Category Archives: Editors Choice

As a new member (and Fellow) at the incubator, accelerator, and hard tech ecosystem of mHub, I am faced daily with the question: “Have you done this before?” as a qualifying question from potential clients.

It’s only natural that someone would ask this question, as adults we have learned the importance of doing the thing 10, 50, or 100 times to become an expert at it.

However, in the context of research and innovation, there are processes, frameworks, and experiences through straight-up discomfort that differ from the more prescribed phases of product development.

This week at mHub, Mary Doctor led an engaging and insightful Book Club event on the topic of The Ten Faces of Innovation written by Tom Kelley, which describes 10 personas of innovation, all of which are represented at CArtLab Solutions.

The first group of personas are about using learning to innovate:

1. Anthropologist: this role contributes through the fieldwork of observation, where CArtLab Solutions chooses clients who are open both to virtual and in-person interaction with a new idea/ material/ process/ product to ensure the problem is understood including all the subtle details
2. Experimenter: this role involves leaving room for calculated risks and failing fast, where CArtLab Solutions approaches each project through a growth mindset, rather than results mindset
3. Cross-Pollinator: this role involves buzzing around different flowers (disciplines) like bees, where Dr. CC at CArtLab Solutions uses her training in art conservation science to find creative approaches that solve other industry issues

The next group of personas unite around organization:

1. Hurdler: this role understands that if something is truly fresh and new, it will involve obstacles that have deterred others, so CArtLab Solutions targets ambitious clients whose projects require perseverance and stubborn positive determination along the critical steps of development
2. Collaborator: this role accepts that a team of perspectives is greater than any individual toward innovation, and at CArtLab Solutions we offer multidisciplinary combinations of eclectic problem solvers
3. Director: This role is represented by various styles of leadership to spark positive change, whereas at CArtLab Solutions we dictate client alignment through calm and confident connections, even in the context of innovation challenges that appear frenzied

The final group of personas share the role of building:

1. Experience Architect: this role opens up innovation with a radical mindset to turn a problem upside down/inside out, where at CArtLab Solutions we bring the motto “never say never” to every client meeting
2. Set Designer: this role designs a stage for the team to do their best work, where at CArtLab Solutions we operate out of the physical environment of mHub due to the overlapping values of equity, sustainability, and community through respect
3. Caregiver: this role breaks down the nature of the innovation teams interactions, where at CArtLab Solutions we see each client beyond the service we provide, to the individual who we can anticipate their current and future needs
4. Storyteller: this role sees the significance of human experiences in translation of complex research or developments, where at CArtLab Solutions we like to understand the clients story during the intake process, to better contextualize all updates/ data/ results for the client

If my storytelling skills have not yet hit the mark for why you- my reader- should care about CArtLab Solutions approaches to innovation, please let the British publication of The Economistconvince you through their claim:

“Innovation is now recognized as the single most important ingredient in any modern economy.”

If you have any comments/questions/ concerns please do not hesitate to email me ccarta@cartlabsolutions.com.

What types of scenarios does someone hire a technical consultant/ P.I.?

In every work experience, there is always administrative responsibilites. Tasks that makes one wonder about our own contribution and it’s significance. Will an AI robot replace this worker’s role for this monotonous labor?

In contrast to repetitive administrative roles, the best job security is in the role of a principal investigator.

Why?

Work completed by a P.I. is ambitious, could be solved through multiple competing solutions, and most people would rather call it impossible based on a quick simulation then sit down to do the work of hurtling over the pain points to the best solution.

The top 5 pain points I recognize in potential clients are the following:

1. Limited horsepower: Clients will want to keep their teams focused on current objectives while also moving the team forward, and can rely on a P.I. for quick onboarding, innovative solutions, and setting up project management plans for when the load lightens for the permanent team
2. Confirmation Bias: Clients will feel their team has presented solutions that maintain status quo, and can rely on a P.I. to bring new ideas or solutions to challenges to the table
3. Skills not currently in house: Clients will have a need that no in-house talent has the required skills, so they hire a P.I. with a specialized knowledge such as mine, like 3D printing, materials characterization of polymers, or polymer chemistry formulations, or lab expertise in designing a sustainable laboratory processes
4. Politics/ emotions around a specific project: Clients will want to solve a problem, and will hire a P.I. to address the sensitive controversy without any negative impact on team dynamics
5. Premature to invest full time in a specialized employee: Clients in this group are usually startups, looking for short term expertise by hiring a P.I.

Though my physical flexibility will never achieve a fraction of GOAT Simone Biles’ daily movement medicine, my mental flexibility as a principal investigator is constantly pushed to it’s limits while fulfilling the various needs of a variety of clients.

For Black History Month, who are you celebrating?

Please rounds of applause to ALL underrepresented women for graduating with STEM degrees in a system where these women receive only 12.4% masters degrees and 6.8% of doctoral degrees (NSF NCSES, 2019).

The first two black women I want to give all the snaps/props/claps/respect for being part of this dire her-story include women whom I studied alongside:

1. Alyssa Bowker MA in biology from The College of William and Mary (2014), currently working at BIOIVT as a mergers and acquisitions analyst to elevate the life science project spaces with her high-level communication skills. She currently resides in Indiana, near where she grew up and where she believes her voice and vote can make the most social impact.
2. Krystal Cunningham, Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from UCLA (2019) currently working at Raytheon as a Sr. MultiDisciplinary Engineer to create innovation with excellence thanks to her brilliant coding and characterization skills. She currently resides in California, far from her childhood in Jamacia, and where she recently authored a novel “STEM Century: It Takes a Village to Raise a 21st-Century Graduate” (amazon link)

MORE rounds of applause to black women in STEM her-story that inspire my journey:

3. Dr. Nola Hylton (1957- )– a femtech innovator and chemical engineer who grew up in New York, studied chemical engineering at MIT, and earned a PhD in applied physics from Stamford in 1985. She spent much of her career focused on inventing and detecting breast cancer biomarkers using mammography and MRI technology. She now serves at University of California San Francisco as a Professor of Radiology and Director of the Breast Imaging Research Group and saves the lives of women all around the world thanks to her scientific contributions.

4. Mary Elliot Hill (1908-1969)– one of the earliest black women to earn a masters degree in chemistry in 1941 from University of Pennsylvania. She was known as both an analytical and organic chemist who used UV spectrophotometry to track chemical reactions such as ketene synthesis. Her work understanding this polymerization process contributes to revolutionary applications in photolithography, medicinal chemistry, and next generation materials. She is a coauthor on over 40 publications, but never listed as a senior author on any of them despite her undoubtedly innovative and intellectual prowess.

5. Lyda Newman (~1885- ?)– a patented inventor of a synthetic bristled hairbrush who was the third black woman to obtain a US patent (#614,335, link here) and who did it at only 13 years old! She was born in Ohio and lived and worked as a hairstylist mostly in New York City and some summers in Newport, Rhode Island. Very little records exist on her life outside of her advertisements for work and her leadership roles in the New York City women’s suffragist movement. She registered for her right to vote in 1924 in NYC- yes 7 years after women earned this right in the USA- but her femtech invention impacts women with a variety of hair textures to this day (including this author’s Italian American thique hair over here)!

Please share awareness and give recognition to the MANY other black women in STEM who have contributed to our Her-story!