By Vadim Pinskiy, VP of Research and Development at Nanotronics

Today, few people pay attention to the fallout shelter stickers on the side of buildings. It was not long ago that the 3-yellow triangles held important meaning for people. In neighborhoods across the globe, those who followed the signs were led underground to bomb shelters, basements, and in some countries, subway stations that featured blast resistant doors to shelter people. Those who were fortunate enough had their own private bunkers with supply kits, games, food and water, and other necessities in case of nuclear disaster.

These kits became standard for…

By Vadim Pinskiy, VP of R&D at Nanotronics

The purpose of LEGO is to allow children all over the world to build. This can mean anything from cars to boats to structures from their imagination. Although it is not the first of its kind, a lot of what we first create is systemic through a block system like LEGO.

It is safe to say, however, that no youth starts their creation with the extrusion process. A child milling away at a block of plastic at a machine shop to create their necessary LEGO pieces is unimaginable.

With limited time allocated…

By Vadim Pinskiy, VP of Research and Development at Nanotronics

Over the last decade, Process Control and System Design, once the pinnacles of innovation have drifted into the category of mature fields with less disruptive improvements. This phenomenon is just one of the many factors that makes the Boeing 737 Max tragedy so compelling.

I won’t investigate the Boeing 737 Max problems here. My point is to highlight how established digital simulators can miss complex design and development problems. Though most evident in the Boeing crash, parallels exist in many other scenarios. Digital simulators are invaluable to modern process control…

By Vadim Pinskiy, VP of Research and Development at Nanotronics

Without searching or asking, do you know who Allan J. McDonald was?

Unless you are a space enthusiast or a former industry employee, the answer is likely no.

Allan J. McDonald lived through an engineer’s worst nightmare. He found a problem and he spoke up about it. However, his superiors disagreed. McDonald argued and defended his discovery but tragically people still died.

On this, the 34th anniversary of the Challenger Disaster — we should reflect on the lessons learned from McDonald and how engineers should be expected to act in…

By Vadim Pinskiy, VP of Research and Development at Nanotronics

Additive Manufacturing (AM) converges many industries and disciplines — industrial manufacturing, material science, digital processing, and computer aided design. With many derivatives and developments in new materials and faster and more reliable prints, consumer and industrial 3D printing, as AM is commonly called, has become a discipline of its own. This has led to the unintended consequence of isolating 3D printing for the host communities of robotics and process automation. In essence, 3D printing does not differ from other systems and provides a more approachable model for industrial processing. …

By Vadim Pinskiy, VP of R&D, Nanotronics

This article in Forbes by @DavidShaywitz is exactly a year old — but remains a pertinent read as we confront the new year and the 38th JPM Healthcare conference, which is why I’m sharing it today.

For most traditional industries, reaching a greater understanding of human possibility through AI remains a monumental challenge.

Taking the pharmaceutical industry as his example, Shaywitz demonstrates the hurtles we must overcome to integrate the combined power of data science and artificial intelligence within established domains. Studying disease and producing medications ingests massive amounts of data. And like…

By Vadim Pinskiy, VP of R&D, Nanotronics

W. Edwards Deming’s seminal work in process control is the stuff of legend. Helping to rebuild Japan’s automotive industry after WWII, he single-handedly drove an entire Nation’s industrial production — and later, the industrial production of a considerable portion of the world. His contributions to Japanese industry altered our perspective on operating a factory forever. No longer were processes fixed, but fluid — forced to continually upgrade and improve. …