Caitlin Kalinowski facts for kids
Caitlin Kalinowski is an American expert in product design and mechanical engineering. Since 2024, she has been leading projects for robots and consumer devices at OpenAI. Before that, she was in charge of hardware at virtual reality company Oculus VR.
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About Caitlin Kalinowski
Caitlin Kalinowski grew up in New Hampshire. She later moved to the west coast of the United States. There, she started studying product design at Stanford University. Both of her parents were university professors. Today, she lives in San Francisco, California.
Kalinowski is involved with different groups that support women in technology. These groups help more women learn about and work in tech fields. She is on the board of Wogrammer, which shares interviews with women engineers. She also advises Lesbians Who Tech, a group that supports LGBTQ+ people in technology.
Caitlin's Career Journey
After three years at Stanford University, Caitlin Kalinowski left to start working. Her first job was at a company called OQO. There, she helped design the OQO model 02, a small computer.
Working at Apple
Later, she joined Apple, a very famous technology company. At Apple, she was a technical lead. This meant she helped guide the design of laptops in the MacBook series. While working part-time at Apple, she went back to Stanford. In 2007, she earned her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.
From Facebook to Oculus VR
After Apple, she worked at Facebook. She helped with the Facebook Bluetooth Beacon project. When Facebook bought Oculus VR, Caitlin joined Oculus. She became the head of product design there. By 2018, she was the acting head of hardware for Oculus. She worked on popular virtual reality products like the Oculus Go and the Oculus Rift.
Recognition and New Roles
In 2018, Business Insider magazine named her one of the most powerful female engineers. She was also a speaker at the WISMP Summit in San Francisco that year. In 2021 and 2022, she was listed on the Fast Company Queer 50 list.
In November 2024, Kalinowski joined OpenAI. At OpenAI, she leads new projects for robotics and consumer hardware. This means she helps develop new robots and devices for people to use.
