Keynote Speakers

We are glad to introduce our Opening Keynote for IDC 2022: Jie Qi.

Jie Qi

Jie Qi is cofounder and CEO Chibitronics, which produces creative learning toolkits blending paper craft with electronics and programming. Her mission is to use art and engineering to empower creators of all backgrounds to make their own expressive and personally meaningful technologies. Jie is also an alum of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard University Law school. There she created PatentPandas.org, a resource to teach patent law through friendly panda comics and inventors’ stories, as well as connect creators to free legal counsel. Her work has been exhibited at the Exploratorium Museum, Ars Electronica, MIT Museum and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. She was awarded the 2020 Mike Eisenberg Award for Beautiful Learning Technologies from Interaction Design and Children. Jie holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a masters and PhD in media arts and sciences from the MIT Media Lab.

KEYNOTE ABSTRACT

Paper circuits have evolved over the last decade from limited prototypes in research labs to popular activities used in classrooms, makerspaces, homes and craft rooms all over the world. Inspired by this year’s theme of connectedness, I will speak about my personal experience of connecting my research in paper circuits to the outside world through entrepreneurship. I will share a historical survey of how this medium has grown and evolved, stories of the surprises, challenges and lessons learned that I have encountered in scaling this work, and finally showcase some opportunities and spaces this medium has opened for new community participation and new ways of learning, making, and expression through technology.