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Ayah Bdeir

Ayah Bdeir (Arabic: آية بدير; born 1982 in Montreal, Quebec)[1] is a Lebanese-Canadian entrepreneur, inventor, and innovator.[2] She is the inventor and CEO of littleBits, a company that produces modular electronics kits for education and prototyping. She is also the co-founder of Daleel Thawra, a directory of protests, initiatives, donations for the Lebanese Revolution.[3]

Ayah Bdeir
Ayah Bdeir in November 2014
Born1982 (age 41–42)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
NationalityLebanese-Canadian
EducationMS Media Arts and Sciences, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2006)
BS Computer Engineering and Social Sciences, American University of Beirut (2004)
Organization(s)littleBits
Daleel Thawra
Mozilla
MovementMaker Movement
Open-source hardware
STEAM
Gender neutrality in Education
Websitewww.ayahbdeir.com

Bdeir is also known for her contributions to the Maker Movement, advocacy for open-source hardware, and her promotion of gender-neutrality in STEAM education. She co-founded the Open Hardware Summit and has been recognized as a TED Senior Fellow.

Bdeir was named one of BBC's 100 Most Influential Women, has appeared on the covers of The New York Times Magazine, WIRED and the Wall Street Journal. Her inventions are included in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and she holds over a dozen patents.[4]

Biography

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Bdeir was born in Canada to a Syrian family and raised in Beirut.[5][6] She pursued undergraduate degrees in Computer Engineering and Sociology from the American University of Beirut, graduating in 2004. Bdeir then moved to the United States, where she earned a Master of Science degree from the MIT Media Lab in 2006.[7]

 
Ayah Bdeir in 2010

After earning her Master's degree, Bdeir started working as a financial consultant.[5] She was then awarded a fellowship at Eyebeam in New York City in 2008, where she produced electronic art work that was shown in conferences, festivals and galleries in Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Rhode Island, Boston, Sao Paolo and others.[8] Bdeir 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]

She was a TED Fellow and serves on the board of the Fund for Public Schools supporting NYC's 1,800 public schools.[11][12]

littleBits

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Bdeir focused much of her work on empowering people, particularly those from underrepresented communities and girls, to become agents of change.[4] In September 2011, she started littleBits Electronics, a startup with the goal to make electronics accessible for everyone.[13] The company was officially established after Bdeir sold her first prototype at the maker faire in New York.[14][7] LittleBits was soon after dubbed as "Lego for the iPad Generation" by Bloomberg TV.[15]

LittleBits produces a system of modular electronic building blocks designed for learning and prototyping. These modules are rectangular in shape, measuring between one and four inches in length, and contain specific circuitry hidden within.[16] The system employs a color-coded design to indicate functionality: blue modules provide power, pink modules enable various inputs such as switches, microphones, and motion sensors, green modules facilitate outputs like lights, motors, and speakers, while orange modules offer wires or logic functions. The modules use magnetic connections, which are designed to guide users in assembling circuits.[16] The modular components allow users with no prior engineering experience to create various electronic projects and to experiment with complex technologies.[16]

In 2012, Bdeir received the TED Fellowship[11] and gave a talk at the TED conference[17] in Long Beach called "Building Blocks That Blink, Beep and Teach."[18][19]

In 2012, Bdeir raised $3.65 million in series A funding for the company. The funding was led by was led by True Ventures, with participation from Khosla Ventures, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Lerer Ventures.[20] Then in 2013, her company secured another round of funding led by True Ventures and Foundry Group, with participation from firms such as Two Sigma and Vegas Tech Fund.[21]

In 2013, littleBits was recognized as one of 10 emerging startups by CNN, and received the Gold Award from the Industrial Designers Society of America.[22]

In June 2015, littleBits raised $44.2 million in a series B round funding from Taha Mikati, Wamda Capital, MENA Venture Investors, and Hutham Olayan.[7] LittleBits then joined the 2016 Disney Accelerator program.[23] It has also partnered with Pearson, one of the leading curriculum companies in the world to co-create curriculum to support their Science and Engineering program.[24]

By 2019, littleBits' products were used in over 20,000 schools.[22] That year, the company and Disney collaborated for "Snap the Gap," a $4 million pilot program aimed at maintaining girls' interest in technology around age 10.[25] The program pairs each participant with a mentor who is a professional in a STEM field.[26]

LittleBits was acquired by Sphero in August 2019.[27]

Advocacy

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Bdeir has spoken publicly about the Maker Movement, emphasizing the democratization of technology and the empowerment of individuals to become creators, not just consumers. She has used platforms like TED,[28] SXSW,[29] Solid,[30] and CreativeMornings[31] where she discussed open-source innovation 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,[32] and co-founded the Open Hardware Summit, an annual conference organized by the Open Source Hardware Association.[33] 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.[10]

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."[34][35]

Bdeir also advocates for gender neutrality in toys. According to her, 40% of littleBits users are girls, which she states is four times the average in STEM/STEAM fields.[36]

In 2017, Bdeir advocated for immigration rights in response to President Trump's immigration ban. She publicly opposed the policy by placing a large billboard in Times Square with the slogan "We Invent the World We Want to Live In."[6]

In October 2019, Bdeir co-founded Daleel Thawra, a digital platform that became the central source of information and resources related to the Lebanese revolution.[3]

Art works

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Prior to littleBits, Bdeir worked as an interactive artist.[37] 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:

  • Random Search, a wearable technology project that documents airport security screening experiences. The garment contains sensors that record data during security searches, collecting and analyzing information about airport screening procedures and their impact on travelers.[38]
  • Elusive Electricity (Ejet Ejet)[39]
  • Teta Haniya's Secrets[40]
  • Les Annees Lumiere[41]
  • Arabiia[42]

Shows and exhibitions

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Awards and recognitions

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References

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  1. ^ "littleBits' Ayah Bdeir aims to democratise electronics". BBC News. 14 May 2014.
  2. ^ Henry, Zoe (9 February 2017). "An Electronics Startup Responded to Trump's Muslim Ban With a Times Square Ad in Arabic". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Khoury, Gilles (22 September 2020). "Ayah Bdeir, meilleur espoir féminin". L'Orient-LeJour (in French). Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Ayah Bdeir". Eyebeam.
  5. ^ a b Bdeir, Ayah (11 January 2019). "LittleBits Goes Big: Ayah Bdeir Shares History and Lessons Learned". Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.
  6. ^ a b Henry, Zoe (7 February 2017). "This Startup Founder Offers Up the Perfect Response to Trump's Travel Ban". Inc.
  7. ^ a b c "Ayah Bdeir founded littleBits to make science fun. She might now be on to something bigger". Forbes. 9 October 2015.
  8. ^ "For immediate release: Eyebeam will hold Open Studios for Artists In Residence and Senior Fellows". Eyebeam. 28 April 2009. Archived from the original on 3 February 2011.
  9. ^ "Ayah Bdeir". Global Portal for Women in ICT. Archived from the original on 13 February 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  10. ^ a b "Ayah Bdeir of LittleBits". Media.mit.edu. MIT Media Lab. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  11. ^ a b c "Meet the TED2012 Fellows! | TED Blog". 25 October 2011.
  12. ^ "Fund for Public Schools – Board of Directors". Fund for Public Schools.
  13. ^ McHugh, Molly (18 November 2014). "The home of the future is inside littleBits' Smart Home Kit". News article. The Daily Dot. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  14. ^ "Women in tech: Success still hangs on relationships and privilege". Engadget. 16 March 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  15. ^ Orr, Niela (2 December 2013). "Bit-by-Bit: 5 Unusual Uses For The New LittleBits Modules". VICE.
  16. ^ a b c Schaffer, Amanda (19 August 2014). "Ayah Bdeir". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 11 December 2023.
  17. ^ conference, TED. "talk"
  18. ^ "Building blocks that blink, beep and teach". TED. 29 March 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  19. ^ Education Technology Specialists (Edtechs) (25 November 2015). LittleBits TED Talk – via YouTube.
  20. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (18 July 2012). "Toys Grow Up: LittleBits Picks Up $3.65M, PCH Deal To Build Out Its Open-Source Hardware Vision". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  21. ^ "True Ventures and Foundry Group lead $11.1 mln round for LittleBits". Pehub.com. PE Hub. Archived from the original on 16 February 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  22. ^ a b Betuel, Emma (20 May 2019). "LittleBits' Ayah Bdeir Is Filling STEM's Diversity Gap, Block by Block". Inverse.
  23. ^ "2016 Disney Accelerator Participants Announced – The Walt Disney Company". 11 July 2016.
  24. ^ "littleBits STEM Invention Toolboxes for Active Science Classrooms" (PDF). Savvas Learning Company.
  25. ^ Haller, Sonja (2 April 2019). "Too many men are building our future. Disney, littleBits give girls $4M to change that". USA TODAY.
  26. ^ Roberts, Nina (2 April 2019). "LittleBits CEO Talks New Disney Partnership, Girls in STEM & Immigrant Entrepreneurship". Observer.
  27. ^ Paynter, Ben (23 August 2019). "Sphero acquires littleBits in a bid to rule the $150B educational toy market". Fast Company.
  28. ^ "Ayah Bdeir: Engineer and artist". TED.com. TED. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  29. ^ "Democratizing the Internet of Things is An Urgency". SXSW. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  30. ^ "The Internet as Material: Empowering the Next Phase of Connected Hardware Innovation". Solidcon.com. O'Reilly. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  31. ^ "Ayah Bdeir Q+A". Creativemornings.com. CreativeMornings. 12 November 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  32. ^ Griffith, Erin (13 March 2014). "Ayah Bdeir, CEO of littleBits, on the real reason for the hardware renaissance". Fortune. Fortune. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  33. ^ "Open Source Hardware Association/About". Oshwa.org. Open Source Hardware Association. 7 April 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  34. ^ Bdeir, Ayah (16 February 2009). "Electronics as material: LittleBits". Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction. TEI '09. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 397–400. doi:10.1145/1517664.1517743. ISBN 978-1-60558-493-5.
  35. ^ "Ayah Bdeir". Eyeofestival.com. EyeO+. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  36. ^ The Boston Consulting Group (16 May 2017). "LittleBits founder Ayah Bdeir on the Need for Gender-Neutral STEM toys" – via YouTube.
  37. ^ Ko, Hanae. "Where I Work: Ayah Bdeir". Art Asia Pacific. July 2009. Issue 64.
  38. ^ "random search – ayah bdeir". ayahbdeir.com.
  39. ^ "Elusive Electricity – ayah bdeir". ayahbdeir.com.
  40. ^ "Teta Haniya's secrets – ayah bdeir". ayahbdeir.com.
  41. ^ "les années lumière – ayah bdeir". ayahbdeir.com.
  42. ^ "arabiia – ayah bdeir". ayahbdeir.com.
  43. ^ Kennedy, Randy. "Art Made at the Speed of the Internet: Don't Say 'Geek'; Say 'Collaborator'". 18 April 2010. New York Times
  44. ^ "35 Innovators Under 35 | 2014". MIT Technology Review.
  45. ^ Raymond, Chris (18 March 2014). "25 Makers Who Are Reinventing The American Dream". Popularmechanics.com. Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  46. ^ Lagorio-Chafkin, Christine (24 June 2014). "LittleBits: On a Mission to Make Electrical Engineering Fun". Inc.com. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  47. ^ Burton, Bonnie (5 June 2018). "Meet the Top 5 Innovative Women to Watch in Robotics". Inc.com. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  48. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2019: Who is on the list this year?". 15 October 2019.
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