About
Work
Current Projects
Okra Solar
TechChange
Okra Solar Distributed Solar Microgrids
We are an innovative startup working on addressing off-grid electrification for the 1.2 billion people globally who currently don’t have access to reliable power. We have built a new type of charge controller that allows for solar home systems to be strung together into a sharing network, utilizing remote monitoring and pay-as-you-go mobile payments. Okra grids are more reliable, more efficient, and easy to install.
Being part of such an early startup is an emotional roller coaster, but there is no better feeling than being so passionate about your work, and doing so with an amazing team.
Over the past few months, our operations have quadrupled, and we’re close to 400 people getting reliable power through our systems, just out of our first pilots. Our ambitious growth plan inspires me and keeps accelerating our learnings every day.
My Work:
- Design and implement firmware for our IoT controller
- Oversee the product development of our scalable and cost-down product.
- Use design thinking and customer focused processes in my work on firmware, software, and hardware
- Give pitches and presentations, represent Okra at conferences and events, and play a core role in company strategy and team growth.
- Wrote a blog post! http://www.okrasolar.com/engineering-our-innovation/
TechChange Dashboards
TechChange is a social business, providing online professional development in technology and social change. Implementers in public health, emergency response, and monitoring and evaluation all struggle to solve pressing issues with limited resources. This facilitated learning platform connects them with relevant content, experts, and certification. My ongoing projects have been to build admin tools to capture the overall impact of courses and better understand user behavior.
Being away from the rest of the team in Washington D.C., I have to take initiative. Time differences make it hard to get constant collaboration, which taught me about managing my progress and learning independently.
The tools I develop are instrumental for course facilitators in understanding their student engagement and determining how to improve their course’s impact.
My Work:
- Complete ownership and leadership from high level functionality to implementation strategy of the project
- Designed and implemented core components, including custom filters and graphs
- Organize user testing and feedback integration
- Work on the full range of the stack, from database work, API development, and front end and UI/UX
Optimize for usability when manipulating massive quantities of data
Recent Projects
myAgro
Proximity Designs
RainCatcher
Semoir (Planting Tool) Redesign – 2017
myAgro is a social enterprise working on improving the economic livelihood of smallholder farmers, based out of Mali. myAgro sells an animal drawn seeding tool, semoir, with the unique feature of microdosing the seeds with fertilizer. This labor/time saving tool allows for greater productivity and increased harvests. However the cost is prohibitive for many. My project was to bring this cost down and develop a new prototype.
My Work:
- Developed a process for prototyping, testing, and results analysis
- Drew new designs and worked with local fabricators to create them
- Managed and oversaw the progress, budget, and impact of the project
- Mentored and supervised Malian staff to gain greater comprehension of the design process
I created a prototype that would seemingly lower manufacturing costs by 20%, was well liked and trusted by farmers, and produced results statistically no different than the current product. This prototype is being further tested for a pilot next season.
Flowchart of my design process and decision making
Field staff learning to assemble the existing myAgro semoir.
Running field trials with the new prototype.
Soil Moisture Sensor – 2016/2017
Proximity Designs is a social enterprise providing tools, financing, and extension services to smallholder farmers in Myanmar. Currently their products and services meet well established needs. This project was a first look at precision agriculture, giving farmers a way to better manage their irrigation and respond to real data, not just intuition, from their farm.
My Work:
- Led the technology research and design for the soil moisture sensor, with the goal of identifying a tool with the greatest impact per cost ratio
- Conducted user research and testing and helped synthesize these results for further project scoping and definition
- Participated in strategic, management discussions, especially during the process of reanalysis
Various charts, comparisons, and presentation slides.
Although the data from the soil moisture sensor is instantly actionable for farmers and has demonstrated impact globally, we didn’t go ahead with producing this product. It felt disappointing to stop, but it was a great learning process.
We had to reevaluate our findings, discuss impact, consider the needs of the farmers as well as Proximity, and decide, putting aside emotions and sunk costs, how to move forward. In this case, moving forward meant we wouldn’t see the impact we had set out to achieve, so instead of re-framing the goals of the project, we transferred the learnings immediately to a new endeavor.
My Flowchart of Our Design Process and Decision Making
Remote Monitoring Device – 2015/2016
With 6 other Harvey Mudd Students, we worked on this project for the entire school year as our senior project. The task was to design a low-cost device to monitor and report on the performance of rainwater harvesting tanks installed by RainCatcher. With such a device, RainCatcher would be able to improve the reliability of their systems. The required functionalities of the device are straightforward- be self-powered, measure tank water volume, and transmit the data for web-viewing. The primary challenge was to get the entire cost of the device down to $30. This meant finding the simplest and cheapest solution, using very few off-the-shelf products and customizing the entire solution.
My Work:
- Led the team by setting the pace and goals, handling client communication, overseeing completion of deliverables, and assigning tasks.
- Served as one of two engineers designing the hardware from scratch (including printing our own PCBs), specifically handling the power generation and storage as well as overall system algorithms to reduce power consumption
While further revisions are required, the device was tested successfully (both with a rig on campus and by sending prototypes to Kenya to test connectivity to cell networks), so the team hand-built and installed five prototypes on RainCatcher tanks in Kisumu, Kenya.
side work
Design Bootcamps
While working at Proximity, I helped identify the need, construct, and run intensive workshops for everyone in the office to get hands-on experience using human centered design.
Arduino Workshop
Also at Proximity, I put together a couple-day workshop to teach the basics of Arduino to the engineering design team, leaving them with the skills to start automatically collecting/storing data during product testing.
Friendly Water
I am trained in building ferro-cement rainwater catchment tanks and BioSand water filters, through Friendly Water for the World. I helped them launch a training facility in Tamil Nadu, India and advised on existing projects in Uganda and Tanzania.
Blog-Preview
While working, traveling, and adventuring, I reflect on my growth professionally, personally, and in regards to family and culture.
Take a look!
Art
Art
It’s a hobby.
I focus on creative use of materials and inspiration from my surroundings.
Painted to the flow of plywood grain.
Designed and sewed a mural with fabric scraps in Mali.
Laser cut scrap wood from my college machine shop.
Repurposed cardboard packaging into a mosaic of paintings.
Digitally abstracted an electronics circuit into graphic prints.
