Open Hardware in Times of Crisis and the Future of Local Production to halt Climate Change
12-27, 16:00–17:00 (Europe/Berlin), Lichtung
Language: English

Over the last two years our team has been working on the Pocket Science Lab. While we were connecting with each other online for years the Corona crisis posed a new challenge to us: Chip and component shortages. In this panel we will share our story of how we are tackling this problem and our ideas on how to move forward with local production to solve global delivery issues and reduce the carbon footprint of shipping.


Over the last two years our team has been working on the Pocket Science Lab. While we were connecting with each other online for years the Corona crisis posed a new challenge to us: Chip and component shortages. Even getting prototypes for testing became difficult. In this panel we will share our story of how we are tackling this problem and how the dedication of our community members in Sri Lanka, Sweden, China, India and Germany are essential to overcome difficulties. This session is conceived as a panel where we will also share our ideas about how to move forward with local production to solve global delivery issues and reduce the carbon footprint of shipping.
Panelists:

  • Mario Behling (Facilitator)
  • Padmal Madhushanka
  • Hong Phuc Dang
  • Kee Wee Tang
  • Daniel Wessolek
  • Daniel Maslowski
  • Alessandro Volpato

Mario co-started the FOSSASIA organisation and projects like eventyay.com and Pocket Science Lab IoT platform. Together with a global community he works on sustainable Open Hardware and AI assistants supported by the Horizon 2020 program of the EU. Apart from tech Mario also has an interest in Indian and Brazilian music, designed and built a seven storey eco-hotel in Vietnam, and setup mesh networks in schools in Afghanistan.

Alexander is an engineer based in Sweden working for Scania. He holds two degrees from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology as a doctor of philosophy and a PHD in chemical engineering. In the Pocket Science Lab project Alex works on the hardware, firmware and Python components.

Padmal is a PhD student at Uppsala University in Sweden following his dream to become an expert in electronics. His research area is battery-free sensor networks. He has a master's degree in wireless communications engineering from University of Oulu in Finland and a bachelor's degree in electronic and telecommunication engineering from University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka. In the Pocket Science Lab project he develops the hardware, firmware and Android app.

Hong Phuc is the founder of FOSSASIA, an organization that strives to improve people's lives through sharing open technologies and fostering global connections and sustainable production. She serves as a member of the IEEE Standards Association Board of Governors and as vice chair of the Open Source Committee. She is also a board member of the Open Source Business Alliance and the Open Source Initiative. Besides her contributions in the global open source community, she also supports companies in their technology transition to open source and innersource development models. In recent years, she has focused on bringing open source hardware into production at scale with the Pocket Science Lab.

Kee Wee is the engineer behind the Craftlaster Lasercutter that produces casings for the Pocket Science Lab in Singapore. With his company LionsForge Kee Wee wants to empower people to make things with the help of easy-to-use technology and by doing so, spark the next industrial revolution right from the home. Kee Wee was previously an Instructor and Weapons System Officer who flew the F-16 for the Republic of Singapore Air Force. Right before he left the RSAF, He was deployed in the Future Systems Technology Department, where he flexed his engineering mind. He believes in the power of open source technologies and in using it to help the community with projects to better their lives.

Daniel is passionate about the intersection of open hardware and open workshops. For the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, he works as a project manager on a prototype fund hardware. He is also part of the EU-funded project OPENNEXT, bringing together makerspaces and SMEs to co-develop open hardware. As an interaction designer with a PhD, he is also active for other NGOs and is involved in assistive technologies for people who are deaf, for example.

Daniel likes giving talks and workshops. In his free time, he works on free and open source software, especially operating systems and distributions, bringup and application firmware, tooling, integration, and documentation. In the Pocket Science Lab project Daniel leads the development of the desktop app and supports the team with his in-depth knowledge on open hardware.

Alessandro designs tools to facilitate the learning process in life sciences and explore interdisciplinary research, in- and outside universities. To do that, he transfers knowledge to non-experts by hosting workshops, designing open source tools and fostering critical discussion about biotechnology and innovation. Alessandro has a Master's degree of the Università degli Studi di Padova Degree in the field of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. In the Pocket Science Lab project he works on extending the functionality with an open spectrometer module.