Ayah Bdeir – Canadian Inventor

Aya Bdeir is making learning about electronics fun and easy, her invention LittleBits allows children to work with open source modular circuits that are preassembled and snap together with magnets. She has made electronics accessible to millions of people with her innovative and creative toy.

Bdeir is an interactive artist, engineer, and inventor and obtained her master’s degree from MIT at the Media Lab. Before that, she got a couple of undergraduate degrees from the American University of Beirut, in sociology and computer engineering.

She is passionate about encouraging young girls to get involved with technology and science and has even taught many workshops and graduate courses at Parsons and NYU to encourage non-engineers to become interested. In fact, she founded Karaj, which is a media lab in Beirut for architecture, experimental art, and technology.

LittleBits was added to the digital collection in the prestigious Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2011. Then in 2012, her invention won the top prize at the New York Toy Fair and the Editor’s Choice Award from MAKE magazine. In 2016, she was named one of the 100 most influential young Arabs in the world by Arabian Business.

The feminine name Aya is taken from Ayah, which literally means “a sign from God” or “miracle” in Arabic or Muslim cultures. The name is also found in the Qur’an, which is an Islamic holy book, in a verse that is called “Ayah”. The name is popular and is given to many notable people, like Aya Koram the Israeli singer and songwriter.