From cancer diagnostics to DIY fixer putty: tech’s maker revolution [Wired 2013]

Post lunch and there is no let up on day one of Wired 2013 as “The New Makers” session relentlessly impresses on you how technology is not just changing but revolutionising the way people make things.

The first afternoon session, titled “The New Makers” contains a collection of individuals who are rethinking the physical future, from medicine to DNA prototyping. The opening speaker — Jack Andraka received the first standing ovation of the day for his unbelievable work in the field of cancer diagnostics (read the full story here). That seems like a pretty dull sentence until you realise he hasn’t even graduated yet…from high school.

Second up was Sugru‘s Jane ni Dhulchaointigh who described her DIY fixer putty as the lovechild between plasticine and glue. An impressive product that is creating a product life extension movement via a colourful material that can be moulded into a hard product after it is removed from its vacuum packed package.

Third up was Carl Bass from Autodesk who touched on the characteristics of an emerging set on businesses — small, cross-disciplined and obsessive. Liam Casey from PCH International closed the session with a discussion about the issues about working with large (and increasingly small) companies who are looking to create products and ship them across the world.

Casey echoed the sentiments of several of the previous speakers highlighting the need for people to focus on the garage dwellers who are using sites Kickstarter and Indiegogo. This, he says, is a trend that is close to the tipping point is one that is needed to really upset the manufacturing industry by driving innovation and investment barriers way down.