MakeSchools Interview Series
A conversation with leading Makers about what it means to Make.
A conversation with leading Makers about what it means to Make.
Jessica Kertis Ulrich is Etsy’s Seller Social Media Manager. She manages the Etsy Success community on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, where Etsy sellers can connect with Etsy and each other. She is also a long-time maker and Etsy seller. She designs and makes leather goods, ...
Mike Warren is a designer, inventor, and author based in San Francisco. His work combines electronics, woodworking, and reuse using physical fabrication in line with the maker culture. His open source work is carefully documented to inspire and encourage others to remix his pr...
Coby Unger is a maker of things and a connoisseur of high fives. His background is in woodworking, product design and mess making. He studied Industrial Design at Philadelphia University and spent seven months as a resident artist at Autodesk’s Pier 9 Workshop. Coby prides him...
Mitch Altman is a San Francisco-based hacker and inventor, best known for inventing TV-B-Gone remote controls, a keychain that turns off TVs in public places. He was also co-founder of 3ware (a successful Silicon Valley startup) and did pioneering work in Virtual Reality at V...
Jules Pieri is Co-Founder and CEO of the product launch platform The Grommet. The company’s Citizen Commerce™ movement is reshaping how consumer products get discovered, shared, and bought. Jules started her career as an industrial designer for technology companies and was sub...
Jessica Olivarez-Mazone is an educator, DIY lifestyle blogger, and speaker. She currently writes at Tejana Made and is in the process of creating The Blinking Light Project, an organization that will help rural students bridge the technology gap.
John is a maker, technical/artistic problem solver, teacher, builder of quirky electro-mechanical contraptions, husband, and father of two. He hosted the Make: Television series on PBS, has worked in CG animation for 20 years, is now a producer at Disney Research, and writes f...
Dave Peth is an Emmy award-winning digital media producer and the founder of Symbolic Studio, a digital media consulting company that helps people learn, grow and change. Recent projects include PEG + CAT and Odd Squad, two PBS KIDS series and digital suites that are all about...
I'm the Director of Curriculum for DIY Girls, a non-profit that provides hands-on tech experiences for girls in Los Angeles. There, I develop curriculum, run after-school and library programs, and create resources for kids and parents. My hobby is computer programming. I belie...
Brent Bushnell is the CEO of Two Bit Circus, a Los Angeles-based experiential entertainment company. Most recently the team launched STEAM Carnival, a modern re-imagining of the midway to inspire kids about science, technology, engineering, art and math. Previously he was the ...
Anna works with the Fab Lab network and Autodesk to promote creativity and sustainable development worldwide. She has a BS in Physics and Writing/Humanistic Studies from MIT, and she received a Fulbright fellowship to research grassroots manufacturing at the Kwame Nkrumah Univ...
Jesse Genet is the Founder and CEO of Lumi. Lumi helps you customize any object or surface by shipping made-on-demand printing tools like rubber stamps, silkscreens and decals directly to your doorstep. Lumi products are available online at Lumi.com and their printing kits are...
Lisa is a Maker Pro and the CEO of the hardware start-up Nomiku. She's currently manufacturing the first batch of Kickstarter backed WiFi immersion circulators in the Bay Area with her co-founders Abe and Bam.
Barry Romich is a graduate of the Case School of Engineering of Case Western Reserve University. He is co-founder of Prentke Romich Company, a developer and manufacturer of assistive technology for people with severe speech communication disability. Barry continues to suppor...
Mr. Sears received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Case Institute of Technology. In 1972 he founded Hexagram, Inc., one of the leading providers of wireless systems for automatically reading utility meters. (Hexagram is now ACLARA Wireless Technologies. Mr. Sears hold...
Xanthe Matychak is a designer and educator working at the intersection of creativity, sustainability, and technology. She is the founder of Make Better Stuff, an organization that helps diverse groups of people solve complex problems. Xanthe serves on the boards of Ithaca Gene...
Steve is the Director of Education for the non-profit Maker Education Initiative located in Oakland, California. For eight years Steve was the Documentation and Technology Specialist and a Math and a Science Teacher at Opal Public Charter School of the Portland Children’s Muse...
Brit Morin is the founder & CEO of Brit + Co, an online media and e-commerce company that provides tools to teach, inspire and enable creativity among women and girls. From traditional crafts to high-tech manufacturing, Brit + Co connects millions of users with makers, designe...
Zach Supalla is co-founder and CEO of Spark IO. Zach is a self-taught engineer, Maker, designer, and entrepreneur; he’s shipped tens of thousands of products around the world and been featured in WIRED, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Mashable, and more.
Markus Vogl is an Assistant Professor in Graphic Design at the Myers School of Art at the University of Akron and a NE Ohio based multimedia artist experimenting in multiple sensory experiences combining sound, environments and interactive installation. He holds a Masters of F...
Jesse Harrington Au is Program Manager Maker at Autodesk Inc. He is also a designer, maker and educator. Au works with the award winning consumer products team there to arouse the creativity in us all. Au provides technical support both internally and externally to makers and ...
Margarita Benitez is the Fashion Technologist and an Assistant Professor at The Fashion School at Kent State University and she collaborates with Markus Vogl, an Assistant Professor at the University of Akron. They collaborate in their art practice under the name //benitez_vog...
Rory A. Cooper, Ph.D. is FISA Foundation & Paralyzed Veterans of America Chair and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Rehabilitation Science & Technology at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also Founding Director and VA Senior Research Career Scientist of the Huma...
Ian Charnas graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2005 with B.S degrees in both computer and mechanical engineering, and currently manages think[box], the center for innovation and tinkering at CWRU. His work blends art and technology in creatively-themed exhibits ...
We are asking leading Makers to contribute their thoughts on what it means to Make. We hope that when brought together these short interviews will illustrate the importance of Making.
Each interview consists of just 7 important questions. We ask the same 7 questions to everyone -- that way we can compare and contrast a range of perspectives on Making.
Each interviewee can nominate who they would like to hear from next in the series and new interviews are posted every week.