The Winter edition of PTC Product Lifecycle Report eMagazine shares the latest stories on engineering innovation, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, robotics and much more.

1. PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORTINSIGHT ON PRODUCTS, MANUFACTURING, AND SERVICE
ACROSS
BORDERS
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
Japanese Researchers Advance Artificial Heart Design
U.S. Reenters Manned Space Flight
Teacher Designs 3D Printed Prosthetic for Student
Engineers Join the Battle to Control Ebola
Winter 2015
YOUNG ENGINEERS SOLVE
PROBLEMSANDBUILDTRUST

2. Winter 2015– Table of Contents
08
Japanese Researchers Advance Artificial Heart Design
The race to develop the next generation of artificial hearts is on, and Takashi
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo are taking the lead with the
Helical Flow Total Artificial Heart.
U.S. Reenters Manned Space Flight
For the first time in over 40 years NASA has designed and tested a capsule to
transport humans to interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit and return
them safely back home.
12
A Handy Tool: Teacher Designs 3D Printed Prosthetic for a Student
A 3D printing project turned into a life-changing experience for teacher Ryan Dailey
when he met McKayla Shutt, a 10-year old born without a full-sized left hand.
16
Engineers Join the Battle to Control Ebola
The convergence of technology and medicine is growing, and engineers are being
called upon to meet the demands of treating Ebola and the world’s other conta-
gious, and often deadly, diseases.
20
Why Smart, Connected Products Means Big Change for Manufacturers
Smart, connected products are enabling breakthroughs in operational effective-
ness and differentiation, and redefining value chains and technology infrastruc-
tures. But what effect will this have on manufacturers?
24
Why Girls Need to Build, Break, and Make Things
Robots are advancing rapidly, but women are underrepresented in the field.
Sampriti Bhattacharya, named one of the 25 women to watch in robotics, has
some ideas on how to change the status quo.
28
Feature Article
Young Engineers Solve Problems and Build Trust
Humanitarian group Engineers Without Borders leads college students in designing
and implementing sustainable engineering projects, while offering real-world
experience to young engineers who want to make a difference.
ACROSS BORDERS

3. Winter 2015 – Letter from the Editor
South Sudan, Nigeria, Sierra Leone—one hears the terrible stories of war and disease out of these countries
every day, and we’re all familiar with the humanitarian organizations that take on great risk to dispense much
needed supplies and medical treatment to those communities.
But an epidemic, a natural disaster, and even war, have a limited shelf life in our conscious minds, a moment
in the headlines and then they’re forgotten. Often we’re unaware of the decades-long struggle left behind
after such events—a failing economy, a devastated workforce, lack of resources and infrastructure, and
extreme poverty.
Engineers Without Borders operates in some of the most underserved communities across the globe, working
with local people to build practical solutions to all kinds of problems, from sanitation and water supply to
energy, agriculture, and information technology.
For this issue’s cover story, writer Maria Doyle takes a look at how young engineering students from two U.S.
colleges are getting involved with EWB, the philosophy behind the organization, and the real-world benefits of
working in the field.
Also in this edition, senior writer Jon Marcus reports on what it takes to design an artificial heart, and how
one Japanese-made pump could hold the key to saving more lives. Environmental reporter Gary Wollenhaupt
takes a break from green tech to review NASA’s recent launch of the Orion spacecraft and America’s renewed
quest to get astronauts beyond low Earth orbit.
And finally, resident Internet of Things expert Andres Rosello tackles a subject that connects all these stories.
From aerospace and agriculture to medical devices and infrastructure, the IoT—or smart, connected prod-
ucts—is infiltrating every area of engineering and manufacturing. Rosello explains how the IoT can provide a
huge competitive advantage and why businesses should be paying close attention.
Sincerely,
Nancy Pardo
Editor in Chief
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE REPORT
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: NANCY PARDO

4. Taylor Dupre is a senior at Northern Illinois University
studying mechanical engineering with an emphasis on
sustainable energy. He’s also helping to build ceramic
water filtration systems in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Dupre is a member of Engineers Without Borders
(EWB), a similar idea to Doctors Without Borders,
but less widely known. EWB has nearly 300 chapters
in the United States made up of 14,700 student and
professional members. Projects span 47 countries
on five continents, and to ensure that a community’s
needs are met, the EWB’s chapters establish five-
year commitments with developing communities.
Invaluable experience for young engineers
Founded in 2002 by Dr. Bernard Amadei, EWB designs
and implements sustainable engineering projects
while offering a real-world experience to young engi-
neers who want to make a difference.
“I think EWB is unique in how it provides students
an opportunity to gain an international context for
their studies with such an in-depth cultural and
technical immersion,” Dupre says. “That is a truly
invaluable experience for engineers, scientists, and
in business.”
BY MARIA DOYLE
Young Engineers Solve Problems and Build Trust
Borders
Across

5. EWB projects are composed of seven broad project
types—agriculture, civil works, energy, information
systems, sanitation, structures, and water supply
—and range from drilling a borehole well in Gambia
to constructing a health clinic in Rwanda. Many of
the projects are related to bringing clean drinking
water to communities where it is scarce. Today,
there are more than two-billion people around the
world who lack access to clean drinking water and
adequate sanitation.
Dupre joined Northern Illinois University’s EWB as a
freshman after seeing a flyer about the organization
on campus. The group has 25 active members and
three international projects in the works—one in
Tanzania, Africa and two in Mexico. Taylor has been
focused on Guanajuato, Mexico, and over the past
three years his work has had a huge impact on his life.
“The biggest thing that we have done so far is help
re-establish a trusting relationship with the com-
munities in which we’ve worked. So many times
organizations will implement projects in developing
nations with little regard to the true needs of the
communities they are trying to help, and that kind of
work breeds distrust and leaves communities worse
off in the long run,” Dupre says.
“We have been working in the communities of
Guanajuato for four years now and have established
solid lines of communications and real relationships
with the people,” he continues. “Taking this
approach lets the communities know that we are in
it for the long haul, and that we won’t leave until
they truly have the capacity to sustain the work that
we have done with them.”
Dupre feels the experience has shaped both his
education and his global perspective. Prior to
joining EWB he had never traveled outside of the
country and his understanding around how engi-
neering projects are carried out in other parts of the
world was non-existent.
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo
Students William Jameson
and Christopher Lombardo repair
leaking water supply pipe connections.

6. “I think the greatest shift in my perspective has
been the importance of staying humble and aware
of the true impact being experienced during a
project,” he says.
His next project? A boy’s orphanage—also in Guana-
juato—earmarked for 10kW grid-tie solar array
installation as well as structural improvements to
the dormitories.
Continuing EWB’s mission at Harvard
Chris Lombardo began volunteering with EWB when
he was a student at the University of Maryland in
2004, and continued while doing graduate and
post-graduate work at the University of Texas. Today,
as assistant director for undergraduate studies in
engineering sciences at Harvard, Lombardo leads a
team of students as EWB faculty advisor.
About 30 students are involved in the program, with
eight to 10 making up the executive board. But
engineering students aren’t the only ones
involved—over a quarter of the students are from
other disciplines like humanities and life sciences.
Lombardo describes EWB as “a cross between a
student club, a professional society, and an
extra-curricular project,” noting that some students
earn credits for their on-site project involvement.
The gender make-up of the group is about half and
half, despite the fact that only about 34 percent of
the undergraduate engineering students at Harvard
are women.
The Harvard chapter has been working in Pinalito,
Dominican Republic for about two and a half years.
The goal of the project is to upgrade the water
quality and distribution system after a previously
built hydro-electric dam and groundwater well
failed, possibly due to improper installation or clay
and sediment clogging and destroying the pump.
The students first evaluated different options for
water sources. After considering tapping springs
and water purification for the river, they decided to
dig another groundwater well and tap into the
existing water tank and distribution system. Lom-
bardo and a team of seven students traveled to
Pinalito in January 2014 to dig and set up the well,
and the team traveled back in August to augment
the piping system and check on the quality and
quantity of the water.
“There was no bacterial or chemical contamination
to the water, a much higher flow rate than expected,
and the community members are extremely pleased
about the quantity and quality of the water,” Lom-
bardo says. “Now they’re not using their relatively
limited economic income to purchase bottled water
for drinking.”
Engineering students throughout the country
and the world have an enormous capability to
partner with under-served communities.”

7. The community decided that this resource would be
strictly for household use, and water from the river
would still be pumped up to water crops. The students
also made sure that the community leaders were
well-trained to keep the system operational.
“EWB is an excellent educational opportunity to give
back,” Lombardo says. “Our students, and engi-
neering students throughout the country and the
world have an enormous capability to partner with
under-served communities. We can provide engi-
neering expertise to help alleviate some of the
infrastructure issues.”
“The work brings a certain perspective,” Lombardo
continues. “Our students really become globally
aware of the impact of engineering projects
throughout the world—including health, economic,
agricultural impacts.”
Casey Grun carries bentonite to
a well to create a water tight
sanitary seal.
Photo courtesy of Chris Lombardo

8. Takashi Isoyama says the kind of engi-
neering he does is a little like watching TV.
But it isn’t entertainment; it’s deadly
serious. Isoyama is in an international
race to develop the next generation of
artificial hearts.
Isoyama and his team at the University of Tokyo
Graduate School are using three-dimensional
software to precisely model the heart, complete
with animation that can show the way blood will flow
through it—done with CAE software.
The most common kinds of pumps used in artificial hearts
are turbo pumps, and “you can imagine that designing a
turbo blade by two-dimensional CAD is difficult,” Isoyama
says. “Three-dimensional models accelerate the process of
designing the blades.”
Isoyama has made so much progress with his design that the heart has
already been implanted into a goat. He says the final model for animal use
could be ready as early as 2016 with human model following five or more years
down the road.
Japanese
Researchers
Advance
Artificial
Heart
Design
BY JON MARCUS

9. Among the problems: artificial hearts are often
rejected by host bodies, or impede blood flow and
can cause strokes. They’re also very expen-
sive—the AbioCor heart costs a quarter of a million
dollars—and typically is more than twice as big as
a human heart.
The risk of infection is high as well, and the more
elements implanted the higher the risk.
For these and other reasons, doctors have come to
prefer ventricular assist devices—which can help the
patient’s own heart pump blood—over full-scale
artificial hearts, says William Wagner, director of the
McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine at the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
For an artificial heart to compete with that, “it
would have to do very well to justify taking out a
patient’s own heart,” Wagner says.
That’s key in the global competition to find the
next generation of a permanent replacement
artificial heart.
In the United States, Abiomed, whose AbioCor is
the market-leading total artificial heart, is develop-
ing the AbioCor II. The French company Carmat is
already testing its new total artificial heart in a
human patient. BiVACOR in Australia has a titanium
heart in the animal-experiment stage, and a team
in South Korea is also in the running.
The demand is huge. Heart disease is the
planet’s leading cause of death according to
the World Health Organization, killing 7.4
million people annually. That has sent the
need for donor hearts skyrocketing, even
as the Registry of the International Soci-
ety for Heart and Lung Transplantation
reports that the number of hearts avail-
able is flat and falling.
Some 4,000 people in the
U.S. and 3,400 in the Europe-
an Union are waiting for donor
hearts, the U.S. Department of
Health & Human Services and
the European Commission
Department of Health estimate.
Yet artificial hearts so far have been used
sparingly, and almost exclusively as a bridge
to keep patients alive until a human heart
becomes available. Since viable artificial hearts
were first invented 45 years ago, only 1,413 have
been implanted, or barely 30 per year.
But advances in artificial hearts could help reduce
disputes between clinicians who want to install heart
pumps before patients are too far gone to tolerate
them, and cardiologists who prefer to wait, avoiding
the risks of stroke or infection, Wagner says.
That’s the idea behind the Helical Flow Total Artificial
Heart being developed at the University of Tokyo as a
challenger to the Abiomed and Carmat versions.
Although the power source is still outside the body,
the University of Tokyo heart is lubricated with
blood instead of oil, with the idea of extending its
life (Carmat’s uses hydraulic fluid.)

10. At the research and development stage, animation is
effective to show the intention of the designer.”
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
Researchers study exploded view of
the mechanical heart.

11. This helped keep a goat alive with the heart for a
record 100 days.
It also required precision engineering.
The Tokyo team used PTC Creo software to design
a non-contact rotary pump that consists of a shaft
and a bearing. The 3D models sped up the process,
Isoyama says, and made it easier to export the
plans to computer-aided engineering software
such as ANSYS for the next step: precision-ma-
chining the parts.
The technology also lets the group conduct “nu-
merical fluid dynamics simulations”—animating
the flow of blood, which Isoyama likens to watching
it on TV—averting the kinds of eddies that can give
it time to clot and cause strokes.
Such modeling, which other artificial heart research-
ers have also adopted to varying degrees, “has really
advanced this,” Wagner says. Predicting the flow
previously “would take a lot of number crunching.”
Isoyama says it’s been “essential.”
“At the research and development stage, animation
is effective to show the intention of the designer
and to discuss in the development team,” he says.
Not only that, Isoyama says, in the clinical stage,
the animated models can be shown to the patients
themselves—whose human hearts are about to be
replaced with mechanical copies—“to give them a
sense of security.”
Photo courtesy of the University of Tokyo
The Helical Flow Total
Artificial Heart

12. Even though he isn’t old enough to talk, Larry
Price’s grandson speaks for many Americans. As
he watched the recent Orion spacecraft liftoff, the
toddler signed his equivalent of “more”.
As the deputy program director for Lockheed
Martin, and the prime contractor for the Orion
spacecraft program, Price wants more manned
spaceflight, too. He has devoted much of his
working life to helping the United States return to
space. He has been part of the team since 2004,
and prior to that he worked on other projects
including the cancelled X-38 International Space
Station lifeboat.
Launched December 5th from Cape Canaveral in
Florida, the Orion capsule—designed in PTC
Creo—flew to space with the help of the Delta IV
Heavy rocket. The four hour 24-minute test flight
was meant to test the capsule’s systems in a live
environment. The two highly elliptical orbits were
designed to give the spacecraft a real life workout
and send it through the Van Allen radiation belt to
test the onboard gear.
BY GARY WOLLENHAUPT
“The exploration flight test was designed around
maximizing velocity and getting the vehicle as far
away from the Earth as possible with existing
launch systems,” Price says.
The Orion is the first spacecraft built for humans
that has flown beyond low Earth orbit in more than
40 years. The spacecraft is also the first capsule
built by NASA designed to transport humans to
interplanetary destinations beyond low Earth orbit,
such as asteroids, the moon, and eventually Mars,
and return them safely back to Earth.

13. Spaceflight has come a long way from the days of
the Apollo program, or even the shuttle. Today’s
smart phone has more processing power than the
computers onboard back then.
The power of technology available today com-
pared to the 1960s is just staggering, Price says.
NASA had to invent much of the technology at that
time. Now, there are off-the-shelf systems that
can be adapted for space flight, such as the
guidance system derived from one used in com-
mercial airliners.
“Weupgradedtheequipmentsoitcouldoperateinthe
harshenvironmentofspaceandoperatefasterthanit
needstoforacommercialairliner,becausethespacecraft
comesintotheEarthentryinterfaceat20,000milesper
hour,”Pricesays.
When Apollo 13 radioed, “Houston, we have a problem,”
ground-based engineers scrambled to replicate the
available gear on board the capsule to help design a
solution. Now, there’s a collaborative human immersion
lab in Denver that functions like a virtual reality simulator,
where the spacecraft design exists as a 3D digital model.
Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
The Orion spacecraft is
transported to launchpad 37
to mate with the Delta IV
Heavy rocket.

14. Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Artist rendering of Lockheed
Martin-built Orion spacecraft
in deep space.

15. Another difference is the plethora of sensors and
cameras that captured every aspect of the test
flight. Some 1,200 onboard sensors captured data
about everything from the effects of space radia-
tion on the avionics to the environment inside the
crew cabin.
On reentry, a UAV with a camera tracked the flight to
splashdown in the Pacific. Two helicopters with
cameras configured to monitor the temperature of
the heat shields targeted the capsule at 60,000 feet
and 10,000 miles per hour and tracked it to the
surface of the ocean off the coast of Baja, California.
There were myriad cameras on the capsule, inside
and outside. One camera was mounted inside the
docking hatch window, pointed outside the craft.
During the descent through the atmosphere, the
team on the ground could see the superheated
air form plasma around the spacecraft.
“It looks like a Hollywood movie
wormhole, the plasma shifts
around the vehicle like flames,”
Price says.
The post-flight analysis will include synching the
video of the plasma to the data from firing the
reaction system control jets that steer the capsule.
“You can see the glow from the firing and see how
it adjusts the plasma in the wake of the vehicle
because of the flow disturbance from firing the
jets,” Price says.
Engineers will compare the condition of the abla-
tive heat shield with the data from the instruments
to connect the predicted performance models with
actual outcome of the shield that protected the
spacecraft as it blazed through the atmosphere.
“We will update the models so we can predict the
future a lot more accurately,” Price says.
Next for the capsule is an ascent abort test, which
will use three powerful motors capable of pulling
the capsule and crew a mile up and a mile away
from an emergency on the launch pad.
The first manned missions with the Orion system
are expected to blast off in the early 2020s, with a
manned Mars mission slated for 2030.
With a successful test flight on the books, Price
hopes his grandson and the throngs of people who
watched the launch will get to see their wish of
America’s return to manned deep-space flight
come true.
“It was a very worthwhile test, it says we’re back
in human space flight,” he says. “We have a
vehicle designed to go beyond low Earth orbit, and
it worked."
“In this environment you can look through goggles
and think you’re working in the spacecraft,” Price
says. “And you can put that environment anywhere
in the world.”
Also, there’s an electronics lab that duplicates the
flight electronics and software.
“If there’s an anomaly, you can infuse that anomaly
into the lab and run tests cases to see how you
would remediate it,” Price says.
During Apollo launches, rooms of people calculat-
ed potential trajectories with mechanical adding
machines. On the Orion launch, the orbital
mechanics team calculated 500 potential trajecto-
ries each second during the booster rocket’s
2.5-minute burn.

17. When his high school in Hudson, Massachusetts got a new MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D printer, engineering
instructor Ryan Dailey could hardly wait to use it. He’d worked on small 3D printing projects with his
students in the past, but wanted to move on to something more ambitious.
That’s when he read a story about a boy in Marblehead, Mass. whose father had created a
prosthetic hand for him using a 3D printer. “As soon as I saw that,” says Dailey, “I knew I was
making one no matter what.”
But what started out as simply a “cool project” turned into a life-changing experience
when Ellen Schuck, the Hudson district’s director of technology, intro-
duced Dailey to McKayla Shutt, a Quinn Middle School fifth-grader
born without a full-sized left hand or fingers on that hand.
McKayla had an uncomfortable and difficult-to-operate pros-
thesis that she rarely used, and although she was getting by
with what her parents refer to as her “little hand,” she and
her family jumped at the opportunity for a customized 3D
printed prosthesis in the hopes that it would improve the
10-year-old’s quality of life.
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
A HANDY TOOL
Teacher Designs 3D
Printed Prosthetic
for a Student

18. The kids get to choose
what colors the prosthetic
is and they are very proud
of their device.”
“Traditionally, children with upper limb differences
are given a hook because it’s the least expensive of
the prosthetic devices and it’s pretty durable,” says
Jean Peck, an occupational hand therapist who is
part of a research team at Creighton University that
creates and studies the use of 3D printed prosthetic
hands on children. “But it’s not attractive, it gets in
their way, and they can actually be pretty functional
without it.”
“3D printed prosthesis may be less durable, but they
are way more attractive,” Peck continues. “The kids
get to choose what colors the prosthetic is and they
are very proud of their device. So, in that sense,
they’ll wear it more than the hook because it looks
cool and they can be proud of it.”
Peck’s research team, led by Dr. Jorge Zuniga,
developed one of the most popular designs for a 3D
printed hand called the Cyborg Beast, and made its
files available for free on Thingiverse for research
and personal use. McKayla’s hand is based on the
Cyborg Beast’s design.
Daily created PTC Creo CAD files from Cyborg Beast’s
original blender files and then inserted the measure-
ments of McKayla’s “little hand”, wrist, forearm, and
her full-grown hand to create the prosthetic. He then
3D printed a gauntlet, the wrist component of a
prosthetic hand, and a palm piece to test the fit.
“Once those parts were sized properly with the
padding and the strapping it was just a matter of
printing the fingers, getting cabling, and putting on
the small mechanical pieces that are involved to
make the hand move,” explains Dailey. “Once all of
that was ready it took two sessions of fine tuning to
get the grip to close properly. After the second
session, McKayla was able to pick up a bottle—which
I think was about 1 1
/2 inch diameters—hold it in her
hand, and take a drink.”
After all the fittings and re-configuring, McKayla was
finally presented with her new hand about one month
after her initial meeting with Dailey. The prosthetic,
made of ABS plastic and costing around $35 to make
(a traditional prosthetic starts at about $3,500), is
attached with straps at the palm and wrist. When
McKayla bends or flexes her little hand the fingers of
the prosthetic pull close, and when she releases her
hand the prosthetic opens.
McKayla has customized her new hand by having it
printed in her two favorite colors: pink and teal.
“We offered her any color she wanted and said we
could make it as close to natural as possible, but
she was adamant about pink and teal as the colors,”
explains Dailey. “The kids around her are used to
her having her ‘little hand,’ so for her to suddenly
have this prosthetic that looks natural would proba-
bly have been more shocking to them than having a
plastic prosthetic that was pink and teal and looks
more like a glove. I do know some people want the
natural look, but others want to have as much fun
with it as possible.”
McKayla got her new hand in June, and Dailey asked
her to keep a journal over the summer detailing her
feedback on the hand’s functionality. The journal
information is still being collected, but McKayla
has already reported myriad benefits of using her
new prosthetic.
Photo courtesy of Ellen Schuck
McKayla holds a bottle
for the first time.

19. “It helps me carry my school books and do many
things at home, like play Legos with my brother, or
carry out a box of markers or crayons with my sister,”
she says. “But some improvements I would like to
have in my next version are to be able to carry more
books and to write with a pencil.”
For Dailey, it’s clear the first version of this 3D print-
ed hand is just the beginning of a much larger proj-
ect. “After McKayla talked to me about what she’s
interested in and we got the chance to learn about
who she was, it became a question of, ‘What can we
do to make these future iterations of her hand more
functional for her?’” Daily explains.
An improvement Dailey is already working on: creating
a three-digit hand. “As of right now the fingers are two
digits—where the top and middle knuckle are solid and
then there’s the bottom knuckle that’s flexible—and
there are certain limitations that we’ve seen for her,”
he says. “It doesn’t quite close tight enough onto
objects for her to be able to be manipulative with
things, so right now we’re looking for a hand design
that’s more than two digits so that she can brush her
hair or hold a pencil. And if there’s not, we are going to
take the current design and break it down.”
McKayla also plays softball (she’s a catcher), so
another prosthetic is planned to allow her to use two
hands when she bats instead of having to hold it with
one hand, which limits her control over the bat and
how hard she can swing.
For Dailey and the students involved in the project,
being able to create these ‘cool’ new iterations of a
3D printed hand is only a small part of the take away.
“The process itself was one of the more rewarding
things I’ve done in teaching. This was something
where you got to really see the result of your work
first-hand,” says Dailey.
“I got to see the look on her face when she picked up
a bottle for the first time with her left hand; it was a
very overwhelming experience. And seeing the
impact it had on the people around me, not even the
people who were directly involved, but the admins
and those who were around during the course of the
process. Just seeing the impact it had on them, it
was a really exciting and rewarding opportunity that I
was glad to be a part of.”
Photo courtesy of Ryan Dailey
Daily created McKayla’s
“little hand” using
CAD software.
Ryan and McKayla fitting her new hand.

20. When the first Ebola patient was brought into the
University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha,
among the many challenges for the medical staff
was being able to hear the beat of his heart and the
function of his lungs.
The lowly stethoscope, whose design has not been
changed in 150 years, couldn’t be used with the
hazmat-style suits clinicians were required to wear
to prevent them from coming into contact with the
patient and risking getting the disease themselves.
By the time the second patient arrived, Kyle Hall, the
hospital’s director of telehealth, had found a solution:
a little-known, radically new kind of stethoscope—
developed by an electrical engineer and released
only in the spring of 2014—with ear-bud headphones
doctors could wear on the outside of their body suits
and wirelessly transmit heart and lung sounds to
speakers or to physicians in another room.
It’s one of the ways engineering is being called
upon to help meet the demands of treating Ebola
and the world’s other aggressively contagious,
often deadly illnesses.
The convergence of technology and medicine is not
new, of course, but Ebola and viruses such as bird
flu have accelerated and widened it into areas such
as photonics and robotics that medical profession-
als had previously dismissed.
“Just the number of ideas I’ve seen has been
incredible,” Hall says. “That stethoscope is just a
perfect example of how some things in healthcare
have been the same for so long, and people haven’t
thought outside the box. But now some technology
BY JON MARCUS
Photo credit: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

21. that used to be kind of pie in the
sky—some things that were conceptual and cool
and fun but not really practical—a lot of those
things have developed further.”
Take AERO, a robot developed at Worcester Poly-
technic Institute (WPI). Engineering faculty and
students there are reprogramming it to decontami-
nate medical workers, and are working with coun-
terparts at other universities to develop robots that
could also handle waste removal, deliver food and
water, bury the dead, and make up beds. The initia-
tive is being pushed by the White House Office of
Science and Technology Policy.
“Engineers are problem-solvers. We just need to be
near the problem to realize what can be done or not
be done,” says Taskin Padir, a professor of robotics
at WPI.
Padir and his students have studied video of Ebola
treatment facilities operated by the humanitarian
organization Médecins Sans Frontières. But he says
they haven’t had to take all of the initiative; medical
doctors have sought them out for help.
Until Ebola, Padir says, “they did not even realize we
had those solutions. The key here is to bring these
communities together to tackle the problems.”
Denver engineer Clive Smith, who spent eight years
inventing that new stethoscope, says he has always
been interested in medical applications of technolo-
gy, inspired in part by relatives and friends who are
physicians.
“I don’t know that there’s been a lack of communica-
tion between the two fields, but there’s no question
that more is better,” says Smith, whose company is

22. called ThinkLabs. “It’s a fantastic thing for engineers
to be thinking about medical issues.”
Engineers are also working on ideas to speed up the
diagnosis of Ebola. Collaboration between the
engineering and medical schools at Boston Univer-
sity, for example, has resulted in a way to detect
viral nanoparticles using LED light to measure their
size and shape.
Across town at Northeastern University, chemical
engineering department chairman Tom Webster
thinks he may have come up with a method to not
only detect Ebola, but cure it by creating nanoparti-
cles that could be attached chemically to the virus
and stop it from spreading. His lab is also working
on nanoparticles that would serve as “decoys,”
diverting the virus from attacking healthy cells.
What the Ebola epidemic has been doing “is stimu-
lating people to pick up the phone just to say, ‘Let’s
collaborate,’” Webster says. “It’s not new that
clinicians and engineers have been collaborating,
but every time something comes up that’s a crisis it
stimulates even more people to collaborate.”
President of the Society for Biomaterials, Webster
says that once Ebola hit the headlines, he made
sure the organization’s annual April conference in
Charlotte, North Carolina, added a joint panel of
engineers and medical professionals to talk about
more ways they can collaborate.
Even the hazmat suit, called the PPE (or personal
protection equipment), is being re-engineered in a
series of hackathons connecting engineers, virolo-
gists, and medical workers prompted in part by a $5
million prize offered by the U.S. Agency for Interna-
tional Development for a new design.
Many of these things may take a while to get into the
field. Robots are expensive and hard to transport,
for example, and the BU diagnostic technique, now
being tested in a lab at the University of Texas, will
take an estimated five years to win approval.
But Hall, in Nebraska, says, “The saviors for health
care will be engineers and all of us computer nerds
who are going to be asking, ‘Why are we still doing it
this way?’ Ebola has made that into a necessity.”
“It’s not new that clinicia
been collaborating, but
comes up that’s a crisis
more people to collabor

23. ans and engineers have
every time something
s it stimulates even
rate.”
Photo credit: Michel du Cille/The Washington Post via Getty Images

25. 76miles/h
In the November cover story of Harvard Business
Review, How Smart, Connected Products Are Trans-
forming Competition, authors Jim Heppelmann,
president and CEO of PTC, and Professor Michael
Porter of the Harvard Business School examine how
the changing nature of products is altering industry
structure and the nature of competition.
According to the research, smart, connected prod-
ucts—products that have both physical components,
“smart” components, and connected compo-
nents—are enabling breakthroughs in operational
effectiveness and differentiation, and redefining
value chains and technology infrastructures.
THE NEW TECHNOLOGY STACK
Smart, connected products require an entirely new technology infrastructure consisting of a series of
ten layers known as a technology stack. The layers from the bottom up include:
Cutting across all the layers is an identity and security structure that secures and protects the
product, connectivity, and product cloud layers, an external information source connecting these
layers to information from external data sources, and tools that integrate the layers with other core
business systems such as ERP, CRM or PLM.
Modified product hardware components: These can be embedded sensors,
processors, and connectivity port/antenna.
Improved product software: An embedded operating system, software applications,
or enhanced user interface are part of the product software.
Connectivity: A layer of connectivity enables communications between the product
and the cloud, which is software running on the manufacturer’s or a third-party server.
The Product Cloud: This has four layers: A database that collects and organizes
streams of new data, an application platform, a rules/analytics engine that creates
insight from data, and smart, connected product applications that enable capabilities
and deliver value to the manufacturer and user.

26. Products are now first-
class participants in
their own value chains.”
IMPACTS TO THE VALUE CHAIN
Products are now first-class participants in their
own value chains. They’re talking to their creators in
engineering and manufacturing, to the people who
service and operate them, and even to the sales and
marketing department about the customer.
The greatest impacts on the value chain are:
New principles of product design: An entirely new
set of design principles is needed (e.g., designs that
enable personalization through software-based
customization, designs that incorporate the ability
to support ongoing product upgrades, etc.).
Redefined customer relationships: Insights from
data analytics tools let firms segment their market
in more sophisticated ways, and price bundles to
those markets that capture more value. Being able
to anticipate, reduce, and repair failures also
creates an opportunity to affect product perfor-
mance and optimize service, which opens up new
business models, like Product-as-a-Service (PaaS).
New service delivery approaches: This is necessary
to take advantage of product data that can uncover
existing and future problems and enable companies
to make preventative repairs. Data also allows for
considerable reductions in field-service dispatches
and major efficiencies in spare-parts inventory control.
New layers of technology infrastructure: Building and
supporting the technology stack for smart, connected
products requires substantial investment and new
technology partners and suppliers for connectivity,
big data analytics, and application development.
New talent requirements: Smart, connected prod-
ucts create major human resource requirements
and challenges. The most urgent of these is the
need to recruit new roles that are not common in
manufacturing companies—many of which are in
high demand, like software developers, systems
engineers, and data scientists.
THE RISKS
The changes smart, connected products bring not
only create valuable new opportunities for competi-
tive advantage, but also raise a set of new and
unique challenges. Some of the greatest strategic
risks include:
Adding functionality that customers don’t want to
pay for. Just because a new feature can be added to
a product, doesn't mean it should. There could be
no clear value proposition for the customer, and
adding enhanced capabilities can reach the point of
diminishing returns due to the cost and complexity
of use.

27. Underestimating security and privacy risks. Smart,
connected products open new gateways to corporate
systems and data. This requires companies to
step-up their security and take responsibly for being
the stewards for customer product usage data.
Failing to anticipate new competitive threats. New
competitors offering products with smart capabili-
ties or performance/service-based business models
can emerge quickly and reshape competition and
industry boundaries.
Waiting too long to get started. Competitors and
new entrants can gain a foothold, begin capturing
and analyzing data, and move up the learning curve
first if manufacturers move tentatively or take too
long to develop and deploy a strategy.
Overestimating internal capabilities. It is crucial to
have a realistic assessment about which capabilities
should be developed in-house and which should be
developed by new partners.
THE NEXT STEPS FOR MANUFACTURERS
Understand the technology stack to identify value:
In order to take advantage of opportunities offered
by smart, connected products, manufacturers must
first make sure they understand the layers of the
new technology stack and can identify where real
value is for both the organization and the customer.
By identifying value, companies will be able to move
beyond operational efficiency and define a distinc-
tive strategic position.
Work more with IT departments: When trying to
understand the technology stack, the question,
“Who in our engineering department understands
this?” will arise. And the answer may be that not
many do. This is why working more with the IT
department is crucial. The technology stack aligns
closely to IT, and given that smart products can
connect to the Internet, items traditionally governed
by other departments may become part of IT's
jurisdiction. This will make it important for manu-
facturers to get IT department involved in engineer-
ing next-generation products.
Find the right cloud, security, and big data solu-
tions: Smart, connected products need to be
connected to a cloud solution to provide the
capabilities required to exploit the IoT. Cloud
computing can provide new levels of collaboration,
speed, and cost savings, but not all services are
created equal. Each has its own requirements in
terms of performance, security, control, and avail-
ability. Manufacturers need to have a clear under-
standing of which service will be most effective for
your company.
Connecting devices to the cloud and enabling them
to talk to each other, to employees, and to custom-
ers will generate massive amounts of data. Data
analytics technology and employees to decipher it
all and turn it into actionable information (e.g., to
lead product improvements) will be necessities.
Security investments will also be required. More
products being connected to the Internet means
more vunerability points for hackers. Businesses
must find a balance that will protect consumers and
employees from these threats, while also allowing
room for advancement and innovation.
As IT and connectivity are embedded into products
and new value is created for manufacturers and their
customers—from product design and marketing
through sales and service—every facet of business
will be heavily impacted. With the right strategy,
manufacturers can capitalize on these new opportu-
nities to capture real economic value. In the end, it’s
about making the right strategic choices, selecting
the right partners, and enabling the right capabilities
to create and sustain competitive advantage.

28. Photos courtesy of FIRST

29. It is not easy to find women
professionals with a long
and successful career
in robotics.”
We caught up with Sampriti Bhattacharya, the direc-
tor/founder of Lab-X Foundation (which provides
hands-on engineering training to those with limited
resources) and one of Robohub’s 25 women in robot-
ics you should know about, to find out where she
got her start and what she thinks can be done to
encourage women to pursue these careers.
The robotics industry is in a period of tremendous
growth, with robots used increasingly in multiple
areas, from transportation and manufacturing to
entertainment and health care. According to Boston
Consulting Group (BCG), the industry will balloon
from $15 billion in 2010 to $67 billion by 2025
thanks to new technology becoming cheaper and
more efficient.
Although the field is growing at a rapid pace and
making tremendous strides, it’s still behind in one
area: It is not easy to find women professionals with a
long and successful career in robotics. The percent-
age of female roboticists is far lower than males, and
very few women have seen the birth, development,
and progress of robotics.
But things are slowly starting to change. With
programs like FIRST gaining momentum among
female applicants and the public interest in robotics
encouraging young women to want a career in the
field, we are starting to see an increase in the
number of girls getting excited about STEM (just this
past spring, Harvey Mudd College awarded 56
percent of its engineering degrees to women.)
BY MICHELLE MILLIER
Photo courtesy of Sampriti Bhattacharya
Sampriti Bhattacharya
director/founder of
Lab-X Foundation
build, break,
and make things
Why Girls Need To

30. A girl doing a hands-on project
just for fun made me look
weird, nerdy, and definitely out
of place — but I thoroughly
enjoyed it!”
need to step up in our technology to enable faster
and more effective rescue operation possible.
But, to be honest, I think the first time I actually
made my solar tracker work hands-free, making
decision and tracking the sun all by itself, that was
one of the most amusing moments. Mostly because I
had never done or seen anything like that before, and
it convinced me that technology really works, it’s not
magic, but a bunch of code and hardware.
Where do you see robotics going in the next five
to ten years?
Robotics has immense potential in the future and I
feel that very soon it will be smoothly integrated with
our everyday life. Things that we once thought were
science fiction are things we use every day now, like
touch screens, Google Glass, the iRobot vacuum—
you name it. Advanced prosthetics, surgical robots,
assistive robots in airports, railways, and even at
home, industrial robots in warehouses or for delivery,
and even social robots—these applications all have a
lucrative future.
And then there is security, safety, and military appli-
cations. For that, I think as long as the main goal is to
keep people safe rather than to destroy, mankind will
in fact benefit hugely from autonomous robots and
surveillance systems. Imagine being able to stop
human trafficking, weapon or illegal goods smug-
gling, or able to expedite rescue operations from
months to a couple days.
How did you first become interested in robotics?
I first got interested in robotics around the age of 12
after watching a Discovery Channel documentary on
the Mars rovers. The Hollywood science fiction
amazed me, but in India (Kolkata), there weren’t
many, if any, young people who took interest in
building things or doing something hands-on, and
we couldn’t imagine a girl working with robots or
building things.
My senior year of high school I did my first science
project called Mission Mars, and I felt more serious
about the field. Unfortunately the majority of under-
grad colleges in India are very different from
here—most of them don’t provide any hands-on
experience and there are barely any resources
available to do much. My first real robotics project
was something I did as a hobby in my junior year of
college when I built an autonomous sun-tracking
solar panel which could be integrated with a Mars
rover. A girl doing a hands-on project just for fun
made me look weird, nerdy, and definitely out of
place—but I thoroughly enjoyed it!
What has been your most interesting project
to date?
I definitely find my PhD work on underwater robots
very exciting. I see it having a lot of potential for the
future—from monitoring contrabands, to rescue
missions and exploration, as well as the inspection of
nuclear reactor vessels to prevent radiation leakage.
I would be thrilled if I could contribute something to
make oceans and ports secure and safe. Particularly
incidents like MH370 made me think a lot—that we
But in the age of automation it’s easy to lose contact
with the natural world around us. As a roboticist, and
as someone who loves technology, I still feel we need
to stay grounded and connected to nature, to people,
to feelings.

31. What steps do you think need to be taken to get
younger girls interested in the robotics field?
It’s sad that even in a developed country like the
United States there are very few women doing
robotics. Recently I was at the International Confer-
ence on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), and
women were definitely a tiny minority. But I think
things are changing. We need to be active by holding
programs that are particularly targeted towards
young girls, and parents themselves have to be
conscious about how they inspire their children. And
last but not the least is the media. The way media
portrays “the ideal women” drastically impacts
young girls on what and who they want to be. I think
the media can take some big steps in promoting the
right role models and inspiring young minds.
It’s worse in countries like India, where the ideal
woman is the shy and absolutely gorgeous house-
wife; one who cooks for her husband, follows him
around, and takes care of the household chores.
It’s a bigger challenge in those societies to break
the stereotypical expectation and teach young girls
to be independent and empower them with real
technological knowledge.
I started the organization Lab-X Foundation last year
and really one of my biggest goals is to inspire young
women to build, break, and make things. We are
organizing a four-day, all-girl hackathon in India
early next year. I might not have started very early,
but something I’d like to say to any girl: It’s never too
late to start building and doing things, if you really
want it.
Photos courtesy of FIRST

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