Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1083315
48 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2019 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE An Emerging Computer Scientist on IPC and STEM Opportunities by Patty Goldman I-CONNECT007 Scott O'Hair, a computer science student at Sacramento State University nearing gradu- ation, discusses his participation in the IPC STEM Student Outreach program and panel, the new IPC Student Chapter, and plans for the company he started with a business part- ner—Irijule—through their Kickstarter project turned product—TheoryBoard. Patty Goldman: Scott, it's nice to meet you. Can you start by telling me a little bit about your- self and your background? Scott O'Hair: I'm a computer science student at Sacramento State University, and if anyone's thinking about a computer science degree, I recommend it. It was actually recommended to me, which is how I ended up there, and I really like it. I graduate in the spring of 2019, so in a couple of months, I'll be done with school. I also have a side project, which is actually more of a main project since I work on it daily until around midnight, which is the TheoryBoard. It's a music controller that allows people to play music without knowing the rules of music theory. It maps out all of the chords and melo- dies of a scale onto buttons, and then people can freely play as if they knew what they were doing. My business partner, Evan Swanson, and I launched it on Kickstarter last year, we did $250,000 in sales and became a company. Goldman: Just like that? O'Hair: Pretty much just like that. We were thrown into it. So, in the past year, we've been ramping up production, and now we've actu- ally done all of our tooling. We finalized all of our designs and are moving into production. Right now, we're waiting on shipping. Goldman: You're doing all of this while you're going to school? O'Hair: I'm like a workaholic, and I'm having fun. I have my laptop with me, and I'm doing both at the same time. Goldman: That's great. So, you're here at IPC APEX EXPO 2019 with the group of high school STEM students. How did you get connected with the IPC STEM Student Outreach program? O'Hair: How I got into this is weird. Part of being a student at a university and having a separate business venture, if I have a question, I will wander the halls and look for a professor who Scott O'Hair