Music first. Circuits next. Careers after that.

Phoenix is one of the country's centers for microelectronics and semiconductors, with Intel, NXP and TSMC nearby. Yet many young people never see themselves in that work. Traditional, step-by-step STEM pathways lose students who learn best by doing, trying and getting things wrong.

Glitch'n starts somewhere else: with sound. A "glitch" is a sudden malfunction. We treat it as an invitation. Students build small circuits that blink, click and make rhythms, bend them on purpose, and learn how chips, resistors and capacitors work along the way. Careers in electronics open at many levels, from a high-school diploma to an engineering degree. Glitch'n is a first step onto any of them.

The model is learning by teaching. We call it a community circuit: each group of learners becomes the next group of teachers.

1. 1CourseA free, five-day course. Students build a blinking light, then a drum machine, then their own instruments.
2. 2CTRL internshipGraduates are paid to co-lead pop-up workshops in public places, with the teaching and research team.
3. 3TeachingInterns grow into course teachers, and recruit the next group.

Pop-ups are laid out in three zones so everyone can join at their own level: hang out and watch, mess around with finished circuits, or geek out and build one from scratch.

• 93%of course participants said they understood technology better
• 90%of course participants developed or strengthened an interest in a STEAM career
• 62%of pop-up visitors had never played with circuits before
• 93%of pop-up visitors felt more confident exploring circuits afterwards

End-of-course survey (58 participants) and pop-up exit survey (96 visitors, ages 6 to 91).

1. Aug 2024The National Science Foundation funds Glitch'n.
2. Jun 2025Three free courses at the ASU MIX Center in Mesa: 60 young people and family members.
3. Jul 202514 graduates become the first CTRL interns and co-lead three pop-ups at Burton Barr Central Library, Phoenix.
4. Oct 2025A grant from ASU's Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts starts Glitch'n AI: musical circuits that work a little like neurons.
5. 2026A gift from the Qualcomm Foundation, and three pop-ups at the Phoenix Conservatory of Music.
6. Oct 2026The course becomes free video lessons, open to everyone.

Every course and pop-up needs kits, paid teen facilitators and places to meet. Support helps us run more courses and pop-ups across Phoenix, put a kit in every learner's hands, pay more young people to teach, and keep adding free lessons to this site, so anyone, anywhere, can build along.

Research affiliates

Visual design

Student fellows

Advisory board

• Suren Jayasuriya, PhDElectrical Engineering, Arizona State University
• Rob Stenson, EdDNeurodiversity Education Research Center
• Ruth Wylie, PhDCenter for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University
• Jennifer Yu, ScDSRI International

• 2026Akinbadewa, B., Reutlinger, C., Vasquez, A., & Thorn, S. From frustration to creativity: Exploring how neurodiversity-affirming learning contexts transform uncertainty into strengths. International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2026), ISLS.
• 2026Pivovarova, M., Reutlinger, C., Sanchez Chavarria, K., & Thorn, S. Building confidence in STEM one chip at a time. Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), Chicago.

• 2024 to 2027U.S. National Science FoundationAdvancing Informal STEM Learning, Award 2432637
• 2025ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the ArtsA grant for Glitch'n AI
• 2026Qualcomm FoundationA gift to Glitch'n

Led by ASU's School of Games, Arts, Media and Engineering, with the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation, the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, the School of Music, Dance and Theatre, and Enterprise Technology. Pop-ups hosted by Burton Barr Central Library and the Phoenix Conservatory of Music. Community partners include Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley and the Arizona Science Teachers Association.