THING Tank

The Rise of Cubesats: Opportunities and Challenges

Can current systems adapt to address the challenges that arise from the growing number of CubeSats and emerging concerns?

Rethinking Data Quality: Considerations for Low-Cost (and Open Source) Science Tools

The Potential for Low-Cost and Open Source Hardware Solutions to Scale

Low-cost and open source tools can accelerate and democratize science, benefiting individual researchers, formal institutions and grassroots communities alike. Realizing the goals of low-cost and open source hardware requires attention to how these tools can scale.

Stitching Together a Solution: Lessons from the Open Source Hardware Response to COVID-19

Open Hardware and COVID-19 Roundtable

A joint initiative of the Wilson Center’s THING Tank Initiative and the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy at NYU Law.

Event Summary | Low-Cost and Open Source Tools: Next Steps for Science and Policy

Beyond open source software or citizen science apps, an important trend is emerging as the things of science-- the physical tools that generate data or otherwise support research-- are becoming less expensive, and more open.  

Low-Cost and Open Source Tools: Next Steps for Science and Policy

Building Blocks for Better Science: Case Studies in Low-Cost and Open Tools for Science

About Open Sourced Science

Scientific Community Profiles

Snapshots of Communities in the Hardware and Open Science Ecosystem

THING Tank: Introducing Converging Communities

Open Science and Intellectual Property: Using Open Licenses to Open Your Science

Open Tools Create New Pathways to the Circular Economy

Open Hardware Needs Policy Attention Now: A Summary

This blog is part of a series on open hardware and key messages for public policy. Reflecting on a series of workshop and blogs, we propose that emphasizing open hardware in the new science policy agenda is an immense opportunity to advance research and innovation infrastructure while addressing other critical priorities. The thirteen blog posts in this series describe key messages in complementary ways, propose new ways of thinking about hardware for science, and outline bold recommendations for increasing the impact of open hardware on science and society.

THING Tank: How are Innovative and Accessible Physical Tools Changing Science?

The nature of tools are changing -- from design, to access, to use. Will the use of these tools fundamentally change how we generate data and knowledge, and apply it to global problems?