The Engineering Mind

A friend asked me a few years ago: “You are an electronics engineer aren’t you?” Somewhat hesitant to reply, I answered that I was. This is normally greeted with questions such as: “Can you fix my PC?”

Have you ever wondered about the fact that we are always surrounded by electronic gadgets? From waking up to a phone alarm to getting your favorite ice cream from the freezer, we are surrounded by electronics when we go about our daily routine. But h...

Analog Devices hosted the first ever virtual finalists of the Anveshan 2020 Design Fellowship Program. The theme for this year’s Anveshan was “Design the Future” with a goal of building smart and innovative solutions to solve proble...

The year is 1880 and Thomas Edison was several years into his quest to perfect an incandescent light bulb. It was important to him the bulb produce a light which was both bright and safe, qualities not found in lighting solutions of the day. It was e...

At this time of year we would normally be bringing you news about our ADI mentors and their FIRST robotics teams. We would be sharing their successes and stories of how they increased efficiency, power or dexterity for their robots while munchin...

I’m back with another mash-up of high-tech, marketing, and my hobby of antique radio restoration. And, once again, we will be talking about a product from the Philco Radio Corporation. Ever the innovators, the folks at Philco were first, in 193...

I have found that stories of advancements and failures in old tech can provide lessons for both the engineer and marketer of today’s high-tech products. Today I look at how a bad (perhaps undeserved) reputation was born, spread, and survived for eighty years…

In Part I of this series I wrote about a part of Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project (a.k.a. the Big Dig.) The goal at this interchange south of Boston was was to connect the Massachusetts Turnpike (from the west,) the Southeast Expressway (...

Sometimes, the Engineering Mind wanders. The body, having little choice in the matter, follows. All of us who work at a computer know that when you are “heads down” most of the day, looking up can be a revelation. You notice things. We he...

This is the story of a $4 billion omelet. Only this one is not made of eggs, vegetables and cheese, but steel, concrete and massive amounts of innovation. The Engineering Mind has possibly never worked harder. Our story begins in the 1970s when Bosto...

The timeline for ADI’s Project Playtime is ending, but the mission, relationships, and project development will continue. What’s next for the teams spotlighted in previous Engineering Mind blog posts? User Feedback, Please! A common theme...

It was a project so big, it still boggles the mind. Two Boston entrepreneurs would stretch the limits of the era’s technology when, in the mid-1800s, they filled in 568 acres of fetid swampland, enabling its transformation into one of America&r...

It was 1900 when Henry Adams, historian and scion of a family which produced two American presidents, walked the Gallery of Machines at Paris' Great Exposition and stopped to brood before a working exhibit of a dynamo. In his landmark "Educa...

The ADI office in Cork counts approximately 80-90 people, counting for a very small percentage of the total number of ADI employees around the globe. But small numbers don’t mean small efforts! And ever since its launch, Project Playtime sounde...

When you enter a dark room, you simply flick a switch to turn on the light. If you dislike the current song on your playlist you skip to the next one with a light touch. We take these basic actions for granted every day but for some individuals ...

Every workday over 250,000 vehicles jam Route 128 here in Eastern Massachusetts. That is way beyond its designed capacity, with the resulting traffic jams raising the tempers of commuters along with the temperatures of their engines. To accommodate g...

Do you ever feel helpless when the power goes out and darkness surrounds you? Imagine living your life in total darkness every day - this is what it is like in the daily life of a blind person. Simple tasks become more challenging but they can b...

His name was Onesimus. At least, that was the name by which he became known to the people of Boston. We don’t know the name his parents gave him because when he was just eleven years old he was taken by force from his West African village and p...

The FIRST competition has come to an end, to conclude our blog series we want to congratulate the teams on their successes. We are incredibly proud of all the teams, especially the teams that we were able to sponsor this past year. We cannot wait to ...

What is sensory integration? Why is it important? Sensory integration is the way our brains organize and interpret basic human sensory information which include sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.Poor sensory integration can mean delays in langu...

In this blog series we have talked to teams about their FIRST Robotics season, the struggles they have faced, and the experience they’ve gained through being apart of their school’s FIRST Robotics teams.  The FIRST Robotics Worl...

Back in Dec ‘18,  when the NGO Samarthanam visited us, we were filled with awe, looking at the expertise of their visually challenged volunteers  in using computers and mobile phones. They were able to use them just like anyone w...

This week, we take you inside the FIRST Robotics Team 3467- The Windham Windup. This team consists of 30 members all with the same mission: to cultivate interest, understanding and skills in the field of engineering and technology. The team encourage...

I remember, I remember,  Where I was used to swing,  And thought the air must rush as fresh  To swallows on the wing;  My spirit flew in feathers then,  These lines from the famous poem ‘I Remember, I Remember’ by...

Five billion people sent almost 10 trillion texts last year. Even more remarkable is most of those texts got to their intended recipient within seconds. It is hard to explain to people born after Bill Clinton was President how it wasn’t always ...