An Interview with Stefan Dzisiewski-Smith

The Amp Hour · 29 Jul 2016 · 1h 48m · Episode 309

What this episode covers

Stefan Dzisiewski-Smith of Bear Conductive discusses his journey from high-voltage power supply engineering to industrial design at the Royal College of Art, and his work on large-scale art installations and solar charging projects in Uganda and India. He details the technical challenges of capacitive sensing, the development of the Touch Board and BearPi, and the supply chain realities of components like the MPR121 and Raspberry Pi Zero. The conversation covers the pivot from a bicycle generator concept to a solar-powered mobile charging business model, highlighting issues with financing, payment integration, and field testing.

Mentioned

Companies
Bear Conductive, Freescale, NXP, Rochester Electronics, Resurgent Semiconductor, Linear Technology, Analog Devices, Jason Brew Studio
Products
Touch Board, BearPi
Chips
MPR121, Raspberry Pi Zero
Also
Arduino, Kickstarter, Mike Harrison

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