Danielle Applestone is the CEO and cofounder of Other Machine Co., a company that makes desktop CNC mills. There have been many articles about Danielle and Other Machine Co. including a great piece on Medium, Fast Company, Gigaom, and The Economist. Danielle is showing the world that the new face of tech startups can be led by women. From her interview with The Economist:
In 2012, only 2% of US CEOs in manufacturing were women (half the national average). Danielle Applestone, CEO of Other Machine Co.—a business that helps others become prototype manufacturers—is one of these women. Over the past 18 months, her company has developed, produced and released the Othermill, a $2,000 desktop CNC machine that, like personal 3D printers, could help “democratise manufacturing for individual creators”, she says. A chemical engineering graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a doctorate in materials science from the University of Texas at Austin, Ms Applestone holds numerous patents for battery materials and says she nearly took a job at Tesla before “unpacking [her] true calling”.
Danielle Applestone was using a DARPA grant to develop low-cost computer numerical control (CNC) machines for schools when the funding dried up. She didn’t waver. Applestone simply took a CNC mill her engineering team had designed and launched a consumer products company. The Othermill, priced at just under $2000, can etch circuit boards and carve complex 3D shapes in metal, wood, and other materials. Best of all, it’s small and quiet enough to sit on a kitchen table. Like desktop 3D-printer firms, Other Machine Co. is converting an industrial technology into a tool for everyone.
October 13th is Ada Lovelace Day! Today the world celebrates all of the accomplishments of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering, and math. Each year, Adafruit highlights a number of women who are pioneering their fields and inspiring women of all ages to make their voices heard. Today we will be sharing the stories of women that we think are modern day “Adas” alongside historical women that have made impacts in science and math.
Please promote and share #ALD15 with your friends and family so we can promote and share with all of the world wide web!
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
