talk

Speaking about Soft Robots at NASA Ames

| Matthew Borgatti

Mark Micire (research scientist at the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames) and Yun Kyung Kim (human-robot​ iInteraction​ ​designer at NASA Ames) were incredibly generous in offering me an opportunity to speak with the AstroBee and Super Ball Bot groups at NASA Ames. We’ve been keeping an eye on Super Ball Bot over at Super-Releaser, particularly because of the way the teams working on it are bringing simulation and iterative prototyping together to solve the open-ended problems involved in designing a robust control system for bots that can configure themselves into nearly infinite shapes.

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“Iterating on Soft Robots” talk at Maker Faire

| Matthew Borgatti

Kari Love and I gave a talk at Maker Faire last year detailing how the maker mindset (tinkering to get an intuitive sense of the rules governing the system, hands-on learning, fast frugal iteration, and sharing) can be transformative for research into fundamental technologies and chronically intractable problems.

The key factor is going from zero to a working understanding of the ground truths underlying the problem you’re trying to solve as quickly as possible. From historical surveys of how transformative technologies have been developed in the past (like TRIZ), deeply focused research is no match for playful learning and interdisciplinary exploration.

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Super-Releaser Graduates from NYCEDC’s ELAB Program

| Matthew Borgatti

Super-Releaser was selected to participate in NYCEDC’s 2016 Elab mentorship program with our Neucuff medical device concept.

Elab is a six month program organized by Mary Howard that supports early-career researchers in the medical field, providing them with classes, business development expertise, mentorship, and access to resources like venture funding, legal experts, and research databases. Super-Releaser was selected to continue the development of our Neucuff and explore options for developing it into a fully realized medical device.

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Speaking about physical prototyping and soft robotics research at Construct3d at Duke University

| Matthew Borgatti

Matt Griffin of Ultimaker invited me to speak at Construct3d, an event they organized with Duke University.

Construct3D was a conference bringing together engineers, designers, coders, and educators all advancing research and physical fabrication on the cutting edge of their fields. I used the platform to speak about our research process at Super-Releaser, and how it can be applied to problem solving and R&D for emerging technologies.

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Interview on the Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show About SFX and Soft Robots

| Matthew Borgatti

A couple of months ago Kari Love connected me up with Jeff Rubin to do an interview on his podcast. I highly recommend listening to the episode that I’m on, as well as every other episode of the show. Seriously, he finds amazing guests like Matt Chapman (the voice of Strong Bad and Homestar Runner), A professional pizza tour guide, and a professor who’s subject of expertise is the board game Monopoly.

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“My Robot Will Crush You With its Soft Delicate Hands!” talk at 32C3

| Matthew Borgatti

I’ve been going to CCC for years, but this is the first time I’ve gotten a talk accepted in one of the main venues. It was thrilling to share my research with such a wide audience. I spoke about the kinematics of soft bodied organisms, designing soft robots, and future applications for compliant mechanisms. Below is a complete video of the talk and the Q&A session afterwards.

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“Soft Robots in Space” talk at SpaceApps NYC

| Matthew Borgatti

I spoke at the NYC NASA SpaceApps conference last weekend about how soft robots might end up in space in the next few years. I covered mechanical counterpressure suits, exercise on the International Space Station, enhancing strength on EVA’s, and how space turns your heart into a sphere. Stick around for the Q&A segment at the end, where I get to field some questions from real-life astronaut Catherine Coleman.

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