For Banzi, this is perhaps the most important impact of Arduino: the democratization of engineering. “Fifty years ago, to write software you needed people in white aprons who knew everything about vacuum tubes. Now, even my mom can program,” Banzi says. “We’ve enabled a lot of people to create products themselves.” Not all engineers love Arduino. The more persnickety ones bemoan the product for dumbing down product creation and flooding the hobbyist market with lackluster goods. Mellis, however, doesn’t see the innovation as devaluing the role of the engineer at all. “By providing a platform that lets the artist or designer get a little way in there, it makes it easier for them to work with engineers and say, ’This is what I want to do,’ ” he says. “I don’t think it’s replacing the engineer; it’s just facilitating that collaboration.”
