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Star Simpson
Star Simpson
Star Simpson in 2017
Born
Hawaii
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEngineer
Known forEngineering and Design
Notable workCircuit Classics, Tacocopter
Websitestarsimpson.com

Star Simpson is an American maker, inventor, and serial entrepreneur based in Los Angeles.[1] She is responsible for a number of high-profile projects with drone design and applications, including developing autonomous aircraft for DARPA at Otherlab, a Research & Development lab in San Francisco.[2]

Early life

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Simpson was born and raised in Hawaii, where her parents owned a jewelry business. She was drawn to technology at an early age.[3]

Simpson first heard about MIT when she was eight years old. In high school, she was involved in projects that helped develop her technical skills. She contributed to building one of the world's largest Wi-Fi networks and worked with what was at that time an emerging software with the Hawaiian name of "wiki".[3]

Education and Life at MIT

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Shortly after arriving on the MIT campus, she met a student group called MITERS (the MIT Electronic Research Society).[3]

In September 2007 while a student at MIT, several months after the Boston Mooninite Panic, Simpson created an electronic fashion sweatshirt featuring a colored, glowing name tag.[4][5] While wearing this sweatshirt during a visit to Boston Logan Airport, Simpson was arrested at gunpoint and charged with the possession of a hoax device, a charge that was dropped by prosecutors a year later.[6][7][8] In an echo of MIT's official later treatment of Aaron Swartz, the MIT media office released a statement condemning and disavowing Simpson's actions before she was even released from questioning.[9][10]

Simpson studied at MIT between 2006 and 2010. She returned to MIT in 2015 to speak about her experience at an MIT conference on the Freedom to Innovate.[11]

In 2017, MIT established a "disobedience" award to reward forms of disobedience that benefit society, as demonstrated by Simpson while a student at MIT.[12]

Career

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Simpson's stealth project TacoCopter was the first drone delivery project to receive widespread media attention in March 2012, more than year before Amazon and Google X's announcement of similar concepts.[13]

Star Simpson served on the Open Source Hardware Association board as a member in 2013–2014.[14]

In 2013, Simpson founded PLIBMTTBHGATY, or Programming Languages I've Been Meaning To Try But Haven't Gotten Around To Yet. PLIBMTTBHGATY is a light-hearted social and networking event for people to learn new programming languages.[15]

In 2016, Simpson launched Circuit Classics, reviving Forrest M. Mims III's hand drawn "Getting Started in Electronics" projects as hardware kits.[16][17][18] Circuit Classics are printed circuit boards designed to help educate people on the basics of circuit design.

Simpson developed the APSARA from Hindi Apsara (Aerial Platform Supporting Autonomous Resupply Actions) while at Otherlab, a San Francisco Engineering R&D firm.[19] The APSARA drone is a cardboard glider that can carry up to two pounds of cargo.[20] Simpson's team designed and built APSARA with funding from DARPA, in response to a desire for a single-use delivery vehicle for emergency scenarios. Uniquely, the drones had to not only carry a small package and land precisely, they had to disappear completely once on the ground.[20]

In 2017, Simpson co-founded Project Alloy along with Ian Michael Smith, a non-profit that subsidizes conference attendance for under-represented minorities in tech.[21]

Star Simpson is the co-founder of a UAS-focused startup.[22]

In 2018, Simpson served as a source in a New York Times investigation of Richard DeVaul,[23] a director at Google X who resigned after a series of articles that detailed sexual harassment allegations against him and other executives at the company.[24][25][26][27] Approximately 20,000 Google employees in the 2018 Google walkouts organized in support of Simpson and others.[28][29]

In 2020, Simpson's drone-delivery startup ThereCraft came out of stealth mode. ThereCraft's drones distinguish themselves by utilizing a lifting body design.[30]

Star Simpson is also a private glider pilot.[19]

Public Appearances

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References

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  1. ^ "Star Simpson's Tips for Starting a Lifetime in Electronics | Make". Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers. 2016-04-26. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  2. ^ Farrell, Patrick (22 February 2017). "The Brilliant Drone That'll Deliver Medicine, Then Rot Away". Wired – via www.wired.com.
  3. ^ a b c d Zuckerman, Ethan (October 14, 2015). "Star Simpson at Freedom to Innovate". Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  4. ^ Jenkins, Henry (September 30, 2007). "I Was a Teenage Terrorist: The Star Simpson Story". Confessions of an Aca-Fan. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  5. ^ Jardin, Xeni (21 September 2007). "MIT student arrested for entering Boston airport with "fake bomb"". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  6. ^ "Student arrested over "art" shirt with exposed wiring at Boston Airport - Wikinews, the free news source". Wikinews. 21 September 2007. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
  7. ^ Van Sack, Jessica (2008-06-02). "MIT student Star Simpson gets probation in Logan security scare". Boston Herald. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  8. ^ "MIT Student With Fake Bomb Nabbed At Logan". www.cbsnews.com. September 21, 2007. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  9. ^ "Open Letter to MIT President Reif – Eric Nehrlich, Unrepentant Generalist".
  10. ^ "What will it take to get MIT to stand up for its own students and researchers?". Boing Boing. 11 December 2015.
  11. ^ Zuckerman, Ethan (14 October 2015). "Star Simpson at Freedom to Innovate". Ethan Zuckerman. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  12. ^ Doctorow, Cory (May 16, 2018). "The MIT Media Lab Disobedience Award: $250K for "disobedience for the benefit of society"". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  13. ^ Gilbert, Jason. "Tacocopter Aims To Deliver Tacos Using Unmanned Drone Helicopters". Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  14. ^ "Welcome New OSHWA Board Members!". 2013-09-10. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
  15. ^ "PLIBMTTBHGATY". plibmttbhgaty.com. Archived from the original on 2019-09-06.
  16. ^ a b "Star Simpson". tedxboulder.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  17. ^ "The Verge - Circuit Classics". theverge.com. 2016-04-25. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  18. ^ Cass, Stephen (July 20, 2016). "IEEE Spectrum - Circuit Classics". IEEE. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  19. ^ a b sasymposium. "Star Simpson - Sustainable Aviation Symposium 2017". Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  20. ^ a b Farrell, Patrick (2017-02-22). "The Brilliant Drone That'll Deliver Medicine, Then Rot Away". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  21. ^ "Project Alloy". projectalloy.org. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  22. ^ "Corvidair". Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  23. ^ Wakabayashi, Daisuke; Benner, Katie (2018-10-25). "How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the 'Father of Android'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  24. ^ Aratani, Lauren. "Alphabet Exec Richard DeVaul Receives No Exit Package Following Sexual Harassment Claims". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  25. ^ Statt, Nick (2018-10-30). "Alphabet executive named in NYT sexual misconduct exposé resigns". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  26. ^ Kosoff, Maya (25 October 2018). "What Will Sexual Misconduct Allegations Get You at Google? $90 Million". The Hive. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  27. ^ Hatmaker, Taylor (30 October 2018). "Alphabet exec Richard DeVaul is out after sexual harassment story". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  28. ^ Wakabayashi, Daisuke (2018-10-30). "Alphabet Executive Resigns After Harassment Accusation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  29. ^ Clark, Bryan (2018-11-01). "Thousands of Google employees walk out to protest harassment, inequality". The Next Web. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  30. ^ "ThereCraft's Lifting-Body Drone Acrobatically Delivers Packages With Pinpoint Accuracy". IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News. 7 May 2020. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
  31. ^ "XOXO". xoxofest.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  32. ^ XOXO Festival, Star Simpson, Circuit Classics - XOXO Festival (2016), retrieved 2019-01-30
  33. ^ "Star Simpson". xoxofest.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  34. ^ "star simpson | Hackaday". Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  35. ^ "Jan 8 2018 Talk Story w Star Simpson and Smári McCarthy". mauimakers.com. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
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