I build stuff using...
Select some tags to see Christine's work.
This Website
The One You're On
I built this entire site, starting with a blank page. It contains original javascript, css, and html.
The site uses EJS, jQuery, Markdown, and Less CSS to make my life easier.
code ui/ux
The Alexaphone
Antique telephones with a built-in Amazon Echo
The Alexaphone is an antique telephone, retrofitted with an Amazon Echo. When you hang up the receiver, the device is hardware muted. In other words, Alexa can't spy on you unless you're really trying to talk to her.
The Alexaphone was the first in gra.in design's line of tech-integrated art. I built the website, wrote the copy, and oversaw the launch.
We sold out of all available telephones in the first 24 hours and had to begin taking reservations for additional phones. Each telephone costs $1500.
The launch was widely covered by tech and design blogs. All coverage was positive.
A few of my favorite articles were in TechCrunch, The Verge, and Boing Boing, but I think I was most excited about being in the Italian version of Wired.
ui/ux product
Breakfast Television
Canadian Morning Show
https://youtu.be/n2Q0NnaYg50
In 2018, I spoke at C2 in Montreal and had the pleasure of being on Breakfast Television. Morning shows are awesome.
speaking
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Everyday Bots
Videos and Articles on The Verge
https://www.facebook.com/verge/videos/1625489887487348/
Everyday Bots was my DIY/Electronics video series sponsored by Google Fi. I wrote the scripts and built the demos, and I starred in the videos. Afterward, I follow-up articles on The Verge that detailed how to actually build each project. Everyday Bots received over 3M views during its launch.
Episodes of Everyday Bots included:
The Robotic Fridge Cat That Reminds You Not To Skip Meals
The Paper Lotus Lamp For Meditation
The Song-Powered Plant Watering System
writing hardware code video
The Fur Worm
Made for TEDxSoMA
https://youtu.be/xzUwsoqddjY
The Fur Worm was a fuzzy, cute, simple robot I built for my talk at TEDxSoMa in 2016. The Fur Worm behaved with a very simple reaction engine, and it took advantage of human instinct to create the perception of life. The talk was about empathy, and at the end of the talk I snapped the robot in half. People were very upset. A cognitive scientist came up to me afterward and told me that, even though she understood everything I was doing to fake the robot's "aliveness," she still cried when I broke it onstage.
Here's a short blog post I wrote about it afterward for Make Magazine.
hardware code writing speaking
HackPretty
DIY Electronics & Design
HackPretty is my site for low-barrier learning with DIY electronics and tech design.
I build demos and prototypes, write about them, and create videos. I designed the site and everything on it.
My favorite video is the one for Sotto, the chorded keyset:
https://youtu.be/B39J8RpBLvw
One of my early pieces, the Egg Inc Chicken Robot, got picked up by The Verge and led to my short web series, Everyday Bots.
There's also a nice video on how to make a magic doorbell that play customized theme songs when your friends or roomates approach.
hardware ui/ux video
Narrative Medicine
Writing @ Yale School of Medicine
During medical school, I focused on patient experience and narrative medicine. This resulted in cool stuff like winning the Marguerite Rush Lerner Award for Creative Writing, being on a narrative medicine panel with Pauline Chen, and receiving a fellowship for writing in medicine.
Most of my writing was creative nonfiction and essays. One of my favorites was Exposures, a piece of creative nonfiction on the med student experience.
Occasionally, I also stumble across something I've written republished online, like this short piece on medical questioning.
writing
Packaging Design
For products spanning the digital and physical
I designed the packaging for the Particle Photon and Particle Maker Kit. I worked with the Head of Product to choose materials and colors that would feel novel and be easy to manufacture. I created graphics that would look clean, mesh with the company's existing design language, and print easily on our chosen materials. Much of the packaging needed to be instructional, showing how to get started rapidly using a complex product.
The packaging was extremely well received by our community of developers, makers, and designers.
graphics ui/ux product
Particle Visual Design
Graphics For Website Redesign
In late 2016, Particle was redesigning its website and I was called in by the Head of Product to help out on visual and graphic design. I worked with company stakeholders to create a visual design language that was simple and clear, with a nod to a "blueprint" style. They've changed the website since then, but I'm very proud of the work we did there, and you can still find it on the wayback machine.
graphics product
POPfact Video
Pop-up Video for Netflix
POPFact Video is a chrome extension that adds pop-up trivia onto your screen when you watch certain shows.
I built the extension and designed the website. I also wrote the copy for both, and cut together the trailer:
https://youtu.be/lXfGOwPxpM4
This video is made out of screencaps of the actual UI.
Unfortunately, this project was abandoned, but I'm happy to have worked on it, and it still makes me laugh.
ui/ux code product
Cell Signalling & Genetics
Duke University
I was a Howard Hughes fellow at the York Lab at Duke University in 2006, where I worked on the Ipk2 cell signalling pathway and its role in development. I dissected many, many eye fruit fly larvae.
I am an author on the resulting paper:
Inositol phosphate kinase 2 is required for imaginal disc development in Drosophila.
research
Neurogenetics
Autism, Microcephaly, and NGS
From 2009 to 2001, I worked at the Christopher A. Walsh Lab on the neurogenetics of autism, epilepsy, and other neurological conditions. I set up the Next Generation Sequencing pipeline, putting together the hardware that sat on the bench, the protocols needed to use it, and the software that read and organized the data. In each project, I processed tens of millions of base pairs and selected the two or three relevant mutations to research further.
I am an author on the following papers in Human Molecular Genetics, Neuron, and Nature Genetics:
POMK mutations disrupt muscle development leading to a spectrum of neuromuscular presentations.
METTL23, a transcriptional partner of GABPA, is essential for human cognition.
Using whole-exome sequencing to identify inherited causes of autism.
research code
Patient Surgical Outcomes
Research at UNC
In 2007, I worked at the Department of Plastic Surgery at UNC-Chapel Hill. I shadowed physicians there and worked on a systematic review of patient reported outcomes of breast cancer surgery. The review was later published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons:
Patient-reported outcomes of breast reconstruction after mastectomy: a systematic review.
research
sourd.io
A fitness tracker for sourdough starter
Sourd.io is an IoT Sourdough Starter Monitor, which monitors your bread’s temperature, humidity, and rise, so you know how it’s growing and when it needs to be fed. As seen on The Verge and Mashable, sourd.io is a cellular tracker that uses Twilio Narrowband and can be easily attached to the top of a washable canning jar. It was originally released on Twilio's blog and on its own site at sourd.io
hardware code product writing
Biomimicry and the Machine
Using Psych And Bio To Bring Robots To Life
https://youtu.be/d9Sy55E_z8Y
At Hackaday Supercon 2017, I gave a talk on how biomimicry is commonly used in robots, how it could be used, and why a traditional "robot dog" design doesn't work.
speaking
Emotive Robots
Robots that make us feel
https://youtu.be/I4pW4dIaQyg
I gave this talk at the Supplyframe Design Lab in 2018. It is about the problems which arise when humans perceive robots as alive, and the ways in which this complicates aspects of HRI.
speaking
Workshops and Panels
On Tech And Design
I frequently run workshops or appear on panels at events. I work with both technical and non-technical audiences. My favorite workshops are those where people who have never worked on hardware before come away with a greater sense of confidence in themselves and their abilities.
speaking
Vector Ipsum
Lorem Ipsum For Vector Graphics
Vector Ipsum is a small project I did in early 2017. I created sets of icons in different styles and built a website for them. They are still available for download at vectoripsum.com.
graphics code ui/ux
BuzzFeed Open Lab for Journalism, Technology, & The Arts
GE Fellow
In 2016, I was the GE Internet of Things Fellow at the BuzzFeed Open Lab for Journalism, Technology, and The Arts. During this time, I built IoT devices, wrote/illustrated trending articles on tech and commmunication, and researched experimental interfaces in internet connected hardware.
My work included:
The Cartoon Guide to the Internet of Things
The Starfish Cat: An experiment in discomfort
Geolocating Handgun: Records when and where it was fired
Facebook Live Puppy Feeder: Feeds puppies when you comment "Feed The Puppies"
writing code video hardware graphics research
Particle Stunts & Blog Posts
IoT Hardware Hacks
https://youtu.be/2K5QrKOhsDY
From 2014 to 2015, I wrote blog posts and documentation for Particle, and I coordinated online IoT stunts for our community. Sometimes this involved running live workshops or technical interviews, and sometimes it involved producing videos of hardware hacks like the one above.
writing hardware code video
Literary Arts
Creative Writing @ Brown
I have a BA in Literary Arts from Brown University (2009), with a focus in fiction and short story.
My thesis, "The Contagious Nature of Zombie Kisses and Other Stories," is not available anywhere, but has a very flashy title.