The craft of shaping evolution
Dr Jordan Nguyen is the founder of Psykinetic, a technology company that uses AI, robotics and a keen sense of design to create accessibility-enhancing devices such as mind-controlled wheelchairs.
Dr Jordan Nguyen
Biomedical engineer and inventor
Born to an engineer father and artist mother, Australian-Vietnamese futurist Dr Jordan Nguyen grew up surrounded by robots and paintings, leading to a deep understanding of how science and art can work together to make something extraordinary. Nguyen is the founder of Psykinetic, a technology company that uses AI, robotics and a keen sense of design to create accessibility-enhancing devices such as mind-controlled wheelchairs.
When you’re working on a new project, do you start with the research first or envisioning the final product?
I was always a daydreamer and told I needed to stop daydreaming in class at school but it turned out to be a really great skill. I can visualise entire ideas and how they’re going to be at the end. Even now, with all the different things that I’ve built, I will still start projects where I know about 10 per cent of how to do it. I always do a little bit of research. But usually I know that the projects I’m building are pretty ambitious and they haven’t been done before. So I form my own idea of what I want to be able to build – and I just get started.
How has the advancement of technology helped your design process?
The tools available are more abundant and the knowledge is more open. We’ve got things like open-source code now and it feels a lot more like an artistic outlet than before. When it comes to the electronics, the software, the construction and the mechanical side, all of it feels like creative expression now. With things like my robots, it’s not just individual components all moving together; you also want to be able to give it a soul. The ideas come from a level of purpose, which comes from inspiration. And inspiration to me always comes from seeing things in the world that I would love to see – a solution that could improve quality of life, whether that be for friends and family, or for something bigger.
What roles do craft and design play in your engineering?
The commercial version of our eye-controlled keyboard looks like an absolute space-age device; it’s so beautiful. There’s so much to the aesthetics and the flow of the design. Traditionally, a lot of accessibility devices have been pretty terrible-looking, and they’re very expensive and clunky. What we’re going for is something that is so adaptable and is so able to be personalised – you can change the colours, the lighting, the fonts – that it allows you to express yourself the way you want. A beautiful device can completely change the paradigm of assistive or inclusive technology. It’s much more than an add-on or afterthought. It’s something that can be built into the core of a product, and it really helps with getting across the vision, the dream and the message of why you’re doing what you’re doing.
How can aspiring inventors cultivate a sense of innovation?
There are so many things that have already been built and tools that we can harness, so to achieve new ideas you can often start by piecing together things that are already there and then add that extra leap. Invention, which is pure creation, is more difficult. But innovation opens up new spaces of opportunity for people to come in and try new things. There is an amazing wealth of tools available for us to achieve any idea that we set our minds to. The truth is, I’m not surprised by things any more. Anything is possible.
© UBS 2024. All rights reserved. Disclaimer: Dr Jordan Nguyen is not affiliated with UBS AG.
