Embedded

Radhika Thekkath, CEO of Agivox, joined Elecia to talk about her start up, entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, and getting NSF SBIR grants.  Contact Radhika  SBIR home page

Elizabeth Brenner (@eabrenner) returned to the show to talk about the are-you-ok widget that she and Elecia have been working on. (The initial problem-statement show is episode 17.) There is now a SparkFun tutorial so you can build one of the are-you-ok widgets yourself. As announced in the show, there is a contest to get a SparkFun gift card, it ends 6/13/14 so get your answer in by then (maximum of two entries per person, please). Elecia already took the name Sal Right out of the running (reference). In the photo below, are Maxwell, Hugh (Cation pattern!), Haley, and Grimes (from left to right) so those are all taken as well. Noted on the show were two things El saw at the Solid Conference: 3D printed flexible materials from Kinematics and circuit stickers from Chibtronics. Also, we look forward to trying out the Fitbit channel for if-this-then-that (IFTTT) to see if that can monitor our loved ones too.

Elecia attended O'Reilly's Solid Conference, recording a few of the people she met there. Note: this episode is recorded in a noisy location. Erin Mulcahy at littleBits (@littleBits), magnetic electronics modules Jack Mudd at Onewheel (@RideOnewheel), powered sort-of skateboard with only one wheel and auto-balancing Laurie Yoler from Qualcomm, she spoke on Intelligent Connectivity. It’s What’s Next Taylor Stein from AutoDesk, a Fusion 360 evangelist (free for hobbyists!) Ahmed Daoud from Playtabase, makers of Reemo Terrence McKenna of Panoptes ("No drone is safe until it is a Panoptes UAV.") Michael Holdmann at Coversant, on XMPP communications protocol Also, thank you to O'Reilly for giving away copies of my book. 

Jack Ganssle shared his wisdom on being a good embedded software engineer (hint: it takes discipline).  Jack's website is filled with great essays and new videos. He's also written the Art of Designing Embedded Systems and The Embedded Systems Dictionary (with Michael Barr). We covered a lot of ground, here are some of the highlights: Spark language Capers Jones on high quality software and associated statistics Joel on Software test for good teams LDRA unit test tool James Grenning's Test Driven Development for Embedded C

Elecia spoke with Micheal Worry, CEO of Nuvation, about engaging with and working at a design firm.  Disco Fish, the autonomous Burning Man party vehicle Udacity course in autonomous vehicles ROS is Willow Garage's robot operating system Contact Nuvation at their website or on twitter (@Nuvation). Contact Disco Fish and its build buddies on Facebook. 

Jen Costillo (@r0b0ts0nf1r3) joins Elecia and Christopher to discuss their experiences interviewing (both as interviewer and interviewee). Elecia did an hour long webinar on how to conduct technical interviews. In this show, she mentions a good post-interview ratings system. Google discovered that their brainteasers are not a very effective way to interview. Despite the news that swearing is good for you, we tried to bleep everything. Also, it is minesweeper, not minefield. What were we thinking? It was obviously all Christopher’s fault. Though we should have stood up to him.  Elecia's book has more interview questions but from the perspective of how do you ask a question and what do you look for in a response.

Christopher White (@stoneymonster) and Elecia celebrate a year in podcasting by talking about the show. Then they decide whether or not to change the name of the show to Embedded (yes). Elecia's list of current and soon activities: Hackaday Prize (SPACE!!!!!) and snooping on current entries Element14 blog based on her EELive Internet of Things talk Shopping list for the are-you-ok widget first discussed on Elizabeth's episode Circuit Cellar interview Going to SOLID conference 5/21 in SF (we didn't mention this, thought I'd sneak it in) Sophi Kravitz blog Other things they mentioned include an amazing anti-tremor spoon, using trampolines to go to space, how drinking the blood of youth will keep you young, oil sensing, and our consulting episode.

Tenaya Hurst (@ArduinoWoman) shares her incredible enthusiasm for teaching Arduino and the San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation (The Tech). Being a geo-anthrop-actress, Tenaya teaches chemistry, geology, Arduino, and beginning wearables for the Tech, for their Galileo summer camp, for Oakland's Workshop Weekend, and on her own recognizance through her website.  Tenaya will be at the Linino booth at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA on May 17-18, 2014 Tenyana's movie credits Lilypad sewable (washable!) electronics Other places to connect: @TenayaRocks, @LininoWoman, and Google+ Penny Arcade Museum Also noted, Elecia was interviewed in Circuit Cellar magazine, May 2014 (#286). In the first few minutes of this show, she gives a discount code for their store.

Dr. Kevin Shaw, CTO of Sensor Platforms, spoke with Elecia about his career progressing from designing MEMS to building a company that makes sensor fusion algorithms. Wandering from the Internet of Things to Singularity University to power management in Android development, Kevin and Elecia had a wide-ranging conversation. Due in July, check out Sensor Platform's Open Sensor Platform project, an open source framework for developing sensor systems (sample timing is critical!). 

Nathan Tuck joined Christopher White (@stoneymonster) and Elecia White to chat about varied topics relating to being an embedded (and graphics) engineer (and manager). Nate works at NVidia on the Tegra K1-64. He mentioned some openings in his team at the end of the podcast, email the show to get a connection. We also noted that Eyefluence is hiring for an EE and/or technician for work somewhere between San Jose, CA and Reno, NV. Direct resumes to Peter Milford using the email you find on their webpage (info @ ...).  We asked if managers are sociopaths. If you haven't seen The Expert tragicomedy sketch (7 perpendicular red lines...), you need to as it is becoming engineering vernacular.