Producer of the Week: jbrenner
Jbrenner shares some high-tech passion projects as well as how he can relate to many of the characters in Atlas Shrugged.
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QUICK FACTS
*Favorite Ayn Rand book:
Atlas Shrugged. I have more comparisons to what has transpired since the middle of 2008 when I first read the book than I can count. I identify with many of the characters. Like Rearden, I am a materials engineer. I could show Reardon and d’Anconia a few things about how to purify metals. I have been on many sides of the energy equation and thus can relate to several characters like Galt, Danagger, and Wyatt. I have a bit of a personality disorder in that I enjoy keeping things running despite all sorts of setbacks like Dagny. When I was younger, I had a few Wet Nurse moments. I worked in a government lab for a while before reading AS and could see the temptation for a Robert Stadler.
*Favorite Ayn Rand character:
Francisco d’Anconia, especially for the money speech. Francisco was gifted at illustrating the hypocrisy of those around him.
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Q & A
*When were you first introduced to Ayn Rand?
I read “We the Living” while in high school because I had to do so. I wrote an essay showing the absurdity of Communism as exemplified by the book, only to find out that my teacher was a Communist. She gave me a C on the essay to give me a B for the course and cost me being valedictorian.
*How has Ayn Rand influenced your life?
Later in this thread, you will read about a company I helped start in which one of my partners invented something akin to Mr. Fusion from the Back to the Future movies. I was one of the last in our small business to read “Atlas Shrugged” in 2008. When Barack Obama got elected and it was obvious that he was favoring solar instead of the biofuels we were selling, we sold our company and shrugged. I don’t think I would have shrugged had I not just read “Atlas Shrugged”.
*What passion projects are you working on right now?
Prof. Kurt Winkelmann and I are co-authoring the first lab manual on a nanotechnology laboratory that encompasses both synthesis and characterization.
My current research projects involve 3D printing of poly(lactic acid) fibers as inexpensive tissue scaffolding. In several years I plan to make tissue engineering affordable by embedding growth and differentiation factors into such fibers, thereby allowing one of my colleagues at Florida Tech to morph induced pluripotent stem cells grown on the poly(lactic acid) fibers into fully developed, ready-to-implant tissue. This will make some money, but the next project is the one for which I will make a mint.
Just today I bought a 40 watt engraving laser from which I will build a 3D printer of metals and ceramics via laser sintering. Right now 3D printing of metals and ceramics AND 3D bioprinting equipment is overpriced to the point where that industry is similar to the computer business in about 1982. In the last couple of years many people have developed 3D printers for home use, but the laser power required to do 3D printing of metals and ceramics will greatly limit the number of companies that want to compete with me. Fortunately I have a student working for me who could be the next John Galt.
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ON THE WEB
I need to update my web site quite a bit, but it's: http://my.fit.edu/~jbrenner
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/1ocHjmV
Gulch Profile: http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/jbrenner...
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K’s Q & A
*What are you wearing to the Atlas Shrugged III premiere?
I just bought an Atlas Shrugged: Now, Non-Fiction T-shirt (http://store.atlasshruggedmovie.com/offi...).
*What is the one phrase Ayn Rand wrote that stopped you in your tracks?
I would not take it upon my conscience that anything produced by my mind should be used to bring them comfort. - Quentin Daniels
*If you could be the tycoon of an industry, which industry would you pick?
I want to dominate the business of 3D printing of metals and ceramics by making such rapid prototyping printers in the $2000-5000 range instead of in the $200,000-$1,000,000 range.
*What do you pack in a sack lunch?
I don't pack a sack lunch. I either go to my university's dining hall or out to eat.
*Favorite current song?
We Are the Champions is my favorite song because I have no time for losers.
As I write this, my wife is listening to Fool on a Hill by The Beatles. That is a perfect description for people who have blanked out. Taxman by The Beatles describes how I feel about government. When I was in high school, I was the lead singer for a 60's-70's-early 80's rock and roll band, but I couldn't turn it into a day job. I have a fairly broad range of music that I like, but I do not like anything since about 1987.
*Pretzels or chips?
Chips
*Crab or shrimp?
Shrimp
- - - - -
Read how you can be featured in Galt’s Gulch as a Producer of the Week: http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/51...
- - - - -
QUICK FACTS
*Favorite Ayn Rand book:
Atlas Shrugged. I have more comparisons to what has transpired since the middle of 2008 when I first read the book than I can count. I identify with many of the characters. Like Rearden, I am a materials engineer. I could show Reardon and d’Anconia a few things about how to purify metals. I have been on many sides of the energy equation and thus can relate to several characters like Galt, Danagger, and Wyatt. I have a bit of a personality disorder in that I enjoy keeping things running despite all sorts of setbacks like Dagny. When I was younger, I had a few Wet Nurse moments. I worked in a government lab for a while before reading AS and could see the temptation for a Robert Stadler.
*Favorite Ayn Rand character:
Francisco d’Anconia, especially for the money speech. Francisco was gifted at illustrating the hypocrisy of those around him.
- - - - -
Q & A
*When were you first introduced to Ayn Rand?
I read “We the Living” while in high school because I had to do so. I wrote an essay showing the absurdity of Communism as exemplified by the book, only to find out that my teacher was a Communist. She gave me a C on the essay to give me a B for the course and cost me being valedictorian.
*How has Ayn Rand influenced your life?
Later in this thread, you will read about a company I helped start in which one of my partners invented something akin to Mr. Fusion from the Back to the Future movies. I was one of the last in our small business to read “Atlas Shrugged” in 2008. When Barack Obama got elected and it was obvious that he was favoring solar instead of the biofuels we were selling, we sold our company and shrugged. I don’t think I would have shrugged had I not just read “Atlas Shrugged”.
*What passion projects are you working on right now?
Prof. Kurt Winkelmann and I are co-authoring the first lab manual on a nanotechnology laboratory that encompasses both synthesis and characterization.
My current research projects involve 3D printing of poly(lactic acid) fibers as inexpensive tissue scaffolding. In several years I plan to make tissue engineering affordable by embedding growth and differentiation factors into such fibers, thereby allowing one of my colleagues at Florida Tech to morph induced pluripotent stem cells grown on the poly(lactic acid) fibers into fully developed, ready-to-implant tissue. This will make some money, but the next project is the one for which I will make a mint.
Just today I bought a 40 watt engraving laser from which I will build a 3D printer of metals and ceramics via laser sintering. Right now 3D printing of metals and ceramics AND 3D bioprinting equipment is overpriced to the point where that industry is similar to the computer business in about 1982. In the last couple of years many people have developed 3D printers for home use, but the laser power required to do 3D printing of metals and ceramics will greatly limit the number of companies that want to compete with me. Fortunately I have a student working for me who could be the next John Galt.
- - - - -
ON THE WEB
I need to update my web site quite a bit, but it's: http://my.fit.edu/~jbrenner
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/1ocHjmV
Gulch Profile: http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/jbrenner...
- - - - -
K’s Q & A
*What are you wearing to the Atlas Shrugged III premiere?
I just bought an Atlas Shrugged: Now, Non-Fiction T-shirt (http://store.atlasshruggedmovie.com/offi...).
*What is the one phrase Ayn Rand wrote that stopped you in your tracks?
I would not take it upon my conscience that anything produced by my mind should be used to bring them comfort. - Quentin Daniels
*If you could be the tycoon of an industry, which industry would you pick?
I want to dominate the business of 3D printing of metals and ceramics by making such rapid prototyping printers in the $2000-5000 range instead of in the $200,000-$1,000,000 range.
*What do you pack in a sack lunch?
I don't pack a sack lunch. I either go to my university's dining hall or out to eat.
*Favorite current song?
We Are the Champions is my favorite song because I have no time for losers.
As I write this, my wife is listening to Fool on a Hill by The Beatles. That is a perfect description for people who have blanked out. Taxman by The Beatles describes how I feel about government. When I was in high school, I was the lead singer for a 60's-70's-early 80's rock and roll band, but I couldn't turn it into a day job. I have a fairly broad range of music that I like, but I do not like anything since about 1987.
*Pretzels or chips?
Chips
*Crab or shrimp?
Shrimp
- - - - -
Read how you can be featured in Galt’s Gulch as a Producer of the Week: http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/51...
It is most deserved. I have found your presence and contributions most encouraging.
Best Regards,
O.A.
I am looking forward to selling you a 3D printer of metals so that you can do your dyemaking so much faster ... and then have you tell me how I can improve it.
I find your optimism infectious and I need it! :)
I wish you the greatest of success. I also hope your machines don't put me out of business quite yet. I still have a few more years I have to work before retirement thanks to our pathetic economy.
Best Regards,
O.A.
I'll try to be the local optimist around here. Yes, our economy is pathetic, but there are nice little corners of the world where one can live Galtish values and prosper at least well enough ... for now.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/40W-CO2-LASER-EN...
and a mini version of
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161200740409?_tr...
If you buy the latter printer this week, bear with my buddy, Martin Gallagher. Martin is a one-person company and is guiding 20-some students through a 3D printing camp at my university this week.
I feel better already. LOL
30x30x45 is going to be for professional use only, but for models, which is what 3D printing is mostly for, you can do a scale model rather easily. These printers really aren't meant to be production units.
You have earned it. It's been enjoyable to engage here with you. To your continued success in your endeavors.
NMA
Recently WinterWind and I had a debate in a different thread about whether or not everyone should hear the merits of Objectivism. We agreed that it is our responsibility to tell others about Objectivism, but it is not our responsibility to "make them agree with Objectivism". We can sow and water, but we can't make them grow into Objectivists. They have to do it for themselves. If they choose to ignore the merits of Objectivism, I have no further time for such losers.
The toughest part of AS for me to accept originally was the idea that governments should not fund science. I was disabused of that notion a few short years later in grad school.
We'll get your son into the camp next year. This was the first year, and there were definitely some bugs to work out. It was definitely a camp for future Galts.
K
http://www.amazon.com/Biomaterials-Scien...
Your work has much to offer to many... I hope you have that sacred place where you can replenish your spirit and regain momentum if ever you should encounter some underhanded, fatal blow dealt by a governmental organization. I can read your enthusiasm, your passion and your perseverance that you give to your chosen art and nothing can be achieved without these ("The only man never to be redeemed is the man without passion"- Ayn Rand)
Be bold, be audacious but "tie your camel"- protect your mental assets from those who would profit by defrauding you. In your field it is not uncommon.
Thank you jbrenner because you will surely succeed and I quote Rand here..."Because the sight of an achievement was the greatest gift a human could offer to others".
I have been too generous about an idea when I was a grad student. I wrote an e-mail to a professor at another institution about an idea for an improvement on his catalyst. I saw most of the first paragraph of my e-mail in his next paper just over a year later.
John J.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44tOJQFZ...
I also had to edit down a section about a small business to make biosensors. I was asked to be VP for sensor development and one of the early partners. We made an alternate to the EPT pregnancy test kit and were going to mass produce at $1-2 per kit vs. $15 for EPT. EPT heard about us and bought us out. I wasn't all that upset because our company's president was starting to promise things that we expected to be able to deliver in several months, but hadn't proven yet.
eddeih
give us so much, since you're busy at school and
in research, besides?
Regardless, Thank You!!! -- j
Aerosmith '87!) and will endeavor to seek out
opportunities to improve yours!!! -- j
hinterlands!!! -- j
Congrats on being on the cutting edge with the 3D bio-printing tech. I was just reading some popular lit. about that with regards to "growing" organs for transplants and a particular area of interest for me, tissue for burn grafts. (my brother-in-law suffered 3rd degree burns on 50%+ of his body in an industrial explosion) That's all heady stuff for my little brain to wind around, but I'm sure you know far more than I ever will about it.
3d printing of ceramics is a area that I have been exploring a bit, but I'd love to find out just where you are with it. The industrial applications are incredible and the uses for ceramic seals as are use in the space program will open lots of doors in the future.
And again I say, such a young gentleman........ :v)
While most of my "bio" group is focusing on 3D bioprinting, I do have one project that I have a grad student refurbishing a biolistic gun (or gene gun). The idea is to fire Au nanoparticles coated with one's own DNA into the dead tissue (burnt skin in your case) with > 1000 psi helium. The Au nanoparticles remove the dead cells from the extracellular matrix, and then the DNA that surrounded the Au is used to repopulate the tissue with one's own stem cells.
The following Youtube link isn't mine, but it is the inspiration for this student's project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXO_ApjK...
I just had a thought come to mind - what about repair of Spinal cord tissue? I know how we've been told that it can't be repaired in a natural manner so that the synax align correctly, is it possible that a new cord might be "grown" in this manner? Talk about Frankenstein stuff! Or perhaps what a Star Trek sort of surgery that would be.
http://stupp.northwestern.edu/
I'm hoping for cartilage regeneration technology.
Glucosamine goes so far but arthritis runs in the family.
https://sites.google.com/a/eng.ucsd.edu/...