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I design engineering projects

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for middle school
and high school students,

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often using materials
that are pretty unexpected.

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My inspiration comes
from problems in my daily life.

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For example,

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one time I needed a costume
to go to a comic convention,

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but I didn't want to spend too much money,

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so I made my own ...

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with a light-up crown and skirt.

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(Laughter)

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Another time,

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I was devastated
because my favorite mobile game,

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"Flappy Bird,"

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was being taken off the app store.

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(Laughter)

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So I was faced with the dilemma

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to either never update my phone
or never play "Flappy Bird" again.

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(Laughter)

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Unhappy with both options,

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I did the only thing
that made sense to me.

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I made a physical version of Flappy Bird

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that could never be
taken off the app store.

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(Laughter)

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(Music)

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(Beeping)

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(Music)

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(Laughter)

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So a few of my friends
were also pretty addicted to the game,

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and I invited them to play as well.

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(Video) Friend: Ah!

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(Laughter)

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(Video) Friend: What the heck?

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(Laughter)

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And they told me that it was
just as infuriating as the original game.

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(Laughter)

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So I uploaded a demo
of this project online,

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and to my surprise it went viral.

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It had over two million views
in just a few days.

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(Laughter)

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And what's more interesting
are people's comments.

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A lot of people
wanted to make it their own,

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or asked me how it was made.

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So this kind of confirmed my idea
that through a creative project,

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we can teach people about engineering.

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With the money made from the viral video,

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we were able to let students
in our classroom

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all make their own game in a box.

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Although it was pretty challenging,

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they learned a lot of new concepts
in engineering and programming.

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And they were all eager to learn
so they could finish the game as well.

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(Laughter)

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So before Flappy Bird Box,

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I had the idea of using creative
engineering projects to teach students.

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When I was teaching at a middle school,

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we asked our students to build a robot
from a standard technology kit.

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And I noticed that
a lot of them seemed bored.

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Then a few of them
started taking pieces of paper

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and decorating their robots.

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And then more of them got into it,

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and they became
more interested in the project.

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So I started looking
for more creative ways

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to introduce technology to students.

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What I found was that most technology kits
available in school

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look a little intimidating.

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They're all made of plastic parts
that you can't customize.

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On top of that,
they're all very expensive,

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costing hundreds of dollars per kit.

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So that's certainly not very affordable
for most classroom budgets.

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Since I didn't find anything,

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I decided to make something on my own.

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I started with paper and fabric.

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After all, we all played
with those since we were kids,

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and they are also pretty cheap

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and can be found
anywhere around the house.

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And I prototyped a project

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where students
can create a light-up creature

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using fabric and googly eyes.

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They were all helping
each other in classrooms,

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and were laughing
and discussing the project.

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And most importantly,

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they were able to insert
their own creativity into the project.

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So because of the success of this project,

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I continued to create
more engineering projects

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to challenge my students.

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And I also started to take
these workshops outside of school

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and into the community.

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And something really interesting happened.

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I noticed a lot of people
from very diverse backgrounds

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started coming to our workshops.

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And specifically,

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there were a lot more women
and minorities than I expected,

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and that you wouldn't usually see
at a traditional engineering workshop.

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Now take a look at this employee report
at a major technology company in 2016.

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Women make up only 19 percent
of the technology workforce.

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And underrepresented minorities
make up only four percent.

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This statistic might look familiar

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if you walked into
a high school robotics club,

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or a college engineering class.

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Now, there's a wide variety of problems

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that contribute to the lack of diversity
in the technology force.

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Perhaps one solution could be

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to introduce technology to students
through creative projects.

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I'm not saying that this
could solve everything,

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but it could introduce technology

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to people who originally
wouldn't be interested in it

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because of how it has been
portrayed and taught in school.

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So how do we start to change
the perception of technology?

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Most students think
that it's boring or unwelcoming,

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so I have always designed projects
following three principles.

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First is having a low floor,

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and that means this project
is easy to get started.

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So take a look at this tutorial.

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The first project
we asked students to learn

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is to make a circuit on paper.

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As you can see, it doesn't
take very long to learn,

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and it's pretty easy even for beginners.

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And having a low floor also means
that we're removing the financial barrier

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that prevents people
from completing a project.

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So with paper, copper tape,
lightbulb and a battery,

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people can complete this project
for under a dollar.

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So second principle
is having a high ceiling.

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This means that there's
a lot of room to grow,

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and students are
constantly being challenged.

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At first it might just be
a light-up creature,

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but then you can add sensors
and microcontrollers,

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and start to program the creature
to interact with its environment.

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(Laughter)

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And finally,

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the third principle is customization.

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This means that we can make
this project relevant to anyone.

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That's the beauty
of using everyday materials;

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it's very easy to customize
using paper and fabric.

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So even if you don't like "Flappy Bird,"

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you can still make your own game.

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(Video) Student: So our game
is about Justin Bieber,

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because he's been speeding,

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and the object is to prevent him
from getting caught by the LAPD --

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(Laughter)

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(Video) Student:
Yeah, but he's changing so --

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we're a part of his posse.

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(Laughter)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)