The Open Hardware Summit 2021 was held as a virtual meeting again this year on April 9, 2021. The event platform, Hopin, was used instead of Discord and YouTube live. It worked well for the event stage and provided venues for vendors in a virtual expo setting. It was a little harder to follow chats for each talk without opening multiple windows.

The Open Hardware community appears to be doing well even in the pandemic with the number of talks, the enthusiasm of the participants, and number of sponsors. The recording can be seen on YouTube. There were ~17 talks on the schedule and my list of links and brief talk summary for each talk follows.

COVID 3D TRUST: a public-private collaboration to support manufacture of open source PPE and medical devices during the COVID-19 public health emergency

Meghan McCarthy

• The NIH 3D Print Exchange is a repository of personal protective equipment (PPE) or other necessary medical devices that can be printed with a 3D printer. Many of the designs have been reviewed for Emergency use during the pandemic.
• OSMS Design Make Protect Impact Report
• Pathogens in Augmented Reality (PathogenAR)
• America Makes
• Leveraging open hardware to alleviate the burden of COVID-19 on global health systems
• Stitching Together a Solution: Lessons from the Open Source Hardware Response to COVID-19

reGOSH: appropriating technology in Latin America with open science hardware

Julieta Arancio

• Open source hardware program in South America
• Projects of the Week
• MiniCNC Wiki
• Slides

Open Hardware Makers mentorship program: making open hardware the default everywhere, one project at a time!

Andre Maia Chagas

• This is a open hardware mentorship program sharing best practices based on the Mozilla Open Leaders development program. The program runs 15 weeks and matches the project to a mentor with weekly calls and assessments.
• Open Hardware Spaces
• OSHW Weather Report
• OHM Slides

Mobilizing People to Act on Air Pollution with the Bucket Air Monitor - a Community Science Tool

Rico Euripidou, Katie Gradowski

• The bucket monitor is used to take air samples, it takes about 2 hours to build and cost $150. It fills a bag with a sample of air that is later analyzed at a lab.
• The bucket air sampler is used around petrochemical plants in South Africa to monitor air pollution. The air sample collected may contain more than 100 components that can be carcinogenic. Typically around 11 compounds are monitored and may be in compliance, but the other compound can contribute to the high cancer rates in the area. The pollution causing people to die from cancer around petrochemical plants can be documented and enable poor communities to fight against the air pollution with quantitative data.
• Environmental injustice is directed toward mostly poor and under represented people.
• Public lab works with communities to monitor environment and perform citizen science.
• Ground Work
• South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA)
• Global Community Monitor
• Addressing the Health Impacts of Petrochemical Production
• How to Build a Bucket Air Monitor
• Public Lab Store
• How to Take an Air Quality Sample with a Bucket Monitor
• Air sample lab testing
• How to Use Your Bucket Data
• Welcome to Public Lab
• Sensors Africa
• Sensor Community
• OpenWaterData

Hardware innovation, an opensource way in Nigeria

Oluwatobi Oyinlola

• Open source ventilator
• DIY Solar Panel
• PPE Compliance
• SolarPocha

Open Hardware Needs Open Standards

Chris Chronopoulos

• Electrical safety standards are a trade secret, are expensive, and require a NDA to access. This complicates making open source hardware and needs to be resolved.
• chronopoulos.net
• Interstitial Coop
• Interstitial Technology on GitHub
• chrono@interstitial.coop

Interface Design in Open Source Hardware and Software

Scott Shawcroft

• Scott recommends that open hardware developers start with the code or description of the board and interface first before designing the board specifications and requirements.
• @tannewt
• Circuit Python
• Feather Wing GitHub repository

Twirling Tech Goddess Q&A

LeeLee James

• Alicia interviewed LeeLee about creating an inclusive and diverse tech channel for under represented people on YouTube.
• Twirling Tech Goddess

How Open Hardware Supported the COVID19 Response and Lessons for Public Policy

Alison Parker, Alex Long

• Nonpartisan think tank for open source hardware public policy addressing PPE shortages.
• The government should support grassroots OSH communities so that open hardware developed in response to the pandemic can be used by institutions and government agencies. This includes developing infrastructure to bring in OSH solutions.
• Thing-Tank
• Open Hardware and COVID-19 Roundtable
• Stitching Together a Solution: Lessons from the Open Source Hardware Response to COVID-19
• Open Hardware: An Opportunity to Build Better Science

Transitioning an Open Hardware Project to Distributed Medical Device Production

Julian Stirling

• Great summary of the regulatory aspects on making open source medical devices. Medical devices need to comply with Quality Standard ISO-13485.
• OpenFlexture Microscope
• Robotic microscopy for everyone: the OpenFlexure Microscope

Breadwinner

Fred Benenson

• Bread making goes back to Egypt 4500 year ago.
• Sourdough contains both a yeast and a bacteria. Yeast leavens the bread and the bacteria give the bread the favor. The two live in a symbiotic relationship.
• Fred built a starter monitor to alert baker when the starter is ripe that contains a Time of Flight sensor that fits on a wide mouth mason jar.
• Breadwinner community
• breadwinner-life / community-hardware

What's the Buzz About?: The Rise of Open, Personal Sex Tech

Laura Lytle, Alice Stewart

• nogasm
• Lovense
• Vibio toys
• Lora DiCarlo
• Hacking tech and pleasure
• butplugs open source hardware
• Kinky Makers Community
• Open source sex training
• Deep throat trainer
• Silicone Molding for Product Design

Robot unicorns, moon cello gloves and open technology

Helen Leigh

• The Glove Kit was produced in two batched with 3000 kits in a first production run and ~5000 kits in a second run and used to teach kids electronics and making. It also led to working with a musician who used the Glove in an unexpected way control the music as part of her musical performance.
• Self taught electronics developer now at Crowd Supply working creators on their product development.
• @helenleigh
• @crowd_supply
• emby-emby
• Open UK
• The Fomu: An FPGA That Fits in Your USB Port
• Pimoroni MINI.MU Glove Kit - without micro:bit

Open hardware chip design panel

Megan Wachs, Drew Fustini, Mohamed Kassem, bunnie, ​ Jason Kridner

• Open Source Chip Design panel Slides
• Supercon Keynote: Megan Wachs Breaks Down RISC-V
• How to Design Your Own Chip And How to Build it For Free (It Is Possible) - with Matt Venn
• Megan Wachs RISC-V and FPGA Open Source Hardware Hacking
• Open MPW
• nMigen
• The RISC-V Reader: An Open Architecture Atlas
• The OpenROAD Project
• FOSSi Dial-Up Mohamed Shalan - OpenLane, A Digital ASIC Flow for SkyWater 130nm Open PDK
• Open Hardware Summit panel on chip design today
• About the Open Chips category
• FOSSi Foundation
• chipsalliance / rocket-chip
• ucb-bar / chipyard
• Chisel
• Verilog Tutorial
• Hardware Panel Summit Links
• Skywater Slack Invite link
• Matt Venn From Zero to ASIC (unedited)
• Chip Design Panel Notes OSHWA 2021
• efabless / skywater-pdk-central

A Hyena Ate My Project! - Open Source Hardware in Wildlife Conservation Technology

Akiba Jacinta Plucinski

• International environmental monitoring
• Prevent sewage dumping into Nile river
• Camera traps to monitor and observe wild life behavior
• Elephant monitor
• Wild Labs

OpenAir Cyan: Accelerating Carbon Dioxide Removal through Open Hardware

Dahl Winters

• Cyan is a Direct Air Carbon Capture (DACC) prototype designed to remove carbon from the air using hydrated Lime, water, a fan, and an aquarium pump. Cyan converts CO2 to Calcium Carbonate, can be built in about an hour, and costs about $100 for the parts. The objective of the project is to improve the design so that it removes 1 kg of CO2 per day.
• openair-collective / openair-cyan
• OpenAir Collective

Conservation AI: The World's Most Advanced Wildlife Tracker Is Now 100% Open Source

Adam Benzion

• Raise $150,000 to build a tracker for sponsors
• Irnas.eu designed and made 10 Elephant trackers collars in 4Q 2020
• ElephantEdge board
• OpenCollar
• Smart Parks