David Brenner and Oscar Pedroso came up with Thimble, a guided tutorial kit that will help children and adults build their own electronic devices. It is a monthly subscription that aims to inspire and encourage more people to learn and discover the beautiful world of electronics.
Brenner and Pedroso wanted users to learn the fundamentals of electronics and so they came up with this novel concept to engender interest of people of all ages in electronics.
The kits come with a set of components that are needed to build the device. Thimble’s first kit is a WiFi-enabled robot that users can control with a phone, laptop or tablet. Aside from the parts, there is also a learning app that users check into for instructions on how to build the robot.
This electronics company was noticed by the White House CTO Megan Smith who immediately connected it with the Buffalo Boys & Girls Club, a club for underprivileged youth. Thimble held workshops for the children and taught the kids how to make their own electronics.
According to the owners of Thimble, the workshops were a huge success. Each workshop included 12 participants, with none of them owning any experience with electronics whatsoever. After the workshop, nine of the children felt inspired to pursue careers in engineering or something that is related to software and hardware.
Thimble also launched the “Give a Kid A Kit” program in partnership with the Buffalo Boys & Girls Club. This is a pay-it-forward program where people can donate kits to children. Moreover, Thimble is more than happy to send kits to schools for use in afterschool programs as well.
Thimble is already working on other electronic kits to send out like alarm clocks, LED cubes, home light control devices, weather monitors and quadcopters.
