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.
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Industry News
- Foxconn announced its发票n to shift focus to AI and big dataa 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 itsefforts to increase automation in manufacturing.
- There was a lot of new tech on show at the Winter Olympics:The Ski Robot Challengerequired 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 thescience behind making snow and icefor the Olympics. + Did you know the Olympic torch is lit with aparabolic mirror?
- Cobalt is in the news again—Apple is in talks tobuy the resource directly from minersfor 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 inhigh demand lately, with the explosion in EVs. The majority of theworld’s supply of cobaltis 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 least30% 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 difficultvideo game to explain the decline of the American Mall.
- engineerguy Bill Hammacklooks inside the drinking bird and explains the science and engineering behind the toy. + Check out his video oninjection molding.
- By now, you’ve probably seen波士顿Dynamics’ robot dog opening a door. A new video onants building bridgesshows how they collectively determine whether a bridge is even worth building at all. + Cockroach-sizedrobots that can run head first into walls.
- The New Yorker did an excellent piece onpaper 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是在旧金山举办的快乐时光。
- Indiegogo’s nextHardware Happy Hourtakes place on March 8 at WeWork Civic Center.
- The next SFWomen in Robotics event on March 28includes a panel of speakers from Samsara, Mayfield Robotics, and Oculus.
- On March 22,SV Hardware Startup to Scalehosts 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 readingNinety 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.Angazais looking for a hardware team lead.
- On the Fictiv Builders Group, Steve has a question about finding aMcMaster-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 atThe Preparedfor sharing.
Until next month!
Fin, Hardware Evangelist at Fictiv
