Alison Wong

"Ready to Break The Stereotypes"

Age: 31

IQ: 125

Location: Menlo Park, CA

Occupation: Product Design Consultant

Education: BS in Mechanical Engineering (MIT), MS in Mechanical Engineering/Product Design (Stanford)

“All my life, I’ve been a bit of an outlier,” says Alison. “An engineer who loves art, an Asian in the Midwest, a woman in technology. I want to break down stereotypes.” Alison is a design consultant for companies like HP, Barnes and Noble, Motorola,and IDEO, and manufactures her own product designs. She worked at Ford in Dearborn, where she helped design parts on an aluminum Explorer and at Apple, where she made an efficient heat pipe for the iMac.

Even though she runs her own company called Integral Design and teaches product design at Stanford, Alison still has time to draw cartoons, moonlighting as a storyboard artist and illustrator. On the weekend, she loves hiking and riding her motorcycle.

Winning this competition would mean the world to her. “I’ve got the academic credentials,” she says. “But this title you can’t buy.”

More Contestant Bios: Gui Cavalcanti | Joe Caravella | Amy Elliot | Corey Fleischer | Joel Ifill | Tom Johnson | Dan Moyers | Andrew Stroup | Eric Whitman | Alison Wong

Host & Judges: Kal Penn | Mark Fuller | Christine Gulbranson

Guest Judges: Buzz Aldrin | Jason Bardis | Bryan Clay | Burt Dalton | Carl Edwards | Bobak Ferdowski | Brian David Johnson | Kyle Lundequam | Dezso Molnar | Mike Massimino | Adam Stelzner