First Principles Manufacturing
Yuanwei MaManufacturing AI researcher and engineer based in Novi, Michigan. I build quality inspection systems that bridge Chinese manufacturing expertise with American automation. Former academic (PhD), now on the factory floor. Writing about what actually works
| Platform |  | Pricing | Only free issues | Publishes | Weekly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 10 | Founded | 4 months ago | Last Issue | 8 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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firstprinciplesmanufacturing.substa...Latest Issues
Is Manufacturing at Dusk or Dawn?
People will tell you manufacturing had its decades of development — mature, saturated, done. Maybe. But there has never been a moment when this much intellectual firepower was pointed at this industry.
1. Two storylines
Physical AI...
The Builder Cannot Be the Verifier
On August 13, DeepSeek open-sourced its agent harness. Twenty-two thousand GitHub stars in an hour and a half; past sixty-five thousand within a day. The README says:
Everything is a plugin. Every run is traceable.
This is fascinating —...
The Physics of a Burr
Walk into any die casting plant and the loudest corner isn’t the casting machines. It’s the deburring benches. Sparks, dust, anti-vibration gloves — a row of workers hunched over, running the edge of every single casting by hand.
And the b...
The Universe Is Not Someone Else’s Computer
My RTX 3080 can run Battlefield only because it never renders the whole battlefield. The explosion behind you, the collapsing building, your teammate’s body — none of it gets drawn until the instant you turn your head. This is called frustu...
The Submillimeter Trap of Embodied AI
I. The Demo Was Impressive. But Can It Deburr?
The demo was impressive. A humanoid robot walks to a cabinet, opens the door, takes out a cup, and places it on the dining table. The whole sequence flows like a skilled housekeeper. The pr...
Audience Metrics
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| Subscribers | Engagement | 64 | Monthly Web Visits | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accepts Sponsors | Estimated Cost per Ad | ||||
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
A nuclear engineer building AI + robotics for inspection, grinding, deburring, and welding — from a Novi, Michigan lab. Weekly field notes from the American factory floor.
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