Hardware, Prototyping, and Fabrication
🤖 There's a lot about metal 3D printing that makes it expensive, and the need for extensive human pre- and post-processing labor is definitely one factor. Startup Digital Metal is looking to reduce that cost by using robots to perform print prep and finishing. It doesn't hurt that they're using a binder-jetting method of metal printing, versus electron beam melting or direct laser sintering, both of which typically require some finishing machining post-print.
🆒 It's great to have guest lecturers for seminars, but it can be difficult to actually get them to the lecture when they're half way around the world. Imperial College London is trying to alleviate this issue through low-cost holographic displays.
📳 If you've got one of the newer models of iPhones, you might want to keep away from helium.
Software and Programming
💻 100 websites that shaped the Internet.
🆘 A map of every website in the world that's down right now.
📔 Are these quotes from the LORD or the MOTHERBOARD?
🛑 The DoD has put together this handy guide to help you call BS on developers who claim they're using Agile development techniques andtechnologies.
🎧 "...surveillance-based music streaming is advertising-supported and treats music not as a good but as a data point for better targeted ads." Making a case for the mp3.
Make your own emojis. (Like that one.)
Science, Engineering, and Biomedicine
🌌 The best space photography of 2018 doesn't even look real. (But it is, I promise)
🦎 This video of a chameleon changing into a variety of colors might very well be the coolest thing in this edition of M&D.
Mapping, History, and Data Science
🗺 Some neighborhoods help lift people out of poverty, while other hold them down. This map by the New York Times explores both.
🌍 Harvard's world history course comes with an awesome interactive map that overlays all kinds of features (empires, trade routes, cities) over a selection of modern maps, so you can be sure I'll be exploring this tool for a few hours this afternoon.
🛫 It's not just the weather the affect flight plans, geopolitics plays a major role as well.
🏳 Did you know Romania and Chad have LITERALLY the same flags? I didn't either until I looked through ferdio's Flag Stories, a beautifully designed look at all the flags of the world.
🏢 Using a public database from Microsoft, The New York Times build a SUPER-detailed map of every building in America. Despite showing only the building footprints, this map reveals lots of details about the country's past, present, and future. (Original database here.)
📜 The intellectual property of social manipulation.
Events and Opportunities
I think we all know what the biggest event in the next two weeks is going to be, but here's some others for you to look at, too:
Monday, 11/19 Join Futureworks at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center for (the newly re-scheduled) Publication to Profit: an evening with researchers, entrepreneurs, and industry specialists discussing their experiences and strategies to commercialization of their products.
Monday, 11/19 The NYC Data Storytelling meetup group welcomes Giorgia Lupi for a talk on how empathy and humanism can help us design better data visualizations. I heard Giorgia give an early version of this talk two years ago at the first SciViz NYC conference, and I highly recommend it for anyone trying to present data effectively andunderstandably.
Wednesday, 11/28 The NYC Transit Techies will hold their 5th meetup at Sidewalk Labs.
Wednesday & Thursday, 11/28-29 Join the CUNY ASRC and Futureworks for a two-day, hands-on workshop on nanomanufacturing. This will be a unique opportunity to try you hand at actually making nano-scale prototypes.
Thursday, 11/29 Andrei Iancu, the head of the US Patent and Trademark office visits Columbia University to talk IP, commercialization, and a host of other topics.
Friday, 11/30 Applications are due for the NYC Media Lab's Combine startup accelerator program. Accepted teams receive a $10,000 grant to do customer discovery and build out their business model, with the opportunity to secure and additional $25,000 to help start a company andinitiate commercialization.
Some other upcoming events to keep on your radar...
Monday, 12/3 I can't believe it's already been this long, but Genspace, one of the cities first biotech incubators, turns 10 this year and is holding a big birthday bash at Caveat in the LES. Join the NY biodesign community for this celebration of a major milestone.
Wednesday, 12/5 The second installment of New Lab-JLABS colLAB (get it?) series, Existential Medicine, is happening at JLABS. The topic th)is month: Augmented Humanity. Use code JLABS2018 to register.
Monday, 12/10 The Mid Atlantic Bio Angels return to the Alexandria Center for their annual best-of-the-best pitch competition, featuring the biotech startups that won at each 1st Pitch event this year.
Thursday, 12/18 The NYC Biotech ecosystem is quickly gaining ground on Boston and the Bay Area, but it still isn't easy. NYC is, was, andalways will be a tough place to start a company, but that's not all bad. Join Xconomy at the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences to learn what it takes to launch a startup in New York. After all, "if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere."
Ongoing: Check out the Futureworks Ops21 courses being offered on the latest trends in advanced manufacturing.
Map of the Month
🌎 Since the midterm elections were on November 6th (did you vote?) here's a collection of maps of the United States broken down by cultural touchstones.
Odds & Ends
💸 The entire premise of the website Who Paid 99¢? is that you pay 99¢ to find out who else paid 99¢. Did I partake of this bizarre internet art experiment? You'll have to pay 99¢ to find out...