Jade Wang facts for kids

Jade Q. Wang (born in 1983) is an American computer programmer and neuroscientist. She is known for helping to start the open source project Sandstorm. She also founded Chez JJ, a chain of hostels for computer experts.

Jade Q. Wang's Education

Jade Wang studied at Stanford University. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology in 2005. While there, she helped write a science paper. This paper was about how to protect the brain from damage. It was published in a science journal.

She then went to Northwestern University. In 2010, she earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience. This means she became an expert in how the brain and nervous system work. She studied the auditory system, which is how we hear.

What is a Neuroscientist?

A neuroscientist is a scientist who studies the nervous system. This includes the brain, spinal cord, and all the nerves. They try to understand how these parts work. They also look at how they affect our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Jade Q. Wang's Career

From 2010 to 2012, Jade Wang worked at the NASA Ames Research Center. NASA is the space agency in the United States. At NASA, she was a research scientist. She studied how people and computers work together. This is called human-computer interaction.

Creating Hacker Homes

Jade Wang also co-founded a project called Chez JJ with Jocelyn Berl. Chez JJ was a group of "hacker homes." These were special places where computer experts, sometimes called "hackers," could live. They could also work and share ideas together. There were two homes in San Francisco and one in Mountain View. These cities are in Silicon Valley, a famous tech area.

Why Chez JJ Closed

Chez JJ faced some challenges. The city of San Francisco has rules about how buildings can be used. These are called zoning codes. Chez JJ was investigated for not following these rules. Neighbors also made complaints. Because of these issues, the city fined Chez JJ. The problems were reported in the news. Chez JJ closed in 2015. Before it closed, it had provided housing for over 400 people.

Building Sandstorm

Jade Wang also helped start Sandstorm. This is an "open source platform for personal servers." An open source project means its computer code is free for anyone to use and change. Sandstorm lets people run their own online tools and apps.

Sandstorm first got money through crowdfunding. This means many people gave small amounts of money online. Later, they received more funding from investors. In March 2017, the Sandstorm team joined Cloudflare. Cloudflare is a big internet company. Jade Wang became the Head of Developer Relations there. Her job was to help other computer programmers use Cloudflare's tools.