- MapGuide Open Source was successfully deployed as a web platform capable of serving 3-D geospatial overlays and interoperating with AutoCAD Map 3D, demonstrating a new open tool for global resource mapping.  
- Participants proposed creating an open, cross-linked index of material suppliers by merging mindat.org mineral data, NOAA mine locations, and the MatWeb materials dataset to reverse-map URLs to physical sites.  
- Hod Lipson’s “robotic ecologies” concept—autonomous robots that co-evolve with a simulator to feed genetic-algorithm design optimization—was discussed as a model for closed-loop automated design.  
- A debate over the meaning of “Fully Automated Design (FAD)” highlighted the ambiguity between automating the design process versus designing automated artifacts, framing future research directions.  
- A Phys. Rev. Lett. paper on sub-thalamic nucleus stimulation for severe OCD was shared, with the provocative suggestion of using the same technique to *induce* OCD as a control variable for causal validation.  
- Fab@home and RepRap were compared: the group argued that Fab@home’s $2 k price premium and lasercut-plexi approach are redundant, advocating instead for RepRap to adopt modular toolheads and open standards.  
- A business model for open-source GMOs was floated—selling organisms carrying latent “easter-egg” plasmids that can be easily excised to yield restriction enzymes or polymerases—while critics noted that digital replication undercuts scarcity.  
- “Goal-oriented CAD” was sketched on fennetic.net/cadwiki: a system that accepts high-level requirements, runs continuous background optimization, and outputs ready-to-print 3-D models without manual tool juggling.  
- GraphSynth (gxml) is being extended in the Automated Design Lab to convert abstract function-structure graphs into mechanical designs, while the new “Supermetal” tool enumerates or evolves 3-D objects from primitive sets, aiming to bridge graph grammars and buildable geometry.