alex ren

// @qcoral

creative technologist, allegedly


about!

Hi there! I’m Alex. I’m a 20-year old longtime maker, former esports player, and current maker advocate.

I spent 10 years growing up without a proper community to build & share physical projects with, so I’m currently building it out myself @ Hack Club.

Need to reach me? Find me at:

In the past, I designed my own 3D printer from scratch (that fits in a filament box!), ran a 4-day hardware hackathon at GitHub HQ, and also played Overwatch semi-professionally.

I’m deeply interested in creating a third space for young people to make projects together, both online and in person.

If you ever see me in public, please say hi! I promise I don’t bite.

My online handle is @qcoral, or dari depending on where you found me!


what’s next?

Here’s what I’m up to in the coming weeks!


Explore my stuff!

Latest post: A few weeks in Europe - Jun 10, 2026

Pages:

Some interesting projects I’ve cobbled together:

  • Neutrino, a $200 USD printer that fits in a filament box!
  • The Hardware Codex, a collection of hardware design resources for you to design your own hardware projects from scratch
  • kicad-gitignore, a plugin to generate .gitignore files for your KiCAD projects, since apparently that didn’t exist yet.
  • Image paste CDN, a VSCode plugin that replaces pasted markdown images with a Hack Club CDN link instead. Up to 50GB free storage per person!
  • collectibles!, some free stuff u might grab from me if you meet me :D

And here are some Hack Club projects I’ve led!

  • Hackpad - design your own macropad, get all the parts to make it! 1000+ macropads made to date.

  • Highway - design any hardware project, get up to $350 to build it! $100k given out to 700+ teenagers in summer 2025

  • Undercity, a 200-person 4-day hardware hackathon @ GitHub HQ! CBS News YouTube

  • Infill, design a 3D printer, get funding to build it -> build it, join our booth at RMRRF 2025!

  • Printing Legion, an international network of 3D printers for any teen to get their parts 3D printed. 399 projects printed so far!

Lastly, some interests!

A non-exhaustive list of my favourite:

  • Music artists: The Beths, Carly Rae Jepsen, Paramore
  • TV Shows/Movies: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Avatar (both franchises!), Arcane
  • Video games: The Last of Us, Overwatch, ENA: Dream BBQ

And some past lives:

  • Ran a (very) small scale keyboard shop!
  • Was a part of the Origami Society of Toronto!

off air!
1:29 AM Toronto, ON
14.8°C Cloudy

Sometimes taking a leap forward means leaving a few things behind
— Powder (Arcane - S2E7)
commit 2c03082! last updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:10 PM UTC