One of the biggest aspects of the year-long Drive for Innovation has been the logistics; connecting and organizing meetings at hundreds of companies, usually located in places we had not visited previously. Here are some of the best (and innovative) receptions we encountered: 1. Analog Devices: ADI communications folks pulled out all the stops for our visit to Wilmington, Mass. They organized a huge

WILMINGTON, Mass.–What’s real and what’s not? That’s a fundamental question in design engineering, especially when you’re trying to translate the analog world into the digital. More design resources Take a gyroscope, which has myriad uses but comes up big in safety applications. A gyroscope is supposed to sense rotation, but if it’s taking in data that’s skewed by unwanted acceleration

WILMINGTON, Mass.–It's that time of year. Time when you just realized you haven't bought holiday gifts. You're now panicking, you're sweating, you're cursing your organizational skills. We're here to help. More design resources During our stop at Analog Devices here, we came across four great stocking stuffers that will delight their recipients and help ease your anxiety: The Wheezometer, the

BOSTON–We convened a panel of industry luminaries at ESC Boston this fall to take on some pointed questions from me and the audience about the nature of innovation. What are the challenges? Are we seeing the skill sets we need coming out of the college ranks into engineering jobs? How do we manage complexity? More design resources John Day, Technical

WILMINGTON, Mass.–You're no doubt familiar with oil-exploration challenges, as we may be nearing so-called peak oil (or in its era already). Deep-well drilling has been increasingly prevalent as we've slurped up "easy oil" during the past 100 years. This situation presents a fascinating engineering challenge, both mechanical and electrical. Not only are oil explorers drilling farther and stressing mechanical and

(Odometer: 7,832 miles) LEXINGTON, Mass.–Andreas Olofsson cut his chip-designing teeth working on Analog Devices’ TigerSharc DSP. He learned that bigger isn’t always better, and he also found out he wanted to build something of his own. So when circumstances changed, he gathered up his retirement savings, a handful of engineers and set up shop next to one of American history’s

(Odometer: 7,650 miles) WILMINGTON, Mass.–Everyone who’s driven the Volt on our around-the-country innovation celebration tour enjoys the experience, and often someone will toss out a good future design consideration. Analog Devices (ADI) took that idea to a whole new plane. When we drove to ADI’s facility on Oct. 5, we were greeted by a huge white tent, filled with tables

(Odometer: 5,955) BOSTON–We’re in challenging economic times. No doubt. On the road, my brother/videographer Kirk and I sit in hotel rooms editing and writing and doing sound. Often, the TV’s on, tuned to a channel like CNBC where the world, it appears, is crumbling. This at first was distressing. But then we realized that they don’t know what we know.