and price bundles to those markets that capture more value Being able to anticipate reduce and repair failures also creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-mance and optimize service which opens up new business models like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of ten layers known as a technology stack The layers from the bottom up include
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the product connectivity and product cloud layers an external information source connecting these layers to information from external data sources and tools that integrate the layers with other core business systems such as ERP CRM or PLM
Modified product hardware components These can be embedded sensors processors and connectivity portantenna
Improved product software An embedded operating system software applications or enhanced user interface are part of the product software
Connectivity A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product and the cloud which is software running on the manufacturerrsquos or a third-party server
The Product Cloud This has four layers A database that collects and organizes streams of new data an application platform a rulesanalytics engine that creates insight from data and smart connected product applications that enable capabilities and deliver value to the manufacturer and user
New service delivery approaches This is necessary to take advantage of product data that can uncover existing and future problems and enable companies to make preventative repairs Data also allows for considerable reductions in field-service dispatches and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control
New layers of technology infrastructure Building and supporting the technology stack for smart connected products requires substantial investment and new technology partners and suppliers for connectivity big data analytics and application development
New talent requirements Smart connected prod-ucts create major human resource requirements and challenges The most urgent of these is the need to recruit new roles that are not common in manufacturing companiesmdashmany of which are in high demand like software developers systems engineers and data scientists
THE RISKS
The changes smart connected products bring not only create valuable new opportunities for competi-tive advantage but also raise a set of new and unique challenges Some of the greatest strategic risks include
Adding functionality that customers donrsquot want to pay for Just because a new feature can be added to a product doesnt mean it should There could be no clear value proposition for the customer and adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity of use
Underestimating security and privacy risks Smart connected products open new gateways to corporate systems and data This requires companies to step-up their security and take responsibly for being the stewards for customer product usage data
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats New competitors offering products with smart capabili-ties or performanceservice-based business models can emerge quickly and reshape competition and industry boundaries
Waiting too long to get started Competitors and new entrants can gain a foothold begin capturing and analyzing data and move up the learning curve first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too long to develop and deploy a strategy
Overestimating internal capabilities It is crucial to have a realistic assessment about which capabilities should be developed in-house and which should be developed by new partners
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value In order to take advantage of opportunities offered by smart connected products manufacturers must first make sure they understand the layers of the new technology stack and can identify where real value is for both the organization and the customer By identifying value companies will be able to move beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-tive strategic position
Work more with IT departments When trying to understand the technology stack the question ldquoWho in our engineering department understands thisrdquo will arise And the answer may be that not many do This is why working more with the IT department is crucial The technology stack aligns closely to IT and given that smart products can connect to the Internet items traditionally governed by other departments may become part of ITs jurisdiction This will make it important for manu-facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-ing next-generation products
Find the right cloud security and big data solu-tions Smart connected products need to be connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT Cloud computing can provide new levels of collaboration speed and cost savings but not all services are created equal Each has its own requirements in terms of performance security control and avail-ability Manufacturers need to have a clear under-standing of which service will be most effective for your company
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them to talk to each other to employees and to custom-ers will generate massive amounts of data Data analytics technology and employees to decipher it all and turn it into actionable information (eg to lead product improvements) will be necessities
Security investments will also be required More products being connected to the Internet means more vunerability points for hackers Businesses must find a balance that will protect consumers and employees from these threats while also allowing room for advancement and innovation
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products and new value is created for manufacturers and their customersmdashfrom product design and marketing through sales and servicemdashevery facet of business will be heavily impacted With the right strategy manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-nities to capture real economic value In the end itrsquos about making the right strategic choices selecting the right partners and enabling the right capabilities to create and sustain competitive advantage
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
Share this eMagazine
copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in roboticsrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharyadirectorfounder of Lab-X Foundation
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
build break and make things
Why Girls Need To
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
Share this eMagazine
copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of place mdash but I thoroughly enjoyed itrdquo
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
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copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
need to step up in our technology to enable faster and more effective rescue operation possible
But to be honest I think the first time I actually made my solar tracker work hands-free making decision and tracking the sun all by itself that was one of the most amusing moments Mostly because I had never done or seen anything like that before and it convinced me that technology really works itrsquos not magic but a bunch of code and hardware
Where do you see robotics going in the next five to ten years
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with our everyday life Things that we once thought were science fiction are things we use every day now like touch screens Google Glass the iRobot vacuummdash you name it Advanced prosthetics surgical robots assistive robots in airports railways and even at home industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery and even social robotsmdashthese applications all have a lucrative future
And then there is security safety and military appli-cations For that I think as long as the main goal is to keep people safe rather than to destroy mankind will in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and surveillance systems Imagine being able to stop human trafficking weapon or illegal goods smug-gling or able to expedite rescue operations from months to a couple days
How did you first become interested in robotics
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12 after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on the Mars rovers The Hollywood science fiction amazed me but in India (Kolkata) there werenrsquot many if any young people who took interest in building things or doing something hands-on and we couldnrsquot imagine a girl working with robots or building things
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya the direc-torfounder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides hands-on engineering training to those with limited resources) and one of Robohubrsquos 25 women in robot-ics you should know about to find out where she got her start and what she thinks can be done to encourage women to pursue these careers
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous growth with robots used increasingly in multiple areas from transportation and manufacturing to entertainment and health care According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the industry will balloon from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025 thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and more efficient
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and making tremendous strides itrsquos still behind in one area It is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics The percent-age of female roboticists is far lower than males and very few women have seen the birth development and progress of robotics
But things are slowly starting to change With programs like FIRST gaining momentum among female applicants and the public interest in robotics encouraging young women to want a career in the field we are starting to see an increase in the number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this past spring Harvey Mudd College awarded 56 percent of its engineering degrees to women)
My senior year of high school I did my first science project called Mission Mars and I felt more serious about the field Unfortunately the majority of under-grad colleges in India are very different from heremdashmost of them donrsquot provide any hands-on experience and there are barely any resources available to do much My first real robotics project was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars rover A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun made me look weird nerdy and definitely out of placemdashbut I thoroughly enjoyed it
What has been your most interesting project to date
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots very exciting I see it having a lot of potential for the futuremdashfrom monitoring contrabands to rescue missions and exploration as well as the inspection of nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to make oceans and ports secure and safe Particularly incidents like MH370 made me think a lotmdashthat we
But in the age of automation itrsquos easy to lose contact with the natural world around us As a roboticist and as someone who loves technology I still feel we need to stay grounded and connected to nature to people to feelings
What steps do you think need to be taken to get younger girls interested in the robotics field
Itrsquos sad that even in a developed country like the United States there are very few women doing robotics Recently I was at the International Confer-ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and women were definitely a tiny minority But I think things are changing We need to be active by holding programs that are particularly targeted towards young girls and parents themselves have to be conscious about how they inspire their children And last but not the least is the media The way media portrays ldquothe ideal womenrdquo drastically impacts young girls on what and who they want to be I think the media can take some big steps in promoting the right role models and inspiring young minds
Itrsquos worse in countries like India where the ideal woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-wife one who cooks for her husband follows him around and takes care of the household chores Itrsquos a bigger challenge in those societies to break the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real technological knowledge
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young women to build break and make things We are organizing a four-day all-girl hackathon in India early next year I might not have started very early but something Irsquod like to say to any girl Itrsquos never too late to start building and doing things if you really want it
Photos courtesy of FIRST
Share this eMagazine
copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE
Share this eMagazine
copy 2015 PTC Inc All rights reserved Information described herein is furnished for informational use only is subject to change without notice and should not be taken as a guarantee commitment condition or offer by PTC PTC the PTC logo Product amp Service Advantage Creo ElementsDirect Windchill Mathcad Arbortext PTC Integrity Servigistics ThingWorx ProductCloud and all other PTC product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of PTC andor its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries All other product or company names are property of their respective owners
J4697ndashPLS-Winter-2015-ePubndashENndash0215
PTC Product Lifecycle Report brings you the latest news and trends in design innovation and manufacturing Subscribe to PTC Product Lifecycle Report for daily updates http blogsptccom
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE