Sophie Houser

I love new surprising situations, whether I find them through the projects I make, technologies I explore or places I go. When I’m safely pushed out of my comfort zone, I’m able to try new ways of being, express novel ideas and have an openness to learn from others. I’m especially interested in using playfulness and humor as tools to create these experiences for myself and, with my work, for others as well.

In 2014, when I was 17 and before mainstream media had started to spotlight the menstrual taboo, I co-created a simple video game that featured a girl throwing tampons at oncoming enemies with a preamble about the stigma around menstruation. The game went viral, spurring thought and conversation globally around the topic. The experience helped me understand the power of play and humor to get people thinking and talking about something uncomfortable, and also the impact I could have through creativity and technology, no matter how big or small the project.

After getting my B.A. at Brown University, where I studied Computer Science and Visual Arts, I moved to Berlin, where I’ve worked as an engineer, mostly doing backend development in Golang. I’ve learned both how to build backend services at a massive scale in big tech and how to work closely with a design team to make backend prototypes for evolving installations. I’m now a part of Fellowship.AI, learning how to build software with AI.