Cross Pollination and Design Innovation

Red Byer
Mobius Photonics, Inc.

Design and innovation cannot exist in a vacuum. Designers in the modern world must work to satisfy the needs of numerous stakeholders and end customers. The ability for a designer to communicate with others is critical when establishing design requirements. Additionally, the ability for a designer to successfully synthesize the web of cost-benefit tradeoffs requires a broader understanding of the contributing technologies and their limiting factors.

Since the term "design" (regardless of the field of design) is broad ranging, it can initially be defined by what it is not. Then, we can begin to directly define "design" and the "design process" and categorize the broader range of design activities. This categorization aids us in understanding what it is that makes each field of design unique (vocabulary, processes, limitations, cost structures, etc). Cross pollination enables designers to communicate with or work within several unique design fields.

In any design project, generating multiple solutions improves the overall chance of project success. Cross Pollination (borrowing, understanding bits from other industries and technologies) among designers/engineers plays an important role in idea generation.

The presentation will provide some background on how I stumbled into Product Design and then into the laser industry. Tiptoeing carefully, the presentation will attempt to lay down a definition for design and describe the design process from a high level. Also presented will be an overview of design challenges the laser industry faces and cross pollination in the small-industry or startup phase. Finally, we'll look at several first-hand examples, including using cribbage boards as an avenue to excessive design.

Additional Links:
cribbage boards
rules of cribbage

Join us for Cribbage and Pizza After class on November 30th, everyone (students and non-students alike) is invited to join us in Gates Room 104 to play cribbage, eat pizza, and get a close-up look at the electronic cribbage board project described in the talk. Bring a friend. Cribbage challenged? We'll teach you to play. Cribbage expert? You'll enjoy the competition. Please let us know if you intend to join us so we can scale the pizza order appropriately:   Name email Guests

About the speaker:

Red Byer recently co-founded Mobius Photonics, Inc, a third generation laser manufacturer dedicated to providing reliable high power fiber lasers to industrial customers around the world. Red Byer has breadth in all aspects of the laser system design process. His experience spans from high level laser system architecture and integration, to in-plant tooling, to detailed finite element analysis of transient thermal effects to printed circuit board design and layout. Red has been the lead designer of 5 successful OEM laser product developments, including a fiber laser for display purposes. Red recently received his third design patent relating to ultra stable opto-mechanical mounting. He holds a dual B.A. in Psychology and B.S. in Product Design from Stanford (1996). In his off hours, Red moonlights as a graphic designer, web designer, EE Hobbyist and swim coach. He undertakes projects as an excuse to learn new techniques, tools and processes. His most noteworthy project to-date, "The Wedding Board", won a Distinctive Excellence Award in Circuit Cellar's 2004 Atmel Design Competition. "The Wedding Board" and the associated documentation can be seen at: Wedding Cribbage Board Website.

Contact information:

Red Byer
red@mobiusphotonics.com