Shows
HardwareX PodcastsUnder the Microscope: An open-source approach to upcyclingAs the right to repair gained political momentum, it obliged companies to share design files and repair guides with every new device. But what about the right to upcycle older technologies?With the power of machine learning, computerised microscopes are increasing efficiency and accuracy in scientific research. However, commercially available microscopes often come with a large price tag, rendering them inaccessible to labs or institutes on a budget. Instead, an interdisciplinary team at UC Santa Cruz in California decided to explore what it would take to turn legacy microscopes into modern devices fit for the needs of...2025-07-1023 minHardwareX PodcastsOHT: Is Open-source 'Disrupting' MedTech? Ft. OpenFlexure, OSI2. and Openinsulin.MedTech has an accessibility problem. Life-saving medicine, groundbreaking diagnostics technologies and much-needed lab equipment at the hands of profit-driven companies and oligopolies. What are the consequences of betting human health on proprietary markets, and what alternatives can open-source offer?In this Open Hardware Talks, Lukas Winter (Open Source Imaging Initiative), Joe Knapper (OpenFlexure) and Anthony Di Franco (OpenInsulin) discuss challenges in healthcare accessibility, the benefits of open source approaches, and the potential future impact on medical technology, with examples from their succesful open-source projects - an OS low-field MRI system, an OS microscope and an O...2025-06-1648 minHardwareX PodcastsCombatting Chronic Wounds: Elevating patient care in Nepal through open-source technologyHow can we elevate life quality for patients in some of the world's most underserved regions?Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) is a proven and efficient method for treating chronic wounds. This is particularly useful in low- and middle-income countries, where diseases like leprosy, limited healthcare, low infrastructure and poverty combine to make chronic wounds and commonality. Devices for treatment are costly, overly complicated and not built to serve the regions that need them the most. Amid frequent power cuts, Dr Suraj Mahajan and Lead Biomedical Engineer Arjan Knulst of the Green Pastures Ho...2025-05-0616 minHardwareX PodcastsOpen Hardware Talks: How To NOT Reinvent the WheelOpen Hardware Talks is back. This series invites interdisciplinary experts and advocates to a roundtable discussion on the most relevant topics in open-source hardware.Discoverability: How To NOT Reinvent the Wheel.Open and collaborative development promises to accelerate innovation by allowing individuals and teams to share new ideas, build on top of existing ones and improve designs according to multiple use cases. So, how do you find out what is already out there? And what can make your design easier to discover for the...2025-04-0738 minHardwareX PodcastsReducing CO2: Using open-source technologies to scale the power of natureMuch like plants can turn carbon into energy, researchers have been striving to scale the potential of photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Promising as the technology may be, little progress has been made to scale its potential. If the net human-caused CO2 reduction target of 45 % from 2010 levels is to be reached by 2030, the science must be shared.That is the notion that propelled Prof. Dr. Jennifer Strunk and Dr. Nikolaos Moustakas PhD, former research colleagues at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT), to open-source their High-Purity Gas-solid Photoreactor design. In this episode, we journey to Rostock in the north...2025-03-1226 minHardwareX PodcastsTagging 6000 Bees: An Open-source System for Species MonitoringDid you know that honey bees dance?When honey bees return to the colony from foraging, they share info about their journey with their fellow honey bees by dancing. Besides getting the boogie on, however, little is known about how far honey bees go foraging and what ecological factors impact their journey, e.g. pesticide exposure.In this episode of HardwareX, Entomologist Margarita López-Uribe, Ph.D., specialised in bee species, together with Doctoral Student of Electrical Engineering, Diego Penaloza Aponte, of Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, explain how open-source technologies and 2025-02-0532 minHardwareX PodcastsDemocratising Air Quality: An Open-source Solution to Filling Data Gaps in the Global SouthThe advancement of low-cost sensors has sparked a boom in air quality monitoring devices. From backpack add-ons to citizen bicycles, air quality devices are enabling citizens to get involved in monitoring local air quality.When looking at global air quality maps, however, the data for South America and Africa remain scarce. As primarily consumer-based products, these devices remain subject to demand and supply, limiting access to local air quality and air pollution for those who need them the most. Though the number of open-source designs is growing, incomplete and non-standardised documentation renders many viable designs unusable.2025-01-1524 minHardwareX PodcastsBuilding A Better Mousetrap: Scaling animal wellbeing with open-source hardwareWhat if research labs didn't have to reinvent the wheel all the time?Rodents like mice and rats play a pivotal role in neuroscientific research. Through a process known as 'head fixation', scientists surgically implant cannulas and electrodes to measure neurophysiological activity. As mice share roughly 95% of our DNA, head fixation experiments greatly contribute to advancing our understanding of the human brain and diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.While head-fixation is common in many labs, proprietary systems are often expensive and inconsistent. This leads many labs to create ad hoc DIY systems at the risk...2024-12-0923 minHardwareX PodcastsA Co-benefits Approach: Preserving more than one species with open-source hardwareDid you know that our understanding of basic functions such as memory, learning and sleep is largely thanks to a giant sea slug? For more than 50 years, Aplysia Californica, a type of slug also known as the California Sea Hare, has been important for understanding how the nervous system works and for investigating the cellular and molecular basis of behaviour. As an essential resource for neurological disease research across the globe, there are large incentives to preserve the species, including sampling and storing its genetic material.This is easier said than done, as the Sea...2024-11-1227 minHardwareX PodcastsMicrowaves Against Malaria: Life-saving technologies and the question of patenting.Urgent needs require urgent solutions, but is open-source always the answer?The UN aims to eradicate malaria in all countries by 2030. However, in some parts of the world, incidents are increasing as the parasites transmitting the disease grow increasingly tolerant to treatment drugs. A novel treatment method using microwaves to kill the parasite shows promising results. One that could save both lives and economies in Africa, where a majority of malaria incidents and deaths are registered each year. With the release of an open-source portable device for studying the malaria parasite’s growth inhibition via mi...2024-09-2931 minHardwareX PodcastsHigh-tech Prosthetics: Granting locomotion to all with open-source robotics.How inclusive are advanced prosthetics technologies?The global demand for prosthetics and orthotics is only expected to rise. Yet, access to affordable and innovative solutions varies greatly at local, national and international levels. And while 3D printing has greatly contributed to making prosthetics available in low-income and developing regions, the benefits that robotics and technological innovation bring users remain highly exclusive. This may be about to change. In an attempt to make high-tech prosthetics solutions more accessible, Professor in Biomechatronics at the University of Agder in Norway, Filippo Sanfilippo, along with his colleagues (Martin Økter, Jør...2024-09-1028 minHardwareX PodcastsDrones for Data Gathering: How open-source hardware is making environmental research more viableWhat does it take to make research catch up with climate change? The Arctic regions hold crucial information about the environmental impact of rising temperatures. Calving glaciers and treacherous territories make it a life-threatening mission to collect it though.As autonomous technologies improve, drones, boats and rovers are increasingly being deployed in place of humans to sample, monitor and manage marine and aquatic systems. However, as costs can range in the millions, the value these technologies can provide researchers is relevant to their cost. That is why Daniel F. Carlson and Claus Melvad put it...2024-06-0623 minHardwareX PodcastsThe Future of Food: (Re)growing vertical farming with open-source automationWhy did high-tech farming go bust?Vertical Farming was one of the big new technologies of the early 2010s. By growing crops vertically with less water and no pesticides, big vertical farms promised to revolutionise food production. So why are the same vertical farms going bust across Europe and the US just ten years after they boomed?In this episode, we journey to Cambridge University in England to meet Vijja "Pat" Wichitwechkarn. An AI researcher working on agricultural robotics, he has developed a fully automated and scalable indoor farming system - MACARONS...2024-05-2833 minHardwareX PodcastsOpen Hardware Talks: Validating openness (with OSHWA and Open Source Ecology Germany)Welcome to a new HardwareX podcast series: Open Hardware Talks.In addition to our regular episodes exploring open-source hardware projects, we're launching a new deep-dive series. Open Hardware Talks explores key concepts of open-source hardware in casual conversations with experts and practitioners from across the ecosystem.For the first episode in this new series, we ask: How do you validate the openness of a given hardware? To explore this, we're joined by Sid Drmay and Lee Wilkins from the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) which maintains the open-source hardware certification recognised by practitioners globally, including...2024-04-2935 minHardwareX PodcastsFrom Gaza to Ukraine: Exploring the Glia open-source tourniquet and scaling decentralised manufacturing during conflictHow can we make life-saving medical equipment more accessible in areas under blockade, with low infrastructure, or with limited resources?In a time where almost every region in the world is seeing a rise in conflict, tourniquets have become increasingly necessary for avoiding excessive civilian casualties. Yet, proprietary tourniquets remain largely geared toward male military personnel, not women and children. Even if this changes, proprietary tourniquets remain expensive and largely inaccessible in regions where they are needed most.In this episode, Dr Tarek Loubani of Glia and Victoria Jaqua of Open Source Medical Supplies (OSMS...2024-03-1832 minHardwareX PodcastsHILO Studio for Innovations in Textile Manufacturing (with Sara Diaz Rodriguez, Natalija Krasnoperova, and Lukas Schattenhofer from Berlin, Germany)In this episode, we talk to the creators of Studio HILO that offers open source technologies for local yarn production, along with remote workshops and vocational training to facilitate user-driven experimentation. Our three guests are Sara Diaz Rodriguez (co-founder of Studio HILO, textile design and technologies consultant), Natalija Krasnoperova (co-founder of Studio HILO, innovation and coaching consultant), and Lukas Schattenhofer (member of Open Source Ecology in Germany managing the certification program for open source hardware).2022-06-1241 minHardwareX PodcastsMusic Composition and Environmental Sensing (with Chet Udell)In this fourth episode of HardwareX Season 2 podcasts, our guest is Chet Udell who is an Assistant Professor of Biological and Ecological Engineering at Oregon State University (USA). Dr. Udell is the Director of the Openly Published Environmental Sensing (OPEnS) lab at his university. His lab is an NSF and USDA funded Makerspace led by a staff of over 30 undergraduate researchers across Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Biological and Ecological Engineering, and Humanitarian Engineering. Dr. Udell is also the...2022-05-0344 minHardwareX PodcastsPortable, open-source wireless spectrophotometer (with Katrina Laganovska from Riga, Latvia)In this third episode of HardwareX Season 2 podcasts, our guest is Katrina Laganovska from the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, Riga LV-1063, Latvia . She is the first author of an HardwareX article titled “Portable low-cost open-source wireless spectrophotometer for fast and reliable measurements” along with co-authors Aleksejs Zolotarjovs, Mercedes Vázquez, Kirsty Mc Donnell, Janis Liepins, Hadar Ben-Y...2022-03-2024 minHardwareX PodcastsOpen-source pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (with Diego Lagos-Susaeta from Santiago, Chile)In this second episode of HardwareX Season 2 podcasts, our guest is Diego Lagos-Susaeta who is affiliated with the Centre for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (CeBiB), Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Materials, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. Our guest is the first author of an HardwareX article titled “openPFGE: An open source and low cost pulsed-field gel electrophoresis equipment” along with co-authors Oriana Salazar and Juan A. Asenjo from the same unive...2022-02-2616 minHardwareX PodcastsHardwareX in the Limelight (with Editors-in-Chief Joshua Pearce and Todd Duncombe, and Associate Editor Santosh Pandey)In this first episode of HardwareX Season 2 podcasts, our new host is Dr. Sanli Faez who is the Assistant Professor (tenured) of Physics at Utrecht University. Our guests are Dr. Joshua Pearce and Dr. Todd Duncombe who are the Editors-in-Chief of HardwareX and have edited the Special Issue: COVID-19 Medical Hardware. We also invite Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering (Iowa State University) and was the host/producer of...2022-02-1217 min
HardwareX PodcastsAuthor Interview: A low-cost acoustic device for monitoring biodiversity and the environment (with Dr. Andrew Hill and Dr, Peter Prince from Open Acoustic Devices)In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Andrew Hill and Peter Prince from Open Acoustic Devices, which is a UK-based company that designs, supports and deploys open-source acoustic hardware and software for our user community, as well as our own environmental and wildlife monitoring projects. In October 2019, their team published a paper in HardwareX titled “AudioMoth: A low-cost acoustic device for monitoring biodiversity and the environment”. The paper is part of the Special Issue on Open-Hardware for Environmental Sensing and Instruments edited by Chet Udell and Shannon Hicks. Their produ...2021-10-1223 min
HardwareX PodcastsHardwareX and Open Source Hardware with co-Editor-in-chief (Joshua Pearce, PhD)In this episode of HardwareX podcast, we talk to Professor Joshua Pearce who is the co-Editor-in-Chief of HardwareX. Dr. Pearce is the Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation, cross-appointed in the Richard Ivey School of Business and Western University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Pearce is a renowned expert on open hardware, low cost 3D printing, and solar photovoltaics. We talk to him about his driving motivation, projects, and vision about the future of open source hardware. This podcast episode was recorded, edited, and produced by Santosh Pandey from Io...2021-10-1225 min
HardwareX PodcastsThe Journey of HardwareX with co-Editor-in-chief (Todd Duncombe, PhD)In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Todd Duncombe who is the co-Editor-in-Chief of HardwareX. Todd is a Postdoctoral researcher at the renowned ETH Zurich, Department of BioSystems Science and Engineering in Basel, Switzerland. He has published several impactful papers and inventions on Droplet Microfluidic, Analytical Chemistry, Mass Spectrometry, MEMS, and Electrokinetic Transport. He developed assays to streamline biomanufacturing pathways and combinatorial screening, often improvising the techniques in mass spectrometry and electrophoresis. Todd also has been an active member of Tekla Labs. This episode was recorded, edited, and produced by Santosh Pandey from...2021-10-1217 min
HardwareX PodcastsDiscussions with the Publishing Director at Elsevier (Sarah Jenkins)In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Sarah Jenkins who is the Publishing Director at Elsevier. She is currently located at Oxford, UK. Sarah has served Elsevier in various capacities over the past 19 and a half years, and has led many successful projects at Elsevier. It is an absolute pleasure to chat with Sarah on her initiatives and vision for HardwareX and open access journals from Elsevier. This podcast episode was recorded, edited, and produced by Santosh Pandey from Iowa State University. The music is provided by Lesfm from Pixabay (Title: Inspiring Cinematic...2021-10-1222 min
HardwareX PodcastsAuthor Interview: Open source device for disinfecting N95 masks with UV-C radiation (with Dr. Marcel Bentancor and Dr. Horacio Failache)In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, our guests are Dr. Marcel Bentancor and Dr. Horacio Failache from Montevideo, Uruguay. Their research interests are in Optics and Experimental Physics. In February 2021, their team published a paper in HardwareX titled “LUCIA: An open source device for disinfection of N95 masks using UV-C radiation”. The paper is part of the Special Issue: COVID-19 Medical Hardware edited by Todd Duncombe and Joshua Pearce. This podcast episode was recorded, edited, and produced by Santosh Pandey from Iowa State University. The music is provided by jorikbasov from Pixabay (Title: Ambi...2021-10-1219 min
HardwareX PodcastsAuthor Interview: Low-cost, open-source 3D printed antibody dispenser (with Dr. Joong Ho Shin)In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Dr. Joong Ho Shin and Won Han. Dr. Shin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pukyong National University, South Korea. Dr. Shin is an expert in microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip, biosensors, diagnostic devices, biotechnology and molecular biology. His work has been published in very reputable journals in these fields. In April 2021, his team published a paper in HardwareX titled “Low-cost, open-source 3D printed antibody dispenser for development and small-scale production of lateral flow assay strips”. The authors are Won Han and Joong Ho Shin. This...2021-10-1215 min
HardwareX PodcastsAuthor Interview: Open source microbalance autosampler (with Dr. Matheus Carvalho)In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Dr. Matheus Carvalho who is a Senior Research Associate at the Southern Cross University in New South Wales, Australia. He is affiliated with the Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry Research, Environmental Analysis Laboratory, and Southern Cross Analytical Research Services. His research interests have been to improve the understanding of photosynthesis and respiration by algae. In particular, he has developed, together with his colleagues Kai Schulz and Bradley Eyre, an approach to obtain new and old respiration estimates for the entire ocean. He also has a keen interest...2021-10-1221 min
HardwareX PodcastsAuthor Interview: Open source hardware for plant phenomics and livestock healthy monitoring (with Dr. Pete Marchetto)In this episode of HardwareX podcasts, we talk to Pete Marchetto who is a Research Engineer and Instrumentation Scientist with Conservify, and Principal at Sensing, LLC. His research interests lie in environmental sensing, and creating tools for those in the life sciences who need them. Some of his projects have included applying automated imaging and high-throughput measurement techniques for plant phenotyping, assessing plant stress, and remote health monitoring of poultry, livestock, and farm animals. Dr. Marchetto has published a number of interesting papers in HardwareX which are available freely through Open Access. This podcast episode...2021-10-1219 min