Getting to Know: Samson March, BS ’14 (Electrical Engineering)
A graduate of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mr. Samson March has been busy using Smart technology to invent new devices for the everyday user marketplace. In addition to a smart watch and smart glasses, Samson recently invented a smart wand, which he demonstrates in this fun YouTube video. Readers who want to keep up-to-date on Samson’s projects may follow him on Instagram.
What sort of work do you do?
Currently, I design products for other people, be it individuals or large companies. I work kind of like a consultant for a company. Clients will come to us with an idea that they either do not have the knowledge or resources to design themselves. One of the cool parts about my job is that every project I work on is a new type of product, each with its own set of challenges. Because of that, I spend the first few weeks of every project learning as much as I can about the topics that are relevant!
What made you consider creating innovative Do-It-Yourself devices such as your smart watch and smart glasses?
As weird as it sounds, I like what I do for a living! So, when I am not designing products for a living, I do it for fun. The reason I worked on those particular DIY projects is pretty simple—they were projects that I thought were fun and things I thought I would use myself.
Which of your device ideas is most interesting or most challenging to you, and why?
The real answer is always the next one. That being said, to date, I think the watch was the most challenging to design. There was a lot of learning that I had to do for that project. I hadn’t really done any serious code work before and my 3D modeling/printing skills were lackluster (to say the least). It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work.
How did you become interested in designing devices?
To be honest, I just like making things. I grew up playing with Legos, K’NEX, and erector sets (like almost every other engineer). Here I am now, as an adult, and things have not really changed—I just have the opportunity to play with cooler things.
What are the challenges associated with designing non-corporate devices?
When I do work for work purposes, the amount of money I have at my disposal (for prototypes, development costs, or even tools) is significantly more than I have for personal uses. If I need to spend $10,000 to have a printed circuit board fabricated, no one bats an eye. If I needed to spend $10,000 on a hobby project, the hobby project would never exist. It comes down to, “How can I afford to do this project?” It actually started when I was in SEAS. I would look for the cheapest way to make things. I would use recycled Snapple bottles for liquid reservoirs or scrap wood from discarded pallets for furniture.
The biggest challenge is finding a cheap way to do things that will look and feel like a real product. My watch and glasses (to me) look like real products and not DIY projects. Finding a way to do things cheaply, by manufacturing most things at home, is a big part of what I enjoy. Sometimes, though, I can’t just make it myself (to the quality I need). Things like printed circuit boards are messy and dangerous to make at home. It is picking and choosing my battles: what makes sense for me to do and what makes sense to pay for others to do for me.
Do you consider alternate sources of funding for your projects?
Not really. The watch and the glasses were both projects that were self-funded. One of the nice things about being in the workforce is that I have some disposable income to spend on the projects I want. I do try to be conscious of the cost. For example, if I’m making a smartwatch and an Apple Watch is selling for $300, I set my cost limit to say $300. I’m not trying to spend that much, but I definitely don’t want to go over that. The goal is not to go beyond the cost of a premium product. This is my hobby and I do it for fun. If I work on 3-4 projects over the course of a year, and I spend $500 on each of them ($2,000 in total), that still comes out to only about $5.50 a day. For the cost of a Starbucks coffee a day I get to work on whatever I want!
What are the goals of your designs? Is there anything you are hoping to achieve or learn beyond their production?
The goal of every project is to learn something new. Typically, I am trying to make something that I need, or think would be fun to have. I am trying to do things that take me out of my comfort zone. I graduated in electrical engineering and work as an electrical engineer, so I do a lot of circuit design and other electrical things. I want to make sure that when I’m working on personal projects I’m branching out in other disciplines.
The big goal is getting more comfortable in mechanical design, machining, app development, learning more about embedded code, etc. For the watch project, I had done a decent amount of embedded code on microcontrollers in the past, but I had never done anything where I had to make a display work. It was a lot of learning how a screen displays an image. For the glasses project, it was the first time I had to develop an app. Playing around with iOS was a very different (but fun) experience from working in basic C. I like to make things that I want to use, and I want to learn things along the way.
What makes your devices unique when compared to corporate versions already available?
My design philosophy is that technology should make your life easier. To make it easier it should not get in the way of normal tasks. For the watch, I started thinking about what type of stuff I wanted from a wearable. I want a device that passively gives me information. I do not want to be interacting with it or poking around on a tiny screen. Compared to a corporate version where there is currently a race to pack the most features into a small space, I wanted to make a watch that (I think) looks good and fits my philosophy. These projects were designed exclusively for me. They are unique in that they are tailor made to my needs and wants. They are custom devices that have stripped away the excess things that I would not use and in turn replaced them with the aesthetic or functions I want.
What successes have you had in your DIY projects?
The biggest success, for me personally, has been that the projects work well, they look good, and I feel good about them. The unexpected twist is that they have taken their own life and grown into their own thing. The coolest (and most unexpected) part has been the people reaching out to me asking me to make devices for them. I open-source all the projects on GitHub so anyone can download the files and make their own. Over 175,000 people have gone through the watch project and 75,000 for the glasses. The milestone, to me, is achieving a level of professionalism and completeness that draws other people into the projects.
Are you collaborating with anyone else in your designs?
While I don’t have any collaborators on my projects, my friends and coworkers are professional product designers and I definitely pick their brains occasionally. Things like asking a mechanical engineer what plastics would be right for this application or asking one of the industrial designers what they think about this form-factor. I have been very fortunate that I have learned from some amazing product designers throughout my career. One of my good friends who went to GW with me, Dan Kattan, was a computer engineering student and one of my senior design project team members. Every now and then when I finish a design or schematic, I will send it over to Dan to review it. I have gotten into the habit of doing a sanity check with Dan who I lean on more than anyone else to see if I am missing anything. I am open to collaborating with other people in the future, but it would have to be the right project, at the right time, with the right person. Because I do this for a living, part of the fun is that I am in the driver seat making all the important decisions.
Do you have any advice for current GW students who are considering their own device creation?
I have three pieces of advice. First, and the most important thing that I can offer is to just start making. I cannot tell you how often I have an idea and then spend months researching every minute detail. I end up going down a rabbit hole and getting analysis paralysis. Three months later I am over the project without having made anything. If you have an idea, start working on it today. Even if all you can do is buy a couple of resistors or draw some rudimentary sketches. Whatever it is, start it and it will snowball into the rest of a project. The next piece of advice is to start making things that you are not comfortable making. Learn something new that is not a part of your comfort zone. If you’re an electrical engineer spend time thinking about the mechanical side, if you are a mechanical engineer spend time thinking about coding, if you are a computer engineer spend some time thinking about the electronics that make your code work. Start on that path and work your way around all the disciplines as best you can. That has made me a better engineer both in my off time and in my full-time job. Now when I am working with other people, I have a better feel for what they are trying to do and am better able to help them get there. Lastly, do not be afraid to fail. I have dozens of projects at home that I started but never finished. It is ok to fail. Failure is a good thing. If you hit on one project out of five that’s better than never starting any.