Interview with Dan Kurin

Featured Engineer

Dan Kurin

Dan Kurin - Engineering Tech. R&D: Laird Technologies, Tinkerer, Hacker

How did you get into electronics/ engineering and when did you start?

My Dad, an electrical engineer now retired from the chemical industry, was always giving me things to take apart and encouraging me to find out how they worked; he bought me my first electronics workbench from Radio Shack. He helped fuel my curiosity of the inner workings of things that developed into an ever-present desire to know why things behave the way they do.

From age 8 until 17, most of my electronics work was tinkering and experimenting. Taking basic circuits and logic classes in University was incredibly helpful (even though I didn’t enjoy it very much at the time) in forming a broad understanding of electronics.

What are your favorite hardware tools that you use?

I can honestly credit the awesome work of the Arduino Team for my foray into embedded computing. Their platform has made it dead simple to bring software in to the realm of the physical world and remains one of my favorite prototyping platforms for the first stage of my hobby projects.

What are your favorite software tools that you use?

Call me a young, upstart engineer, but my favorite software tool is Google! The internet has ushered in an unprecedented age of collaboration that allows us as engineers to easily get through problems that others have already solved and focus on the really challenging/unique topics

What is on your bookshelf?

The Creative Economy – John Howkins (2001)
The architecture of Alden B. Dow – S. Robinson (1983)
Profession – Isaac Asimov (1957)

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?

When I’m solving a problem I like to alternate between a research-based approach, a careful and systematic approach, and a gut-feeling approach. For me it’s all about looking at a problem from multiple angles to see a solution, kind of like multi-disciplinary engineering.

What has been your favorite project?

My favorite project came out of my experience with a thin-film solar company in R&D. The thickness of a thin film can be determined by measuring the intensity of different wavelengths of light reflected from a material; usually this is done with a spectrometer (expensive). Our project was to create a “reverse spectrometer” using a handful of discrete LEDs and a single light intensity sensor. While it was never practically realized, it still remains as the most interesting combination of physics and engineering I have yet to work on.

What do you feel is your greatest achievement?

In October 2010, I helped orchestrate the first TEDxFlint successfully and in October 2011 we’re going to do it again with a stronger focus on technology and technical innovation.

I got involved very early in the planning process for the first TEDxFlint and proved myself to the licensee, Kevin Simpson, by working with my alma mater to arrange a venue on their campus. Last years’ event was physically attended by over 100 people and streamed online by over 4,500!

This second year I am acting as a principal planner and helping guide the vision of the committees that have we have formed to manage the details of the conference (from speakers, to sponsorship, to stage presence). This has been an incredibly rewarding experience and the people I have gotten to meet have definitely stretched my perspectives.

Truly, being responsible for giving people the opportunity to broaden their own perspectives is awesome.

What are you currently working on at home?

Technologies to make the home smarter. My latest tinkering is in the area of lighting; given digital control over lights (LEDs), how can we make them more comfortable and intuitive to use?

What is your favorite question?

“Why hasn’t anyone invented something that does X?” – This means that there is a moderately-well-defined need waiting to be filled with a technical solution.

What direction do you see engineering heading in the next few years?

I see a lot more energy efficiency engineering going on. The world’s supply of natural resources will eventually reach a supply/demand point where renewable energies are more cost-effective. Engineering has already begun to prepare for this, but the limited demand for such technologies has limited the commercial development of many renewable technologies. This sector has yet to see its biggest demand for engineering.

The second field where I expect to see a lot of development is the area of Haptics and similar technology. In the past, Human-Machine Interfaces were limited to touch screens and software, but I plan to see a lot more thought put into how humans interact with technology; I like to call this the “warmer” side of engineering.