Public Inventor Peter Shryock is a relatively new volunteer with Public Invention, but has already made his mark on the organization. A co-presenter of the Biochar Toilet (alongside Hardhik Pyla) during the Volunteer Appreciation Night and an active volunteer, Shryock has fully integrated into the open-source project team and makes regular contributions to its development through his advanced manufacturing skills.
In a recent interview, Shryock shared his unique background, the experiences which eventually led him to Public Invention, and his current contributions to the wider open-source movement.
Peter Shryock before Public Invention
Shryock was homeschooled as a child, which pushed him to lead his own education and become skilled in teaching himself multiple technical skillsets. He also developed the confidence to follow his curiosity into diverse disciplines.
“I like exploring,” Shryock noted. “I've done anything from playing video games, to blacksmithing, jeweler, woodworking, CNC machining, firearms instructor at one point, and martial artist.”
He followed this knack for exploration into the military, where he worked as an Electro-Optical Ordnance Repairer in the U.S. Marines, and later as an aircraft hydraulics technician in the Air Force. With each experience, Shryock most enjoyed the initial training periods, where he dived deeply into the mechanics and integration of complex systems. However, the actual job itself, which consisted of fixing predetermined devices, left him wanting a more innovative role.
“They put me in the armory and just said, ‘Fix this, and if you can’t, fill out a 1018 tag and float it to the higher maintenance,’” Shryock noted. “Same thing with the Air Force. When I joined [the Air Force] I was a hydraulics troop. I did aircraft hydraulics maintenance, and so the school was very involved technically about the design of the pumps and how they worked, and some of the basic pressure theories. I was fascinated with that stuff.”
After leaving the military, he worked for his father’s fabrication company (Shryock Fabrications) where he learned many fabrication and manufacturing techniques, creating props, set-pieces and equipment for the film and entertainment industries. One of their more notable projects included building foam breeze-block walls, art-deco sconces and a chandelier for the recent film Twisters. While working in this role, Shryock continued to develop his manufacturing and creative skills through hands-on practice and self-driven learning.
Free Resources and Self-Teaching in Manufacturing
Shryock advised others to teach themselves manufacturing skills through inexpensive resources such as FreeCAD, Solidworks, and Fusion 360. He also recommended getting involved in organizations like the Titans of CNC Academy and other online bootcamps.
However, Shryock emphasized that one of the most important aspects of teaching oneself new skills was one’s mindset. He noted the importance of letting go of perfectionism and enjoying the creation process, rather than just an end result.
“One of the biggest lessons that I've learned is to let go of the idea of making a perfect thing,” Shryock said. “Take hold of the idea that it's more about the journey than it is about the destination. It's a saying applied to different areas in life, but it's very true if you focus on the exploration and the excitement of the journey, and treat each failed experiment as an opportunity to learn.”
Around this time, Shryock began utilizing his new skillsets to build personal projects. While pursuing his independent work, he became friends with Inventor Lawrence Kincheloe, who led him into the wider open-source community and Public Invention.
Public Invention and the Biochar
Kincheloe connected Shryock to Public Invention and its Founder Robert L. Read. Based on Shryock’s manufacturing skills and interests, Read and Kincheloe recommended that he join the Biochar Toilet, a hardware project that aims to sanitize human waste in communities which cannot access running water.
“I became friends with Lawrence [Kincheloe],” Shryock said. “I expressed my interest in creating and inventing, and my vision for what a future society could look like. He decided to rope me into the Biochar project, and asked me to join Public Invention, where I met Robert [Read], had a good interview with him, and here we are now.”
Biochar Toilet
The Biochar Toilet project was already underway when Shryock joined the team, headed by Kincheloe as the Invention Coach and Hardhik Pyla as the main Public Inventor. Shryock soon discovered that some of his most important contributions to the team were his insights and the ideas borne from his unique education and experiences.
“The idea is that we have this toilet that runs off solar and uses induction heating with a substrate mixed in that will heat up with the induction process to sanitize human waste,” Shryock said. “So, [people are] able to have a resource that is more rapidly capable of turning waste, which can cause sickness and disease, into a sanitized product that you can just toss in your garden.”
Shryock also shared that working with Public Invention on the Biochar Toilet has helped spark his creativity, inspiring him to make more progress on his own technical projects.
“It's fun. It's my first Inventor project. I've designed a lot of things for other people, but this is my first project that I've been a part of a team that is spearheading the development of this product. So it was exciting for me. It also gave me the comfort and the courage to try to develop some of my own things solo.”
One of these projects goes beyond a new engineering device. Joining forces with Kincheloe, Shryock is now supporting the creation of a grassroots, Oklahoma-based foundation dedicated to innovation in open-source hardware.
The Idea Forge Foundation
Shryock shared the beginnings of a new open-source organization aimed specifically at supporting hardware in Oklahoma, which may partner with Public Invention in the future. Created originally by Kincheloe, Shryock has since joined the board and has begun work on a new addition to the organization’s projects.
“Something that Lawrence [Kincheloe] and I are working on is through the Idea Forge Foundation, which is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that he founded. We are starting a program called the Open Innovation Lab here in Oklahoma,” Shryock shared. “Our goal is to get a solid brick and mortar location for a R&D lab where our teams can meet up routinely and work on projects with our own space and our own equipment, to not just design and formulate and conceptualize, but to prototype and design and manufacture.”
The Open Innovation Lab could go beyond what Makerspaces currently provide, supporting hardware testing and manufacturing as well as design. While currently in its early stages, the Lab is a promising new development that could lead the way for similar initiatives in the future, expanding open source from a largely online community to something in-person and on the ground.
Open Source: A Path to an Empowered Society
As he has become increasingly involved in the movement, Shryock reflected on his personal philosophy regarding open-source technology. He noted that a central goal for open-source work is its empowerment of individuals and the wider progression of society.
“I believe that as a society we should progress together as a whole [rather than] just a select few leading the way and dragging people behind them and telling them where they're going to be. I believe in a future where each individual is more empowered, more knowledgeable, more experienced, more capable, and I think open source is the way to do that.”
Shryock’s background highlights the many opportunities and resources that one can use to get involved in open-source technology and independent manufacturing. Whether through self-taught, online courses or hands-on experience, there are many paths one can take to develop new skills and begin building something independently. Additionally, the opportunities within the open-source movement alone are endless, and whether it is through joining Public Invention or the Idea Forge Foundation, there are many tools to develop, people to meet, and projects waiting to be built.