May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Today at Free Geek, we want to note & celebrate the amazing contribution that AAPI individuals have made to the tech industry throughout the decades.

The technology we use every day would not be the same without the Asian community- take the USB for example. Ajay Bhatt, an Indian American computer architect is well known for creating the Universal Serial Bus, or as most know it, the USB. After releasing it in the 1990’s it soon became one of the most used devices to transfer data from one computer to another.

In addition to the significant contributions in tech made by Asian Americans is Jerry Yang. Yang is a Taiwanese immigrant and founder of Yahoo. Yang came to American only knowing one English word: shoe. But despite all the hardships, he successfully created one of the most successful networks on the internet. 

Another example of websites we use every day founded by Asian Americans is Youtube. Jawed Karim, a Bangladeshi-German American created YouTube alongside his Taiwanese American peer, Steven Chen. Karim and Steven were only 25 and 26 when they founded one of the biggest websites in the world. 

At Free Geek, we recognize the AAPI individuals in our community, and the efforts they do as volunteers, employees, donors, members, interns, and through so many more roles to serve our greater purpose of bridging the digital divide. Without these community members, our organization would not be able to continue the work we do.