A publication focused on the physical
Toward the end of my freshman year of college, I was faced with the difficult choice all students face — I had to choose my major.
My guiding light was that I knew that I wanted to work in robotics, but, robotics, by nature, is interdisciplinary. It was entirely conceivable that I could choose any among electrical engineering & computer science (EECS), mechanical engineering, material science, or even industrial design, and still be well prepared for a career in robotics as long as I chose the right path. In fact, before college, I took part in the MOSTEC summer program…
A lot of hardware does not exist without this crazy, trillionaire investor: You.
In today’s article, I hope to answer a question that is incredibly central to hardware and technology development in the United States and the world, which is, what is the military-industrial complex? How prevalent is it in society and technological development? How does it operate? Most importantly, who funds it? (The hint is in the subtitle.)
My qualifications in answering this question are that I’ve spent about two-thirds of my career inside of this complex, a fact I do not shy away from. I think often about the ethics of my work and where the companies I work for receive…
On being grounded in technical work at turbulent times
(In case you’re wondering if this publication is really about how many hardware puns can I make before running out of titles, the answer is yes.)
It has been quite a week, or month, or year. It feels like everyday we must stare difficult things in the face, things that we probably knew before but didn’t have to confront head-on quite so often. Combined with the lack of distraction from socializing or other pre-pandemic pursuits, life can feel heavy, dark, relentless.
2019, in contrast, was a year that I felt a bit listless, laid off from a job and wandering…
What does it mean to get paid to work on robots?
When I was in grade school, I distinctly remember not really knowing what different engineering professions looked like. By high school it became somewhat clearer, but honestly, not all that much. By sophomore year of college, I had to declare my major. I knew I liked robotics and what that meant academically, but even at that time, I didn’t really know what it meant to have a job in robotics.
I find that this is even more so the case for people whose parents had professions that are far removed from STEM. My mother has a small business doing tax…
Will they take over the world? More importantly, will they put me out of a job?
Over the years, as a child who built solar-powered boats and robot arms from science kits, then as a team captain of my high school FIRST Robotics competition, as an undergraduate majoring in a Mechanical Engineering with Robotics flex degree, as an MIT Media Lab research assistant on a big (seriously, big) robotic construction platform, and finally working on DARPA robotics research and robotic applications in industry….
I have received many, many questions about robots.
Hopefully, this litany has outlined why I am qualified to explain this topic, the last qualification being, I can also write and explain things pretty…
