By Audrey Ryan
Carrie Sundra hated electronics in college. It was her least favorite subject and she had very little interest in it.
“I scored my age on my first exam, which I think was 19 at the time,” Sundra said.
Now she owns a company that specializes in electrical gadgets for anyone who is interested in learning about basic electronics.
Alpenglow Industries is a team of female engineers led by founder Carrie Sundra that aims to “shatter the stereotype that hobby electronics are boring, and only for brainiac-born nerds,” according to the company website.
Video by Daisy Kuenstler
The word “alpenglow” refers to the reddish glow seen when the sun is rising or setting on high mountains. When Sundra started her first business, Alpenglow Yarn, she chose the name because it was reflective of the colors she wanted to dye the yarn. Her company has shifted from a yarn-dyeing company to an electronics company that creates tools for yarn-dyeing businesses, makers and engineers.
“I think [the name Alpenglow] is still very representative because I want people to see electronics in a different light and see how beautiful and fun and exciting electronics can be,” Sundra said.
Sundra graduated from Harvey Mudd College with a B.S. in engineering. Her first job was meant to be a mechanical engineering job, which is what she completed most of her course work in. When she arrived on her first day, she found out that she was going to be doing a different project that was more electrical than mechanical.
“Basically they needed somebody to put together prototype circuit boards, to do a bit of circuit board design, to do research into sensors and getting parts, so that’s what I was thrown on,” Sundra said.
While working on this project, Sundra said she discovered she is a “project based learner,” and having the parts in front of her helped her learn about electronics more than any class she had taken.
“In that context, electronics all of a sudden became very very interesting and very very exciting,” she said.
However, after over 12 years of working in the electronics industry, Sundra was tired of being the only female technician in the room. She decided to take up yarn dyeing, which led to her starting her first company, Alpenglow Yarn.
“It gets old, it gets tiring,” she said. “There are definitely ‘death by a million cuts’ kinds of things that you have to deal with every single day in environments that are male-dominated.”
Yarn-dyeing was something Sundra enjoyed as a hobby, but it was not something she loved enough to do every day, she said. Through yarn-dyeing, she discovered there were tools that she wanted to use but that did not exist. This inspired her to start making the tools she wished she had when she was dyeing yarn, such as the SkeinTwister.
Creating the yarn-dyeing electronics inspired Sundra to start making other electronic gadgets for people who are interested in learning about electronics, especially women.
“As adults, a lot of women feel like they have missed this opportunity to learn about these [electronics], and I just want to basically dispel that myth,” she said. “It is never too late to learn about electronics. You can definitely dive in at any point in time and I am just doing my part to chip away at that gender gap.”
Alpenglow Industries is a company of women who work to break gender stereotypes in the electrical engineering industry. Sundra hired a team of female creators who get to create what speaks to them and help teach technical skills to communities that are predominantly women, such as knitting and textiles.
“Women, and girls in particular when they are kids, there is still a lot of marketing that is pushing girls towards other things that are not electronics,” Sundra said. “There is still a pretty wide gap when you get into middle school and high school in terms of the experience and the comfort level that boys and girls and young men and young women have with electronics.”
Engineer Robyn Wright had limited experience in electronics when Sundra reached out to her dad and offered her a job soldering and doing assembly work for Alpenglow Industries. Wright has now been working for Alpenglow Industries for over two years.
“It wasn’t until I started working for Carrie and was able to learn from her that I really began to be interested in and excited about electronics,” Wright said. “Alpenglow has an environment where asking questions and having ideas is encouraged.”
According to Sundra, Wright is now running the production area of the shop.
“It’s been exciting to watch [Wright] and to watch people gain new skills and new confidence in those skills,” Sundra said. “It just made me so excited. That kind of thing is what I am trying to do and go after.”
Alpenglow Industries also creates different electrical gadgets for anyone to purchase. Sundra said inspiration for these gadgets comes from their list of “terrible ideas” that any of the creators are welcome to add to. One product, the FUnicorn, was originally a gift Sundra made for a gift exchange party.
“I wanted to make something that was funny and unique for a white elephant gift exchange,” Sundra said. “Then I was like ‘well, if I made this Arduino-compatible and easy for other people to add sensors to and hack into and things like that maybe this would be a cool product.”
Kits (ours and others) and fun stuff are finally out in the open for all to enjoy! pic.twitter.com/8pKNpY7JxF
— Alpenglow Industries (@AlpenglowInd) January 15, 2022
“I have been given an amazing opportunity to learn and work at a woman-owned company and haven’t had to deal with the ‘bro’ culture that is found in tech,” Wright said in an email. “If I could send one message, it would be that anyone can pursue electronics regardless of your background, your education, your gender or your age. There are amazing women in this industry; find your community and just get started.”
