Time to read: 3 min
In this month’s edition of hardware roundup, we have hardware stories about the Winter Olympics, cobalt, innovative animals, an American Mall video game, and Fictiv’s new book club.
Want to share an interesting article, job posting, or event in Hardware Roundup? Submit your link here, and we’ll do our best to include it in the next issue, with a credit to you.
Industry News
- Foxconn announced its intention to shift focus to AI and big data a day after their announcement to hold an initial public offering on Foxconn Industrial Internet Co. Just a couple of days earlier, Foxconn subsidiary Innolux announced it would be cutting 10,000 jobs as part of its efforts to increase automation in manufacturing.
- There was a lot of new tech on show at the Winter Olympics: The Ski Robot Challenge required robots to fit the requirements of a humanoid robot and make it down an 80-meter alpine skiing course. The Smithsonian did a piece on the science behind making snow and ice for the Olympics. + Did you know the Olympic torch is lit with a parabolic mirror?
- Cobalt is in the news again—Apple is in talks to buy the resource directly from miners for the first time, amid fears of shortages in the industry. The metal, which is a key ingredient in batteries for electric cars and mobile phones, is in high demand lately, with the explosion in EVs. The majority of the world’s supply of cobalt is in the Democratic republic of Congo.
- Amazon sets its sights on UPS and FedEx via “Shipping with Amazon”—Amazon will pick up packages from businesses and ship to customers. UPS currently handles at least 30% of Amazon’s shipments. + Inside UPS’ solution for keeping Amazon at bay.
Hardware Knowledge
- Ever wondered what it takes to run a mall? Bloomberg created a extremely difficult video game to explain the decline of the American Mall.
- engineerguy Bill Hammack looks inside the drinking bird and explains the science and engineering behind the toy. + Check out his video on injection molding.
- By now, you’ve probably seen Boston Dynamics’ robot dog opening a door. A new video on ants building bridges shows how they collectively determine whether a bridge is even worth building at all. + Cockroach-sized robots that can run head first into walls.
- The New Yorker did an excellent piece on paper jams, a modern problem “from an elemental struggle between the natural and the mechanical.”
- Handmade in Sweden, inside Hasselblad’s factory, which produces fewer than 10,000 cameras a year.
Events
- Tonight, Women in 3D Printing is hosting a Happy Hour in San Francisco.
- Indiegogo’s next Hardware Happy Hour takes place on March 8 at WeWork Civic Center.
- The next SF Women in Robotics event on March 28 includes a panel of speakers from Samsara, Mayfield Robotics, and Oculus.
- On March 22, SV Hardware Startup to Scale hosts a panel on Managing Hardware Design Risk in Mountain View, CA.
Community
- We recently started a book club at Fictiv, and we want to open up our next book discussion to the community. We’re reading Ninety Percent of Everything, and we’ll be getting together at Fictiv HQ in late March. If you’d like to join us, shoot me an email!
- FormLabs is hiring a Director of Mechanical Engineering, a Robotics Engineer, and a Systems Engineer at their headquarters outside of Boston. Angaza is looking for a hardware team lead.
- On the Fictiv Builders Group, Steve has a question about finding a McMaster-esque catalog for mechanical components on the mm scale; and Andrew, who manages mechanical engineering and manufacturing for Suvie, launched a kitchen robot on Kickstarter.
For the Love of Engineering
An emergency aircraft’s slide being deployed, credit to Spencer at The Prepared for sharing.
Until next month!
Fin, Hardware Evangelist at Fictiv
