(author/educator), Hideo Tamura (O’Reilly/Make:
Japan), Julie Legault (author/educator), David
Wells (museum educator), and Nicole Shuman
(AmeriCorps VISTA maker).
Top Prize & 1st Prize Education
Category
$5,000 prize
1
SHE BUILDS ROBOTS Christina Ernst
She Build Robots is the kind of website that
creator Christina Ernst wanted when she
was younger: Building engineering skills
with a focus on creativity over academics.
Currently numbering around nine projects,
shebuildsrobots.org is a free educational
resource for learning robotics and e-textiles.
Designed to appeal to teen girls, it features
color-changing skirts, musical cupcake toppers,
tea-brewing robots, and more. As Ernst put it:
“Less Big Bang Theory and more what-if-Coco-
Chanel-knew-about-conductive-thread.”
Working directly with teachers in the Chicago
area to get kits into classrooms and after-school
programs, Ernst’s ultimate goal is to give girls
confidence that there’s a place for them in STEM.
“Students absolutely have the capacity to
be fascinated by topics they once perceived as
boring,” she says. “Additionally, tone matters
a lot when introducing students to a subject
that may intimidate them; colloquial and
approachable usually beats lofty and academic.”
1st Prize, Artistic Category
$2,500 prize
2
— AN ARTISTIC EXPLORATION
OF CONTEMPORARY COURTSHIP
Kenzie Housego
Contemporary dating has a near inescapable
digital component, whether it’s online dating
profiles, taking the perfect selfie, or trying to
parse sometimes cryptic emoji responses to
texts. With
, Kenzie Housego set out to
explore digital courtship language and symbols
using five 2D pieces, augmenting traditional
embroidery and craft with LED displays, motion
sensors, and interactive chatbots. The effect
is engaging and “highlights how romantic
communication is transmitted, interpreted,
and misinterpreted through technology.”
1st Prize, Technical Category
$2,500 prize
3
QNINJA — REAL-TIME PCR
Shingo Hisakawa and Mariko Hisakawa
Academia likes to tell us that “legitimate science”
is done in labs and needs high-level degrees, but
there’s a rich history of punk scientists getting
down ’n’ dirty in home labs with DIY equipment.
Inspired by Covid-19, qNinja continues the
tradition as a low-cost, open source PCR gene
analyzer that you can build and use at home.
A polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is a
15
makeprojects.com
Christina Ernst, Kenzie Housego, Shingo Hisakawa
Adobe Stock-Avector
2
3
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