Valerio della Porta

I grew up in an household that included a library with more than 3,000 books and several encyclopedia; perusing all that material since early age got me interested in science and technology as well as history.

In my teens I developed an analog thermometer using a 741 op-amp and started exploring logic; Dan Lancaster's TTL Cookbook -- still in print -- was my guide. After the introduction of the IBM PC I switched from hardware to software developing countless systems for various large companies and utilities; about half of them interfacing hardware. I remember the implementation of the Hunter Whiteness Index for the Amway corporation; it involved a custom interface and driver for the Hunter Spectrophotometer -- many of their laundry detergents has been developed using the system I developed.

The arrival of the pandemic triggered a return to hardware as I started contributing to open-source projects related to the fight against the virus while developing an interest in additive manufacturing.

My main interest at this time is in the democratization of manufacturing and instrumentation to be achieved by substantially reducing the costs.

May 2023