As an undergraduate at the American University of Beirut, Ayah Bdeir wasn’t sure if engineering was for her. Then she discovered makerspaces – those places where the creative community can learn, build and share skills.
“That opened up a whole new way of learning engineering for me,” she said. “I discovered that I actually loved engineering because of the hands-on approach.”
Bdeir, the founder of LittleBits, maker of educational kits of snap-together electronics, was the opening speaker for last week’s 4th International Symposium on Academic Makerspaces (ISAM) at Yale University. The three-day event was co-hosted by Olin College and attended by 350 maker educators, equipment manufacturers, and other enthusiasts from 156 universities from 14 countries. There, they talked shop, traded notes, and heard from leaders in the growing multi-disciplinary field. The annual event…
