Link to Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YdNOoXtxM6qOmVGojxG_k92UAy0S89xJ1-lI6ZVEkK0/edit?usp=sharing Known online as “the queen of s***ty robots," Simone Giertz is a Swedish inventor who has built a career in building robots to help with everyday activities – except, they don’t work. Mechanically they are operable; however, her robots show "we’ve got a while to go before every part of our life is automated." She lives on a houseboat in Stockholm which operates as her headquarters for all of her inventions and the Youtube channel she runs. Since the launch of her youtube channel in March 2013, she has racked up an outstanding 64.3 million views. Her videos often consist of her troubleshooting her inventions which rarely ever do the right thing, thus creating an extensive and very entertaining blooper reel. One of her most popular and funny videos consists of a foam head being banged repeatedly against a keyboard, which is supposed to "help you argue on the internet." Before entering the world of clueless robots, Simone used to work for a U.S. company called Punch Through, designing devices for them. Working with the engineers at Punch Through, she taught herself a lot of things that later became the basis of her Youtube channel. With no formal education in robotics or engineering and only one year of physics under her belt, she spent extensive amounts of time devoted to researching robotics and engineering, until she had taught herself the equivalent of professional grade education. When building her robots, Giertz doesn't aim to make something useful, instead coming up with excessive solutions to potentially automatable situations. Once she had sufficiently taught herself robotics, Giertz used an Arduino starter kit to create her first contraption - a toothbrush mounted on a skateboard helmet programmed to brush her teeth vigorously. Eventually, her videos attracted the attention of the Reddit community, and from there, her popularity grew dramatically.
Works Cited: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/17/youtube-queen-robots-simone-giertz-inventor https://www.newscientist.com/article/2082014-the-many-reasons-why-we-love-useless-robots/ https://www.businessinsider.com/simone-giertzs-shitty-robots-youtube-interview-2016-6