Matt Cottam: An Actor Prepares

by Brian Jepson

Matt Cottam is an innovator who I've been crossing paths with on and off recently, but who I'm only meeting for the first time today at BIF-3. He and I first got to know each other when I learned he's a big fan of a gadget that's near and dear to my heart. Matt is an Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at RISD, but I think of him as a Physical Computing pioneer, someone who is making devices smarter, more fun to interact with, and easier for people to build on their own... 

Matt told the story of how he prepared to work on a military project to improve search and rescue medicine. To prepare for it, he became a medic: enrolled in an EMT course and eventually became an EMT and ALS medic for the National Ski Patrol. In developing his project, he's spent a lot of time on the side of mountains, getting people down as quickly and safely as possible.

Matt's journey is truly unique, and not something that every technologist has the skill or will to take. But it is nonetheless inspiring. I suppose that if you can't take yourself to the mountain, consider bringing the mountain to your project: bring people who have hands-on, real-life experience into your design and prototyping process; not as subjects of interviews or focus groups, but as active participants. One of the great things about the modern state of physical computing (hacking small embedded devices that sense and control the real world) is that you don't need to be an expert to design and prototype an amazing and useful device. Everyone can get hands-on: artist-programmers and users.