TED2010 has long past. The presentation went off without a hitch, and that can be attributed to oodles of preparation. A dozen people were tapped to ready the Photonic Fence for its first public demo. There was a ton to do: finalizing the software with a handsome interface, constructing custom casing and mounts for the hardware, breeding hoards of backup mosquitoes, testing, tweaking, testing, tweaking…you get the idea. With so many scrambling to cross off hundreds of tasks, this easily could have turned into a formidable debacle.

In order to streamline workflow, 3ric Johanson pulled a tool from the extreme programmer‘s handbag. Story cards are a visual way to organize tasks. Each item is placed on its own card and clustered based on topic, delegation, sequence, or whatever is appropriate in the moment. Dependencies between tasks are then shown using green arrows. The approach is flexible as items are easily edited or moved, while providing an always up to date big picture for all involved.

The board was hung in a prominent place in the Lab. As to-do’s were completed, challenges revealed and priorities shifted, the board underwent constant evolution: a tapestry of note cards fluctuating, receding, diverging, with old worn cards giving way to sprightly, fresh, new ones. Though more impressive was the team’s ability to stay focused and agile. Ultimately the demonstration garnered a standing ovation at one of the most popular conferences today. So the next time you’re facing down a beastly project, give story carding a try and report back with your findings.

If you want to see a video summary of all the prep, check out Getting Ready for TED

Make 23: Mosquito Blaster

Copies of the issue were passed out in exchange for participation in a single-question survey. Here are the results:

Just tell us what you like to make.

monkey men, circuit bending, tesla coils, amps, lasers, machines of death and destruction, furniture, low cost audio computers for info access to reduce poverty, sewing projects, gardening projects, foody makery, ceramics, a robot that clears large areas of weeds on a steep inline, alternate histories, redesigned clothing, web apps, movies, self-replicating Reprap 3D printers, news, music, friends, smiles and stuff, backyard crucibles, laser light plane touch surface, drones, free enterprise, modeled computers, 3D objects & 3D objects that make 3D objects, metalwork, sustainable design, sculpture, housing, fashion, electronics, embedded CPU projects, trouble, RC aircraft…then crashing them…then re-making them, ATM prototypes, 3ric, anything original or wicked fun, software, cardboard creatures with electric eyes, simulations of societies, AI stuff, coin-shrinkers, fulgurites, wood carvings, wooden things, books, knives, motorcycles, theramin, machines to learn, soldered pysanky, yarn, block prints, costumes, handicrafts, kinetic LED sculptures for “still” photography, lego robots, Craft Robo paper cut art, electronics for scientific computing, clothes, gadgets, clothes with gadgets, FPGA boards, edible sound, magnetic art, new and infeasible ideas, shiny photos, random thing driven by microcontrollers, making people jump (parkour), skin/skeleton/guts electronics, mobile robots, dangerous toys, cupcakes, new and amazing hacking tools, concrete structures, projBox kit, video games, companies, making people ride bikes to power the entire Seattle Bicycle Music Festival.

The most popular things people like to make according to this very formal and controlled study are robots and trouble. Needless to say, Make Magazine caters to a hands-on and creative, though unmistakeably diverse, crowd. Find the latest issue covering our mosquito laser on newsstands everywhere.

For photos from the event:

The meat of the article follows Karima Nigmatulina, Ph.D. and Philip Eckhoff, Ph.D. (pictured above) and their disease modeling software. A few other projects got shout-outs as well. These include malaria detection tools headed by Michael Hegg, Ph.D. and Ben Wilson Ph.D. (pictured below), the artificial mosquito diet of Barcin Acar Ph.D. and Emma Mullen, and of course 3ric Johanson’s Photonic Fence. Even TerraPower managed to sneak in there.

Dan was a machine, bolting from group to group and scrawling endless notes in the process; we watched him fill up three whole pads of paper! The result is “Short-Circuiting Malaria,” which can be found on Newsweek‘s website and will be in print any day now. We appreciate the coverage and are excited that more of our projects are being recognized.

Check out the Newsweek article here.

If mosquito populations can be effectively controlled, then we could make a huge impact in the fight against malaria.

Okay, so why not just shoot the mosquitoes out of the sky?

That’s absolutely preposterous…let’s do it!

It wasn’t exactly clear how to convince the disease carriers to fall from the air. However, we were confident that a system could be designed that was far cleaner and more controlled than fumigation and certainly more efficient than old-fashion hand slapping. Wondering if an unhealthy dose of photons might do the trick, we set out in search of an energy- and cost-effective way to kill a mosquito with light. This was no easy task as it became apparent that these insects, though tiny and seemingly fragile, are very resilient. Research engineer, Tom Nugent walks us through the various dosing experiments that have led us to our current method of mosquito elimination.

Between enhancing and cleaning up the software, assembling and mounting all the components, and just making sure everything looked nice and polished, we had a half dozen people occupied for over a month. During the last minute scrabble, some valuable lessons were learned. First, when the shipping company delivers the wrong crate to TED, effectively losing the world’s only Photonic Fence, it helps not to panic. Also, we now know that hotel water glasses are great places to grow extra mosquitoes when you’re running low.

Getting ready for TED was a lot of work, but nevertheless fun and surreal. We are excited about the enthusiastic response following Nathan’s talk, and can’t wait to share our next big idea with you.