Yasmin Kafai

Yasmin Kafai is a distinguished learning scientist and online tools designer dedicated to promoting coding, crafting, and creativity from kindergarten through higher education.

Her innovative work focuses on empowering students to use computer programming for game design, electronic textiles creation, and applications in biology to enhance creative expression, social connections, and computing participation.

She is renowned for her contributions to the development of Scratch, a popular programming tool likened to the YouTube of interactive media, enabling millions of children to create and share their programs.

As a pioneer in researching children's learning through digital game programming, she has significantly influenced the serious gaming field.

Yasmin Kafai is actively involved in developing high school curricula featuring electronic textiles to introduce students to computer science and designing fabrication tools and activities that incorporate biodesign concepts into educational settings.

Author of various books and editions for the prestigious MIT Press, she has also played a role in crafting national policy reports and has garnered significant funding from institutions like the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.

Yasmin Kafai holds educational backgrounds from Harvard University and Technische Universität Berlin and currently serves as the Lori and Michael Milken President’s Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.