#41 - Blueprints, Bots & Breaking In: Building The Automated Lab

🎙️ Guest: Madeline Wolf | Founder, The Automated Lab

🎧 Hosts: Mike Ouren, Sura Hadi, and Elizabeth Rodziewicz

📺 Series: Automation in the Wild

Title: Blueprints, Bots & Breaking In: Building The Automated Lab from the Ground Up

"You can’t automate what you don’t understand." – Madeline Wolf

In this episode, we sit down with Madeline Wolf, a seasoned automation engineer, product manager, and founder of The Automated Lab. From developing modular RAC systems at Ginkgo to building a community-first education hub for automation engineers, Madeline shares real-world lessons on scaling platforms, managing human factors, and breaking the mold in biotech.

🧠 What You’ll Learn:

• Why the RAC system changed how modular automation is done
• What makes human-centered design essential in lab systems
• How The Automated Lab is filling the education gap in biotech automation
• Lessons from automation failure, sticker wisdom & user empathy
• How product management grows from engineering roots

☕ Whether you're building robots, mentoring teams, or exploring your next big automation challenge—this episode will shift how you think.

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📩 Want to be a guest? Email us: helicalbrew@gmail.com

📍 TikTok, Shorts & more: @helicalbrew

⏱️ EPISODE CHAPTERS – NAVIGATE THE EPISODE

00:00 – Intro & Icebreaker

02:10 – DNA, Bugs & First Automation Aha!

05:00 – Early Career & Systems That Should’ve Exploded

07:15 – Zymergen, Ginkgo & Factory-Scale Automation

13:30 – What Modular Really Means (and Doesn’t)

20:00 – Human Factors in Automated Workflows

26:15 – Going Meta: From Engineer to Product Manager

31:00 – User Error or Engineering Failure?

37:00 – Why Stickers Save Robots

42:15 – Building The Automated Lab

47:15 – Education as the Trojan Horse for Change

54:00 – The Future of Modular Hardware & Open Source

1:03:15 – Dream Challenges & Industry Shifts

1:14:00 – Picks of the Week: Scary Squids & Switch Games

1:20:00 – Wrap-Up & Where to Find Madeline

🔗 Connect with Madeline Wolf

Website: https://theautomatedlab.com

LinkedIn:   / madelinewolf  

📌 SHORTS (Quick Clips from the Episode)

▶️    • Balancing Engineering & Human Needs #helic...  

▶️    • Lab Automation Basics—What They Don’t Tell...  

💬 “Stickers go farther than you'd think in automation.”

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