- SKDB (Societal Knowledge Database) is being built as an “apt-get for physical objects”: a Python-OCC-based package manager that ingests YAML part descriptions, automatically checks geometric compatibility via collision detection and volume interference, and enumerates all valid assemblies; a live demo showed peg-in-hole mating and an exploded/assembly view toggle.  
- Licensing friction around Open CASCADE’s custom “Open CASCADE Technology Public License” (FSF-non-compatible) was flagged as a risk for downstream open-source CAD/CAM/CAE toolchains; the project currently works around it by isolating OCC calls.  
- A lightweight Django inventory plugin (“djangit”/“djankit”) is under construction to track wet-lab and hardware shipments, integrate USPS tracking, and feed real consumption data back into SKDB so dependency graphs and assembly instructions stay accurate.  
- Real-world process documentation examples were shared: a 300-page FAO wood-processing manual (http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/ag335e/AG335E00.htm) with sequential machining flowcharts, and NASA’s PARSEC CEE rapid-prototyping tool for launch-vehicle CFD, both cited as templates for encoding fabrication workflows in SKDB.  
- Wet-lab work discussed included three-day cell-culture pipelines (transformation → antibiotic selection → transfection → protein purification → electrophoresis → microfluidic tuning), use of restriction enzymes, HUVEC and HEK-293FT lines, and the routine handling of noisy data via statistical cleanup in R.  
- HeeksCAD was recommended as an interactive OCC-based front-end for sketching and scripting curves before exporting to SKDB for compatibility analysis, while Code_Saturne was highlighted for hospital HVAC and contamination-zone CFD modeling.  
- Open-source medicine resources shared: Medsphere’s OpenVista (open-source fork of the VA’s VistA EHR) and a SourceForge trove of human-machine-interface software, positioning them as building blocks for DIY health-tech projects.