Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Formlabs held a company wide hackathon. Employees were encouraged to work on any project that was of interest to them, be it work related or otherwise. Historically this event has produced much of the artwork that graces our campus and the occasional concept for a new product offering or refinement. This year my hands down favorite project was created by one of our talented mechanical engineers. It is a device which displays a red signal when a bathroom stall door is locked (occupied) and a green signal when it is available. This avoids the need to awkwardly peer under the privacy walls to look for feet. For reasons that make no sense, our men’s bathrooms are not equipped with urinals, only stalls. A mechanism attached to the door latch conveys status to the indicator located at the top of the door by way of a stiff wire. A clever and much appreciated innovation.
