Episodes

  • Drones for Data Gathering: How open-source hardware is making environmental research more viable
    Jun 6 2024

    What 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 to a group of engineering students at Aarhus University in Denmark to design a low-cost, lightweight and replicable drone for accompanying them on missions to Greenland. In this episode, we take a look at the Naval Operating Research Drone Assessing Climate Change (NORDACC) and discuss how open-source principles coupled with citizen science could accelerate climate change research - and results.

    This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt and ComaStudio via Pixabay.

    HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

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    23 mins
  • The Future of Food: (Re)growing vertical farming with open-source automation
    May 28 2024

    Why 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 - published on HardwareX. In this episode, we address why vertical farming keeps missing the goal, and how open-source technologies could propel it to become the food tech solution we all hoped for.

    This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt and ComaStudio via Pixabay.

    HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

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    33 mins
  • Open Hardware Talks: Validating openness (with OSHWA and Open Source Ecology Germany)
    Apr 29 2024

    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 us here at HardwareX. As a bonus, Martin Häuer from Open Source Ecology Germany (OSEG) joins to present the DIN SPEC-3105; the world's first open-source standard.

    Don't forget! OSHWA is also behind the annual Open Hardware Summit, the world’s first comprehensive conference on open hardware. A hybrid event, most talks and discussions are also available online.

    2024 Open Hardware Summit
    May 3rd-4th
    Montreal, Canada

    For more info on how to join, check out the links below.

    • Attend the Summit: https://2024.oshwa.org/attend-the-summit/
    • Open Hardware Summit YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/user/opensourcehardware
    • OSHWA Discord: https://discord.com/invite/bMK7NqFWG9


    This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt via Pixabay.

    HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

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    36 mins
  • From Gaza to Ukraine: Exploring the Glia open-source tourniquet and scaling decentralised manufacturing during conflict
    Mar 18 2024

    How 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) take us from Gaza to Ukraine as we explore the development, testing and scaling of the open-source tourniquet and the open-source tourniquet tester published on HardwareX.

    This episode is researched, produced and edited by Miriam Gradel, Journalist and Media Editor at HardwareX. The music is provided by Kammerin Hunt and ComaStudio via Pixabay.

    HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

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    32 mins
  • HILO Studio for Innovations in Textile Manufacturing (with Sara Diaz Rodriguez, Natalija Krasnoperova, and Lukas Schattenhofer from Berlin, Germany)
    Jun 12 2022

    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).

    The host and content creator is Dr. Sanli Faez who is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Utrecht University. The post-editing and production was handled by Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University. The theme music is provided by Oleksandr Savochka from Pixabay.

    HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

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    42 mins
  • Music Composition and Environmental Sensing (with Chet Udell)
    May 2 2022

    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 co-founder and CEO of Stratos Instruments, LLC and an Associate Editor of the journal HardwareX. For this episode, the host and content creator is Dr. Sanli Faez who is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Utrecht University. The post-editing and production was handled by Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University. The theme music is provided by Oleksandr Savochka from Pixabay.

    HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

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    44 mins
  • Portable, open-source wireless spectrophotometer (with Katrina Laganovska from Riga, Latvia)
    Mar 20 2022

    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-Yoav, Varis Karitans, and Krisjanis Smits from Latvia, Ireland, and Israel.
    For this episode, the host and content creator is
    Dr. Sanli Faez who is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Utrecht University. The post-editing and production was handled by Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University. The theme music is provided by Oleksandr Savochka from Pixabay.



    HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

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    24 mins
  • Open-source pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (with Diego Lagos-Susaeta from Santiago, Chile)
    Feb 25 2022

    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 university. For this episode, the host and content creator is Dr. Sanli Faez who is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Utrecht University. The post-editing and production was handled by Dr. Santosh Pandey who is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Iowa State University. The theme music is provided by Oleksandr Savochka from Pixabay.



    HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

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    17 mins