Marx Melencio is a machine vision engineer and rapid prototyping expert, specialized in the development of assistive and adaptive DIY technologies for PWDs (persons with disabilities). His past projects include prototypes of open source, DIY 3D printed assistive eyeglasses for the blind under an R&D project funded by the Department of Science & Technology of the Philippines; a bilingual Filipino-English neural text-to-speech synthesizer for the blind; a voice cloner and a wearable American Sign Language to speech output prototype for the deaf.

Marx is also a veteran entrepreneur, a digital marketing strategist, and a remote workforce systems designer. Starting in 2006, Marx built an international, multilingual BPO company that employs Filipino PWDs and formulates multimedia marketing and multi-lingual telesales campaigns for small businesses and startups in North America, the EU and Asia. Listen to BBC’s story on Marx here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037rf0p

Marx has been completely blind for the past 18 years; after a random gun attack in 2003 left him totally blind. More on this part of Marx’s story can be found at: https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispeak/246304-life-blind-entrepreneur-tech-developer

For the past two decades, he has actively contributed to the activities and programs of local and international organizations including the International Council for the Education of Persons with Visual Impairment (ICEVI East-Asia), Nippon Foundation (Japan), Resources for the Blind, Inc. and the National Council on Disability Affairs of the Philippines, facilitating workshops that teach tactical job placement approaches, assistive technologies and DIY home automation systems design strategies to blind Filipinos and those with different disabilities.