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Xyla Foxlin

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Xyla Foxlin
Personal information
Born
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S
EducationLexington High School (MA)
Case Western Reserve University (B.S.E.)
Occupation(s)Engineer, entrepreneur, YouTube personality
Websitehttps://www.xylafoxlin.com/
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2020–present
GenreEngineering
Subscribers401 thousand[2]
Total views20.9 million[1][2]
Last updated: 21 December 2023

Xyla Foxlin is an American engineer, entrepreneur and YouTuber.[3] She graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2019 with a B.S.E. in General Engineering focusing in Mechatronics and Creative Technology. Foxlin provides YouTube tutorial videos, guiding viewers through technical projects. She served as Executive Director for 501-c(3) non-profit Beauty and the Bolt which aims to lower the barrier to entry for women and minorities in STEM fields.[4]

Biography

Foxlin grew up in the Boston area and attended Lexington High School.[5] As a sophomore, she found part-time work by using a hyperlocal job search website called HelpAroundTown.[5] She was captain of the school's robotics team in her junior and senior years.[3] She attended Case Western University and majored in mechanical and aerospace engineering where she was described in a magazine as a "robotics whiz kid".[6] She was president of the college's robotics mining team.[6]

While in Cleveland, she entered a beauty contest and won the title for Miss Greater Cleveland; her skill was playing a violin using a Tesla coil that she developed.[6][7][8]

In 2017 when she was doxxed and harassed by an anonymous Twitter follower, she subpoenaed Twitter to find the identity of her harasser; it turned out she was a woman and fellow robotics student that Foxlin had once mentored.[9][10]

In 2018, Foxlin was named as one of Crain's Cleveland Business's most Notable Women in Technology.[11][12]

Career

Parihug

Foxlin invented a huggable teddy bear called Parihug[13] which features two matching bears; each bear is "stuffed with wireless and Bluetooth technology" so that when it is hugged, it sends a signal to its twin over the Internet so that a person with the other bear will feel it vibrate softly and get a message about the hug.[6][14][15] The toy attracted sufficient attention so that it became a startup firm.[14] With co-founder Harshita Gupta, the stuffed animals won the SXSW Tech Fest Reader's Choice award.[16] She also won the university's Spartan Challenge Entrepreneurial Competition in its development.[17]

Beauty and the Bolt

With a classmate, she launched a 501-c(3) non-profit called Beauty and the Bolt to empower women and minorities to excel in engineering.[14][8][18] The website was described as an "online village that is designed to reduce the barrier to entry into makerspaces".[3] It offers video tutorials about 3-D printing, cutting with lasers, soldering, and other engineering-related tasks.[19] Forbes contributor Amy Blankson described her as an inspiring role model who has been working to close the "STEM gender gap" by utilizing modern media.[20]

My big thing is that femininity and engineering are not mutually exclusive. I’m still the only one in a dress at design reviews or the only one wearing all pink in the shop. We should be teaching our girls that it’s OK to like princesses and power tools.

— Foxlin in Cleveland Magazine in 2017.[14]

YouTube

Foxlin designs and builds projects requiring woodworking and engineering skills, and posts YouTube videos about how she went about building them. For example, in 2021, at the request of a fellow YouTuber, Derek Muller, she built a model car that uses a gear and propeller system to apply drive from a treadmill to make it travel faster than the treadmill was running;[21][22] she was able to build the vehicle after learning that the key design detail is the vehicle speed ratio, which describes the optimal way to transmit power from the wheels to spin the propeller.[23][24] She launched a tiara into space using weather balloon technology, with cameras on the balloon to record the flight and send back data to her controller. The camera, but not the tiara, was recovered hundreds of miles away.[25]

In May 2021, she built a high powered wood rocket in five days.[26] She built a kayak out of clear fiberglass and lit it internally with a plethora of LED colored lights, so her craft, which she nicknamed Rainbowt, lights up on the water even at night.[27] In another video, Foxlin went on a cross country road trip through the southern and western United States, collecting a piece of wood from trees grown in each of the states, which she machined into wooden puzzle pieces of a map of the country.[28] In 2021, Foxlin designed a bulletproof gown and then shot bullets at the gown to see if the kevlar materials in the gown were effective at stopping the bullets.[29] At Christmas time in 2021, along with Joe Barnard, she launched a seven foot tall Christmas tree 300 feet into the air, with a "rocket stuffed up its ... bottom".[25]

Recognition

In 2021, a 3D printed statue of her, along with other women leaders in aviation and aerospace-related fields, was displayed at Dallas Love Field airport in Texas as a preview of an exhibition called #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit.[30][12] Foxlin's 3D printed statue was also displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., in March, 2022 within the full #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit, featuring 120 3D printed statues displayed in celebration of Women's History Month.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Xyla Foxlin - YouTube". www.youtube.com.
  2. ^ a b "About Xyla Foxlin". YouTube.
  3. ^ a b c Adam Rowe (May 12, 2017). "20-Year-Old Founder Xyla Foxlin on Bars, Plushies, and Being Alienated". Tech Co. magazine. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  4. ^ "About". Xyla Foxlin YouTube Site. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  5. ^ a b MARIE SZANISZLO (February 9, 2014). "Site's a source for local jobs". Boston Herald. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d BJ Colangelo (May 21, 2018). "Miss Greater Cleveland and Mechanical Engineer Xyla Foxlin is Revolutionizing What it Means to be a Beauty Queen". Cleve Scene magazine. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  7. ^ Britany Schock (June 14, 2018). "Swimsuit, talent winners crowned at Miss Ohio". Richland Source. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  8. ^ a b Betsy Kling (April 5, 2019). "Girls in STEM: Former 'Miss Greater Cleveland' is STEMbassador at Case Western Reserve: She's set to graduate with a degree in engineering but has a crown on her resume too". WKYC Television. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  9. ^ Staff writer (October 1, 2017). "How Xyla Foxlin Stopped a Twitter Harasser Threatening Her". Business Insider. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  10. ^ Lisa Vaas (October 3, 2017). "How a Twitter troll was slain". Sophos News (formerly Naked Security). Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  11. ^ "Xyla Foxlin". Crain's Cleveland Business. 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  12. ^ a b c "#IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit". ifthenexhibit.org. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  13. ^ Duffy, Brian (April 21, 2017). "Need a hug? Parihug goes the distance". Cleveland19.com. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  14. ^ a b c d Staff writer (January 1, 2017). "Most Interesting People 2017: Xyla Foxlin: The Case Western Reserve University student makes long-distance relationships more meaningful with her Parihug stuffed bears". Cleveland magazine. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  15. ^ Jeffrey R. Young (January 12, 2016). "The Story of a Digital Teddy Bear Shows How College Learning Is Changing: Digital teddy bears that enable people to share hugs from afar were among the products on display at last week's CES consumer electronics show. The bears' inventors are Harshita Gupta, a high-school senior in California, and Xyla Foxlin, a sophomore at Case Western Reserve U." The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  16. ^ Marcia Pledger of the Plain Dealer (January 11, 2016). "5 questions with teddy bear Parihug teen co-founder Xyla Foxlin (photos)". Cleveland.com. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  17. ^ Nardine Taleb (April 27, 2016). "The Spartan Challenge Rewards Great Entrepreneurial Minds". The Observer (CWRU publication). Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  18. ^ Staff writers (January 7, 2019). "Annual CES International Trade Show Will Feature Case Western Reserve Entreprenuers [sic]". WKSU 89.9 Public Radio for Northeast Ohio. Archived from the original on November 1, 2021. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  19. ^ Melina Delkic (November 1, 2018). "Young Makers Take Action and Tackle Problems: From saving soap to erasing the darkness, their projects bring solutions throughout the world". The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  20. ^ Amy Blankson (October 9, 2018). "Three Inspiring Role Models Embrace Modern Media To Close The STEM Gender Gap". Forbes. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
  21. ^ Paul Hanaphy (July 5, 2021). "YOUTUBER 3D PRINTS CAR THAT 'BREAKS LAWS OF PHYSICS' TO CLARIFY DECADE-LONG DEBATE". 3D Printing Industry. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  22. ^ "Science YouTuber Wins $10,000 Bet With Physicist". www.vice.com. July 2021. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  23. ^ Danie Conradie (July 2, 2021). "$10 000 PHYSICS WAGER SETTLES THE DEBATE ON SAILING DOWNWIND FASTER THAN THE WIND". Hackaday magazine. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  24. ^ Margaret Davis (July 2, 2021). "Is a Wind-Powered Car Cruise Faster Than the Wind? YouTuber and Physicist Place $10,000 Bet; Who Will Win?". The Science Times. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  25. ^ a b Mircea, Cristina (2021-12-30). "40-Lb. Christmas Tree Goes Flying 300 Ft Into the Air With a Rocket Shoved Inside It". Retrieved 2023-05-23. Joe Barnard ... and Xyla Foxlin (... sent a tiara into space) ... hence the Christmas tree rocket was launched....
  26. ^ Danie Conradie (May 23, 2021). "A HIGH POWER WOOD ROCKET IN 5 DAYS". Hackaday magazine. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  27. ^ Jason Weisberger (January 16, 2021). "Xyla Foxlin makes a clear kayak with LED lights". Boing Boing magazine. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  28. ^ Jason Weisberger (February 11, 2021). "Xyla Foxlin takes a trip and makes a map". Boing Boing magazine. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  29. ^ Weisberger, Jason (2021-11-03). "Watch Xyla Foxlin test her "bulletproof" ballgown". Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  30. ^ Harriet Baskas (January 2021). "3D statues at Dallas Love Field celebrate women in aviation". Runway Girl Network. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
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