Melba Kurman is the co-author of two books, one on 3D printing and the other on driverless cars. Her work has been described as "refreshingly lucid" and "wonderful" by critics and readers. My books explain how these emerging technologies function, but more importantly, they explore the impact of 3D printing and driverless cars on everyday life and commerce.
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Driverless: Intelligent cars and the road ahead, co-authored with Hod Lipson, MIT Press, 2016. Synopsis: It’s time to let robots take the wheel. Literally. Self-driving cars and trucks will save lives, end traic jams and do away with the need for unsightly city parking lots. Driverless cars will disrupt and revitalize familiar industries. Yet, like all powerful new platform technologies, driverless cars will erase millions of decent jobs, raise new legal questions and give criminals and terrorists a new playing field. In clear, non-technical language that will appeal to a broad audience, Driverless tells the story of what the world will look like when cars and trucks drive themselves.
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Fabricated: the new world of 3D printing, co-authored with Hod Lipson, Wiley, 2013. Synopsis: In engaging, jargon-free prose, Fabricated tells the story of 3D printers, once-humble manufacturing machines that are bursting out of the factory and into homes, businesses, schools, kitchens, hospitals, even onto the fashion catwalk. Fabricated provides readers with practical and imaginative insights to the question “how will 3D printing technologies change my life?” Based on hundreds of hours of research and dozens of interviews with experts from a broad range of industries, Fabricated offers readers an informative, engaging and fast-paced introduction to 3D printing now and in the future.
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Tech Transfer 2.0: How universities can unlock their patent portfolios and create more tech startups. Synopsis: A few decades ago, United States research universities began to patent and take ownership of the discoveries of their research faculty. This book is a collection of essays about how universities attempt to make money off of their patent porfolios, a process that goes by the name of “university technology transfer.” Policy makers, graduate students, professors and people in industry considering sponsoring a research partnership with a university should read this book.
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Factory@Home: the Emerging Economy of Personal Manufacturing Synopsis: Like personal computers, personal- scale manufacturing machines are giving small businesses and entrepreneurial individuals a taste of the design and manufacturing power once reserved for big corporations. This report was commissioned by the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and is a good basic introduction for those new to personal manufacturing.
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