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Ayah Bdeir

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Q&A WITH EngHERO: Ayah Bdeir

Ayah Bdeir is an artist, engineer, and entrepreneur who founded littleBits, a library of tiny interactive circuit-boards which can be easily snapped together to perform specific functions.

Q: What’s one thing you wish you knew about engineering back when you were in high school?

That when you combine engineering with creativity and design you can create the most magical experiences.

Q: What’s your proudest accomplishment as an engineer?

Creating my company, littleBits! littleBits put the power of electronics in the hands of everyone and are changing the way people interact with and understand technology.

Q: Tell me about a time in your career when your work has been about discovery or curiosity?

I started littleBits as a prototype when I was a fellow at the Art and Technology Lab in New York, called Eyebeam, and made some prototypes and put them on my desk and put them on my website. There was only me at the time, so I continued, and I obsessed about the problem. I obsessed about this idea of how to make electronics accessible and how to make them modular. Three and a half years later, I had a product, and that’s when I decided to start a company.

Q: What are you doing these days?

I am the Founder & CEO of littleBits. littleBits are electronic modules that snap together with magnets for prototyping, learning and play.

I have a background in engineering. I did my undergrad as a computer engineer. In my 3rd year of undergrad we were required to do an internship and I got one at MIT as part of LIDS (Lab for Information and Decision Systems). It was a very dry and technical internship so I frequently went looking for something artistic. One day I stumbled upon a talk by the founder of IDEO at the MIT Media Lab and decided that was where I wanted to do my masters.

When I started engineering, I kept trying to find ways to bring more creative practices into engineering. When I went to the Media Lab it started my mission that I’ve been on for the past many years on how to make electronics accessible, and how to make electronics a creative medium.

Q: Do you feel your work contributes to society? How so?

Electronics are everywhere. We now produce, consume and throw out more electronic gadgets and technology enhanced products than ever before.

Over the past years, technology has moved from being an integral part of our lives, to helping define who we are. Yet, engineering is mystified, electronic objects are black-boxed and creativity is limited by the tools and materials available to each discipline.

I believe creativity with electronics (light, sound, sensors, etc.) will explode when they can be used as, and combined with other traditional materials such as paper, cardboard and screws. Materials are intuitive, accessible, self-contained, expressive, and most of all, can be integrated early in the creative process. Why not be able to combine felt with wood and light? Or Popsicle sticks with sound and motion sensitivity? Electronics are too pervasive and the technology too widespread for it to remain sequestered in its own space.

Q: Why do we need more female engineers?

I was lucky to be raised in a household where we were never led to believe that women were different than men, or ever thought that there was anything we couldn’t do. That upbringing has informed my view in how to contribute to the betterment of women in the workplace. I just try to do the best possible work I can every single day and be proud of it, and hopefully make others proud and inspired too. But what I do actually take a lot of care in, is making a gender-neutral product. This helps us achieve part of our mission to get more girls interested in science and engineering, and has been working very well. It is important to me that men and women are evenly represented at my own company and in the larger field of engineering.

Q: Is there a person who influenced your decision to become an engineer?

Yes, see above. I actually tried to quit multiple times during my undergrad but my parents encouraged me to at least complete my degree and then I could try something else. By the time I graduated, I was convinced of all the creative and powerful things I could do as an engineer.

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Check out: Little Bits

Abigail Hutty

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Q&A WITH EngHERO: Abigail Hutty

Abbie Hutty is a Spacecraft Structures Engineer at Airbus Defense and Space. She helped create the ExoMars rover , which is the Mars Rover prototype, and her job involves making technical decisions about the design development on the rover structure. She is an artist and an engineer and she won the IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2013.

Q: What’s one thing you wish you knew about engineering back when you were in high school?

That engineering is part of pretty much everything in our daily lives, and how high tech and cutting edge technology is always developed by a team of engineers! When I was at high school I shared the common misconception that “Engineers” were the people that came out to fix your home appliances in their overalls- I didn’t realize it included the design and development side too.

Q: What’s your proudest accomplishment as an engineer?

There are satellites in orbit with bits on them designed by me! That’s a pretty great feeling. You can see satellites sometimes with the naked eye, when the sun has set on Earth but is still shining on thing up in orbit- as they flash in the light from the sun they look like shooting stars. It’s great to go out and look up and know that something on that “shooting star” was once just an idea in your mind, that you developed and perfected, had made, and is now functioning all that way away!

Q: Tell me about a time in your career when your work has been about discovery or curiosity?

A lot of Airbus’ Science focused space missions are all about curiosity and discovery- exploring new worlds, imaging other planets, learning about our solar system, our galaxy, our universe. On a personal level though, the challenge of having to design such missions is so great that I am constantly having to learn about new things- for example today it was how the dust environment on Mars abrades the Materials we are designing our rover out of. You have to stay curious, and love learning new things and finding out about stuff like that.

Q: What are you doing these days?

I am a Spacecraft Structures Engineer at Airbus Defence and Space. My project is the ExoMars Rover- which means I am responsible for making sure the design is strong enough to withstand the launch, entry, descent and landing, and driving around on the surface, whilst also fulfilling all the secondary requirements that the structure fulfils- like thermal insulation, bio-containment, electrical grounding, and so on.

Q: Do you feel your work contributes to society? How so?

My work is helping to further mankind’s understanding of the Universe- so at the highest level, the findings from our missions contribute to society. On a more tangible level, though, discoveries and developments made in the Space industry to meet the unusual requirements up there, often then our found to have uses down on earth- like Teflon, which is now used on non-stick pans- that was developed as a Space material. You never know how something that you develop will one day be used.

Q: Why do we need more female engineers?

We need more engineers in general- a lot of the world’s biggest problems need engineers to fix them- power production, a growing population, an ageing population. Engineers, solve problems, and improve things. We don’t have enough engineers qualifying now to meet the future demand- so we need to increase the numbers entering the profession. If we aren’t targeting females as well as males we are missing out on half our potential recruits!

Q: What initially intrigued you to go into engineering?

I was first inspired to consider engineering when I saw a European Mars mission on the news, and saw that British engineers were working on parts of it. Knowing that such exciting projects were going on in the UK was a real light bulb moment for me- I had no idea. We always hear that high tech industries in the US or China are making these big leaps forward- but is going on all over the world, just some nations are less good at publicising their successes. Now I work on a Mars Mission- the very thing that inspired me to consider engineering in the first place!

Q: How did your project concerning the ExoMars Rover come about? What initiated this project? What new information do engineers and scientists plan to gain from this project?

ExoMars is a European Space agency mission- and its primary goal is to search for signs of life, past or present, on Mars. We have a large drill on board that can drill down up to 2m below the Martian surface, to where there is both protection from the harsh radiation environment at the surface, and where there are still water ice deposits. If life still exists on Mars, that’s where we expect to find it! No rover mission has ever had the capability before to take anything other than surface samples- so this is a really exciting part of the mission. We could be answering the question of whether we are alone in the Universe, or whether there is life right here in our own solar system- that would be a huge discovery.

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Check out Abigail on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81J40tcMDX4

What Do Engineers Do?

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As members of the WEMADEIT Youth Think Tank we asked and were asked, A LOT of questions. After some reflection, we thought you could stand to hear what we think. Here it is:

Engineers apply their understanding, their knowledge and the principles of science to make products or equipment that can be used.

Engineers pretty much build the future. They give all the math and science insight into projects. They tell developers why or why not their vision will work.

Engineers create and build things. They find out what ways to develop new things using critical thinking, along with creativity.

Engineers – solve world problems – use a hands-on approach – make things more efficient – ensure structures/inventions/chemicals are safe – help build and create new things – turn theoretical ideas into real-world applications – help make life easier

ENGINEERS PRETTY MUCH BUILD THE FUTURE

I think engineers use their creativity to design objects or systems that are daily needs to humans. It can be a bridge, a sewage system, or a cell phone. They help run our economy, and without engineers, we would not be able to experience most things we take for granted.

They also see the world in a new perspective, and want to change it through their experimentation, and their ‘thinking outside-of-the-box’ mind set.

Engineers are people who work to design, develop and create new technologies that help make our everyday lives easier. Anything from bridges to cars and planes to computers and machinery, even kitchen appliances! There are tonnes of real world applications for engineering because it is a vital part of almost everything we do.

Engineers are the brains behind the glory. And by that i mean when we hear there’s a new road being built or they plan on planting more trees in a certain area, behind the wonderful changes happening in the world , I think that engineers are behind it.

ARE WE FORGETTING SOMETHING? TELL US IN THE COMMENTS

Issues We Care About

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As members of the WEMADEIT Youth Think Tank we asked and were asked, A LOT of questions. After some reflection, we thought you could stand to hear what we think. Here it is:

“I am most passionate about the perception of girls as not being well-suited for an engineering career. I don’t understand why this is. We’re just as intelligent and capable as guys, so why aren’t we given credit for it? It’s very frustrating. In society, we’ve supposedly eliminated gender bias and sexism, but I don’t think that it is truly gone.”

“I think I’m most passionate about injustice. As the second youngest in my family, me and my younger sister were always treated differently, like we weren’t important because we weren’t as old as the rest (they are just 2 years older) and to this day we are still treated that way and its injust. Also, injustice among races has always got to me because its just not right! I crave justice.”

“I’ve always noticed people being a little sexist, even to me. I’m pretty athletic and my friend always tells me how much weaker I am than him and he always brags that he’s smart, and I don’t think he really notices that I’m just as smart and I’m just as athletic even though I might not be as strong. I find this absolutely annoying and angering, and I want to know why males get to be the dominant gender.”

“Everyday you see countless people using plastic bottles and throwing garbage on to the ground. There are numerous ways we are polluting and destroying our environment. It pains me to think that someday my great great grandchildren will live in a literal wasteland.”

“We are in 2014 and things like Racism and Sexism are still a problem. Have we forgotten Martin Luther King’s and Malala’s Speeches?”

“I am passionate about foreign aid. I believe that financial aid from wealthy countries and charities is not the answer for lowering poverty rates in third world countries. Also, going to different countries and building houses or schools sometimes does not help the country be self sufficient. I am passionate about this because I want poverty rates to decrease.”

“My family is very judgmental about what girls can and cant do and I’ve always known i can do more than that, so I’ve been trying to break out of the mold they have made for me. I want girls everywhere to feel like they are capable of doing what ever they want to, and purse what ever dreams they have and not be held back by the rules rand regulations that society puts on gender.”

“I am most passionate about the issue of gender inequality because I feel as though it is such an obvious injustice that reaches every human at some level because gender identity is the one thing that all of us share in some form and thus all of us have the potential to be subject to gender prejudice. Honestly, I cant think of a better answer than ‘why wouldn’t I be’ , equal rights and opportunity for everybody is the key to fixing so many other problems. Gender Equality is the gateway to equality in every way.”

“It bothers me how the media can portray one specific body type as beautiful and girls everywhere will believe it. Almost everyone I know believes it. I even believe it sometimes.”

We Will Help Change…

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As members of the WEMADEIT Youth Think Tank we asked and were asked, A LOT of questions. After some reflection, we thought you could stand to hear what we think. Here it is:

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Youth Think Tank Member

“I plan to speak out. To make a hell of a lot of noise about the unfair way my gender is treated and to support girls everywhere, no matter what they choose to do.”

“I have been involved in many environmental clubs and helped with numerous projects to aid in helping our environment. Whether it be planting trees in the neighbor hood, picking up garbage off the floor or simply just turning off the light when I leave a room I try every day to save our environment.”

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“I plan to start by changing my own mindset. Before YTT, I thought that engineering is something that only boys do, and that I wouldn’t enjoy it. But now, I’m starting to see that there is so much more to engineering than what I originally thought. It’s so interesting! I will definitely share what I’ve learned with my friends. Also, I’m going to put my best work into all of the YTT assignments. I think that the website we are creating has the potential to be beneficial to so many people after it’s completed!”

Youth Think Tank Member

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“I BELIEVE PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE. A LOT OF UNHEALTHY VIEWS ARE PICKED UP BY PEOPLE GROWING UP AND IN THEIR YOUTH. TEACHING CHILDREN FROM A YOUNG AGE WILL BE BEST FOR SOCIETY”

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“I plan to work as hard as i can to find out what will attract the attention of females around me and what has been going wrong to deflect the interests of girls towards engineering.”

Youth Think Tank Member

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“Whenever a guy chooses to put me down, I obviously stick up for myself and put him in his place but I also take the time to let them know how hard women of the past have worked to make this world easier for the women (girls too) of this modern day. Whenever possible I like to preach what I believe in.”

“In Sweden, they convert waste to energy, and try to recycle anything usable from their waste which is why this country no longer produces any waste. There should also be more recycling bins in all public areas in Canada so everyone can get the opportunity to limit the amount of waste we produce.”

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TELL US IN THE COMMENTS WHAT YOU WOULD DO!

Vision Boards

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There’s more to life than career! Most engineers work 9-5 jobs, leaving them time to pursue all of life’s pleasures. We made these collages to picture what we’ll be doing with our time outside of work.     [Read more…] about Vision Boards