They’ve published videos that show both the fabrication techniques and some success at flying. While they don’t appear to have great flying technique, yet, they’re well on their way.

This fabrication technique certainly has applications much broader than robotics. I look forward to seeing a breadth of creative micro-scale components in the micromanufacturing realm. Has anyone seen other examples of novel micromanufacturing techniques?

Her presentation entitled “Homeward Bound: Medical Devices as Home Appliances” summarized some of the trends and design challenges related to the movement of medical devices from the hospital and central lab to the home.  The talk drew the largest audience that the university has experienced for the series, and the audience was very engaged and asked great questions.

One Section of the Audience

A video broadcast of the lecture in its hour-long entirety can be viewed here.  There are about 40 minutes of presentation and 20 minutes of Q&A.  You’ll need to download Silverlight Player, but this only takes a few minutes.

Jenny Addressing Questions

Talking to the RISD sophomores. Photo Credit: Jeremy Savage

Every year, Industrial Designers come together for one weekend to attend the regional IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America) conference.  This year, the North East chapter was held at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence Rhode Island, and Jeremy Savage and I made the trip.

In addition to the IDSA event, Jeremy and I were asked to give a talk to the RISD sophomore industrial design class.  The first part of the talk focused on life as a designer at Key Tech and how integration is crucial in the product development cycle.  The second half of the presentation consisted of a sketching demonstration in which techniques and tips were projected live in front of the audience.  The talk finished with a Q&A session, and a tour of several of the advanced studios.

Attendees at the IDSA conference are made up of both students and professionals. The weekend is planned around several speakers, mixers, and workshops.  This year’s theme was “Design 4 Humans” and the talks discussed the role of design in our modern world.  The keynote speakers were RISD’s John Maeda, and MNML’s Scott Wilson; their discussions ranged from design education, and design entrepreneurship respectively.   Other talks were held by Smart Design, Altitude, and Ximedica.  Topics ranged from the integration of design and business, talking about design with non designers, and designing in context. It was inspiring to hear the message of the presenters was consistent with our mission as designers at Key Tech.

There were also several workshops which showcased new software, as well as mixers where both professionals and students could meet.  The weekend culminated at a gala event held at Ximedica and featured music, food, and lots of Narragansett.

Overall it was a great weekend and a great experience for two of Key Tech’s designers.

Jeremy Savage and I presenting to the RISD sophomores group. Photo Credit: Carly Ayres

Conceptual inhaler design I did as a sketch demo

Dr. Favardin, a strong proponent of entrepreneurship and an advocate for technology commercialization, talked about the various programs the university currently offers that help drive economic growth in the state of Maryland.  The Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) supports the state’s technology economy by educating the next generation of technology entrepreneurs, creating successful technology ventures, and connecting Maryland businesses with university resources.  Mtech has had a $22.5 billion economic impact within the state since 1983.  Specifically, some high profile products such as MedImmune’s Synagis and Hughes Communications’ HughesNet, and billion dollar companies such as Martek Biosciences, and Digene Corporation all found its start from the university programs.  Recently, the entrepreneurship programs offered by the university were ranked 11^th nationwide by the U.S. News and World Report.

Key Tech already has strong ties with the academic powerhouse.  Two out of the four founders graduated from Maryland, and Key Tech currently employs seven Maryland alumni from the Clark School of Engineering, which accounts for roughly 30% of the staff.  In addition, Key Tech CEO Jenny Regan currently serves as the chair for the Women in Engineering (WIE) Advisor board at the university.

Besides the existing relationship, Key Tech looks forward to an array of future collaboration opportunities with the school, and welcomes any suggestions on how to facilitate tech commercialization between the university and small businesses like Key Tech.

A special thank you to the event planners on the UMD side: Asante, Ted & Jess!

Health Savings Accounts

The Health Savings Account (HSA) is a rather new invention that pairs a high-deductible insurance plan with a pre-tax savings plan for medical expenses. The HSA covers more than just deductible-using doctor’s visits. One can also use it to buy vitamins, toothbrushes, over-the-counter medication, and more, making them pre-tax expenditures. And, money that isn’t used stays in the HSA where it can be rolled into an investment account for retirement. Has this new financial innovation impacted the development of medical devices?

Non-reimbursable medical expenses

So, how does having an HSA change one’s purchasing decisions? As an HSA user myself, I find that I’m less likely to consider the long-term implications of spending a few extra dollars on medical expenses, which is precisely the opposite of what the HSA is supposed to accomplish. I know I’m supposed to be asking about the costs of medical products and services, but it almost feels inappropriate. So, I asked Ben Lane whether he found it was any different for his family. Is his family asking how much a test costs or limiting their doctor visits due to the expense?

“I have been living in the traditional culture of insurance for so long that I just continue to operate in that same mode. That means I pretty much do what the doctor says without much discussion of cost. Ultimately, I want my family to be healthy, and I don’t want costs to impact my medical decisions, even though maybe they should. In addition, it’s very difficult and time consuming to be informed about medical costs. It’s not like I can comparison shop very easily. Seems like this needs to change and maybe it already is.”

Ben tends to agree with me. In the end, I can’t use the money to buy the kids video games (okay, they’re for me), and I haven’t saved enough to be able to invest the money, yet. So, perhaps my tolerance for purchasing more expensive medical devices, like this toothbrush, is higher than it would be for, say, a $300 24-volt drill. However, I think I lack the psychological background or introspective skill to really understand my sub-conscious mind.

How this affects device design

Whatever price point the market will bear has a major impact on the performance and features of a device. Metal gears, LCD’s, and wireless charging stations all cost money, money that has to be added to the retail price. If consumers are willing to spend more on a medical device you’re designing because they’ll be making that purchase via an HSA, that’s going to affect the design specification.

Am I off base? If you’re using an HSA and/or designing medical devices, I’d love to hear how this new innovation has affected your spending habits and design constraints.

Our staff of cross-disciplinary engineers, an industrial designer, admin support, and interns all work together to create remarkable solutions every day. We usually have 5-10 projects going on simultaneously, so it’s tough to stay current on everything that’s going on outside of my own projects. Just recently, I was getting the 10-second tour of a prototype when I started asking about a robotic end-effector densely packed with numerous individual pneumatic actuators and complex linkages.

“Oh, that? Yeah, we had to make almost all of those parts ourselves – just the pneumatic cylinders and screws are stock. Assembled, the density of the tips is probably twice anything we could find off the shelf.”

Seth Godin writes about having one or two Linchpins that can make a company. These are the indispensible go-to people that are creative, willing to be unconventional, and passionate about their work. They make their work personal and are not satisfied until it’s done right. I don’t know anyone at Key Tech that doesn’t act this way.
Most of our work is highly confidential, so remarkable work rarely gets remarked upon outside of these walls. But, internally, annual reviews often include feedback from peers and project managers that looks like this:

“I’ve worked with him on the ************* project and it has been awesome. He has been handling the many headaches of designing, re-designing, and re-re-designing the critical [custom hardware] for the various systems. Additionally, it has been a pleasure working with him the whole way. He is always in good spirits, does his work in a very timely fashion, and still finds time to host things like ASME meetings. Very impressive. No criticisms what-so-ever.”

So, thanks. You rock! It’s pretty cool to work with all of you.

Frank Regan has just made the long trek to Jinja, Uganda with The Giving Circle to help bring needed resources to a Wanyange village orphanage, the Koi Koi House. Since March of this year, the nonprofit has been working to build a permanent home for orphans afflicted with AIDS. So far, the group has purchased land and already helped dig a well. Among other things, Frank will be working to bring electricity to the village by designing and building a small windmill. We’re following their progress on their blog.

This is a very worthy cause. Of course, back at the office, that gives us two weeks to setup a few practical jokes.

Good luck, Frank.

Between performance, theatre, film, paintings and sculptures, the average attendee is hard pressed to not find some type of art that connects with them. This year, for the first time, Artscape included an area called Betascape, a geek/nerd/DIY-enthusiastic gathering full of home built robots, hacked circuitry to compose music and power tool races. You could even listen to the activity of ants in an ant farm by way of a few infrared LEDs and photodetectors.

One of the really interesting exhibits was an electronic marionette of a wizard. Click the first video to see the wizard’s song and dance, and then click on the second video to see the set of servo motors and circuitry that make it all work. It goes to prove that there’s no reason engineering can’t be a form of art when enough creativity is applied.

The Scale

We chose an Acculab 210.4 scale because it was accurate enough (.0001 gram resolution, which is about a tenth of a microliter for room temperature water) and because it has a serial interface that we can call from Visual Basic to easily collect data and put into a spreadsheet. The data stream is limited to about 8Hz, but it was fast enough for our purposes.

Scales with more resolution often come with damping mechanisms to keep them stable. Although the glass cover keeps the air movement down, this one didn’t have a means to damp vibrations, so we needed to isolate the scale ourselves. We used a small table with some rubber feet as the foundation. Then we used one of those heavy engineering textbooks we have so many of on some thick foam and put the scale on top. Considerate use of flexible beams, soft materials, and masses meant the scale was rock-steady without any software averaging required.

The Fluid Connection

To get the fluid onto the scale, we attached tubing with a luer-lock fitting to a long needle inserted into the scale cover through a hole in the top plate and held in place with a thumb-screw. By using a needle instead of just inserting the tubing into the container, we eliminated any contact with the container or scale. we found that any such contact threw the scale out of whack, especially when the fluid flowed through the tubing with momentum.

The question came up as to whether the needle should be above the water-level or below it. If the needle is below the water-level, surface tension on the needle can reduce the weight of the water. However, if the needle is above the water-level, a drop can form at the tip instead of depositing the small volume onto the scale. We needed fine-resolution flow-rate data, so we opted to ignore the surface tension, which we found to be below the resolution of the scale.

Evaporation of the Water

Over the duration of a test, water will evaporate. The rate is dependent upon temperature, relative humidity, and the surface area of the container. Many suggest adding mineral oil to the water to create a barrier layer to supposedly eliminate evaporation of the water. Data showed that the oil layer did reduce the rate of evaporation (from 0.13 g/hr to 0.08 g/hr), although the oil ruined the plastic connections of the tubing by making them brittle and causing them to leak and break. Instead, we drilled a 1/4” hole into the cap of the container for the needle to fit through, which dropped the rate of evaporation by two orders of magnitude. We collected data for various configurations of the water, oil, and lid and plotted them below. So, without using any oil, we were able to drop the rate of evaporation from 0.127 g/hr to 0.002 g/hr.

Volume and Flow Rate

So, how does a measure of weight relate to volume and flow-rate? Well, the density of water is pretty well defined based on temperature (and weight / density = volume). Accounting for the error of this density value, as well as errors in the scale resolution and time resolution provided excellent measurement results by which to evaluate the devices.

“The students really did an amazing job of taking very simple, low-cost materials and creating a device their research shows correlates nicely with hematocrit levels in the blood,” said Maria Oden, professor in the practice of engineering education and director of Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK). She was the team’s co-adviser with Richards-Kortum. “Many of the patients seen in developing world clinics are anemic, and it’s a severe health problem. Being able to diagnose it with no power, with a device that’s extremely lightweight, is very valuable,” she said.

Not exactly a replacement for the Ultracrit, but an innovative solution considering the manual actuation and low device cost. Nicely done.

The article on the Sally Centrifuge. The radio broadcast (mp3).