DFI Chapter 57: Making the customer happy
Rob Scidmore, CEO of X-ES, Middleton, Wisc., talks about how to make a successful startup in the embedded computing world.
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VP of Technology Fred Bargetzi shows off Crestron Electronics new mobile-phone app to control home lighting from anywhere.
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VP of Technology Fred Bargetzi decribes how Crestron Electronics has evolved from a company making single remote-control devices for the home into an entertainment and envrionment-systems architecture powerhouse.
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Lee Bristol, co-founder of Standard solar, talks to us about his company and renewable energy--while sitting on his roof.
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Sightseeing and driving in rush-hour traffic can be a dumb idea, especially in Washington, D.C.
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Near Clarksburg, West Virginia, the Volt crosses the magic 10,000-mile barrier
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Keeping engineers close to the manufacturing process is one part of the on-shoring trend we've been seeing on the Drive for Innovation. Tim Nolan, Senior Harware Engineer for ETC in Wisconsin, has his desk right in the middle of the action.
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We use the modern equivalent of the Easy Bake oven to see how components are helping high-temperature devices drill deeper into oil-exploring regions.
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GPS is great until it runs into obstacles that you don't anticipate.
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Bob Newgard, director of advanced radio systems with Rockwell Collins, describes fascinating civilian uses for unmaned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
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How does the Volt perform when we shift suddenly from fall to winter?
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TDI Power VP of engineering offers a tour of his sporty red belt-driven electric vehicle.
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Andreas Olofsson, founder and CEO of Adapteva, describes his company's Epiphany processor architecture.
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Adapteva CEO Andreas Olofsson describes how a small company can build a power microprocessor for far less than $100 million.
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Adapteva CEO and founder Andreas Olofsson talks about his startup processor company in a small office on a famous Revolutionary War road.
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Engineering students don't usually get to work with satellites, unless you come up with a novel, terrestrial version of them.
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Two Technologies Inc. president Eric Eckstein demonstrate's the company's HandGear ruggedized computing platform.
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UMass Amherst engineering student Matt Hunt and Professor Baird Soules give us a tour of a collaborative robotics project that involved the theater department.
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UMass Amherst professors and administrators have created an outstanding space to nurture and inspire creativity in young engineering and computer science students.
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ADI engineer Rob O'Reilly talks about making football safer for players using a high-g-force accelerometer.
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UMass engineering Professor Baird Soules describes a student robotics projects that checks IDs, tracks inventory and, yes, tweets.
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Eric Eckstein, president and COO of Two Technologies Inc., talks about how to build hardware platforms that make the best (and longest) use of software
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TE Connectivity's Galen Martin talks about how his company is helping design out weight in cars, one small but important connector and cable at a time.
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TE Connectivity vice president of engineering Steve Jackson describes how a large company throw over "not invented here" to move forward.
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Thoughts on improving the Volt are put down on paper and stuck to the Chevy Volt at an Analog Devices reception during The Drive for Innovation.
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TE Connectivity engineers talk about the key qualities needed to be a successful engineer.
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University of Pennsylvania mechanical engineering professor Katherine Kuchenbecker talks about her school's haptics and robotics research
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University of Pennsylvania engineering students give us a tour of Renegade, their electrical drag racing car that was six years in the making.
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David Bull with Vectron talks about optimizing the use of crystal oscillator technology by leveraging semiconductor technology and lowering phase noise.
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David Bull with Vectron talks about the state of crystal oscillator technology.
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A family-run company shows how electronics manufacturing is thriving in New Jersey. You gotta problem with that?
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Swemco is a nearly 50-year-old family-run company near Philadelphia demonstrating that mid-volume manufacturing can be done in the United States.
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Staying at an Element Hotel, we learn the joys of green living and free juice from the ChargePoint station in the parking lot. But first, we have to get the lid open.
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University of Pennsylvania mechanical engineering professor Katherine Kuchenbecher talks about how to get more young women involved in engineering.
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Engineering consultant Emerick Bennett talks about the keys to becoming a good technology consultant and staying current.
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Avnet's Heather Robertson offers insights into some of the design tradeoffs that went into designing the Volt's battery and charging systems.
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We talk about innovative programs like Massachusetts' charging-station rollout at a live press event at ESC Boston 2011
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Rob Scidmore, CEO of Extreme Engineering Solutions, now X-ES, talks about his company emerged from the rubble of the telecom bust.
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Rob Scidmore, CEO of X-ES, Middleton, Wisc., talks about how to make a successful startup in the embedded computing world.
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University of Pennsylvania's electric racing team has been innovating in a basement for six years; it's paying off.
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Rahal Letterman BMW racing chief technical director Jay O'Connell talks about how his five-person team works with BMW engineers to optimize the car's design and stay atop the racing world.
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Rahal BMW racing team technical director Jay O'Connell talks about how technology enables the "marching ants" crews can use to manage car races from the pits.
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A cross-country drive hunting down innovation stories is exhausting. Occasionally, our engineering mascot takes a day off however. In this case, the outcome is terrifying.
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Alyssa Hahn gives us a tour of Rockwell Collins' LCD display technologies at the company's Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facility.
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Adam Tyler from TE Connectivity talks about the advantage of high voltage systems in saving weight in automotive designs.
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Electronic Theater Controls has taken building design to an extra-planetary level. You have to see it to believe it.
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Senior design engineer Bill Mueller tells us how he confounded a colleague for hours with one of the oldest practical jokes in the engineering book.
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Senior design engineer Bill Mueller on how the design engineering profession has changed in his lifetime.
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Senior design engineer Bill Mueller talks about the tradeoffs the electronics engineering profession offers: long hours but a good quality of life.
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MIchael Godwin of OSRAM describes the state of the art in LED design for automotive applications.
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We come across a truck-full of Chevy Volts enroute to a dealer on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania.
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Brush Laboratories began during the administration of Warren Harding, eventually becoming Brush Engineered Materials. This year, in a nod to changing sensibilities, it rebranded as Materion Corp.
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Jason Maher and Michael Gedeon from Materion Corp. talk about beryllium and the high-tech soup recipes that make up materials science today.
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Keithley Instruments' 2651A source meter was a family extension, but it considered the user interface very carefully when it design the machine.
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Carlos Nielbock bridges the old world and the new and in the process demonstrates how innovation is thriving in the do-it-yourself economy.
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Lectronix CEO Allan Dale has been in the industry since the 1960s. He knows what makes a good engineer.
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How much does high-speed communications and sensors drive racing strategy? A lot, according to Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing's chief technical director, Jay O'Connell
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We toured the canal locks in the Cuyahoga Valley to pay our respects to innovators past.
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We drag-race Harry Roos of CMR X-ray (Waukesha, Wisc.) and his Prius in a parking lot.
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An interview with Harold Schweitzer, engineering student at Arizona State University, on why he's entering the profession.
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Heather Robertson, Avnet's technology director for renewable energy, talks about how customers are building more efficient systems to manage alternative energy sources better.
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Heather Robertson, Avnet's technology director for renewable energy, talks about how customers are making systems more efficient as they leverage new ways to capture energy.
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In Livonia, Mich., we search for power outlets to give the Volt a much-need drink of electricity.
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Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan business development exec Mike Welsh gives us a tour around the Road America course before August's American Le Mans race in Elkhart Lake, Wisc.
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Engineering manager Helmut Weiher from Utility Relay describes his company's latest product, the AC Pro-MP circuit breaker technology.
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Engineering manager Helmut Weiher from Utility Relay describes how his company updates decades-old circuit breaker technology cost-effectively.
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Imagine you're so good at what you do, that someone comes and prevents you from getting better...in fact slows your growth. That's what one race-car team's chief engineer is grappling with.
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There are few industries in the world that are as savvy about marketing their highly technical products than the auto industry. Just go to any race and you'll see. We did.
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OSRAM product marketing manager Marc Drybel talks about LED life cycles and offers some good news for star gazers.
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OSRAM LED technology is helping communities more efficiently illuminate their streets, save money and create more friendly atmospheres.
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Longtime computing industry executive Allan Dale, now CEO of Lectronix, says data is the key to innovation.
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Getting TE Connectivity to sponsor Drive for Innovation was the easy part. Applying the sponsor decal, nerve-wracking.
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We almost literally stumbled on an amazing wireless application on a hot, muggy St. Louis night after a six-hour drive in the Chevy Volt.
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Adam Tyler of TE Connectivity describes how engineers learned from the design of their HVA 400 connector to make a smaller, easier-to-use HVA 280 device for high-voltage applications.
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A tour of the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Mich., reveals just how far we've come from the days when innovation came in really big forms.
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An i3 Detroit hackerspace team devised ChronoTune, the time travelling radio for a contest and showed it off at Detroit Maker Faire 2011
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Adam Tyler describes TE Connectivity's connector design-in in the engine compartment of the Chevy Volt
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Eric Barch, a student at Kettering University, demonstrates his open-source, Arduino-based robot car.
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DesignNews senior editor Chuck Murray discusses consumer impressions and acceptance of electric vehicles
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Molex VP of marketing communications Brian Krause talks about the state of American innovation while driving the Chevy Volt
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We visit Beer Town (St. Louis) and head north to Detroit all while trying to a coax colleague to sleep at a reasonable time.
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Molex spokesman Brian Krause offers a tour of connector products inside the Chevrolet Volt
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Maker Faire's Maker in Chief Sherry Huss talks about the maker/hacker movement and Maker Faire's role in it all.
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Shockwave Impact is using partners including NXP and Avnet to build a design and supply chain that could gets its MEMS product to market in just a few months.
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Shockwave Impact's MEMS device can gauge traumatic force impacts on sports players. The next step is to make it communicate.
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Rockwell Collins' internally developed Virtual Prototype Modeling system can yield big benefits during the design process
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Rockwell Collins engineer Keith Bornbach gives us a ride in his commute car, a Tesla.
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Rockwell Collins and Lectronix teamed to deliver an integrated, compact squad car communications and navigation solution for the California Highway Patrol and Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
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Incredible Technologies' Golden Tee Golf arcade game is history's most successful video game outside the home. VP Engineering Steve Janowiak describes the company's innovations.
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The Sebring-Vanguard Citicar was ahead of its time nearly 40 years ago. Kyle Feller, from a new generation of innovators, is looking to it for inspiration.
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Kevin Smith and his team at Illuminati take us for a high-speed ride in his hand-built 7 electric vehicle, which competed for the X Prize.
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Harting employees set up a pit crew in Elgin, Ill., to slake the Volt's thirst.
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Illuminati Motor Works' Kevin Smith offers a tour of the interior and the body styling of the all-electric, 207.5 mpg-e Illuminati 7 vehicle
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Matt England, operations manager for storage-solutions provider Kove, discusses high-speed storage markets and building a tech startup in Chicago.
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Tom Milauskas, Kurk Dawkins and Brian Fuller roll toward Chicago on the way to see Kove, a storage provider
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Paul Shackett, an electronics engineer with Masterlock, takes the Chevy Volt for a test drive around Schaumberg, IL.
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Day 1 of the Drive for Innovation finds us wrestling with a lock at Public Storage in Chicago to retrieve the Volt from its hiding place.
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Opening sequence for the Drive for Innovation On the Road blog
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EE Times' Brian Fuller talks with Avnet Express' Alex Iuorio about the Drive for Innovation project in which Brian is the lucky soul who gets to drive a Chevy Volt around the country collecting stories about innovation.
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Product specialist Trisha with an overview of the all-electric Chevy Volt at the 2011 National Science Teachers Association Conference in San Francisco
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Kristie Brewer from General Motors describes how teachers can use the Chevy Volt and its technology as a way to teach about electricity and renewable energy
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Rob Shaddock, CTO of TE Connectivity, discusses how looking beyond connectors to connectivity helps engineers tackle design challenges from broader perspective--to speed installation, reduce weight and build intelligence into systems. -
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With the increased-use of electronics in automotive and industrial applications, the need for robust and highly reliable components is essential to ensure a proper functioning system with low maintenance costs. Automotive applications, for example h...
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Patrick Mannion of EE Times describes the making of the FitBit, a device that measures the wearer's physical exertion and wirelessly transmits and logs the data. After showing the innards, Patrick invites panelists to discuss wireless design. -
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Munro & Associates' Al Steier and TechInsights' John Scott-Thomas analyze the Chevy Volt's battery pack in the first of three Drive for Innovation teardown sessions.
