Tech Industry

What a Machining Study Tells Us About the Future of Coding with AI Agents

A 2023 paper published in the Journal of Manufacturing Processes set out to answer a seemingly narrow question: how does a machinist’s behavior differ when working on a conventional (manual) milling machine versus a CNC machine? The answer turns out to be surprisingly relevant far beyond the machine shop — particularly for software engineers navigating the rise of AI coding agents. The Study Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology designed a multi-modal study in which a trained machinist fabricated the same part — a leaf spring shackle — across four consecutive production runs on both conventional and CNC milling machines....

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TIL observing the Pokémon GO phenomenon

Pokemon GO

I admit – I play Pokémon GO.  I was already walking 3-6 miles a day anyway, so it just gave me something to break the monotony of long hauls in the wee hours of the morning. That being said, it’s also been a great case study in scalable systems engineering and massively deployed client systems.

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