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INTERVIEW
Engineering "Moonshot" Projects
A Discussion with Andrew Meyer (Co-Founder, LeafLabs)
In 2009, Andrew Meyer, an MIT-trained engineer and entrepreneur, co-founded LeafLabs, a Cambridge, MA-based R&D firm that designs "powerful physical computing devices for control and communication among smart machines (including humans)." We recently asked Andrew to tell us about his background, detail some of his most intriguing projects, tell us about his contributions to Project Ara, and share his thoughts on the future of electrical engineering.
CIRCUIT CELLAR: Can you give a general overview of your involvement with Project Ara? 
ANDREW: We got into Ara at the beginning as subcontractors to the company that was leading a lot of the engineering, NK Labs. Since then our role has expanded quite a bit, but we are still focused on software and firmware development. Everyone understood that Ara was going to require a lot of firmware and FPGA work, and so we were a natural choice to get involved. One of the first Ara prototypes actually used the Maple software library, libmaple, and had eight FPGAs in it! For your readers that are interested in Ara, please to check out projectara.com and https://github.com/projectara/greybus/.  LeafLabs is focused on firmware development. What's really exciting to me about the project is the technology under the hood. Basically, what we have done is built a network on a PCB. The first big problem with embedded linux devices is that they are completely centered around the SoC. Change the SoC and you are in for ton of software development, for instance, to bring your display driver back to life. Similarly, changes to the design, such as incorporating a faster Wi-Fi chip, might force you to change the SoC. This severe coupling between everything keeps designers from iterating. You have this attitude of "OK, no one touch this design for the next 5 years, we finally got it working." If we have learned anything from SaaS and App companies it's that quickly iterating and continuous deployment are key to great products. If your platform inhibits iteration, you have a big problem. Read More
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Circuit Cellar #298
May 2015
Build a Particulate Matter Monitor | DIY Vehicle-Monitoring System | Humidity Sensor Comparison | The Poly-Magneto-Phonic Theremin | Phase Change Material-Based Cooling | The Physics of Shielding | Pulsed Motor Drive | PLC Export File | The Future of Intelligent Robots | And More
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