O U R    M I S S I O N

We’re helping more women develop kick-ass electronics skills

We aim to shatter the stereotype that hobby electronics are boring, and only for brainiac born-nerds.  Our gadgets are funny, feminist, sometimes a bit subversive, and a few are definitely NSFW.  We know that anyone with a creative spark can learn basic electronics.  Because it’s hard to imagine what a bunch of parts can become when you've never worked with them before, we’re making finished hobby "projects" that you can immediately engage with, learn about, and start taking apart and modifying. ​

On a more serious note, women are especially underrepresented in the technical electronics industry (fewer than 10% of electrical engineers are women), and we at Alpenglow Industries aim to be a force of change.  We’re adamantly against business models that target women by doubling-down on stereotypes of what women are “supposed” to be interested in - i.e. the shrink it and pink it movement or the three things I hate most are math socks (only available in women’s sizes of course).  We promote women by being a company of women creators ourselves and making what speaks to us; highlighting the accomplishments of our female tech leaders, mentors, and friends; teaching concepts in plain language without judgement, and teaching technical jargon instead of lording it over everyone; and reaching out to communities that are already predominantly women (ex: knitting and textiles), while creating electronics gadgets relevant to their existing interests.

G A D G E T S    Y O U    S A Y ?

What kind of gadgets?

More things that blink, more things that make you laugh, and probably more things that cuss at you because we have a hard time keepin it clean.  :)

A B O U T     A L P E N G L O W

Electronics is for everyone.  We strive to make the skills and learning surrounding electronics available to those underrepresented in the field, and especially welcome women, black & indigenous people of color, hispanic and latino folks, the LGBTQIA community, and disabled people.  We work to highlight contributions from members of those communities in our social media and livestreams.  There is no right or wrong way into the maker community and into STEM hobbies or work, and we love to share stories of non-traditional and self-taught ways that makers and engineers have come by their passion for working with electronics.  We actively oppose gatekeeping and toxic “tech bro” culture, and aim to provide a welcoming and non-judgmental environment where we can meet people where they are and reduce learning curves.  Questions and creativity are encouraged.  We believe that greater diversity creates better workplaces, products, and betters life for everyone.

A B O U T    C A R R I E

Alpenglow Industries is founded by Carrie Sundra.  Carrie grew up on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands, then attended Harvey Mudd College where she proudly scored a 19 on her first electrical engineering exam.  Electronics felt esoteric and unrelatable, so she subsequently chose to pursue more mechanical and manufacturing courses.  But shortly after starting her first job, she got thrown into fine-pitch SMT soldering and sensor research for a 6” micro air vehicle (and this was in 1999, this stuff didn’t exist yet).  Suddenly, faced with a super cool application and concrete “thing” to build and make work, electronics got a lot more interesting. Ever since, she’s designed custom PCBs and helped develop products for a variety of applications - from avionics for small UAVs that are now in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, to livestock thermometers, to waterproof power scrubbers, to assistive devices for freezing-of-gait Parkinson's symptoms, to her own yarn-winding and twisting devices. ​She now lives in San Luis Obispo, a coastal California town which is home to a burgeoning tech and maker community.  She climbs, snowboards, knits, makes stuff, and teaches soldering to anyone who wants to learn.