Cody Miller
John Filippelli : What design tools is Aspen Labs currently developing that you feel are going to have a significant impact on the engineering industry?
Cody Miller : We have a great Web development and engineering team, and they have been able to help us create really useful tools. Our goal as a company is to create tools that electrical engineers and designers will use in their everyday jobs.
Our tools are useful to different people for different reasons, but if I had to choose one tool that I think will have a huge impact on the industry, I would choose PCBWeb. What we've done with PCBWeb is different than traditional printed circuit board design tools. We've made a full-featured tool that runs in a web browser. Typically, engineers pay for these tools, but our business model is such that engineers will be able to use these tools for free. Another reason PCBWeb is valuable is because it's an online tool. Being an online tool changes the way that engineers think about designing. They can now sharing their designs easily, collaborate with team members, and it allows engineers to work remotely from any computer.
John Filippelli : What factors in your background led you to establish Scheme-It?
Cody Miller : Scheme-It came about through a conversation with Tony Harris at Digikey. They were looking for an out-of-the-box idea to help provide a useful resource and tool for engineers. My partner Joe and I had discussed a tool like this and we started working with them. The goal of Scheme-It was to provide a simple way for people to diagram circuits and share them easily online, as well as be able to export high-quality images from those circuits. We found that users on our forum on EEWeb (and throughout the Internet) are often looking for ways to quickly draw a circuit or a diagram so that they can ask a question, make an illustration, or make a point with a drawing or a schematic. That was the goal with Scheme-It and it has been very successful. There are thousands of designs that have been drawn in Scheme-It. We really met a need.
John Filippelli : EEWeb covers just about every category for engineers, including Analog Design, Power Management, Test & Measurement, and Passives, among many others. To that end, what do you see as the future possibilities of the EEWeb community and how will it help an engineer do his or her projects better?
Cody Miller : EEWeb was a mutual idea that brought my partner (Joe Wolin) and I together to start this business. Since then EEWeb has grown, and we've seen great successes. Many people are participating in EEWeb by sharing projects and by blogging. The purpose behind EEWeb was to create an environment where a hardware designer would feel comfortable sharing ideas, collaborating with others in the industry, and getting news and the latest information about components from component suppliers. EEWeb is a great resource, and we have hundreds of plans and ideas for improvements. Over time our goal is to integrate tools more closely with our community, and provide an easier way for community members to come up with solutions and create designs.
John Filippelli : Do you have a dream project/product that you would someday like to work on? What is it?
Cody Miller : EEWeb, PCBWeb and PartSim are my dream projects, and I'm excited to be working on them. There's a big vision around PCBWeb, and we're just launching that tool. I am working on the dreams and projects I've always wanted to work on.
John Filippelli : What advice would you give to other engineers, or even hobbyists, who are seeking to perhaps follow in your footsteps?
Cody Miller : I would say, believe in yourself. If you're passionate about something and willing to work hard, you can make it a success. I would also say that it's good to collaborate with others and have other people to critique your ideas. It was great that I had a partner. We had hundreds of ideas that we explored before we finalized on these projects we are working on now. It is great to have someone you're working with to give you feedback. Overall I'd say, “Go for it.” I don't have any regrets about starting this business.
John Filippelli : What is one design tool that you can't live without? Why?
Cody Miller : If I am on the bench doing testing, a tried-and-true oscilloscope is really important to me. In the past five years I've also found using spectrum analyzers and network analyzers to be invaluable resources when working in the frequency domain.
John Filippelli : Overall, where do you see these advances that we are discussing going in the future?
Cody Miller : I think that we are just in the beginning stages of the possibilities that the internet has to offer when it comes to our everyday jobs. Today, most engineers typically do not use online tools to do their jobs, but I think that the world as a whole will be shifting towards online tools. Engineers will feel much more comfortable in the future working with online tools, and I'm excited that we are one of the first to offer a full-featured PCB design tool that will work in a browser online. I would also like to say that I see the social aspect of the Internet coming to play a stronger part when engineers are working on designs. I think that our online tools will enable suppliers and manufacturers to work with designers more closely. Engineers will also find more effective ways to collaborate.
To learn more about Aspen Labs, visit http://aspenlabs.com/
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