Jeri Ellsworth is a truly impressive individual. She dropped out of high school and went into business for herself. An early commercial success was the creation of a complete Commodore 64 emulator in a joystick that could play 30 classic C64 games.
Not a one hit wonder by any stretch, the multi-talented, self-taught hardware engineer also restores vintage pinball machines for fun, built and raced her own stock car, enjoys roller skating, hacked her own Commadore 64 keytar, has a huge following for her YouTube Channel and is a frequent and welcome attendee of Maker Faire.
Jeri worked as a hardware developer for the game platform company Valve Software, before leaving to co-found her own company Technical Illusions. She and co-founder Rick Johnson are developing an augmented reality system called castAR, which debuted last year at the Bay Area Maker Faire. The castAR system is looking to be, quite literally, a game-changer. Developers have been hungrily awaiting its release since it was announced.
Jeri is an amazing person, who any aspiring engineer or technical entrepreneur can look up to.
6 thoughts on “Pinball Wizard, Race Car Driver, Self-Taught Engineer: Jeri Ellsworth”
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Jeri is such a great role model for making amazing projects and inspiring others to do so as well. Her video on failure is nice too. Really cool person! :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhQ7d3BK3KQ
[…] Jeri est une personne vraiment incroyable, qui tout ingénieur ou entrepreneur en herbe technique peuvent se tourner. Un concepteur de matériel autodidacte, Jeri a créé des produits, du matériel piraté, et partagé ses connaissances avec la communauté de café pendant des années. Son dernier projet est co-fondateur de Illusions technique, … lire la suite (en anglais) […]
It’s very good to finally see an intelligent female role model for youth which has nothing to do with the status quo (Miley Cyrus and her ilk).
Brains the original and still = SEXY….
Jeri Ellsworth is a truly impressive individual. She dropped out of high school and went into business for herself. An early commercial success was the creation of a complete Commodore 64 emulator in a joystick that could play 30 classic C64 games.