The Woman Behind One Laptop per Child Starts Own Company

Mary Lou Jepsen was the chief technology Officer of the One Laptop Per Child not-for-profit Foundations. She left the foundation in 2007 and has just launched her own company.

Mary Lou Jepsen is the developer who was behind One Laptop per Child's low-cost XO and according to a CBC report Jepsen has founded her own company. The new company, Pixel Qi, was launched earlier today and the company’s website describes the new company as a "spin-out" of the One Laptop per Child project, "The key is a new generation of low-cost, low-power, durable, networked computers, leveraging open-design principles,” Jepsen wrote. A goal is to create a $75 laptop. Jepsen spent two years as chief technology officer of the One Laptop per Child non-profit foundation and she invented the inexpensive, power-efficient screen that was a key feature of the foundation's compact, child-friendly laptop, known as the XO. Jepsen left the company at the end of last year in order to commercialize the technology. The Pixel Qi website states that the new company will sell new products to One Laptop per Child at cost as they are developed.