Ayah Bdeir Explained

Ayah Bdeir
Birth Place:Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nationality:Lebanese-Canadian
Education:MS Media Arts and Sciences, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Employer:littleBits
Website:www.ayahbdeir.com

Ayah Bdeir (Arabic: آية بدير; born 1982 in Montreal, Quebec)[1] is a Canadian entrepreneur, inventor, and interactive artist of Syrian descent.[2] She is the founder and CEO of littleBits. She is also the co-founder of Daleel Thawra, a directory of protests, initiatives, donations in Lebanon.[3]

Early life

Born in Canada to a Syrian immigrant family and raised in Beirut. Bdeir credits her parents, her late father Saadi Bdeir, an entrepreneur and mother Randa Bdeir, a banker as her inspiration because they raised her and her sisters to love maths, science, and design and pursue their passions in the field of their choosing.[4] [5] Bdeir would take things apart, break them open to see what was inside. She was given chemistry sets, and programming lessons on Commodore 64 when she was 12. Her parents didn't believe in gender differences, championing their girls to be scientists and engineers, and push to be career women.[6] (Bdeir's mother attended university to get her degree at the same time as her daughters were going to school.[7])

Education and career

Bdeir earned a Masters of Science degree from the MIT Media Lab and undergraduate degrees in Computer Engineering and Sociology from the American University of Beirut. In 2008, she was awarded a fellowship at Eyebeam in New York City[8] She has taught graduate classes at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and Parsons The New School for Design.[9] In 2010, Bdeir served as a design mentor on the reality TV show, Stars of Science.[10]

In September 2011, Bdeir started littleBits Electronics, a startup with the goal to "put the power of electronics in the hands of everyone, and to break down complex technologies so that anyone can build, prototype, and invent."[11] The company is based in New York with funding from such investors as True Ventures,[12] Foundry Group, and Two Sigma.[13]

In 2012, Bdeir received the TED Fellowship[14] and gave a talk at the TED conference[15] in Long Beach called "Building Blocks That Blink, Beep and Teach."[16]

littleBits

Bdeir is the founder and CEO of littleBits.[17] [18]

littleBits joined the 2016 Disney Accelerator program.[19] It has also partnered with Savvas, one of the leading curriculum companies in the world to co-create curriculum to support their Science and Engineering program.[20]

In 2014, Bdeir and her work with littleBits were included in the 35 Under 35 Coolest Entrepreneurs list by Inc.[21]

In 2018, she and her work with littleBits were included in Inc.'s Top 5 Women to Watch in Robotics list.[22]

In 2019, she was featured in BBC's "100 most influential women" for her contributions to close the gender gap in STEM.[23]

Maker movement, Internet of Things and gender neutrality

Bdeir was named to Popular Mechanics' 25 Makers Who Are Reinventing the American Dream in 2014[24] and has spoken at TED,[25] SXSW,[26] Solid,[27] and CreativeMornings[28] about the Maker Movement, the importance of democratizing technology, and the Internet of Things.

Bdeir is a proponent of the Open Hardware Movement, an initiative aimed at ensuring that technological knowledge is accessible to everyone,[29] and co-founded the Open Hardware Summit, an annual conference organized by the Open Source Hardware Association.[30] In 2010, Bdeir was awarded a fellowship with Creative Commons for her work in defining Open Hardware and for co-chairing the Open Hardware Summits of 2010 and 2011.

As a fellow at Creative Commons, she led the public competition for the Open Hardware logo—now adopted on millions of circuit boards around the world. Bdeir has published academic papers and coined the term "Electronics As Material," which is the idea of "thinking of electronics as material that can be combined with other traditional ones."[31]

Bdeir is a proponent of Gender Neutrality in toys. Bdeir has said she is proud that 40% of the littleBits user base is girls, four times the average in STEM/STEAM.[32]

Art works

Prior to littleBits, Bdeir worked as an interactive artist.[33] She has exhibited work at the Peacock Visual Arts gallery (Aberdeen), the New Museum (New York), Ars Electronica (Linz) and the Royal College of Art (London). Installations include:

Shows and exhibitions

Commissions

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: littleBits' Ayah Bdeir aims to democratise electronics . 14 May 2014 . BBC News.
  2. News: Henry . Zoe . 2017-02-09 . An Electronics Startup Responded to Trump's Muslim Ban With a Times Square Ad in Arabic . 2024-03-18 . Slate . en-US . 1091-2339.
  3. Web site: Ayah Bdeir, meilleur espoir féminin. www.lorientlejour.com. 22 September 2020. fr. 2022-02-22.
  4. Web site: 2022-06-23 . DANIA BDEIR INTERVIEW . 2023-12-08 . Interlocutor . en-US.
  5. https://www.inc.com/zoe-henry/how-littlebits-founder-ayah-bdeir-pushing-back-against-trump-immigration-ban.html
  6. Web site: CNN.com - Transcripts. www.cnn.com. en. 2018-02-27.
  7. Web site: Outside the Box Podcast. WalMart. 28 February 2018. 17 June 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170617203342/https://corporate.walmart.com/outside-the-box-podcast. dead.
  8. Eyebeam Press Release. "Eyebeam will hold Open Studios for Artists In Residence and Senior Fellows" . 15 May 2009.
  9. Web site: Ayah Bdeir . https://archive.today/20150213012945/http://cwitwiki.umbc.edu/display/gpwit/Ayah+Bdeir . dead . 13 February 2015 . Global Portal for Women in ICT . 12 February 2015 . Global Portal for Women in ICT .
  10. Web site: Ayah Bdeir of LittleBits. Media.mit.edu. MIT Media Lab. 12 February 2015. MIT Media Lab.
  11. News: McHugh. Molly. The home of the future is inside littleBits' Smart Home Kit. 13 February 2015. News article. The Daily Dot. 18 November 2014. The Daily Dot.
  12. News: Lunden. Ingrid. Toys Grow Up: LittleBits Picks Up $3.65M, PCH Deal To Build Out Its Open-Source Hardware Vision. 13 February 2015. TechCrunch. TechCrunch. 18 July 2012. TechCrunch.
  13. Web site: True Ventures and Foundry Group lead $11.1 mln round for LittleBits. Pehub.com. PE Hub. 13 February 2015. PE Hub. 16 February 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140216231008/http://www.pehub.com/2013/11/true-ventures-foundry-group-lead-11-1-mln-round-littlebits/. dead.
  14. blog, TED. "received"
  15. conference, TED. "talk"
  16. Web site: Building blocks that blink, beep and teach. 29 March 2012 . TED. 13 February 2015.
  17. Web site: Home . littlebits.com.
  18. Web site: Women in tech: Success still hangs on relationships and privilege. Engadget. 16 March 2019 . en. 2019-04-01.
  19. Web site: 2016 Disney Accelerator Participants Announced - The Walt Disney Company. 11 July 2016.
  20. Web site: Science Programs - Savvas - Elevate Science K-8. www.savvas.com.
  21. Web site: LittleBits: On a Mission to Make Electrical Engineering Fun. Lagorio-Chafkin. Christine. 2014-06-24. Inc.com. 2019-11-21.
  22. Web site: Meet the Top 5 Innovative Women to Watch in Robotics. Burton. Bonnie. 2018-06-05. Inc.com. 2019-11-21.
  23. Web site: BBC 100 Women 2019: Who is on the list this year?. 2018-06-05. bbc.com. 2022-02-22.
  24. Web site: 25 Makers Who Are Reinventing The American Dream. Raymond. Chris. Popularmechanics.com. 18 March 2014. Popular Mechanics. 12 February 2015. Popular Mechanics.
  25. Web site: Ayah Bdeir: Engineer and artist. TED.com. TED. 12 February 2015. TED.
  26. Web site: Democratizing the Internet of Things is An Urgency. SXSW. 12 February 2015. SXSW Schedule.
  27. Web site: The Internet as Material: Empowering the Next Phase of Connected Hardware Innovation. Solidcon.com. O'Reilly. 13 February 2015. Solid. 7 March 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150307072618/http://solidcon.com/solid2014/public/schedule/detail/33576. dead.
  28. Web site: Ayah Bdeir Q+A. Creativemornings.com. 12 November 2013 . CreativeMornings. 13 February 2015. CreativeMornings.
  29. News: Griffith. Erin. Ayah Bdeir, CEO of littleBits, on the real reason for the hardware renaissance. 13 February 2015. Fortune. Fortune. 13 March 2014. Fortune.
  30. Web site: Open Source Hardware Association/About. Oshwa.org. 7 April 2012 . Open Source Hardware Association. 13 February 2015. Open Source Hardware Association.
  31. Web site: Ayah Bdeir. Eyeofestival.com. EyeO+. 13 February 2015. EyeO+.
  32. Web site: LittleBits founder Ayah Bdeir on the Need for Gender-Neutral STEM toys. The Boston Consulting Group. 16 May 2017. YouTube.
  33. Ko, Hanae. "Where I Work: Ayah Bdeir". Art Asia Pacific. July 2009. Issue 64.
  34. Web site: Elusive Electricity – ayah bdeir. ayahbdeir.com.
  35. Web site: Teta Haniya's secrets – ayah bdeir. ayahbdeir.com.
  36. Web site: les années lumière – ayah bdeir. ayahbdeir.com.
  37. Web site: arabiia – ayah bdeir. ayahbdeir.com.
  38. Web site: random search – ayah bdeir. ayahbdeir.com.
  39. Kennedy, Randy. "Art Made at the Speed of the Internet: Don't Say 'Geek'; Say 'Collaborator'" . 18 April 2010. New York Times
  40. Web site: UFA Projection Mapping – Colors of an old Beirut – ayah bdeir. ayahbdeir.com.

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