Chia is crafting radical systems for creators & communities.

Chia is a CS & Art student at Yale, from Manila. As a technologist and designer, they founded Developh, create, design at Yale's design consultancy, CCAM, and Women's Center. They also blog a lot, make universes, and once wrote a novel. →

As a designer, technologist, creator...

  1. I execute.

    Working on over two dozen projects at Developh with student founders to wearing different hats in early-stage startups has made me love building both independently, and with people. Pushing code, pixels, product, and bringing people together fascinate me. I've scaled three week projects to reach millions of people, and have done this over and over.

  2. I create for creators & communities.

    Since middle school, I've been in love with worldbuilding & cartography—artifacting a fictional universe (its systemes, inhabitants, stories, and worlds) I work on til today. Beyond that constant, I write, build community for thousands of students at Developh and in the Yale Women's Center—questioning how in the age of mass creation we must move to inclusivity and the less dystopian.
    Right now: I'm especially interested in the browser as a form. Our everyday interactions with the web can be so much more—why has it remained stagnant for so long? Why is it still so difficult to employ basic a11y practices?

  3. I build radically & openly.

    Laying out infrastructure, democratizing information, scalable documentation & communication, and architecting design & code with intent are some of my principles. Progress is not made by mindless feedback loops for instant growth; we must act with scale and time in mind. Creation to me is moving beyond standards and patterns, actively seeking breakthroughs.

And yet, there is so much more to create. Bitsy game about being in love. A week-in-the-life experience of Filipino students during the pandemic. A student's guide to tech in the Philippines. The radical need to collaborate. Writing pedagogy against dictators. Helping thousands of Filipino students in need. Fundraising for organizations fighting to end injustice. A love poem. A universe simulator in sound, after Orteil's Nested. My Art Sophomore Review. Some girls publishing recommendations for the next thing you'll love. Tracking companies & compensations in the Philippines. A Topsters alternative music chart builder. An interactive fiction about girls and God. An introspective journey around the world with everyone you knew. A newsletter on Philippine tech, culture, and innovation delivered to you 2x a month. A video series about myself and my failure to grow up. A campaign collating progressive candidates for the Philippine midterms, reaching over millions of Filipinos. A digital experience about time, videogames, and self. An interactive fiction piece taking place the day after you die (CW). Reclamation, a poem published in Rambutan Literary. A Song for Our Fathers, shared by Siklab Poetry. A poem a day from national poetry month in 2018. texting your ded gf. A collection of work from age 16 and before. A place behind the sea.

If you enjoy my writing, experiments, or creations, I have a Tinyletter I send out every few months.