TetraScience (YC S15) Sends Data From Scientific Instruments Directly To The Web

by Alexis Ohanian8/18/2015

Much of the data from scientific experiments is captured the old fashioned way: Scientists personally check their equipment, and write the pertinent information down by hand — sometimes on a computer, but often in a notebook. 

TetraScience is a company in our current Summer 2015 class that’s shifting that entire process to the cloud, by connecting scientific instruments directly to the web. TetraScience has developed a system that uses both hardware and software that allows researchers to remotely monitor and control their instruments, and automatically logs their data in the cloud.

TechCrunch’s Mike Butcher wrote about TetraScience in an article published this past week:

“Here’s how it works. TetraScience Link, the hardware module, is like
an Apple TV. A researcher can buy a Link, plug their scientific
instrument in to it, and connect to the web via Wifi or Ethernet. Once
online, a researcher can log in to their TetraScience account, enter
their credentials, and activate their newly purchased Link. This process
takes less than 5 minutes. On this dashboard, the researcher can
monitor that instrument in real-time and control its behavior.
Furthermore, the researcher can also set thresholds for alarms/alerts
(e.g. hazardous overheating) and notifications (e.g. e-mail, SMS). Since
the instrument is connected to the web, the data produced by the device
is automatically stored in the cloud. Like with Facebook, they provide
researchers with a timeline of experiments/events that occur with the
experiments (e.g. the user and timestamp for starting/stopping an
experiment).

They assured me they have several layers of security, so the results can’t be hacked into.”

Read the full story on TechCrunch here.

Author

  • Alexis Ohanian