Limor Fried Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Limor Fried
Limor Fried at TechCrunch Disrupt NY (2013)
Born	Brookline, Massachusetts, US
Other names	ladyada
Alma mater	MIT (SB, 2003; MEng 2005)
Occupation	Electrical engineer
Known for	Adafruit Industries Open source movement Open-source hardware movement
Spouse(s)	Phillip Torrone

Limor Fried is an amazing American electrical engineer. She owns a cool company called Adafruit Industries. This company helps people learn about electronics and build their own gadgets. Limor is a big leader in the open-source hardware world. This means she believes in sharing designs and ideas so everyone can learn and create. Many people know her by her nickname, ladyada. This name is a tribute to Lady Ada Lovelace, who was a very famous computer pioneer.

Limor's Journey and Achievements
Open Kinect Project
Limor's Personal Life
See also

Limor's Journey and Achievements

Studying at MIT

Limor Fried went to the MIT. This is a very famous university for science and technology. She earned two degrees there. First, she got a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science in 2003. Then, she earned a Master of Engineering in the same field in 2005.

While studying, she worked on a special project. It was called Social Defense Mechanisms: Tools for Reclaiming Our Personal Space. For this project, she made some interesting inventions. She created glasses that would darken when a TV was in view. She also made a small device that could block cell phone signals. This was to help people have their own quiet space.

Starting Adafruit Industries

In 2005, Limor started her company, Adafruit Industries. She began right in her dorm room at MIT! Later, the company moved to New York City. Adafruit designs and sells electronic kits, parts, and tools. These are mostly for people who love to build things as a hobby.

By 2010, Adafruit had eight employees. They had sold over $3 million worth of products. The company's goal is not just for adult hobbyists. They also want to help kids learn about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Adafruit is all about sharing ideas and resources. Everyone who works there gets good benefits. They even get paid time off to do volunteer work.

Awards and Recognition

Limor Fried has received many important awards for her work:

In 2009, she won the EFF Pioneer Award. This award is from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It recognized her work in the open-source hardware and software communities.
In 2011, Fast Company magazine named her one of the Most Influential Women in Technology.
Also in 2011, she became the first female engineer to be on the cover of Wired magazine. In that magazine, she talked about how easy it is now to find parts online. She said, "Now everything is online. You can just Google the parts to make your submarine."
In 2012, Entrepreneur magazine named her "Entrepreneur of the Year." She was the only woman among the 15 finalists.
In 2015, the White House honored her as a Champion of Change for "Making."
In 2018, Forbes magazine listed her among America's Top 50 Women In Tech.
In 2019, she received the STEP Ahead Honoree award for Women in Manufacturing. She also won the Women in Open Source Award from Red Hat.
In 2023, she received the GitHub Awards for Hardware Hacker.

Limor wants to inspire young people. In a 2012 interview, she said, "If there's one thing I'd like to see from this, it would be for some kids to say to themselves 'I could do that' and start the journey to becoming an engineer and entrepreneur."

Open Kinect Project

In 2010, Microsoft launched its Kinect device for the Xbox 360. Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone started a challenge. They offered $1,000 to anyone who could create an open-source driver for Kinect. An open-source driver lets people use the device with other computers or programs.

At first, Microsoft was not happy about this. They said it was changing their product. So, Adafruit increased the prize to $2,000, and then to $3,000! Microsoft then said they did not approve of people changing their products. They mentioned that Kinect had safeguards to prevent tampering.

But later, as people made great progress with the open-source drivers, Microsoft changed its mind. They said they were actually excited to see what the community would create!

Limor's Personal Life

Limor Fried is married to Phillip Torrone. Phillip is also well-known in the tech world. He founded Hackaday and used to be an editor for Make magazine. In 2022, Limor and Phillip welcomed a baby.

Limor Fried facts for kids

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