Arduino & RepRap - Creating Wealth by Giving it Away
Adrian Bowyer
BSc(Eng) PhD CEng CMath ACGI MBCS FIMA FRSA
Senior Lecturer and Founder of RepRap
RepRap / University of Bath |
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About Adrian
In the early 1970s Adrian Bowyer read for a first degree in mechanical engineering at Imperial College, London, and then researched a PhD in tribology there. In 1977 he moved to Bath University's Maths Department to do research in stochastic computational geometry. He then founded the Bath University Microprocessor Unit in 1981 and ran that for four years. After that he took up a lectureship in manufacturing in Bath's Engineering Faculty, where he is now a senior lecturer.
His current area of research is self-replicating machines - he is the inventor and developer of the RepRap replicating rapid prototyper.
He also works on geometric computing (he is one of the authors of the Bowyer-Watson algorithm for Voronoi diagrams), the application of computers to manufacturing, the biochemistry of smart materials, and biomimetics. |
David Cuartielles
MSc PhD Founder and leader of the prototyping laboratory
Malmö University
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About David
David is a candidate in Interaction Design for the School of Arts and Communication at Malmo University, Sweden. He is the founder and leader of the prototyping laboratory there since 2001.
In 2005 co-created the Arduino prototyping platform and since then runs the web-unit of the project dedicated to give support to the user and developer community. In 2006 curated the Electrolobby space of the Ars Electronica Festival, which was dedicated to the DIY movement with a series of workshops in quick prototyping. In 2009 created the 1scale1 open source prototyping company specialized in the creation of HiFi prototypes of wearable computers.
Also since 2010 is part of the Medea research group collaborating with the city of Mamo in creating the first FabLab facility in the region to open in 2011. |
Abstract
Because it is sometimes possible to convert one into the other, money and wealth are often confused. But they are distinct: money is pieces of paper or numbers in a computer; wealth is corn to make bread, or a motor car. Both money and wealth grow as time advances: growth in money is inflation, growth in wealth is longevity and prosperity. Is it possible to grow wealth independently of money?
This talk will be from Adrian Bowyer - creator of RepRap, the open-source replicating 3D printer - and from David Cuartielles - creator of Arduino, the open-source microcontroller. Both projects have founded significant and growing industries - and hence significant and growing wealth - by giving away all the data required to build RepRaps and Arduinos completely free. They have also short-circuited most conventional industrial infrastructure by placing the ability to create wealth directly in the hands of private individuals.
The presenters contend that this is the way of the future: companies, and - more importantly - those private individuals will be giving away their primary products and making a living on the sideline activities that such donations attract.
Software has been heading in that direction for decades. Now hardware is following.