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Kevin Santo Cappuccio, founder of Architeuthis Flux, joins the show to discuss creating Jumperless, an open-source breadboard that replaces physical jumper wires with software-controlled analog crossbar switches. We explore the need for 445 RGB LEDs on a breadboard, using MicroPython to create scriptable circuits, some of the lessons that can be implemented with the Jumperless, and how it might be used to create new instruments. Kevin also shares the story behind his upcoming Barnacle Board.Discussion Resources & LinksJumperless Project & Hardware Resources:Jumperless Docs and DiscordJumperless Shop (Also available via CrowdSupply but any discounts only apply to Kevin’s shop)JumperlessV5 · GitHub: Open-source hardware files, schematics, and firmwareBarnacle Board - GitHub:  The future of jumperless includes a modular breadboard with custom-stamped clips and removable protoboard topsOther Resources and Mentions:Wokwi Simulator: Online browser-based electronic circuit simulator Falstad Circuit Simulator: Kevin's favorite browser-based analog simulatorHackaday Prize 2023: Jumperless took 2nd place in the 2023 contest. Peter Griffin made an Microsoft Excel plugin interface for Jumperless, we discussed it with him in episode 505: Potato in a Number Field. Kevin also talked with Chris Gammell of The Amp Hour with more information about the electrical response, timing, and the crossbars.Giant squid - Wikipedia Transcript

Elecia and Christopher celebrate winning the IEEE Educational Activities Board Meritorious Achievement Award in Outreach and Informal Education! A huge thank you to Mark Omo and the wonderful listeners who submitted nomination letters. Chris and Elecia talk about learning Hungarian to qualify Chris for an EU passport. They also cover Cory Doctorow's new book The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI, smart ways to hand off codebases, and the most valuable skills they’ve relied on through their engineering careers.Discussion Resources & LinksAwards & Milestones:IEEE Educational Activities Board Meritorious Achievement Award in Outreach and Informal Education"For creating and sustaining Embedded.fm, a long-running technical engineering podcast that bridges academic theory and industry practice, champions underrepresented groups in STEM, addresses professional ethics, and provides informal technical mentorship to a global audience."Huge thanks to Mark Omo for submitting the nomination and to the other nominators for advocating for our work.To the 450+ guests—artists, makers, educators, entrepreneurs, and traditional engineers—who have generously shared their time and deep expertise with us: this award belongs to you too.And to our incredible global listener community: thank you for tuning in, sharing episodes with your colleagues, and keeping the STEM pipeline strong.If Embedded.fm has ever helped you solve a tricky bug, navigate a career transition, or stay inspired in hardware/software design, we’d love for you to celebrate with us by sharing your favorite episode with an early-career engineer or student this week!Embedded episode 501: Inside the Armpit of a Giraffe, an interview with biologist Meredith Palmer and engineer Akiba, won a Communicator Award for an Individual Episodes-Science & Technology, Distinction 2026.Books & Reading List:The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory DoctorowProgrammers at Work: Interviews With 19 Developers Who Shaped the Computer Industry by Susan Lammers (1986)Embedded AI: Intelligence at the Deep End by David Such (No Starch Press, Early Access)Technical & Language Mentions:The Hungarian phrase "Boldog vagyok" ("I am happy"). Elecia’s Duolingo pageZephyr RTOS and embedding Rust libraries into Zephyr environmentsMemfault observability, CSV data extractions, and battery performance analyticsAI models escaping sandboxes (The OpenAI and Anthropic benchmark incidents)Transcript

Marine biologist Dr. Steven Haddock joins the show to share the alien, glowing, and transparent wonders of the deep ocean. We discuss his beautiful new book, The Radiant Sea, and explore the complex engineering and high-sensitivity optics required to capture living deep-sea creatures. Steve walks us through the evolutionary logic of biological light, how vantablack organisms trap photons in the dark, the horizontal sun-compass navigation of jellyfish blooms, and what it’s like to play games underwater with giant Pacific octopuses and jumbo squids.Dr. Steven Haddock is a Senior Scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and an adjunct professor at UC Santa Cruz.Some related MBARI VideosBioluminescence in the deep sea: How and why do animals create their own light? Steven Haddock explains the diverse and striking functions of light emission in the ocean's twilight zone. (So many pretty pictures!) Mysteries of the Deep with Dr. Steve Haddock — Bioluminescence! Long-form lecture on the physics and evolutionary biology of bioluminescence.Live Blackwater Diving Q&A with MBARI and Aquarium Scientists! | Into The Deep Q&A with scientists about diving in the middle of the ocean at night.Rarely Encountered Seven-Arm Octopus in Monterey Bay: Footage captured by Steve Haddock and MBARI’s Biooptics team shows an octopus with a jelly snack.Discussion Resources & LinksSteve’s Books:The Radiant Sea: Color and Light in the Underwater World  by Steven Haddock and Sönke JohnsenPractical Computing for Biologists by Steven Haddock and Casey DunnScientific & Marine Mentions:Steven Haddock's Wikipedia PageSteven’s MBARI home page. His lab is the Biodiversity and Biooptics LabElectric Disco Clams Exist—Watch Them Light Up This Coral Reef | National Geographic Why is she like this?Disco Snails (Official Video) - MusicMore neat creature videosJelly-like Siphonophores Astound with Breathtaking Beauty: A close-up collection of the incredibly complex, colonial siphonophores that Steve mentioned, showing off their bizarre structures and flowing shapes in the pitch black.How the Disco Clam Uses Light to Fight Super-Strong Predators: See the "electric" flashing effects inside the disco clam's mantle up close, alongside an explanation of how their silica spheres scatter ambient light to startle predators.Absurd Creatures: Comb Jellies Are Ready to Rave – A fun, fast-paced video exploring the "Skittles" rainbow iridescence caused by the moving rows of cilia on ctenophores under white submersible lights.Transcript

Chris Svec returns to the show to discuss the messy, non-linear realities of engineering management and onboarding new college graduates. We explore why companies should bother hiring fresh grads in the first place, how to prevent junior developers from going dark when they get stuck, and why admitting ignorance publicly is an absolute workplace superpower. Along the way, we dive into managing genius firmware engineering hires, battling technical debt and software entropy, and why your development team shouldn't communicate solely through pull request comments.Chris Svec is the Director of Embedded Software Engineering at Insulet. If you're looking for an experienced leadership or management thought partner to help scale your development team, Chris Svec offers private coaching and consulting. You can reach him directly at the email given in the show (or hit the contact link and we’ll forward your message along).Recommended Books for Engineering Managers & Tech LeadsThe Manager's Path by Camille Fournier – A guide for navigating tech leadership and managing engineering teams.Resilient Management by Lara Hogan – A book dedicated to the human side of engineering management.Software Architecture & Embedded Systems ResourcesA Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout – A high-level philosophical perspective on software engineering and architecture.The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas – A classic text on software development best practices.Joel on Software by Joel Spolsky – Insights on software development methodologies and managing tech teams.Making Embedded Systems by Elecia White – A comprehensive guide to firmware design patterns and embedded architecture.Embedded for Everyone by Nathan Jones – A curated repository of accessible embedded system learning resources.Educational Programming GamesShenzhen I.O. by Zachtronics – An interactive puzzle game for learning assembly programming.Typer Shark! Deluxe – A classic game to improve typing speed and precision for developers.Mentions and Episode ContextEmbedded.fm blog post: Resilience is a Skill and Embedded Skills Tree The "Meow Meow Beans" episode from the TV show Community (season 5, episode 8), see a snippet.All Systems Red by Martha Wells – The sci-fi novel featured in today's closing quoteIf you want to dive into Svec’s previous appearances on the podcast, be sure to check out:78: Happy Cows (His very first appearance, discussing empathy in software development)250: Yolo Snarf (All about version control, gitflow, and D&D)297: Mice to Do My Bidding (Focusing on attentional focus and workflow psychological tricks)402: We Are a Lazy Species (Software schedule estimation alongside Philip Johnston)436: 20 GOTO 10 (Discussing modern kids' programming languages and the longevity of the Joel Test)Transcript 

Dr. Tom Williams spoke with us about robots, ethics, teaching, and books. Then we talked about mines, umpires, water, and more books.Tom is the author of Degrees of Freedom: On Robotics and Social Justice (free at MIT Press: Degrees of Freedom: On Robotics and Social Justice!). As part of the discussion, we talked about some other books and media:Nonfiction:Sex, Race, and Robots: How to Be Human in the Age of AI by Ayanna Howard (Embedded episodes 367: Data of Our Lives and 207: I Love My Robot Monkey Head)Embodied AI Safety: Reimagining safety engineering for artificial intelligence in physical systems by Philip Koopman (related Embedded episode 514: Just Turn Off All the Computers) Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence by Kate CrawfordWaki Kamino’s research on robot umpires: Beyond Accuracy: Rethinking the Value of AI in Decision-Making Through Baseball’s Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) System (or see the summary in the Cornell Chronicle: AI on deck: assessing impact of MLB’s new ball-strike system)Fiction:A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chalmers Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries Book 8) by Martha Wells (Embedded episode 432: Robot Bechdel Test) Death of the Author by Nnedi OkoraforThe Good Place TV show was mentioned a few times as an introduction to ethics for people who prefer their education crammed with amusement.Critical Role web seriesThere was a discussion about water use in AI. Tom recommends Why is Everyone So Wrong About AI Water Use?? while Elecia unsurprisingly mispronounces synecdoche. Tom is a computer science professor at the Colorado School of Mines where he runs the Mines Interactive Robotics Research Lab (MIRROR lab). See also Tom’s page on mines.edu.The final quote is from an essay written by Karel Capek and translated to English in in The Man Who Coined the Word “Robot” Defends Himself - IEEE Spectrum.Transcript