Priyanka Makin is an electrical engineer, educator, and multidisciplinary artist from Mesa, Arizona. Working at the intersection of creative technology and handcraft, she builds interactive sculptures and devices that explore identity, embodiment, and the environments that shape us. Her practice spans kinetic sculpture, custom electronics, biomaterials, and traditional techniques such as embroidery and film photography.

Makin prioritizes accessibility through an open-source approach. She publishes her full process, including code, schematics, design files, and material research, so others can learn from and remake her work. Her projects often draw from personal experience as a mixed, first-generation woman navigating engineering, art, and the desert landscape she has recently returned to.

She is a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University’s GAME School, where she teaches physical computing, coding, and interactive materials to undergraduate design students. Her recent professional highlights include exhibiting her installation "Body of Work" at the 2025 Currents New Media festival, being selected as a 2025 Ada Lovelace Fellow by the Open Hardware Association, serving as a Toolmaker in Residence at Signal Culture, and speaking at the 2024 Hackaday Superconference.

Makin is the co-founder of Material Kitchen, an online resource for sustainable art and fabrication materials. She holds an M.P.S. from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program within Tisch School of the Arts, and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder.

She’s makin stuff!

If you want to know even more about me, check out my artist talk I gave at Hackaday’s Supercon in November 2024.