Neighbors In The News: Becky Stern Of Adafruit

If “director of wearable electronics” isn’t the coolest job title ever, we don’t know what is. That’s the role Fort Greene’s Becky Stern, who was recently profiled by Techical.ly, plays at Adafruit Industries–a revolutionary company aimed at familiarizing people with building their own electronics.

Becky’s work centers largely around the fashion of wearables, although she has also created helpful items like a Citi Bike helmet that guides riders to docking stations and a GPS harness for off-leash pooch tracking. In addition to creating new items for Adafruit, Becky also posts weekly (fun!) instructional YouTube videos for the company.

Becky, a graduate of Parsons, tells Technical.ly that being a public face in her industry–especially a female one–comes with some challenges, but that she’s developed “a protective troll coating” for consumers who see her gender as an obstacle. Either way, Becky’s by far the only woman at Adafruit–the company was actually started in 2005 by Limor “Ladyada” Fried, the first female engineer to land the cover of WIRED, and now has over 50 employees in NYC.

Videos from Becky and Adafruit are released every Wednesday–so learn more about her awesome work here, and tune in for a sparkly (there are probably lots of lights involved) new video this afternoon at Adafruit’s YouTube channel.