Shaping The Future

We wish everyone a Very Happy Holiday!  We hope that you will have time to reflect and celebrate with family and friends.  It has been an eventful year and we are looking ahead.

On September 6, we were awarded United States Patent No. 9,433,524 for our Portable Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  This was an important milestone for the Tikü®.  We are working on re-design and fabrication for testing and hopefully, FDA pre-marketing clearance.  This will enable us to continue with serial production of several of the incubators for field testing in Sub-Saharan Africa.  We do not have a timetable for the execution of these events but we are moving towards our goal.

In our last blog, we mentioned that Designs for the World is teaching digital technologies to students in Saint Petersburg and in Tampa.  Together with our collaborative partner, Outlaw Solutions and Concepts, we instruct a class called Introduction to 3D Digital Fabrication Tools in two local technical colleges.  We teach 3D digital design with surface-modeling and parametric CAD software, as well as additive and subtractive prototyping.  Our course has been well-received.  We taught four classes in 2016 but were initially scheduled for half that number.  We shall be expanding our instruction to others in 2017.

We assembled the 3D printers for our classes ourselves.  We were not duly impressed by the market offerings, so we decided to design and build our own 3D printer.  We just successfully tested our second working prototype and shall commence limited production during 2017.  Previously, this industry has focused on hobbyists and clubs.  We have designed our open-source machine for use in schools.  This works well with our business strategy for launching Makerspaces in local institutions.  We want to provide tools to kids for innovation in both STEM and fine arts curricula.

In addition to our own pursuits, we continue to help inventors in developing and prototyping their creations.  We have been working with a range of products in diverse industries.  Our journey has been interesting and the future looks promising.

Then and Now

We have been remiss in keeping the blog active...Sorry!  During the 487 days since our last post, Designs for the World has been very busy with many activities.  First, the Lifestyle™ Table is a now a reality.  The mobile table with induction cooking is now ready for prime time.  It works great and will be offered initially at half the price first posted.  It will soon be available on our Web site.  It will make a perfect addition to your condo balcony, student dormitory, assisted-living room, efficiency apartment, or any other home.

The status of the Tikü® is that we have re-designed the next-gen model to be more versatile and to cost one-third of the former design.  The patent is now under active review.  We are self-funding the project.  When we are able to build several incubators for donation, we have an institutional partner that has offered to work with us in undertaking field evaluation in Sub-Saharan Africa.  We do not have a timetable for introduction but we are moving ahead.

Designs for the World has found a niche in product development, 3D digital prototyping, serial production, and manufacturing liaison.  We have a collaborative partner, who has worked in manufacturing in the plastics industry for 40 years.  With our combined talents, we have worked with individual and corporate clients on innovations for the automotive, hospitality, construction, medical, electronics aftermarket, and entertainment industries.  We have been so busy working on jobs for everyone else that we have had little time to do our own projects.  We are not complaining since the income has kept us alive.

We have become champions for manufacturing.  In most communities, there are 2.5 service sector jobs for every manufacturing job.  Growing manufacturing will have a positive effect on the whole economy.  New technologies have enabled serial production of products without the large budgets of brick-and-mortar companies.  We are now teaching innovation and rapid prototyping with 3D digital tools to students, seniors, and job aspirants.  Working with local non-profit organizations, we are creating innovation labs (also known as makerspaces) in local schools, libraries, and career centers.  Today's economy deals in jobs.  We are working on creation of today's jobs and those of the future.

We have provided a glimpse of Designs for the World without getting too verbose.  Many have given us very positive feedback on our endeavors.  We are not trying to change the world.  We are just attempting to push in the right direction in order to gather a little momentum for the future.