Lemelson-MIT Prize won by eyeglass printing machine

“I need more sun, and more consistent wind to pursue my kitesurfing addiction. Fortunately the other squid labs founders share the addiction so our board meetings will be on the water.... “I also developed an electronic rope while at the media lab. I still have a big interest in textiles thanks to my father's influence. I will also be continuing that project under Squid Labs. Basically it is a composite fibre mix that enables the rope to monitor it's own wear and loading conditions with a very simple electronic interface at one end of the rope. So what is your vision of your future? “I love the work I am doing for my PhD thesis, but it is quite conceptual and a long way out. How do you build machines that build themselves programmatically from microscopic components and exhibit the beautiful properties of biological systems like self-repair, error-correction, replication, and fabulous 3D complexity. It is really early days.

“Perhaps I would best describe it as the challenge of understanding how a tree builds itself from a seed, and then using those concepts to build machines that grow. In general I think the huge opportunity for the future that I would love to see occur is taking bio-tech into bulk materials. All the focus right now is on biomedical applications and crop/agriculture type stuff.

“I'd like to think about and work on how to take biotech concepts into the fabrication of building materials, packaging materials that recycle themselves, growing parts and objects. Perhaps I don't have the skill set for it, but I am enamoured by the ideas.

“I would also love to see a future where many more people engage themselves in their own consumer habits by building and recycling their own objects.

“It would be a much more interesting and productive world were it so. I think there is profound unexplored space in this area using the web connected to computer-controlled machine tools and the sharing of the description files for those objects as well as the design process. I am not satisfied with the majority of products and their poor design, perhaps this would lead to better design. I think educational projects like Howtoons will be a part of that. “I've never been able to stay in what other people would call one field of endeavour. I love to look for the connections between fields old and new. I can personally see all the connections between everything I do. For example, Saul’s older sister selena is an Industrial Designer and runs a company named www.monkeykites.com. Saul designs the aerodynamics, and Selena “does everything else”, according to Saul. “She teaches industrial design and can do just about everything and tries to.”

“I can see similarities - the lenses and kite designs share some very interesting aspects of constrained minimal energy surface design, though I think other people just see it all as haphazard.” … and what has it been like attending the fabled MIT media lab? “The Media Lab has been amazing. It is wonderful hands-off atelier education. It's like a Montessori school for adults; just get lots of energetic people, put them in a box with great resources and let them bounce around off each other and produce lots of cool stuff, stuff that works, doesn't work, is pointless, is important. It all comes out of the creative mix and is an addictive atmosphere to work in. I would love to see something similar spring up in Australia. Definitely not a media lab copy - I think it is time for something new, probably with a stronger mix of the biological and physical sciences with art and music and education thrown in the mix.”