Benjamin “James” Simpson

James is from Southern California and has been loving living in Shenzhen, China for the past seven years. James is empowering the maker education community by sharing expertise and techniques from his previous career in engineering and manufacturing.

He has been leading the effort to organize the chaotic world of Making into a system of learning innovation with international communities through releasing open sources tools, enabling others to share through public meetings digitally and physically, and donating time to organizations in Shenzhen.

James believes that no one organization alone can have the impact needed. He encourages others to duplicate and improve upon his work, and encourages the maker education community to exuberantly and openly share their core practices with each other.

Event host, maker ed researcher and curator, James has written and taught courses in universities, primary and secondary schools to both students and teachers alike.

He focuses on Design Thinking, Digital Fabrication, and Electronics.