Supercon: How Many Hardware Talks Can Be Packed Into One Conference?

How can we fit so many impressive talks onto two stages at the Hackaday Superconference? We’ll be bursting at the seams in November as the hardware world gathers in Pasadena for this annual pilgrimage. This year’s Supercon will have more talks and workshops than ever before!

This is the Ultimate Hardware Conference and you need to be there! We’ll continue to announce speakers and workshops as final confirmations come in. Supercon will sell out so grab your ticket now before it’s too late.

Ken Shirriff
Studying Silicon: Reverse Engineering Integrated Circuits

From the outside, integrated circuits are mysterious black boxes. Here’s how to open up some famous analog and digital chips including 8008 microprocessor, 555 timer, the first FPGA chip, Intel’s first RAM, the 76477 sound effects chip, and a counterfeit RAM chip.

Jennifer Wang
Building IMU-based Gesture Recognition

If you combine IMUs with machine learning (ML), you can detect gestures! Experimenting with these devices that sense both motion and orientation is a great way to get ML into your hacker toolkit.

Michael Schuldt
Adventures in Manufacturing Automation

A software engineer explores manufacturing automation, featuring complex software solutions and redemption in the form of reusable hardware components.

Adam McCombs
A Hacker’s Guide to Electron Microscopy

Working on electron microscopes means learning about everything from analog and digital circuit repairs, to how to rig and transport scopes, servicing 120KV+ high voltage tanks, and working on complex high vacuum systems.

Justin McAllister
Simple Antennas to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

From $10 USB software defined radios to cheap imported transceivers, it’s easier than ever to have a multi-purpose radio in your lab. Low cost antennas can be built by beginners easily to send and receive radio signals from frequencies covering worldwide HF to local VHF, UHF, and microwave.

Alex Glow
What Went Wrong with Archimedes (the Robot Owl)?

Building a wearable, AI-powered robotic owl, is both easier and harder than it looks. Explore the challenges of 3D printing, coding, and how to confront them with creativity.

Kerry Scharfglass
The Economics of Conference Badges at Medium Scale

Discover manufacturing processes and make decisions with an eye towards economics. Buying 30,000 RGB LEDs, using big red arrows to communicate through a translator, and more!

 

Jeremy Hong
Electronic Warfare: A Brief Overview of Weaponized RF Designs

Whether you are trying to avoid having a multi-million dollar fighter jet from being shot down or avoid a speeding ticket from law enforcement , the same radar and electronic warfare equations and concepts apply.

We Want You at Supercon!

The Hackaday Superconference is a can’t-miss event for hardware hackers everywhere. Join in on three amazing days of talks and workshops focusing on hardware creation. This is your community of hardware hackers who congregate to hack on the official hardware badge and on a slew of other projects that show up for the fun. Get your ticket right away!

Supercon On The Rise: More Amazing Talks Revealed

The drum beat of the Hackaday Superconference grows louder. Are you ready for it? We’re spending the week revealing the talks and on our third day we’re barely half-way through. Check out the incredible speakers who will be at Supercon to share tales of hardware creation.

This is the Ultimate Hardware Conference and you need to be there! We’ll continue to announce speakers and workshops as final confirmations come in. Supercon will sell out so grab your ticket now before it’s too late.

Jeroen Domburg
Magic Paintbrush: Everyone Can Paint with Printer Cartridges

Always wanted to paint like Bob Ross, but have the artistic skills of a wet cardboard box? Perhaps you can be helped by a printer cartridge and some electronics.

Bryce Salmi
3D Printing An Orbital Class Rocket

Challenging traditional manufacturing techniques used to build orbital class rockets. Here’s how Relativity Space 3D prints rocket engines (104 tests already) and avionics.

Sarah Petkus
Sensing and Indicating a Sensual State

“SHE BON” can sense and indicate the wearer’s level of arousal/excitement. It explores ways in which we can use our bio-data to communicate aspects of our being that would otherwise go unnoticed, as well as how technology can help us add another layer of texture to how we express our individuality.

Zach Fredin
Novelty Soldering

Novel soldering techniques for building art, prototypes, and short hand-built production runs using techniques like SMT cordwood, carved FR4, and small scale free-air.

Kelly Ziqi Peng
Diffractive Optics for Augmented Reality

Learn to design optical elements like diffractive waveguides (Magic Leap, Hololens, Akonia, Digilens), and electronically controlled elements that can changing depth in real-time. More importantly, learn how to make your own with accessible machine shop equipment.

Brett Smith
Why Do It the Hard Way?

Microcontrollers have lots of built-in functionality that goes unused because long datasheets can be overwhelming. That ends now.

Chris Gammell
Improve Your Circuit Toolbox

Simple designs will save your next product if you know which circuits to piece together. Utility circuits practical for everyday electronics.

 

Arsenijs Picugins
DIY Linux Portables

From powering it efficiently, to software constraints, picking the right hardware, and connecting it all in a fail-safe way, know the pitfalls of designing a Linux-powered portable.

We Want You at Supercon!

The Hackaday Superconference is a can’t-miss event for hardware hackers everywhere. Join in on three amazing days of talks and workshops focusing on hardware creation. This is your community of hardware hackers who congregate to hack on the official hardware badge and on a slew of other projects that show up for the fun. Get your ticket right away!

Eight More Speakers You’ll See At Supercon

Level-up your hardware chops at the Hackaday Superconference. We’re delighted to share more of the amazing speakers who are headed to Pasadena in just a few weeks. Scroll down for eight incredible talks that will inform, inspire, and excite the engineering muse inside of you.

This is the Ultimate Hardware Conference and you need to be there! We’ll continue to announce speakers and workshops as final confirmations come in. Supercon will sell out so grab your ticket now before it’s too late.

Kitty Yeung
Tech-Fashion Designs and the Wearables Industry

Driven by creative designs, the wearables industry has tremendous opportunities but also faces significant challenges in scaling and scientific research. Building programmable garments and what the future will bring.

Erika Earl
How to Stay Grounded When You Have Zero Potential

Why “ground” is critical and important for developing electronic hardware and how to approach a grounding scheme in your designs.

David Prutchi
DIY Ultraviolet Photography

Modifying cameras, building lenses, and selecting filters to see like the bees. Exploring ultraviolet spectrum for the artistic and technically-minded.

Brad Luyster
Communication, Architecture, and Building Complex Systems for SPAAACE

Building the first dual-rotor modular centrifuge to fly on the ISS. Ingenuity and standing on the shoulders of giants to build complex systems.

Estefannie
Daft Punk Is Playing In My Helmet

A whirlwind tour of tools and techniques for fabricating amazing reproductions in the home workshop; electronics, vacuum forming, 3D printing, and sooooo much sanding bring a faithful Daft Punk Helmet clone to life.

Scott Swaaley
Lessons Learned in Designing High Power Line Voltage Circuits

Practical tips for designing with high-power line voltage circuits to make AC design and tinkering safe, effective, and just as cheap as DC.

Alex Hornstein
Hacking the Lightfield

Taking holographic photos and video with regular cameras and panache. Custom photo rigs and the crazy problem of making a lightfield video rig.

Ted Yapo
Dealing with a Cheap Spectrum Analyzer

A surprisingly simple circuit, some interesting math,
and an article in the inaugural edition of the Hackaday Journal of What You Don’t Know.

We Want You at Supercon!

The Hackaday Superconference is a can’t-miss event for hardware hackers everywhere. Join in on three amazing days of talks and workshops focusing on hardware creation. This is your community of hardware hackers who congregate to hack on the official hardware badge and on a slew of other projects that show up for the fun. Get your ticket right away!

Just A Taste Of The Talks At Supercon

The Hackaday Superconference is taking on a life of its own. Speaker selection is done and invitations are on the way out. Below is a taste of the confirmed talks in store for you this November in Pasadena.

This is the Ultimate Hardware Conference and you need to be there! We’ll continue to announce speakers and workshops as final confirmations come in. Supercon will sell out so grab your ticket now before it’s too late.

Ben Krasnow
Depositing copper circuitry and optical displays onto 3D-printed parts

Producing printed circuits on plastic mechanical parts can be accomplished with a standard laser cutter and a handful of chemicals available from online retailers.

Ruth Grace Wong
Firmware From the Firehose

Practical tips for people who don’t know anything about firmware for deciphering the code and tracking down bugs.

Amie Danielle Dansby
Swords and High Voltage: Creating 3D Printing Designs for Electronics Props

You can easily bring digital video game assets to the human world with 3D printing, but what about modifying files, or adding electronics?

Sam Zeloof
Home Chip Fab: Silicon IC Fabrication in the Garage

IC and semiconductor fabrication techniques, tools, and processes that allow for mid 1970’s era device fabrication on a small budget in the home workshop.

Zach Archer
Live Coding a 40-Foot LED Sign

This is the story of how the massive 500-watt LED Toorcamp sign was designed, developed, and constructed inside of 3 weeks.

Leigh Johnson
Portable Deep Object Detection

The fundamentals of deep learning modules and object detection using Tensorflow and Keras on a Raspberry Pi.

We Want You at Supercon!

The Hackaday Superconference is a can’t-miss event for hardware hackers everywhere. Join in on three amazing days of talks and workshops focusing on hardware creation. This is your community of hardware hackers who congregate to hack on the official hardware badge and on a slew of other projects that show up for the fun. Get your ticket right away!

Huge Names Confirm Their Supercon Appearances

We’re excited to announce the next batch of speakers for the 2017 Hackaday Superconference.

We are especially pleased to welcome Michael Ossmann as a speaker. He presented an RF design workshop at the 2014 Superconference which was sold out, standing room only, and still turned away dozens of people before becoming a hit on the Internet. This year he takes the stage with colleague Dominic Spill as they focus on infrared communications and the uses and abuses of such.

Dr. Christal Gordon threw down an incredible talk on biologically inspired sensors last year and we suspect she will outdo herself this year. Her talk will cover the fanciest of cutting-edge sensors and the trade-offs of selecting the new hotness for your designs. Coming out of this you will know when to go with a suite of tried and true components and when to make the leap to new tech.

Several of this year’s Hackaday Prize Judges will be on hand and presenting talks. In addition to Christal Gordon and Danielle Applestone (announced as a speaker last week), we’re thrilled to have Anouk Wipprecht — internationally known for her work in fashion and engineering, pushing the boundaries of how technology can interface with humans — as a speaker. Nadya Peek from the Center for Bits and Atoms who spoke at Supercon in 2016 with a harrowing tale of an impromptu engineering challenge in Shenzhen has confirmed that she will speak this year.

The ever-popular Sprite_TM will be at Supercon. He has a reputation for bringing the house down with fantastic presentations, be it the Tamagochi Matrix or the Tiniest Game Boy. And we are proud to present the Art Director for Hackaday — Joe Kim will be speaking about the curious connection between art and technology and how developments in one push the other forward.

Ever wonder about the air you’re breathing in the house or at work. So does Natalia Mykhaylova whose work begins to monitor and catalog that information. She will discuss the state of our HVAC systems and what it looks like to bring them into the information age.

Below you’ll find the confirmed speakers we’re announcing today. We’ll have more, as well as a list of confirmed talks next week. Get your ticket now, they will sell out.

Continue reading “Huge Names Confirm Their Supercon Appearances”

Superconference Speakers Revealed

You’ll find the best hardware talks at the Hackaday Superconference. This year, we received over 140 proposals for a few dozen speaking slots. Although we’re still working through the proposals, today we can announce a few of the accepted and confirmed speakers so far. Below you’ll find about a third of the total slate of speakers.

Get Your Ticket to the Hackaday Superconference — they’re almost gone!

Continue reading “Superconference Speakers Revealed”

The People, Talks, And Swag Of Open Hardware Summit

Friday was the 2016 Open Hardware Summit, a yearly gathering of people who believe in the power of open design. The use of the term “summit” rather than “conference” is telling. This gathering brings together a critical mass of people running hardware companies that adhere to the ideal of “open”, but this isn’t at the exclusion of anyone — all are welcome to attend. Hackaday has built the world’s largest repository of Open Hardware projects. We didn’t just want to be there — We sponsored, sent a team of people, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the process.

Join me after the break for a look at the talks, a walk through the swag bags, and a feel for what this wonderful day held.

Continue reading “The People, Talks, And Swag Of Open Hardware Summit”