Industry News

First of all, what is a digital twin and how can it help your hardware be ready for the market? Many predict that digital twins will be adopted widely in the next few years, so let's look at a few examples making waves in the industry.

Digital twins can be useful in a wide range of scenarios. Startups like Except use simulation to develop frames for road bikes in virtual environments. This full case study elaborates on their process of using a digital modeling system to create custom bike frames for customers, without the expense of tooling. 

On a whole other scale, BMW has recently adopted this technique in their factories to optimize layouts, robotics, and logistics systems years before production really starts. A big player in this industry is Nvidia's Omniverse, which is a platform for collaboration and real-time simulation. 

Digital twins have many use cases, spanning aerospace, energy, and luxury good product ion. We’re watching how this trend unfolds throughout 2023.  

Client Feature: Fox Shocks

This month, we’re proud to feature our client, Fox Shocks! Fox has been producing shocks for vehicles since the 1970s. They’ve since expanded into a variety of world class air shocks for bikes, motorcycles, trucks, and snowmobiles.

Member Feature: Mohammed Billoo

Freelance embedded software engineer Mohammed (Mo) Billoo has been working with Fox on new technology. With over 14 years of experience architecting, designing, implementing, and testing embedded software, Mo has been a great addition to their team.

Mo specializes in driver development to interface with custom hardware (including field-programmable gate arrays, or FPGAs), board support package (BSP) customizations (specifically the Yocto Project), and user-space applications across different verticals. Most recently, he’s been bridging the gap in software development for Fox’s hardware team. 

When he’s not working with informal clients, Mo can be found teaching courses in computer architecture and digital logic design at his alma mater, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. 

We’re glad to have Mo at informal!

Community & Blog

• Informal client Houndsy recently went viral on TikTok with a video showcasing their stylish automatic dog feeder. 
• On our blog, co-founder Sam Holland helps us understand When to lose control (of your data) during the manufacturing process. 
• We recently chatted with the makers of OnShape CAD software about creating unique and challenging product designs
• Community member Mike Low is beginning a journey to better understand why some promising new products never make it to market in his new series Bridging The Valley. Part 3 is now available!
• We have upcoming hardware meetups in New York and Zurich on August 17th.