Samantha Payne is co-founder of Open Bionics – an award-winning start up based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University of the West of England – which develops low-cost bionic hands that look and feel good, for amputees or those born without a hand. The company won a $250,000 cash prize at the finals of Intel’s ‘Make it Wearable Challenge’ in 2014 and is now part of the Disney Accelerator, powered by Techstars. Samantha regularly speaks at international conferences, recently representing women in tech at events in Brazil, Russia and Singapore, and she has just been named as one of the Top 25 Women in Robotics You Should Know about by Robohub.
Projects
- Tech Talk: Interview with The GuardianInterview by Matthew Caines, The Guardian Hi Samantha, what can you tell me about the Knowle West Media Centre? The Knowle West Media Centre believes that the arts have the power to make a difference to our lives, neighbourhoods and environment. It's an arts organisation and charity based in Bristol that's been supporting individuals and communities to get the most out of digital technologies and the arts since 1996. In practice, that means providing exciting and relevant ways for people to get involved in community activism, education, employment and local decision-making. What kinds of challenges do you face in your work? A difficulty was coming up with a way to visualise the data in a form that instantly communicates the message but is also aesthetically exciting. We started looking at what other artists were doing with data and how it was being captured and visualised. Aaron Koblin's Flight Paths is my favourite visualisation because it can be stand alone art that tells a deeper story or a useful display of information. Just looking at his work makes me think about technology, art, climate change, space, the world, the future, past and present, and a million other things. What can you tell me about the Girls Making History project? This project is really close to my heart. We read in the news everyday about how women are being consistently harmed and violated both physically and emotionally, so we're working as a group to prevent that. We're trying to prototype a piece of technology that can help keep young girls safe. I'm working with a group of 13-24 year-old women who have all experienced or are experiencing domestic violence and abuse. The project is being driven from the ground up, meaning the women have complete creative control. We are developing an idea together, from branding, logos and campaign ideas, to the final prototype. Last week we were 3D printing bracelets using Sketch-Up. None of us had used 3D modelling software before, nor a 3D printer, but together with printing expert Joel Gibbard, we produced our own jewellery. We wanted to start thinking about the kind of tech we could fit into a bracelet that would send certain types of data. We'll be working closely with technologists and jewellery designers to help us reach our goal within the next few months.
- Giving Tilly a HandTilly contracted meningitis as a little girl and lost both hands. Word by Tilly's Mother, Sarah Lockey, as published by Womanthology.co.uk in September 2016 Being fitted with a bionic arm by Open Bionics The Open Bionics connection came about when we saw an online request for children who had upper limb amputations to volunteer to help with 3D printing prosthetics. We had never tried 3D printing prosthetics before and I always wanted to keep Tilly really up there when it came to trying out the
- 3D Printed Bionic Arm for Star Wars Fashion ShowPrior to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the Star Wars: Force For Change charity produced a fashion collection with all of the original designs being auctioned off to benefit UK children’s hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital. Some of the UK-based designers that contributed looks to the charitable auction were Agi & Sam, Bobby Abley, Christopher Ræburn, JW Anderson, Nasir Mazhar, Peter Pilotto, Phoebe English, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi and Thomas Tait. As part of the show, Open Bi
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Projects credited in
- This International Women’s Day, meet the 200 Women Redefining the Creative Industry in 2018Discover our 2020 list here This International Women's Day, we asked influential icons to nominate 10 trailblazing women who they believe are redefining the creator landscape. The result? A unique and incredible list of 200 trailblazing women breaking barriers and inspiring change! Only 36% of jobs in the creative sector are currently filled by women. At the top of the tree there’s an even bigger problem - women make up only 11% of Creative Directors. In an attempt to change this, our month-lo165
- No more excuses for all male panels: here's 50 of the best women speakersIn light of CES' 'challenge', finding enough women to fill its 2019 line-up, The Dots is shining a light on 50 women the tech conference – and any conference – would be lucky to host on its panels. In 2017, the network's founder Pip Jamieson spoke at more than 50 panels, talks and events. She found that while speaker line-ups were becoming more gender diverse in general, all too often she was in the minority or sometimes even the ‘token woman’. In 2018, The Dots is on a mission to ensure there i77
Work history
Co-founder
Bristol, United KingdomFull Time
We are revolutionising healthcare by using 3D scanning and 3D printing to dramatically cut the cost of fitting hand amputees with robotic prosthetics. We're blending robotics, fashion, and wearable technology to create light-weight, affordable prosthetics, that are inspiring to wear. Now holding the official licenses for Disney, Marvel and Lucasfilm inspired bionic hands.
Skills
- Robotics
- Wearable Technology
- Design Innovation
- Engineering
Education
BA Journalism English Literature
- Chester, United Kingdom