About
Jie Qi is a multi-disciplinary designer, inventor and entrepreneur based in Florida.
In 2014, she co-founded Chibitronics, a company that produces creative learning toolkits. Her mission is to combine art with engineering to empower creators of all backgrounds to make their own expressive and personally meaningful technologies.
A 2017 fellow of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard University Law school, Jie created PatentPandas.org, a resource to teach patent law through friendly panda comics, share real life inventors’ stories and connect independent creators to free legal counsel.
Jie holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in media arts and sciences from the MIT Media Lab, where she was a member of the Responsive Environments, High-Low Tech and Lifelong Kindergarten groups.
Jie has exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Modern Art, Exploratorium Museum, Ars Electronica, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MIT Museum, and Shenzhen Design Society. Her work has been featured on WIRED, Fast Company, Huffington Post, Scientific American, The Atlantic, the Financial Times and the New York Times. She has given invited talks and workshops across diverse venues including MIT, Harvard, Rhode Island School of Design, NYU, LEGO, Google, Microsoft, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
CV
APPOINTMENTS & AFFILIATIONS
Chibitronics Inc
CEO, 2020 – present
Cofounder and Creative Director, 2014 – 2020
PatentPandas.org
Cofounder and Director, 2018 – present
Kawahara Lab
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Project assistant professor, 2019 – 2021
MIT Media Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Research Affiliate, 2017 – 2020
Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society
Harvard University Law School, Cambridge, MA
Fellow, 2017 – 2018
Associate, 2018 – 2019
metaLAB (at) Harvard
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA
Affiliate, 2017 – 2019
Lifelong Kindergarten Group, MIT Media Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Postdoctoral Associate, 2016 – 2017
EDUCATION
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
Ph.D. Media Arts and Sciences, 2016
Advisor: Joseph Paradiso, Responsive Environments Group
Thesis: Paper Electronics: Circuits on Paper for Learning and Creative Expression
Committee: Joseph Paradiso, Leah Buechley, Edith Ackerman
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
M.S. Media Arts and Sciences, 2012
Advisor: Leah Buechley, High Low Tech Group
Thesis: The Fine Art of Electronics: Paper-based Circuits for Creative Expression
Committee: Leah Buechley, Erik Demaine, Jan Baker
Columbia University, School of Engineering and Applied Science, New York, NY
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, 2010
EXHIBITIONS
Energy, Museum of Modern Art
New York, NY 2019 – 2020
STARTS Prize Exhibition, Ars Electronica Festival
Linz, Austria 2019
Machine Experience II, Vorspiel/Transmediale, Rainbow Unicorn
Berlin, Germany 2018
Minding the Digital, Shenzhen Design Society
Shenzhen, China 2017 – 2018
<<Feels like Heidi>>, Spielzeugmuseum
Reihen, Switzerland 2017 – 2018
Jellyshroom Boom, participatory installation, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Boston, MA 2017
Structure Unbound: Interdisciplinary Book Art, Wright State University
Dayton, OH 2017
Paper Circuit City, collaborative mural, MIT Museum,
Cambridge, MA 2016
Paper Curiosities, Wiesner Gallery & MIT Media Lab
Cambridge, MA, 2016
Hybrid Craft, SIGGRAPH Conference
Los Angeles, CA 2015
Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize Exhibition, Wiesner Gallery
Cambridge, Ma 2013
Paper to Pixel, Vernon Community Art Center
Vernon, CT 2013
Civic Empowerment through DIY, event series, BMW Guggenheim Lab,
Berlin, Germany 2012
Mens et Manus: Folded Paper of MIT, Fuller Craft Museum,
Brockton, MA 2012
Tinkering Studio, Exploratorium Museum
San Francisco, CA 2012 – present
MIT Media Lab Collaboration, Sleep No More, New York, NY 2012
IMPETUS: Works from the MIT Media Lab, Ars Electronica Festival
Linz, Austria 2009
Creative Cartographies, Brooklyn Arts Council
Brooklyn, NY 2008 – 2009
Calculating Art: Mathematics in the Visual Field, Maloney Art Gallery
Morristown, NJ 2008
Who We Art, Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art,
Tarpon Springs, FL 2006
AWARDS, GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2020 Mike Eisenberg Award for Beautiful Learning Technologies
2020 Artist-in-Residence, Paradise AIR, Matsudo, Japan
2019 Ars Electronica, STARTS Prize, Nomination, Linz, Austria
2018 FastCo Innovation by Design, Finalist, Social Good
2018 FastCo Innovation by Design, Honorable Mention, Experimental
2018 Artist-in-residence, Explora Museum, Albuquerque, NM
2018 Design Make Play Award, New York Hall of Science, New York, NY
2017 Design Trust Feature Grant, Hong Kong
2017 Fellow, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School
2017 Director’s Grant, Council for the Arts at MIT
2015 Dream it, Code it, Win it: Entrepreneurship Award for Inspiration, New York, NY
2015 Director’s Grant, Council for the Arts at MIT
2015 Consumer Electronics Showcase 2015: Kids at Play Interactive Award, Las Vegas, NV
2014 Artist-in-Residence, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
2013 Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts, 1st Prize, MIT
2012 Artist-in-Residence, Exploratorium Museum, San Francisco, CA
2011 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
2010 Steven R. Holtzmann Fellowship for Digital Expression, MIT Media Lab
2010 Engineering Arts Grant, Columbia University
2009 Distributed Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellowship
2008 Curator’s Choice Award, Around the Coyote Fall Art Festival, Chicago, IL
PUBLICATIONS (PEER-REVIEWED)
Exquisite Circuits: Collaborative Electronics Design through Drawing Games. Qi, J., Freed, N., Tseng, T., Shaw, F., Liedahl, B., Glowacki, B. R., and Kawahara, Y. In Creativity and Cognition (C&C ’21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 18, 1. 2021.
Kirigami Haptic Swatches: Design Methods for Cut-and-Fold Haptic Feedback Mechanisms. Chang, Z., Ta, T.D., Narumi, K., Kim, H., Okuya, F., Li, D., Kato, K., Qi, J., Miyamoto, Y., Saito, K., and Kawahara, Y. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–12. 2020.
Mass Manufacturing of Self-Actuating Robots: Integrating Sensors and Actuators using Flexible Electronics
Dementyev, A., Qi, J., Ou, J. and Paradiso, J. A. In Proceedings of 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). 2018
Light it up: using paper circuitry to enhance low-fidelity paper prototypes for children
Hershman, A., Nazare, J., Qi, J., Saveski, M., Roy, D. and Resnick, M. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 365-372. 2018
Chibitronics in the Wild: Engaging New Communities in Creating Technology with Paper Electronics
Qi,J., Buechley, L., Huang, A., Ng,P., Cross, S. and Paradiso, J. A. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper 252, 11 pages. 2018
Code Collage: Tangible Programming On Paper with Circuit Stickers
Qi, J., Demir, A. and Paradiso, J. A. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1970-1977. 2017
Crafting technology with circuit stickers
Qi, J. , Huang, A. and Paradiso, J. 2015. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 438-441. 2015
Hybrid Craft: Showcase of Physical and Digital Integration of Design and Craft Skills.
Amit Zoran, Seppo O. Valjakka, Brian Chan, Atar Brosh, Rab Gordon, Yael Friedman, Justin Marshall, Katie Bunnell, Tavs Jorgensen, Factum Arte, Shane Hope, Peter Schmitt, Leah Buechley, Jie Qi, and Jennifer Jacobs Leonardo 2015 48:4, 384-399. 2015
2013 e-textile swatchbook exchange: the importance of sharing physical work
Hertenberger, A., Scholz, B., Stewart, B., Kurbak, E., Perner-Wilson, H., Posch, I., Cabral, I., Qi, J., Childs, K., Kuusk, K., Calder, L., Toeters, M., Kisand, M., Bhömer, M., Donneaud, M., Grant, M., Coleman, M., Satomi, M., Tharakan, M., Vierne, P., Robertson, S., Taylor, S. and Nachtigall, T. R. In Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers: Adjunct Program (ISWC ’14 Adjunct). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 77-81. 2014
Sketching in circuits: designing and building electronics on paper
Qi, J. and Buechley, L. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1713-1722. 2014
Circuit stickers: peel-and-stick construction of interactive electronic prototypes
Hodges, s., Villar, N., Chen, N., Chugh, T., Qi, J., Nowacka, D. and Kawahara, Y. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’14). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1743-1746. 2014
Bridging books: the printed book as a support for digital experiences
Pinto, A. L., Zagalo, N., Sylla, C., Freed, N., Figueiredo, A. C., Qi, J., Branco, P. and Coquet, E. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 606-609. 2013
Microcontrollers as material: crafting circuits with paper, conductive ink, electronic components, and an untoolkit
Mellis, D. A., Jacoby, S., Buechley, L., Perner-Wilson, H. and Qi, J. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’13). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 83-90. 2013
Paper mechanisms for sonic interaction
Monache, S., Rocchesso, Gotzen, D. A., Qi, J., Buechley, L. and Cestaro, D. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied interaction (Kingston, ON, Canada,February 19-22, 2012). TEI ‘12. ACM, New York, NY. 2012
Beyond the binding: exploring the future book
Freed, N., Qi, J., Sylla, C. and Branco, P. Proceedings of the 8th ACM conference on Creativity and Cognition (C&C ‘11), 445-446. 2011
Sticking together: handcrafting personalized communication interfaces
Freed, N., Qi, J., Setapen, A., Breazeal, C., Buechley, L. and Raffle, H. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC), Ann Arbor, Michigan, pp. 238-241. 2011
Fine bookbinding meets electronics
Rosner, D.K., Perner-Wilson, H., Qi, J. and Buechley, L. Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction. TEI ‘11. Pages 345-348. 2011
Electronic Popables: exploring paper-based computing through an interactive pop-up book
Qi, J. and Buechley, L. In Proceedings of the Fourth international Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied interaction. TEI ‘10. ACM, New York, NY, 121-128. 2010
ARmonica: a collaborative sonic environment
Sukan, M., Oda, O., Shi, X., Entrena, M., Sadalgi, S., Qi, J. and Feiner, S. In Adjunct proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology (UIST). ACM, New York, NY 401-402. 2010
Microcontact printing of proteins for cell biology
Shen, K., Qi, J. and Kam, L.C. Journal of visualized experiments (JoVE). MyJoVE Corporation, 22. 2008
BOOKS & BOOK CHAPTERS
Jie Qi, K-Fai, Steele. Love to Code Volume I. Chibitronics, Singapore. 2017
Featured project; Andrew “bunnie” Huang. The Hardware Hacker: Adventures in Making and Breaking Hardware. No Starch Press, San Francisco. 2017
Jie Qi, Natalie Freed, Jennifer Dick, David Cole. “Paper Electronics with Circuit Stickers.” Makeology: Makerspaces as Learning Environments (Vol 1). Routledge, New York, NY. 2016
Jie Qi. Circuit Sticker Sketchbook.
Chibitronics, Singapore. 2014
Featured Artist; Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich. The Art of Tinkering. Weldon Owen, San Francisco, USA. 2014
Featured Artist; Florence Bost and Guillermo Crosetto. Textiles, Innovations et Matières Actives. Eyrolles, Paris. 2014
Featured Artist; Helen Hiebert. Playing with Pop-Ups: The Art of Dimensional, Moving Paper Designs. Quarry Books. 2014
PATENTS
Andrew Shane Huang and Jie Qi. Method of manufacturing an electronic sticker. US Patent US9999128B2, 2018.
Jie Qi. Flexible Printed Circuit Board. US Patent USD875056S1, 2020.
TALKS, LECTURES, & WORKSHOPS
2020 Research at Scale guest lecture, Waseda University Business School, Tokyo, Japan
2020 Fine Art of Electronics workshop, Communications University of China, Beijing, China
2019 Chibitronics workshop, Mirai Summer Camp, Mori Building, Tokyo, Japan
2019 Moral Labyrinth workshop, Rightscon, Tunis, Tunisia
2019 Open Innovation and Entrepreneurship panel, Maker Faire Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
2018 Chibitronics workshop, Maine Department of Education, Portland, ME
2018 Patent Pandas Launch, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
2018 Open Data Open Minds workshop, Maker Ed Conference, San Jose, CA
2018 Open Innovation panel, Go West! Innovation Education Conference, Burlingame, CA
2018 Fine Art of Electronics keynote, Constructing Modern Knowledge, Manchester, NH
2018 Chibitronics workshop, Computer Science Teachers Association conference, Omaha, NB
2018 Materials of Making panel, Infosys Crossroads, CA
2018 Chibitronics Love to Code, Maker Faire Center State, San Mateo, CA
2018 Code, Creativity and Play panel, Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop, Asilomar, CA
2018 TechxNature workshop, Design Society, Shenzhen, China
2018 Fine Art of Electronics public lecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore
2017 Chibitronics Workshop, Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, Orlando, FL
2017 Chibitronics workshop, Jack Ma Foundation, Hangzhou, China
2017 Hacking Manufacturing, Design Trust Public Lecture Series, Asia Society, Hong Kong
2017 Paper Circuits, Hong Kong Citizen Science Fair, Hong Kong
2017 Chibitronics guest lecture, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
2017 Computation and the Arts guest lecture, Columbia Teacher’s College, New York, NY
2017 Chibitronics Coding, Sketching in Hardware, Detroit, MI
2017 Chibitronics, International Society for Technology in Education, San Antonio, TX
2017 Computation & Storytelling, School for Poetic Computation, New York, NY
2017 Fine Art of Electronics, China Education Symposium, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
2017 Paper Circuits workshop, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2016 Creative Coding workshop, LEGO, Billund, Denmark
2016 Chibitronics Code workshop, South End Technology Center, Boston, MA
2016 Chibitronics, A2RU, Denver, CO
2016 Chibitronics workshop, Mozfest, London, UK
2016 Circuits as Crayons guest lecture, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
2016 Fine Art of Electronics, Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop, Asilomar, CA
2016 Paper Circuit City workshop, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA
2016 Fine Art of Electronics guest lecture, NYU, New York, NY
2015 Chibitronics workshop, TEDxBeaconStreet, Boston, MA
2015 Circuits as Crayons, Maker Faire Ed, New York Hall of Science, Queens, NY
2015 Fine Art of Electronics artist talk, SIGGRAPH, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Chibitronics workshop, FAB11, MIT, Cambridge, MA
2015 Chibitronics workshop, Cambridge Science Festival, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA
2015 Chibitronics, Global Maker Showcase, Shenzhen Industrial Museum, Shenzhen, China
2015 Paper Circuits workshop, Sandbox Summit, MIT, Cambridge, MA
2015 Tangible and Physical Interaction in the Wild: Today and Tomorrow panel, Tangible Embedded & Embodied Interactions, Stanford, Palo Alto, CA
2014 Paper Circuits workshop, Tibetan Children’s Village & Hillhacks, Dharamsala, India
2014 MIT Media Lab Hackathon, Natura, Sao Paolo & Manaus, Brazil
2014 Paper Electronics with Conductive Inks, MIT Open Innovation Forum, MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA
2014 Paper Circuits guest lecture, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
2014 Expressive Paper Circuits, Digital Media and Learning, Boston, MA
2014 Getting Started with Paper Circuits workshop, Code Xtreme Apps Competition, Singapore
2014 Designing for Creative Learning workshop, Design Innovation Workshop, Mumbai, India
2013 Fine Art of Electronics public lecture, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Drawing Paper Circuits workshop, Loftwork, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Intro to Paper Circuits workshop, Bennesse, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JP
2013 Paper Circuits workshop, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, MA
2013 Paper Circuits workshop, Google, Mountain View, CA
2012 Paper Electronics, Pecha Kucha Boston, Oberon, Cambridge, MA
2012 Paper Electronics, Movable Books Society, Conference Salt Lake City, UT
2012 Paper Circuits workshop, GUTsyGirls program, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM
2011 Soft Circuits panel, Parsons the New School for Design, New York, NY
2011 The Fine Art of Electronics, Sketching in Hardware, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA
2011 The Fine Art of Electronics, Entertainment Gathering, Monterey, CA
2010 Electronic Popables, Dorkbot, Location One, New York, NY
2010 Sounding Popables workshop, Cesare Pollini Conservatory & University of Venice, Padova, Italy
2010 Electronic Popables, We Love Technology, Lovebytes, Sheffield, UK
2009 DREU Fellows Panel, Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, Tucson, AZ
TEACHING
MIT Media Lab & University of Tokyo
Co-Instructor: Research@Scale Summer Course
2019
MIT Media Lab
Co-Instructor: Hacking Manufacturing Summer Course
2017 and 2018
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA
Independent Studies Advisor: Tools for Creative Learning
2016
New York University, ITP, New York, NY
Teaching Assistant: Tech Crafts
2012
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Instructor: Introduction to Electronics through Paper
2012
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Instructor: Paper-based Electronics for Creative Expression winter course
2012
Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Deer Isle, ME
Teaching Assistant: Interactive Objects
2010
Columbia University, Electrical Engineering Department, New York, NY
Teaching & Lab Assistant: E1101 Digital Information Age
2009