βWhen I was young, I never imagined I could become a hacker. It seemed lonely and somehow unappealing, and I didn't know any girls who did it. I stumbled into a computer science course at MIT by accident, and it wasn't until I discovered Leah Buechley's lab at MIT that I realized: hacking, engineering, computer science -- it's not about solving problems using some algorithm -- it's about gaining the freedom to create whatever you decide the world needs, to solve otherwise unsolvable problems.
I wanted to show other young kids -- especially girls who thought like me -- that programming is fundamentally about creation, which is why Leah and I wrote Sew Electric. Sew Electric speaks to kids in their language, teaching them how to build electronics and code through a series of creative projects, including an interactive plush monster and a touch-sensitive fabric piano.Β
My hope is that Sew Electric will expand the culture of computer science, and make it less intimidating and more appealing to diverse kids from all backgrounds who want to create.β
Kanjun Qiu | Sew Electric
