Introduction
In late 2021, Tomorrow Lab partnered with Digi-Key Electronics, which offers the world’s largest selection of electronic components in stock for immediate shipment, to launch a new video series called Potentially Genius™. In each monthly episode, our team of designers and engineers dedicate time toward solving an everyday problem, following our four stages of product invention: discovery, ideation, prototyping and presentation.
“Tomorrow Lab is beyond excited to be working with Digi-Key on this new, ambitious video series for YouTube,” said Theodore Ullrich, partner at Tomorrow Lab. “Potentially Genius builds on our previous YouTube series, The Teardown, and takes it to a new level. With Potentially Genius™, we get to have fun working on ideas that may not have immediate commercial applications and offer our audience a glimpse into Tomorrow Lab’s decade-old product invention workflows and NYC office. We hope the Potentially Genius series reaches and inspires new audiences by combining high production quality, TL’s experience in physical product design and development, and last but not least, Digi-Key’s vast component supply.”
“With Potentially Genius™, we wanted to highlight the four stages of designing a new product and dedicate time to showing how you can attack problems, make trade-offs and weigh those options with limited time and resources,” said David Sandys, director, technical marketing at Digi-Key. “We hope the Potentially Genius video series inspires engineers, startups and makers around the world to bring their own ideas to fruition – genius is often just around the corner, and starting the journey is the most critical part of getting there. Digi-Key and our design and integration service providers are proud to be part of that journey.”
Below we highlight three episodes from Potentially Genius™ Season 2 that we are most excited about!
Episode 10 – Ozone Sensor
In this episode, Tomorrow Lab collaborates with Dr. Elena Craft who is the Senior Director of Climate and Health at the Environmental Defense Fund. Dr. Craft’s expertise is on air toxics issues, focusing specifically on reducing criteria and greenhouse gas emissions from the energy and transportation sectors. She has worked to reduce emissions especially around port areas and environmental justice communities. She has also worked to reduce toxins used in shale gas drilling practices such as hydraulic fracturing. In her work, she advocates for policies that increase energy efficiency, reduce exposure to toxic compounds, and improve human health. In this episode, Dr. Craft came to the Tomorrow Lab team with an idea about creating a real-time air quality monitoring device that can engage communities about the quality of their air and potential risks they may face.
Episode 8 – Stroller Power
In this episode, Tomorrow Lab collaborates with Grace Mahary who is a model, sommelier, and Director of Project Tsehigh which is a clean and sustainable energy solution provider. Grace is also a new mom and came to the Tomorrow Lab team with an idea for a stroller that could generate electricity kinetically, or with solar, to power devices while out on the run!
Episode 7 – Motion-Activated Microphone
In this episode, Tomorrow Lab collaborates with designer, author, and educator Carla Diana, who explores the impact of future technologies through hands-on experiments, on a new motion-activated microphone. Using Carla’s philosophy on interactive electronics, the team from Tomorrow Lab gets to work to turn this into a potentially genius design by generating multiple sketches, schematics, and prototypes that leverage Digi-Key’s massive electronic component selection.