mhb_eng

Somewhat old news, as a more recent article highlights that those issues have since been resolved.

https://breakingdefense.com/2025/10/army-says-its-mitigated-...

Really interesting. Feels like it would be a natural addition to a company like Brain (https://www.braincorp.com/) who is already using robots to regularly perform those kinds of survey missions and have an overlapping customer base.

Have you identified any limitations in current grippers based on lack of tactile sensing solutions to unlock truly dextrous manipulation?

RTK GPS? Assuming you have a base station, you correct the precision of the drones to ~1cm

Double down on the IQT comment(have co-invested with them in the past). Their specific charter is to invest in startups like this. Though they don’t typically lead rounds, they have a network of firms that they have co-invested with and will help connect you to the right folks.

My experience with this, though this may not be the consensus view, was that participation from friends/family was generally a good sign, since founders clearly believe in the business to the point of pitching their friends to invest (and getting deals closed shows some evidence of sales ability).

For seafloor mapping, the other opportunity is in wind power, which is actually a reasonably compelling market

Depending on where you are located, there are a number of oceanographic near-shore buoys that provide reasonable data access, but they are highly concentrated near the coastal US. https://cdip.ucsd.edu/m/documents/data_access.html

Recently built one myself (funny how that works with HackerNews). And would double down on your comments about gpsd and ntpd. My biggest problem was gpsd autobaud detection for the Ublox module I was using kept setting the wrong baud rate.

Following up on the lightmode request. It's difficult to switch from income statement to cashflow or balance sheet because the menu is dark text on dark background. Additionally, you may want to add some spacing between % return and current price in the top leaders section to improve visuals for stocks with prices > $1,000.

Great guide! Overall, agree with the thoughts on leverage and running an efficient process. However, speaking from experience and having spent time as a principal and associate, I would disagree with the advice that only pitching partners is worthwhile. Depending on the space(my experience is solely in hard tech), associates and principals generally make up the technical core of the team, so getting them excited is a key step in making overall progress. A good rule of thumb is to check LinkedIn. If the person has been there more than a year, assume even lower level folks have an ability to make go/no-go decisions.

Not a fit for either position (My software skills are more around hacking together impromptu projects), but wanted to say that I'm super excited Gaia is growing. I really appreciate the app and am a frequent user for outdoor adventures!

For reference, there are companies that have developed this to a commercially viable level. First that comes to mind is ZGlue, a company that has the design tools, interconnect fabric, and chiplet ecosystem required to deliver these kinds of devices.

https://www.zglue.com/

Unfortunately, libressl is not FIPS 140-2 compliant, so you can't leverage it for open source development of secure applications for the US government (though this is more to do with the certification headache than a fault of libressl itself)

Another 2017 OMSCS grad with a unique career path chiming in. I was a MechE by background, but had some pre-existing computer science education from dabbling with robotics. My primary goal was to broaden my skillset and achieve the M.S. designation. To be honest, the M.S. has been nearly useless (nobody asks/cares), but I'd do the program again in a heartbeat, as I'm now a VC that is at least somewhat conversant in many of the technologies we are encountering.

There are also a few pdf copies floating around that are acceptable quality.

On the book front, I'd also recommend Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy by Wayne R. Moore. It's a great treatise on how you can measure things like one millionth of an inch, and has lots of incredible pictures.

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/foundations-mechanical-accura...

Venture Deals by Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld is a good overview. If you want to get more technical, the NVCA publishes a list of their own "standard" documents, which go into depth on some of the standard and non-standard provisions and what they mean, but it's not quite as user friendly.

One potential modification would be to add some language to the No Shop clause to allow the lead investor to approve any other conversations about the round. This can be helpful when the Series A round is larger, as the diligence by separate investors can proceed in parallel.

I have an XPS 15 and have been quite happy with the it overall, but echo similar comments about the atrocity of the killer wireless cards and drivers. It’s mind boggling that those issues could exist in a 2017-2018 laptop.

Cannot agree more strongly with you here. Anything that makes it harder to read/reference/share these materials is a small but common irritant.

NASA has also done some reseach into ZBLan fabrication on earth using magnetic fields to eliminate crystal formation (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/201200...). This seems to be an expensive effort to duplicate the same effect.

Very cool! Have you considered applying this technique for labeling Building Infrastructure Management (BIM) Pointcloud data? One of the challenges when dealing with as-built BIM capture is understanding exactly how point clouds are mapped to real-world features.

If you don't mind my asking, what field are you in? I've been fascinated with 3d printing for a while(built my own printer etc) but haven't quite found the right place to apply and you are certainly selling the formlabs experience!

My OMSCS experience was rewarding, but I think I echo most other commenters when I say it is entirely dependent on how much effort you can put in. Personally, I graduated in May 2017 after 2 years of study (worked full-time during those years), with a decently high GPA and a good understanding of the basics. As my undergraduate degree was in Mechanical Engineering/Math, it was interesting to get more involved with machine learning/robotics from the software side. If you already have CS experience, I don't know how much this would be beneficial over more traditional on-the-job training, but for someone who is diversifying/changing specialities, it was very useful. Though in my current role, its mostly used as a filter, so all the hard problems that encompass both departments seem to end up at my desk... Additionally, one of things about OMSCS vs a MOOC or self study is that because you have invested financially, you are more motivated to succeed. This can be especially useful if you are maintaining a full-time job while attending, as getting home from work to do nightly programming can be a challenge some days.

As an interesting aside, anyone who is interested in this stuff should check out the Omega Tau podcast(http://omegataupodcast.net). In a recent episode(#247), he went in depth with Dr. Hoffman about his research and the uses of BMG materials.

My experience with a similar (fully maxed out 9560, but no touch display). Since updating the drivers, the killer card has been working without fail, though it was a little frustrating to deal with a brand new laptop that constantly blue screened and failed to connect to wireless when my 10year old macbook sitting at the same desk was fine. Reddit has a good guide for setting it up, though some of these are now out-of-date. https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5unlmb/got_my_brand_n...

I'd be interested in near-shore(a few miles out and cell service is unusable/you don't have a high thoroughput requirement). There are plenty of "nearish" ocean applications that could benefit from an extended range without requiring iridium(where packet costs can be a killer).

As an engineer who also grew up in San Diego and now works here full-time, I totally agree. I think there is tremendous potential for innovation in San Diego, the hardest part is finding investors. As you said, there are many great universities nearby, with plenty of young talent who might be disenfranchised with the high cost of living/lifestyle of SV(or maybe that's just me,the disenfranchised part, not the talent).

As a robotics/mechanical guy, it can be a little overwhelming to consider a startup, because prototyping hardware gadgets is pricey! But I have been looking at something like SBIR/STTR funding, because most of my widgets are navy/defense focused.

I would say some potential founders could use the same funding to build software, especially considering you don't have to give up any commercialization rights or ownership stake to get the funding.

As a mechanical engineer, I am excited to see more of a focus on hard tech content here! Unfortunately, there isn't really a HackerNews for EE's or ME's (though if someone wants to build it, I'd be grateful). So it can be tough to find startups working on these sorts of hard problems that are looking for all flavors of engineer (except civil, they stink and nothing they make moves /s). Personally, I work in ocean robotics and defense, which is I think is very cool, but mostly handled by large defense contractors and military research departments.