Speaker: Thijs Bernolet

At the age of 7, Thijs wanted to become an inventor. It didn’t matter what, he just wanted to invent things. Several broken washing machines, a fried television and 8 blown amplifiers later he saw a magical light shining from a machine they called a ‘Macintosh’. He’s been hooked ever since. Thijs is always looking for new ways to interact with machines and everything involving technology. After learning every programming language within his reach, he choose an experimental education at the Royal Academy where he got a strong focus on concept and creativity. He later co-founded a company called We Work We Play where he further experimented with 3D in the browser, mobile and interactive installations. He also cofounded Nerdlab in Belgium, a non-profit organization that wants to show kids how to hack cool things together with hardware and software. They recently send an iphone to space and build a Ghostbusters replica backpack with GPS that gets carried around Europe. After joining circuits.io and getting aquired by Autodesk, he moved to the Bay Area to continue work on the real time browser breadboard simulartor and later on led the development effort of the new Autodesk design system (HIG). He then moved on to join Oqton, a new startup that aims to revolutionize manufacturing by creating an operating system for the factory that is driven by AI.