Open Source

This summer I had the opportunity to visit the NYC headquarters of Managed by Q, “The Operating System for Offices”, founded by my cousin Dan Teran. I sat in on a meeting where the major focus of the marketing team’s presentation was on creating content that would teach people how to better clean their offices. Why would a cleaning services company teach people how to not need their services? From a classical economics angle, where agents are vying for limited capital, this doesn’t make any sense. »

I started materialsGIRL because I couldn’t find an online community to discuss materials science. This seemed like a huge ‘unmet need’ to me, but ultimately I failed to build a critical mass. Here is the welcome message on materialsGIRL for context: Welcome to materialsGIRL - a community enthusiastic about making materials. We encourage anyone interested in learning about materials to join, regardless of your education, background, discipline or specialty. GIRL stands for Group Interaction Reinforces Learning - we hope to develop tools to promote scientific understanding, collaboration & discourse. »

The key to successful stereolithography (SLA)1 3D printing lies at the intersection of chemistry, hardware and software. The photopolymer recipe, the optics of the printer, and the print settings are all interdependent. If you make a big change to one, you will likely need to tweak the other two. Despite the fact that SLA printing is now fully democratized (there is a Kickstarter running right now for (yet another) $150 SLA printer), there is not much useful information online about how to ‘dial-in’ a reliable SLA printing process. »

It is hard enough running a ‘hard tech’ startup. Hardware is one thing, but companies bringing physical science innovations to the world have it toughest of all. Mother nature can be a very cruel compiler. Do not abandon hope! There are many tools available to help you on your journey. As with most things in life, the best ones are (often) free. Here, I have curated a short list of open source apps and tools that have been useful to us at polySpectra. »