Become an OSHWA member today to vote on nominees!

This year, we have 5 open seats on the OSHWA board. Board members will hold a 2-year position. Once board members have been chosen by the OSHWA member community, the board will appoint a President, VP, and Secretary. As every nominee answered “Yes” to having 5-10 hours a month to give to the board, we did not include that question in each nominee’s data. Board responsibilities include fundraising, advising on goals and direction, and carrying out compliance of the organization’s purposes and bylaws. Please find details of our election process here.

The vote will be open on Oct. 18th-25th. Members will be emailed a link to vote. Here are the nominees in no particular order:

Harish Kumar K

Why do you want to be on the board?

Technology Delivery to the Needy and Poor

What qualifies you to be a board member?

My Experience and Skills

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

Reach of Technology to All

David Ray

Why do you want to be on the board?

I feel that as a low to medium volume manufacturer that tends to gather the most business from the ElectronicsTwitter community, I may be able to provide a strongly informed opinion on the state of Open Source Hardware from within the entrepreneurial perspective.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

General Manager – Cyber City Circuits

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

If you teach people to make things, they will start to make things. If you want true and organic innovation in a community, teach people to make things.

Thea Flowers

Why do you want to be on the board?

To build a culture of open source hardware in the worlds of music technology and small scale manufacturing.

Music tech has long held its secrets close to the chest, despite the incredible DIY ethic of musicians. I want to encourage and empower DIY designers and builders to share their work as open source so that anyone who wants to create music hardware has the resources to learn, create, and build on decades of experience.

Small scale, distributed manufacturing has become increasingly common in our current world as supply chains and customer expectations shift, however, the process of manufacturing at small scale has not gotten easier. I want to build a community around open source hardware that empowers this kind of manufacturing such as pick and place machines, reflow ovens, and test jigs.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I have been involved with the software side of open source for most of my life. I have lead and contributed to multiple high-profile open source software projects. I have been named a Python Software Foundation fellow because of my work in open source.

I have previously been a staff engineer in developer relations at Google. I have over a decade of experience in open source, community organization, and technical writing. My experience as the founder of an open source hardware company brings a personal perspective to the challenges faced by those who wish to build open source hardware in a sustainable way.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

I believe that open source – software and hardware – is for everyone. Knowledge and technology are capable of being incredibly empowering when used with careful intent. Each of us has a moral and ethical obligation to humanity to build a community and industry that is beneficial to us all – especially those that have historically been discriminated against.

Our shared knowledge can not be kept away in universities and wealthy corporations. Our knowledge must be freely available to everyone, especially those who are marginalized.

David Slik

Why do you want to be on the board?

The open source hardware movement, lead by the OSHWA, has a unique opportunity to rapidly grow the availability of open and re-usable hardware designs and knowledge. Together, the community is collectively building a library of open hardware products and hardware building blocks that dramatically reduce the barriers to learning and creating. The OSHWA is uniquely positioned to both promote open source hardware, and to connect and build a community based around learning, sharing and re-use. I would like to contribute through a board position to help build and promote the registry of OSHWA certified hardware, and specifically, to promote the concept of re-usable hardware modules: schematics, PCB layouts and design documentation that can be combined and remixed to rapidly build more complex hardware, similar to how open source libraries accelerate development the software world.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

My qualifications for participating as a board member include over 25 years in the embedded systems, distributed systems, hardware platforms and R&D industries, combined with years of experience creating hardware as a personal hobby. As part of running the research devision of a Fortune 500 company, I also was responsible for community outreach, liaison with universities and researchers, public presentations, and collaborative standards development. I have participated in numerous standards bodies, contributed to multiple ISO standards, and am familiar with the patent process and other intellectual property challenges related to free and open hardware. I am also a senior member of the ACM, and have served as secretary for a volunteer association, so I am familiar with the responsibilities and roles associated with a board position.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

Any endeavour related to creating and sharing knowledge and creative work is stronger the more diverse it is. Open source hardware grows stronger from a diverse and inclusive community, and open source hardware fosters increased diversity, equity, inclusion and justice by making hardware more approachable, and easier to get started in. By reducing barriers that disproportionately prevent under-represented communities and individuals from becoming involved in hardware, open source hardware is a positive force towards equity and inclusion.

Eugene Pik

Why do you want to be on the board?

Since the beginning of 2021 I worked with OSHWA in regards to the open source hardware project Uniqopter. I met many great individuals who helped me to get up to speed with the open source hardware. Now is my turn to pay back, to help OSHWA.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I have 10 years of a board experience as an executive board member of CSCL (Canadian Society for Creative Leathercraft), an organization founded in Toronto in 1950 to promote the beauty of leather along with excellent craftsmanship and unique design.

As the CEO of Uniqopter I’m responsible to create an open source hardware program that targets to create a full size air ambulance. This is going to be a 1st open source hardware program of that scale. As the OSHWA board member I hope to use Uniqopter to promote the open source hardware movement.

Also I have experience with information technology (software, hardware, programming) and if needed can help in that area.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

I truly believe that all people are equal independently of their race, language, color of their skin or eyes, their religion or place of birth. As a Jew from USSR I personally experienced bullying, hatred and other forms of unequal behaviour toward different people. One who experienced that on their own skin has better understand of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice.

Jinger Zeng

Why do you want to be on the board?

To make more impact in the open source hardware community.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

Trailblazer fellowship mentor, ex-hardware entrepreneur, go-to-market strategist for open source hardware, advisor to startups, Techstars Alumni, understand global distribution (currently at Hackster.io, an Avnet company) and manufacturing (worked with various Chinese manufactures in the current and past capacities).

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

As the 1.5 Chinese immigrant from China, I have a big personal curiosity and journey in understanding how tech and cultural background affects human emotions and well-beings. As the tech-savvy, multi-cultural, well-traveled new generation, when I interact with older generations of immigrants (including very biologically closed of my own), when I see their struggles, it often daunt on me on how far we still have to go to make an assertive effort to make everything more inclusive! I have a belief system to work in the direction that drives tech for all, and it’s not only just based on color of our skins or gender type within US or English speaking world, but how it is globally and locally treated and received.

Michael Weinberg

Why do you want to be on the board?

I want to continue to support OSHWA’s goals and community. I’m also excited that OSHWA is now able to support one full time employee, and hope that it is moving towards a place where the organization can support a broader full-time staff. OSHWA is what it is because of volunteers, which is fantastic. That being said, there are many more things that the organization could be doing with more capacity. I also want to keep helping to manage OSHWA’s certification program, which continues to expand and reach more communities.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

I’m interested in open source hardware and excited to be part of the community. I’ve been involved with OSHWA for a number of years as a community member, board member, and board president. I’m also the person who oversees OSHWA’s open source hardware certification program.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

While I try to be supportive of OSHWA’s DEI+J initiatives and welcoming to a diverse set of community members, there is no getting around the fact that I’m a straight white male living in the global north. It would be completely reasonable to not have me on the board in favor of someone who brought a more diverse set of experiences to the position.

Oluwatobi Oyinlola

Why do you want to be on the board?

I would love to continually support OSHWA as a board member, most importantly take open hardware to places that have never been before in Africa. I am super excited about the work we’ve done so far, my potential goal is to keep pushing for open hardware using OSHWA framework worldwide and do more to encourage hardware developers to build open innovations.

What qualifies you to be a board member?

My past experience in the hardware space is always solutions that could contribute to the greater good in an open and inclusive way. I see the positive shift in open hardware, especially in Africa and underserved communities, I am excited to see more of it and I would love to keep pushing the impact beyond border with OSHWA.

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

I am committed to building a sustainable diverse community without any limitations either by gender or the color of their skin.

Craig Polk

Why do you want to be on the board?

Provide help for grant writing. I believe HW should be available and accessible to all

What qualifies you to be a board member?

Have done grant writing for other nonprofits

What is your personal DEI+J (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) statement?

passionate about bringing opportunities to children of all backgrounds to enrich their lives through education