CR2.Brooklyn

Interview by Mikhal Weiner

Mischa Abakumova is an alumnus of Parson’s School of Design and Technology, a designer with a twist. On a recent, gray, autumn morning I sat down with her at a local cafe to hear about her relocation to NYC and her wide variety of projects - whether teaching kids creative tech and interactive design at Blink Blink, exploring how tech and dance can interact at Lehman College, or imagining futuristic objects with the Iyapo Repository. She’s also building a musical instrument that will record the pulse of the musician and use that along with other biological information to define a message characterized by pitch, timbre, and duration. With each of her answers, the day grew clearer and more inviting, until we hardly noticed the drizzling sky at all.

Abakumova, 27, was raised in Yaroslavl, about 4 hours from Moscow. “It’s like Boston”, she laughed. “When I was about four I went to Moscow and saw the high-rise buildings. I knew I wanted to live in a city.” Fifteen years later she got her chance - while studying architecture in Russia she came to New York for a summer and never left. A naturally curious person, she finds that NYC’s strong DIY community allows her to experiment with defining space and experience through tech.

“Growing up in a town with a rich historical background definitely had its upsides and drawbacks. A thousand years of history nurtured respect for tradition and understanding the need for cultural preservation in me. However, my relationship with it has been very complicated. I vividly remember the moment when I started analyzing different traditions, folk stories, food recipes, and questioning which were uniquely Russian and which were borrowed and appropriated from other cultures.”

Abakumova dabbles in many fields - environmental design, architecture, graphic design, animation, and web design (to name a few), but the thread that connects her current projects is an insatiable curiosity. Her works draw connections between history, philosophy, and technology.

Her main short term project is a workshop for Lehman College she’s teaching with her design partner, Ayo (Ayodamola Tanimowo) Okunseinde, who she met while studying at Parson’s. The workshop explores ways to incorporate technology, such as motion sensors triggering projectors and other visual effects, as a continuation of human movements. Student dancers are taught to program these sensors, but also take time to discuss the introspective side of utilizing technology in daily life and art.

She encourages student dancers to ask philosophical questions. What if machines take on the human quality of believing in a Creator and start worshiping us? What if they question our authority? When I asked about this, she just said that “[Religion, technology and humanity] is something that’s very interesting to hear [digital natives] work through.” To Abakumova, it’s equally important that students learn that technology can help them “use their limbs like a paintbrush” and ask questions about how this fits into a continuous historical arc of religion and humanity.

“In my hometown, Yaroslavl, most efforts were focused on preservation of history, essentially turning the city into a large scale open air museum. There was little to no room for young creatives to experiment. As an act of defiance, a group of my friends and I organized a festival that brought together different art forms. We claimed and repurposed underdeveloped areas - parks, abandoned parking lots, dilapidated buildings - as hosting platforms. In the work that I do today, I like to explore and reference traditions of different cultures, but always try to find the balance of how this knowledge would translate in the future. This was partially why I got interested in joining Iyapo Repository project.”

The Iyapo Repository is an ongoing archive of futuristic objects created to imagine, and therefore affirm, the futures of people of African descent. “To [Okunseinde], a Nigerian man born in the States and raised in different parts of the world, it was a natural course of action to identify [...] social injustice towards marginalized communities.” The project draws on community participation; the artists conduct workshops where participants of all ages imagine and create possible objects by tracing a logical arc of traditional African materials and cultural objects. “While it started with the African Diaspora, it quickly spread to other disenfranchised communities as well, because social justice isn't confined just to your immediate circle.”

Mikhal: You've worked, and continue to work, in many educational roles, exploring tech with students at Blink Blink and now at Lehman College. Why is this kind of exploratory work important to you? How do you empower students to use technologies on their own?

Mischa: I never thought I’d find myself in the position of teaching and I never sought after it either. When I first started at Blink Blink all I wanted to do was technology powered products that would hopefully make technology more inclusive to all. When I helped host my first few kids’ workshops at Blink Blink, though, my eyes opened to a whole new world of possibilities.

You really need to deeply understand how technology works and what you’re trying to do with it in order to explain it to someone else, especially someone with a limited knowledge of physics. Also, kids - especially 5 and 6 year olds - are naturally creative and not yet influenced by the standardized learning system. They can take a simple piece of technology and put it in a context that you have not considered or ask a question that you do not have an immediate answer to. I should also mention the endless reserve of patience that you need to muster up in order to work with youngsters. Working with kids definitely pushes my creativity forwards and allows me to stay current with new trends, and the fact that my students come from different backgrounds keeps me on my toes. I have to be very flexible and think outside the box about the application of technology in meaningful and relevant ways.

Mikhal: One of your main projects is a spatial, interactive musical instrument that uses biological information tracking to create new levels of communication. What drew you to create this object? How do you think technology can enhance or detract from human communications?

Mischa: Octocom was the original project that sparked my interest in using biological information to enhance communication. At the time, when I was working on the concept, I was very interested in the ways humans converse face to face as opposed to online interactions. When we converse face to face, we rely on things like tone of voice, timbre, intonation, body language, and eye contact. By analyzing all this abundant data, we subconsciously calibrate our body to the same wavelength as the person we are talking to. This happens so that we can react to the same emotions as our conversational partner.

Obviously, there are various degrees of synchronization, but the idea is that we do this to form special bonds. In digital communication, these patterns are removed, causing a lot of misunderstanding and confusion as people often misinterpret and assume. My solution was to use the biological data our bodies generate and apply it to the metaphor of a radio wave. Octocom was using our pulse to alter voice messages. Custom built software was taking measurements of the human pulse when the user was recording a voice message and altering it once the pulse of the recipient was available. The amount of distortion would change based on the discrepancies between the pulse measurements; the further the parameters from each other, the more distorted the message is. So the receiver has to work toward synchronizing her pulse to the pulse of the sender and getting to the same wavelength thus fostering better, deeper communication and connection. More recently, the project has evolved into a spatial musical instrument that uses the same mechanics to generate sounds. It was a very natural transition, many think of music as a binding, expressive element. I’m curious to see what can be done with it and how music can potentially enhance the way we converse.

Mikhal: Who are some of the people in your fields who you find particularly inspirational and why?

Mischa: NYC has such a vibrant community of artists working with technology, which makes it easy to meet people who are doing awesome things. Check out some of people I follow:

Dave and Gabe: a duo of artists who work with technology to create interactive experiences. There are many people working in the experiential area of design, but D&G create playful, engaging and poetic interactions that are accessible to anyone, and not just a few tech gurus. I first saw their art at the big music festival, which so many artists would consider detrimental to the art, because of the way that concert goers interact with installations, treating it like wallpapers for Instagram. Entertainment gets a bad rep for being shallow, but in reality, it might be the hardest industry to be in. Artists showing work in an entertainment space have a responsibility to make technology accessible and engaging to everyone, while still conveying a compelling message.

Zack Lieberman: Zack was a super star of my program at Parsons. His name was the first name students learnt entering the program. Zack was one of the guys behind OpenFrameworks, an uber popular C++ library that is widely used in creative tech community. His work is displayed around the world and in the permanent collection in MoMA. Now I share a workspace with Zack and I have even more respect for his practice. Despite having international success, he works on his craft every day, which takes an enormous amount of self-discipline, something that I have struggled with! Everyday, when I go to his Instagram it's an enormous source of inspiration and wheel to get me going and keep adding to it. He also started a School of Poetic Computation  - a hybrid between school, residency and a research group.

Theo Watson. Theo was Zack’s closest collaborator at some point created many acclaimed projects together including OpenFrameworks and Eyewriter. But the project that really stuck with me is Connected Worlds - a massive scale interactive installation that can be seen at the New York Hall of Science. It’s one of the most magnificent and poetic pieces of technology I've seen. It's fairly simple in its implementation, but the impact is undeniable. When going through the installation - one is completely transported into the fairytale making you completely forget that this environment is completely artificial. What drew me to the project was the fact that it wasn't trying to take away or substitute nature, but rather to create an imaginary world that can only exist there. I'm glad I found this project early on in my career as I was struggling to justify the creation of the artifice when I could be encouraging people to interact with the real world. Connected Worlds opened my eyes to how technology can enhance and alter its surroundings.

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Meet Renata Souza, the woman who designed the first ever insulin kit for children. Renata watched her 6-year-old nephew struggle to manage his Type 1 Diabetes: his hands are too small for the insulin pen, he forgets where he injected the previous time, overall, he doesn’t want to give himself medication because it is uncomfortable.

Renata believes in the power of design. Renata asks “Why shouldn’t we try to make it more fun?” If we make the technology more appealing, we can take advantage of its full power and help more people. Renata invented Thomy: an insulin kit that kids actually want to use. On November 14th, 2017 Clever Tech had the opportunity to sit down with Renata to learn her incredible journey from design student to medical tech entrepreneur.

 Can you introduce us to your product and tell us more about what it does?

Although there are very few kid specific designs for diabetes products on the market, the majority of the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes are for kids under 20 years of age.

Thomy is an insulin kit for children with Type 1 diabetes. It facilities the administration of insulin to the body and does this through 3 components. First, Thomy’s temporary tattoos visually indicates where a user previously injected in order to prevent scarring and infection from injecting in one spot too frequently.  Second, Thomy includes an insulin pen that is ergonomically designed specifically to fit a child’s hand. Thirdly, Thomy has a color changing release dial. Right now doctors tell their patients to count to 10 seconds but this is when the needle is inside their body. Kids don’t like that. They want to leave and take it out. Therefore, the full dose is not administered which leads to wasted insulin or not receiving the correct dose which is very dangerous. I dipped the release dial in thermochromic plastic, which changes color with temperature. When the full dose is released, the dial will be a different color. This distracts the patient while needle is in their body and gives them something to look forward to. It is a fun element.

Can you tell us more about yourself? What brought you to NYC and to design specifically?

So, I grew up in Mexico City, I lived there my entire life. I knew i wanted to study design outside of Mexico because knowing about different cultures strengthens you as a designer and makes your designs more universal. I got into Parsons and ended up here in New York.

What was your inspiration behind Thomy?

The entire inspiration behind this product is my nephew, Thomas. That’s actually where the name came from - Thomy. He was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes about a year ago, and he’s only 6 years old. I saw all the things he had to do from one day to another. It was forcing him to grow up. I knew I wanted to design something for children with diabetes that they could look forward to while managing their condition.

What makes Thomy different from other insulin pens?

After observing a lot of kids with diabetes and interviewing doctors, I actually identified three main problems: the importance of injection site rotation, the ergonomic factors of current insulin pens on the market, and knowing when the full dose has been administered.

There are no insulin pens designed specifically for a kid’s hand. All the ones on the market are designed for adults. When I was observing patients they had a lot of trouble screwing on the fresh needles. Current insulin pens are 6” long. It is very hard for children to hold the release dial at the top and then inject and hold the insulin pen in place. Their thumbs’ are not long enough to reach.  

I designed the Thomy insulin pen to be a lot shorter, making it easier for children to reach the release dial at the top. Thomy also has a support handle that allows them to let go and the pen will not fall.

As for the tattoos, there is nothing like this on the market actually. If you inject insulin in the same spot there can be complications. Thomy temporary tattoos are a very simple solution, but a completely different concept of what regular temporary tattoos do.

So how does the tattoo system work? The black ink stays on the body, and the color graphic gets removed with an alcohol pad before injecting. Once the user removes one color butterfly or airplane, he knows he has already injected there. Users follow the pattern of the tattoo until no color is left, around 3 days, the user knows it is time to remove the tattoo and move on to a region of the body with a new injection tattoo. This not only helps patients with rotating injection site, but visualizes where they previously injected.

Why do you think it’s important to design products with the end user in mind? In this case - children.

Well i think especially, talking about this product, if you make it kid friendly - I wanted to make it something the kid was emotionally attached to, which increases patient compliance. If it is something that they like, that they want to do and something the remember OH i want to get another tattoo, or my pen, i want it to change color. That reminds them to take their medication and do what they need to do to monitor their condition., so I think that’s a great way, if you do something they don’t like, it;s human to not want to do it and block it out. So tailoring to your specific user is the best thing you can do because it becomes a much more successful product. In terms of user friendly technology, i decided to not use any computer tech or anything including batteries or anything like that to make it more simple and intuitive. I wanted it to be something they didn’t have to learn to use but it is something that just comes to them by nature. So that’s why i decided to stay back from that, and also to reduce the cost and not have something you need to charge or watch out for water, etc.

What  advice would you have for someone that has an inspiring idea they’d like to pursue?

I would have never imagined that I would come this far. It's been hard because everything has been new. I’m a designer and now I'm trying to learn how to be a developer. From each opportunity, though, many more opportunities have branched out.

For anyone that’s in my position, just take it step by step. Don’t think about the future very far ahead, because that is overwhelming and you have no idea what will happen. You can never fully control how things will develop. You have to go little by little and see where it takes you. You must dedicate a lot of your time, but if you like what you do then it’s awesome.

If you like what you do and want to do something, just try it out. The worst thing that can happen is you fail, but you just learned. You’re never going to waste time - everything in your life that you do will either help you learn or push you a step closer to what you want.

Why is it so important to fuse technology and design?

Biotech Without Borders is a maker space for bioengineering located in Downtown Brooklyn New York. It is unique in that it is the first community lab to open a Biosafety Level 2 (BSL2) lab facility to the public. This makes it possible to do projects with samples that have to handled specially, such as human cells and environmental samples. Since BSL2 technically provides the ability to work with viruses, this opens the lab up to a higher level of scrutiny from the scientific community.  However, Biotech without Borders has a firm policy controlling access, and will not allow work with pathogens.

 Clever Tech sat down with Ellen Jorgensen, President of Biotech Without Borders, to learn more about their efforts to make bio-entrepreneurship more accessible and to educate underrepresented demographics in the biotech field. Biotech Without Borders differs from its neighbor Genspace (an organization which Jorgensen cofounded and directed from 2010-2017) mainly in its focus on more rigorous applications of Molecular Biology, Synthetic Biology, and Genetic Engineering instead of Genspace’s BioART-influenced scope.  

1. What resources does Biotech Without Borders offer? Why did you start the organization?

Biotech without Borders is a nonprofit organization that curates a community in the sciences. We maintain a fully-equipped molecular biology lab open to the public for projects. We advocate for members by sourcing equipment, supplies, and scientific collaborators to help with a project. Interested individuals can find free events, lectures on subjects like synthetic biology and genome editing, and open lab nights listed on our website.

I am fascinated by how far the general public can come in bio-entrepreneurship.

People have interesting ideas they might want to try and prototype, and they don’t have the credentials or money to get into a biotech facility at a large institution. Biotech Without Borders’ facilities empower individuals to prototype and develop a proof of concept.

2. Biotech Without Borders is a nonprofit biological prototyping facility (BIO FAB LAB), providing citizens access to biotechnology education and lab space. Why is supporting bioliteracy in underserved communities so important?

It’s dangerous to not have full participation in biotechnology from all sectors. We have to make all populations welcome by removing the barriers to science education. Different socioeconomic groups have different questions, issues, and solutions.

Look at clinical trials for medicines.  At one time, there were virtually no clinical trials that focused on women. Women are inherently messier than men to work with. They cycle. They have children. The predominantly male scientists decided to just do clinical trials on men and solve that problem.

As science became more diverse and women went into science, people started to question that way of testing medicines. Turns out that a lot of medicines work differently and in some cases may not be as effective on women as on men. Now, in an application to the FDA if you are going to limit the treatment population in your testing, you have to defend that.

We are talking about major medications like HEART Medication not being tested on women! The old practice of only testing medicines on Caucasian males created effects that still resonate today.

So many hardworking teachers have no resources and sometimes no science budgets. Making classes and lab space available to the general public is great. Making biotech accessible to underserved and underrepresented demographics in the sciences is even better.  A lot of underserved youth have a burning desire to help their community and environment. I want more of those minds working to solve big global problems!

3. Ellen Jorgensen. Former director of GenSpace, launched Biotech Without Borders this year, 2017. How is Biotech without Borders making social and economic impact in the community, and what are the plans for the future?

We are helping Brooklyn Schools. Biotech Without Borders has a program called Hack the Helix where teachers can use our lab as a resource. We’ve gotten companies to donate supplies. We are in the pilot stage now with seven high school science teachers who come to the lab regularly to stage lessons, get advice on developing new lessons in molecular biology, and exchange best practices.  The teachers in the Hack the Helix program are all Math For America Master Teachers. I met them when I taught a professional development class for Math for America, a kindred program.

Biotech without Borders is also a Bionet node. Bionet provides DNA at cost as a resource to facilitate education and innovation.  This is an effort by Stanford University professor Drew Endy to democratize biotech. He has a grant to make and distribute 10,000 genes to labs across the country that will act as “nodes,”distributing and curating the DNA for all to use. I like to think of it like a DNA vending machine. People can use these DNA “parts” to use in education or to do projects.

Moreover, I want to find partners in countries that are not represented in the biotech field. Biotech Without Borders can help foster the capacity to build the infrastructure within those countries to commit to science.  These countries don’t just need someone to dump a bunch of equipment and instructions, but require the support to bring modified foods to their country successfully, potentially growing more robust crops and and allowing farmers to take more control of their crops.

4. If Mother Nature is the ultimate bioterrorist, what are humans? What guiding principles do you follow as a genetic scientist and public educator?

Humans are very inferior bioterrorists- if you think about how many species of microbes there are in the world, and how few are actually harmful to humans, you can understand how hard it it to create a perfect pathogen. The technology of genetic engineering is inherently neither good nor evil; it’s just a technology. People equate agricultural biotech with aggressive business practices of large companies like Monsanto and don’t trust reassurances that GMO food is safe to eat. But there is absolutely no credible data that GMOs are harmful to eat  and no scientific reason why they should be. And by the way, manufacturers and sellers of organic food are just as interested in making money as companies that make GMO foods. The anti-GMO movement has slowed down progress in engineering plants to combat diseases and pests and to make crops more nutritious and resistant to droughts caused by global warming.

On the other hand, I don’t think we fully understand the effect on the environment. But the effects can be looked at case-by-case, and by not acting we may be doing more harm than by going forward. We can’t turn back the clock on technology. The best we can do is to steer everything in a direction that is useful and peaceful.

I was very affected by a United Nations conference I was asked to speak at that focused on how science and technology could help the world achieve what the UN calls the Sustainable Development Goals. It’s an effort to solve some large problems like food security and protection of the environment by 2030- genetic engineering will be part of the solution.

5. What biotech development are you most excited about?

I think we are at a point in history where a lot of technologies (synthetic biology, AI, CRISPR, cloud computing, cell imaging etc.) are all coming together. We are already seeing advances in cancer treatment using immunotherapy where we are even glimpsing at possible cures.

Biomaterials are another fast-moving field. We’ve seen companies like Modern Meadow and Bolt Threads move into sustainable clothing, and companies like Ginkgo Biotech are moving the production of flavors and fragrances away from harvesting rare plants and into fermentation vats.

6. CRISPR genome editing has enabled the development of biomed technologies like immunotherapies that can be used to battle cancer. Can/How might this technology help treat or prevent autoimmune diseases, degenerative diseases, etc in the future?

Target wants make it easier to buy furniture online by adding augmented reality to mobile shopping

AZALEA PENA

1 NOVEMBER 2017

Can’t decide which chair will look best next to your couch? Target’s new augmented reality feature See It In Your Space will let you see how furniture looks in the room before buying it.

Furniture shopping is a daunting task. Shoppers have to make sure it’s the right color, style and size. To prevent wrong purchases, customers can use the AR feature on Target’s mobile website to visualize the product in the actual room.

See It In Your Space guides users through each step. First, users have to take the photo of the living space where the furniture will be placed. Next, the user will choose a piece of furniture. Then the user can position the furniture in the photo and adjust accordingly.

See It In Your Space is already available on Target’s mobile website. However, the feature is only available for Project 62 Target home furniture. Target is already working on expanding the feature to other brands and products by the end of the year or early in 2018.

Future Textiles Library: an exhibition that explores the intersection of fashion, e-textile design, and computational technology.

Showing from October 21- December 22, 2017

Wearable Media  will be hosting an array of exciting workshops during November 2017  at the Future Textile Library.

Take the opportunity to meet other creative technologists, designers, fashion lovers, and activists while learning more about the future of textiles.

Wearable Media focuses on statement pieces that tell a story to increase public awareness and connection to the world around them. Whether through augmented reality, interactive apparel, or data connected textiles, any future fashion dreamer should follow this company's experimental projects. 

Clever Tech Digest loves Wearable Media for three reasons:

1) Wearable Media strives to increase public awareness of environmental and social issues through their interactive fashion designs.

2) Wearable Media is a successful and innovative tech company founded by three fiercely intelligent women from very different professional background. Interdisciplinary teams rock!

3) Wearable Media is massively expanding the fashion tech industry's understanding of what is possible for applications of e-textiles. They have made use of data resources like NASA, held their own as fashion designers, and constantly open up their resources to share knowledge with others.

Dote has created a new service called 'Shop The Look,' which lets fans buy clothing items as they appear on a TV show.

LAUREN KIRKWOOD

The summer of 2017 has seen an explosion in new cryptocurrencies, with dozens of startups using digital currency as a fundraising mechanism. According to Bloomberg, initial coin offerings (ICOs) have raised over $1.6 billion in the past year, prompting many to speculate on the decline of venture capital as a model for funding new startups.

Joseph Redmon · Computer scientist

Joseph Redmon works on the YOLO algorithm, which combines the simple face detection of your phone camera with a cloud-based AI -- in real time.

Ten years ago, researchers thought that getting a computer to tell the difference between a cat and a dog would be almost impossible. Today, computer vision systems do it with greater than 99 percent accuracy. How? Joseph Redmon works on the YOLO (You Only Look Once) system, an open-source method of object detection that can identify objects in images and video -- from zebras to stop signs -- with lightning-quick speed. In a remarkable live demo, Redmon shows off this important step forward for applications like self-driving cars, robotics and even cancer detection.

IDEAS.TED.COM

Understanding code provides abundant creative opportunities across a wide variety of industries. CodeHS strives to give more students the chance to learn how to use code. In school we study reading and writing, but most people do not become professional readers. Many jobs, though, require basic literacy. CodeHS founders, Zach Galant and Jeremy Keeshin, say "Read, Write, Code" represent the most crucial foundational skills for the 21st century. Clever Tech Digest sat down with Zach Galant, to learn more about the platform CodeHS is building for the next generation stand on.

CodeHS implements high quality computer science programs around the world by providing great curriculum, tools, training, and support to public, charter, private, and international schools. CodeHS is a comprehensive and interactive computer science education platform that can be scaled and adapted for different schools' needs.  

For readers unfamiliar with CodeHS, how did this coding “class in a box” concept begin and what inspired your unique curriculum?

When we started CodeHS, we spent a lot of time visiting schools and working with students and teachers. We've visited over 100 schools across almost every state to see what schools and computer science classes are like, so we can learn what is actually helpful for teachers and what works for students. We speak with teachers and students every day who spend all of their time teaching computer science and try to make the necessary tools to help them succeed. Our goal is to have everything you could possibly want or need all available in one place.

What are some computer science occupations outside of becoming a programmer for students to explore? Why should educators expose students to computer science and how it relates to their future before they go to college?

I believe that coding can be applied to any industry. We actually started a blog called Coding in the Wild (https://codinginthewild.com/) to highlight real people who use coding in their jobs across many industries from economics to music to chemical engineering. The thing to realize is that software is taking over many industries and if you know how to code, you can have a hand in shaping that. You don't even need to be a professional programmer. Even just knowing what it's about and what possibilities it opens can give you ideas that can make a difference in whatever field you care about.

What are the main limitations and obstacles you face developing a fun, engaging, and flexible education platform for computer science? How have you overcome them?

Education is very local. In different regions, schools and teachers do things differently and their needs can vary drastically. Some teachers want a curriculum that they can use as a turnkey, others want to make everything from scratch every year, and many lay somewhere in between. It's a challenge to make a product that effectively accommodates all of these varying demands. Every day we think about how to build a product that is flexible enough for any computer science teacher to use and get value from.

What principles guide your team while creating computer science education tools and growing the business?

Our main guiding principle is to build a comprehensive computer science education service. We do whatever necessary to ensure our customers’ success. This may include visiting their schools, talking on the phone weekly, having conversations about how to help a struggling student, or building exactly the resources and tools teachers need. We want CodeHS to be indispensable to teachers. CodeHS should be so helpful that you couldn't imagine running your classroom without it.

How will increasing computer literacy bring more people together, and change the structure of our economy?

Think about an economy where the majority of people don't know how to read or write. That leaves them completely without the opportunity to be successful or have any influence. A similar gap exists between those who can understand code and those who can't. You don't necessarily need to be an expert programmer, but if you know enough, you'll be able to see opportunities in ways you couldn't have imagined otherwise.

What is your dream for a better global education system?

Right now, I'm focusing on making an amazing experience for teaching computer science in schools. However, I think that there are many significant areas of improvement for the education system as a whole. I think it all starts with teachers. In the US, teachers are overworked and underappreciated, but they are often the most influential people in young people's lives. Teachers should be celebrated and revered. I think that the key to improving education for the most people in the most effective way is to get the best and brightest to be teachers and to take an interest in the lives of young people, inspiring them to love learning and do good.

What question do you wish I had asked?