"If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein


I am an Embedded Software Engineer living in Chicagoland, grew up on a farm in northern MN, and have also lived in MT, TX, CT, and VA. I have a B.S. in Computer Engineering and a minor in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. My wife is from Bulgaria.

I have been an editor on the full English Wikipedia for years, but when my son wanted to do a report on lasers for his 7th grade class, we were both frustrated by the technical jargon used in the laser article. I asked the laser experts there to at least have the intro written in a form my son could understand (he's in gifted math, so he's no dummy). They didn't think it was technically possible, but eventually one did refer me to the Simple English Wikipedia, which I had no idea existed before that.

I feel I have an ability to present complex science and technology in a way that kids or upper management will understand, so I joined up here in Feb. 2013, and ever since then I've been looking for technical articles on the Simple English Wikipedia that are too complex and/or incomplete. Some were just copied from the full English Wikipedia with big sections removed - shorter is not simpler!

I've been reworking those articles to be more understandable to people without a technical degree. And I've been sidetracked on areas that I have an interest (alternative and renewable energy, ecology, cars, space, etc. as pretty much everything needs some work.) Fitting them in the 1500 Basic English word list appears to be wishful thinking in many cases. But I've taken the be bold directive to heart.

Articles I need to work on:

change

(or find the proper link)

References for polarization, possibly LCD, expand # sections to match what's covered in the full English Wikipedia?

If I get bored, look here: All pages that need simplifying (1574 as of March 15, 2013 and 1525 on March 1, 2014), or here: Technology articles all wikis should have

Articles written or extensively revised (usually for simplification)

change