Five Questions With: Todd Thomas

TODD THOMAS, founder of Tinker Bristol, represented Rhode Island in June at the 2016 National Week of Makers, a project put on by the White House.  / COURTESY TODD THOMAS
TODD THOMAS, founder of Tinker Bristol, represented Rhode Island in June at the 2016 National Week of Makers, a project put on by the White House. / COURTESY TODD THOMAS

Todd Thomas, founder of Tinker|Bristol, a nonprofit manufacturing incubator and co-working space, represented Rhode Island at the 2016 National Week of Makers held in Washington, D.C., in June. He talks about the experience with Providence Business News and the incubator’s mission.

PBN: How did you become involved with the National Week of Makers in Washington, D.C.?

THOMAS: To quote the invitation from the White House: “This gathering will preview the Nation of Makers events and bring together individuals from around the country who are leading efforts to empower, support, and inspire makers and will help kick off the National Week of Making. This workshop is the first event of the National Week of Making (June 17-23) and has been designed to bring together maker organizers from all 50 states with the goal of providing you all an overview of the work, to share with each other what is happening in each state and region, and listen to what questions and thoughts you all might have. We are working to have at least one representative from every state and you have been selected to give a voice for what is happening in Rhode Island. We are looking forward to the opportunity that we will have to meet you but also that you all will be able to meet and interact with each other.” – So, I received this nomination a bit out of the blue, I have no idea who nominated me – but this was part of an overall effort from the Obama administration’s interest and support of not only the Maker Movement, but how in fact the Maker Movement can help manufacturing and improve our national economy. The National Week of Making itself is designed to showcase how harnessing America’s innate ability to tinker and innovate – that “American Ingenuity” element – can be brought to the manufacturing sector, bringing collaboration and new tools and technologies to the forefront – celebrating STEAM careers and educational programs. The event at the White House that I was invited to was a gathering of one person or so from each state in the union – who were identified through their research or recommendation from various federal interactions/events – who were not only well connected with the maker movement in their home state, but also willing and able to go back and spread the word about the new federal programs and opportunities in making and advanced manufacturing, to help promote STEAM literacy and programs in the schools and colleges, and most importantly, to help bring together the far-flung grass roots makers and makerspaces, manufacturers and educators to help mobilize the maker movement in their own state into a larger more cohesive entity helping to empower and educate the workforce of tomorrow and boost manufacturing and ‘making’ today. whitehouse.gov/nation-of-makers is a good source of additional info!

PBN: What do you think was the most important thing that you learned/took away from the event?

- Advertisement -

THOMAS: The vast potential of the maker movement – if properly harnessed – to help both the individual States AND national economies and manufacturing/R+D sectors. There are *many* federal programs already in place or being formed (and most of us at the event were unaware of many of them) to support how the maker movement can impact the nation – programs from the obvious like STEAM funding programs with the Dept. of Education and advanced manufacturing grants and programming with the EDA but also ones at the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services that look to tap retirees in science, engineering and manufacturing backgrounds to help pass along to younger generations their wealth of skills and hard-earned-knowledge.

PBN: Tell me about the Sea Potential wave energy device, which will compete in the final round of the U.S. Department of Energy Wave Energy Competition this summer. Is it being developed at Tinker|Bristol? When is the competition?

THOMAS: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Wave Energy Prize Competition is designed to increase the diversity in research in and development of wet-tech in the area of wave energy converter technology and to push promising research towards commercial viability. The SeaPotential team – comprised of Irish & Bristol, R.I., engineers, researchers and fabricators is currently in the final round of the competition – nine teams left out of 98 teams starting! After placing in the finalist rounds with their 1/50th scale model earlier in the year, the team worked together with students and faculty at Roger Williams University as well as local expert marine trades craftspersons to create their 1/20th scale fully functioning model to compete, and hopefully win, in the final round this August at the U.S. Navy’s MASK facility in Carderock, Md. The model was simply too big to fit in the Tinker|Bristol facility doors, as well as our facility still being a work-in-progress, so as one of our first “Manufacturing Incubatees” we were able to enlist our friends at Roger Williams University to put their “Hawkworks” engineering design fabrication lab on red-alert to help with design tweaking and fabrication of the DUO Wave Energy Capture Device on extremely short notice and time constraints. We were also able to put together a crack team of Bristol and East Bay marine-fabrication experts from Hall Composites to Amaral Custom Fabrication to Luther Welding amongst others for key advice, mentoring and critical part manufacture. Around $50k of fabrication and material sourcing was spent in the local economy during this two-month period before the finished model was shipped to the final round of competition. Go to waveenergyprize.org for more information.

PBN: How is the Tinker|Bristol space going in Bristol? Is Tinker|Bristol fully functioning in the Bristol industrial park?

THOMAS: The Tinker|Bristol facility is still a work-in-progress. Manufacturing space and especially the right commercial grade equipment is expensive as well [and] needs to be well-thought-out and organized efficiently. We are in the final stages of a few different grant processes as well preparing fundraising for a soft opening. We have been given great assistance so far from a number of sources including the Rhode Island Foundation, CommerceRI and a number of Rhode Island manufacturers, including equipment donations, organization and planning help, and we have a stellar board of directors and advisory committee coming together. However, not to deter anyone – while we are working on the brick-and-mortar end of things we have already launched ‘virtual’ manufacturing incubation with four [participants] so far, and have a waiting list that we are working to get through. We may not have the ability at the moment to manufacture or prototype in our own space, [but] we *can* certainly set anyone up across the state with the right help.

PBN: Can you explain how Tinker|Bristol works, its mission?
THOMAS:
Tinker|Bristol’s mission is to collaboratively engage our community in innovative making; turning ideas into inventions, develop products, apply new technologies, grow businesses, create jobs and reclaim Rhode Island’s storied manufacturing tradition. The “how” is through individual or corporate “memberships” (think YMCA for manufacturing and fabrication!) to do active prototyping and design work in the physical space, to participate in manufacturing incubation and business development programming at Tinker|Bristol and other locations in the East Bay, and to collaborate with others doing similar work to your own or, even better, working on wildly dissimilar things, but sharing your knowledge and expertise in key areas to help one another succeed. By mixing the collaborative and creative atmosphere and community of a makerspace with the affordable access to commercial grade advanced manufacturing tools, technology and know-how, we hope to help boost Rhode Island’s manufacturing, design and fabrication sectors – help the next generation American workforce get the skills they need in the new economy – and to assist in harnessing the incredible wealth of knowledge, skills and resources already extant in our state to help Rhode Island lead the next Industrial Revolution. Visit tinkerbristol.org for more information about us!

No posts to display