Founded in 1985, the MIT Media Lab has established itself as one of the world’s most influential technology incubators – home to a motley collection of scientists, engineers, designers, and artists. From Guitar Hero to LEGO Mindstorms; E Ink to glanceable information displays, they have transformed the Lab into a factory of innovation. Overseeing it all is entrepreneur and venture capitalist Joi Ito, who sees four big trends on the horizon for 2013. Here he explains how hardware start-ups, gene printing, disruptive education, and agile processes are set to shape the future.
Hardware as the New Software 🙂
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
