Limor Fried
Limor Fried | |
|---|---|
 Fried on the Open Hardware Summit 2010 | |
| Born | |
| Occupation | Electrical engineer |
| Known for | Open source movement |
| Website | www |
Limor Fried is an American electrical engineer and owner of the electronics hobbyist company, Adafruit Industries. She is influential in the open-source hardware community, having participated in the first Open Source Hardware Summit and the drafting of the Open Source Hardware definition, and is known for her moniker ladyada, an homage to Lady Ada Lovelace.
Career
In 2003, Fried earned her BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) from MIT. She stayed on, and earned a Master of Engineering in EECS in 2005. She is the founder of Adafruit Industries, as well as the engineer behind the electronic kits sold by the company.
In 2009, she was awarded the Pioneer Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for her participation in the open source hardware and software community.[1]
In 2011, Fried was awarded the Most Influential Women in Technology award by Fast Company magazine.[2]
Entrepreneur magazine named Fried "Entrepreneur of the Year" in its January 2013 issue. In 2012 Limor was the only female finalist against 14 other male finalist entrepreneurs. Also in 2012, Fried became the first female engineer featured on the cover of Wired. [3] In an interview with CNET, Fried said, "If there's one thing I'd like to see from this, it would be for some kid say to themselves "I could do that" and start the journey to becoming an engineer and entrepreneur."[4]
Open Kinect Project
After Microsoft launched the Kinect for the Xbox 360, Fried, along with Phillip Torrone, organized a $2,000 challenge[5] for open source Kinect drivers. After Microsoft condemned the challenge as modification to their product, Adafruit increased the prize to $3,000.[6] This prompted a Microsoft company spokesperson to tell CNET:
Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products ... With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering. Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant.[7]
After significant advancements in the open source drivers, spokespeople from Microsoft stated that they did not condemn the challenge, and in fact were excited to see what the community developed.[8]
References
- ^ "Hardware Hacker, E-Voting Investigator, and Public Domain Advocate Win Pioneer Awards". Electronic Frontier Foundation. October 6, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ^ Zax, David. "Limor Fried". 2011 Most Influential Women in Technology. Fast Company. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ^ http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/limor-fried-adafruit-0531.html
- ^ Blue, Violet (December 17, 2012). "Magazine names hacker Limor Fried 'Entrepreneur of the Year'". CNET. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ^ Tozzi, John (December 6, 2010). "Adafruit Targets Tinkerers With 'Open-Source' Electronics Kits". Bloomberg. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ^ "The Open Kinect project – THE OK PRIZE – get $3,000 bounty for Kinect for Xbox 360 open source drivers". Adafruit. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ^ Terdiman, Daniel (November 4, 2010). "Bounty offered for open-source Kinect driver". CNET. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ^ Flatow, Ira (November 19, 2010). "How The X-Box Kinect Tracks Your Moves". National Public Radio. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
External links
- Adafruit — Limor Fried's company.
- Torrone, Phillip; Fried, Limor ‘ladyada’, "Citizen Engineer — Consumer Electronics Hacking and Open Source Hardware", [[Hackers on_Planet_Earth#HOPE_Number_Six|HOPE Number Six]] (MP3) (talk), 2600
{{citation}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help). - Altman, Mitch; Fried, Limor ‘ladyada’, "The Geeky, Personal, and Social Impact Sides of Creating Defensive Technology", [[Hackers_on_Planet_Earth#HOPE_Number_Six|HOPE Number Six]] (talk)
{{citation}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help) - Kindle etching and DIY adventures with Adafruit Industries (report), Engadget on ladyada's work.
- Adafruit Industries -- Rocketboom report on ladyada's company