HardwareX Podcasts

HardwareX

HardwareX provides interviews and deep-dives with scientists and leading experts in open-source hardware. Produced for the journal HardwareX from Elsevier Publishing Company.

  1. 13h ago

    Copy-Paste Organs: An open-source device for turbocharging tissue engineering

    3D bioprinting is gaining momentum. As an alternative method for fabricating tissue-mimicking constructs serving as tissue models, animal-free drug screening platforms and tissue replacements for regenerative medicine, 3D printing technology is a tool most labs do not want to be without. Owing to rigid designs and high associated costs, however, the technology is barely inching towards releasing its full potential. Then came Nils Bessler and Maj-Britt Buchholz: bioengineers and PhD graduates from Utrecht University who worked together at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology. Focused on using bioprinting to scale organoid and organoid-on-chip technologies, they co-developed and published open-source bioprinters including the Nydus One syringe extruder and the AnyBio bioprinter: An affordable, open-source mSLA 3D printer enabling researchers to grow complex in-vitro models, for instance, for Diffuse Midline Glioma, a deadly childhood brain cancer. HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

  2. Jul 20

    Wildfire Season: How open source is beating the temperatures

    Summer's coming in hot across the world, and with it, an ever-increasing risk of devastating wildfires. However, while some fires are unwanted, others can be life-saving. Throughout history, humans have managed lands and crops through prescribed fires, inadvertently mitigating the risk of actual wildfires along the way by removing excess "fuel" from the landscape. Knowing exactly how hot such fires burn is crucial to understanding both fire ecology, safety and management, and the actual implications of rising temperatures. This led researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to develop FireLog: A remote sensing device designed to withstand temperatures up to 800°C and simultaneously deliver high levels of spatial replication at a limited cost. In this episode of HardwareX, we're joined by Sabrina Russo, a plant ecologist and professor at the School of Biological Sciences, and Nipuna Chamara, a Research Assistant Professor with the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, to learn more about what happens when nature burns. HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

  3. Apr 28

    Building OTTO: What an open source 3D printer is doing for drug research

    The Franz Diffusion Cell (FDC) is a piece of equipment used for studying in vitro drug absorption across the skin and other biological membranes over time. Internationally recognised as vital to commercial drug certification and pharmacological research, yet FDCs present a dilemma: Manual systems are cumbersome and introduce more human error, while automated FDCs often come with a high price tag and vendor lock-ins.  Enter OTTO: An automated FDC sampling system converted from an open-source 3D printer, and specifically designed to be retrofittable to various systems and analytical equipment. To get to know OTTO, we're joined in this episode of HardwareX by Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics at Newcastle University, Dr Keng Wooi Ng, and Trainee Pharmacist, Liam Archibald. HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

  4. Mar 27

    Open Hardware Talks: The evolution of open source 3D-printing w/ Dr Adrian Bowyer

    In this episode of Open Hardware Talks, the founder of the RepRap Project, Dr Adrian Bowyer MBE, sits down to explain how it all came to be. Beginning with a childhood dream and ending with an uplifting perspective on human progress, Dr Bowyer takes us from the past to the present, and onwards to the future, handing out golden nuggets on Darwinism, AI and open source along the way. Few things have been as groundbreaking for hardware manufacturing as the introduction of open source 3D printing. Nearly two decades after the RepRap project released 3D printing to the world, biologists are experimenting with printed human tissue as a way to solve the global transplant shortage; architects are envisioning what 3D-printed houses on the Moon might look like; and countless authors on HardwareX are using the technology to develop new designs for crisis response, research, healthcare and beyond. HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

  5. Jan 20

    Dangerous Floods: Scaling river levels monitoring in South East Asia with open-source

    Increased evaporation leads to increased precipitation. Warming at nearly twice the rate of the global average, Asia is increasingly prone to heavy rainfall and flooding. While monitoring river levels can help warn local governments and communities of risks, a majority of the world's rivers remain ungauged. To scale river level monitoring, researchers in Laos set about developing an affordable, frugal design for an open-source laser gauge capable of withstanding the harsh conditions of the country's inter-tropical rivers. In this episode, Alain Pierret and Norbert Silvera from IRD, the French Research Institute for Development, explain the challenges that led to the design, the benefits of river monitoring, and why open-source is key to enabling technology transfer.  HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

  6. 11/05/2025

    Bench-top Biotechnology: Advancing bioprocessing with open source

    As tools at the forefront of innovation in medicine and biotechnology, bioreactors are increasingly taking centre stage in research facilities and industrial labs alike. From acting as the fermentation vessels that give us beer to enabling a greener, more sustainable way of treating wastewater, bioreactors have played a key role in ensuring the quality of modern life. Yet, the high cost and low flexibility of bioreactor designs can leave researchers struggling to conduct their desired experiments, ultimately putting the brakes on key research and innovation. This was the case for Laurens Parret, a PhD student with the Chemical and Biochemical Reactor Engineering and Safety (CREaS) unit at KU Leuven, Belgium. Seeing as the lab's high-cost bioreactors didn't meet the requirements for his work on biological wastewater treatment, Laurens set out to devise his own, the BIO-SPEC system. In this episode, Laurens, together with Kenneth Simoens, Lab Manager at CREaS KU Leuven, gets technical about bioreactors and helps us understand why more and more researchers are embracing DIY solutions to accelerate innovation. HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

  7. 09/17/2025

    Open Hardware Talks: Is space a commons?

    Space is busier than ever before. In the latest edition of the global space race, private actors have joined the game. But space as the next frontier for businesses comes at a price. As debris in orbit continues to increase and more fossil-fuel-powered rockets are sending celebrities into space, what will happen to our ecosystems on Earth? Should the galaxy really only be in the hands of a few, and if not, what happens if everyone can join in? In this deep-diving episode of Open Hardware Talks, we go beyond Earth's atmosphere to explore how open source technologies are shaping the space of tomorrow. We're joined by Eleftherios Kosmas from Libre Space Foundation, an Athens-based organisation developing and sharing open source space technology, alongside Pen-Yuan Hsing, who researches and advises on Open Science and Citizen Science, and Dr. Elena Cirkovic, a researcher at the Department of Law at Aarhus University, Denmark, who's exploring the legal side of space usage, maintenance and sustainability.  HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

  8. 07/10/2025

    Under the Microscope: An open-source approach to upcycling

    As the right to repair gained political momentum, it obliged companies to share design files and repair guides with every new device. But what about the right to upcycle older technologies? With the power of machine learning, computerised microscopes are increasing efficiency and accuracy in scientific research. However, commercially available microscopes often come with a large price tag, rendering them inaccessible to labs or institutes on a budget. Instead, an interdisciplinary team at UC Santa Cruz in California decided to explore what it would take to turn legacy microscopes into modern devices fit for the needs of the 21st-century research lab. In this episode of HardwareX, Samira Vera and Drew Ehrlich from UC Santa Cruz in California join us to talk about the challenges of microscopy, the promise of machine learning, and how open-source-driven upcycling can benefit research. HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.

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About

HardwareX provides interviews and deep-dives with scientists and leading experts in open-source hardware. Produced for the journal HardwareX from Elsevier Publishing Company.

Information

  • Creator
    HardwareX
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    35
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 HardwareX Podcasts
  • Show Website
    HardwareX Podcasts