Ayah Bdeir is the founder and CEO of littleBits, the award-winning company that invented the electronic building block and whose mission is to empower kids to be change-makers through invention and creativity. Bdeir is an engineer, interactive artist and one of the leaders of the open hardware movement. An alumna of the MIT Media Lab, and of Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, Bdeir founded littleBits in 2011, after exhibiting a prototype at World Maker Faire in New York City. Bdeir received her masters degree from the MIT Media Lab and undergraduate degrees in Computer Engineering and Sociology from the American University of Beirut.