Catarina Mota

Catarina is co-founder of openMaterials.org, a collaborative project dedicated to do-it-yourself experimentation with smart materials, and altLab, Lisbon’s hackerspace. She has taught numerous hands-on workshops on hi-tech materials and simple circuitry with the goal of encouraging people with little to no science background to take a proactive interest in science, technology and knowledge-sharing. Catarina is wrapping up her PhD dissertation on the social impact of open and collaborative practices for the development of technologies. She is currently a fellow of the National Science and Technology Foundation of Portugal, visiting scholar and adjunct at ITP-NYU, co-chair of the Open Hardware Summit, TED Fellow, member of NYC Resistor, and serves on the board of directors of the Open Source Hardware Association.

Catarina has an MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from the New York University (ITP-NYU) and a BS in Communication Sciences from the New University of Lisbon (FCSH-UNL).