This project discusses the author's experiences with five areas of study determined by the Grand Challenge Scholars Program. It focuses on his work building a cassava processor for women in Ghana and his research on several sustainability projects.

In the winter of 2010, I created my own company in Nicaragua. I encouraged one of my cousins, then a first-year at Stanford, to join me as co-founder. With mutual interests in education, engineering, crafts, sports, science and sustainability and with a timeline that included only one summer, we decided to start a summer camp for middle schoolers. We decided that the theme of our summer camp would be sustainability, because it could be linked to our main interests and would encourage an environmentally conscious mindset for our campers, who we hope one day will turn out to be leaders in Nicaragua.

This portfolio is a compilation of experiences related to the Grand Challenges area of Engineering Better Medicines. I spent six months working in India for a startup called Embrace Innovations to develop low cost infant warmers to help save millions on babies’ lives in developing area. With my interdisciplinary background from Olin in entrepreneurship, user-centric design, and mechanical engineering, I was able to apply myself in a global context and learn about the problems in the world that engineers like me can tackle and solve. In this set of reflections, I recount a summary of my experiences over the past four years at Olin and abroad that have shaped who I am as a person and an engineer today. In the process, I have had experiences that align well with the Grand Challenges Scholars Program goals, which include a long-term project, service learning, global awareness, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary learning. I hope you enjoy learning about the experiences that have enriched the past four years of my life!

This project is themed around the author's desire to help others and how this has affected her experiences in the five educational areas required by the Grand Challenge Scholars Program. Each experience is reflected upon and the major "lesson learned" from said experience is summarized.

This portfolio describes the author's experiences in five areas o0f learning specified by the Grand Challenge Scholars Program, focusing especially on Habitat for Humanity.

For me, solving grand challenges is about making real progress and being open to new paradigms. The grand challenge of solar energy absolutely needs the support of research scientists in the lab, but in today’s society it also needs the support of governments, industry, and the public. As an engineer with a diverse background, I am confident that I will continue to contribute towards this challenge, both in creating the technology that can change the world, as well as helping cultures to embrace the new technology. The engineering grand challenges are truly that – grand challenges – and any focused effort, no matter how technical, helps move the world forward.

When I was applying to colleges four and a half years ago, I decided I wanted to major in neural engineering. Inspired by a class in philosophy, I wanted to understand the basis of human thought, behavior, and consciousness at the most fundamental level possible. I wanted, specifically, to make a human brain from the bottom up by understanding human brain signaling. So when I came to Olin College, I took advantage of the Engineering: Concentrations major, which allows students to architect their own engineering-related majors with the help and approval of professors. Leveraging Olin's partnership with Brandies to take advanced neuroscience classes as well as the expertise of Olin's engineering professors, I designed my own interdisciplinary concentration in Neural Engineering.

This portfolio discusses the author's experiences with entrepreneurship and sustainability in the context of the five areas of study specified by the Grand Challenge Scholars Program. Special focus is placed upon her work with the startup HERObike and lessons learned through this and other entrepreneurship experiences.

I entered college with a general interest in education and a taste for engineering; I had begun to merge the two by mentoring local FIRST LEGO League teams, but the potential for expanding the union was unclear. Through experiences at Olin – research, Engineering Discovery, and FIRST mentoring – I have found opportunities to continue outreach as a professional. New interests arose via entrepreneurial experiences, and I learned about my own learning through a rich study away experience. I have gained new insights into these areas because of the personalization of my own education and aim to create the same opportunities for others outside of Olin. The focused attention to learning style and holistic education were invaluable to me as a learner and as an engineer and teacher entering dynamic professional and educational landscapes. I seek to contribute to the advancement of personalized learning as a way of paying my debts while pursuing my interests and developing passion.

When I started at Olin four years ago, I had a vague inkling that I wanted to become an engineer in order to help make the world a better place in some way. I was generally passionate about serving my community however I could, and solving problems had always been fun and engaging for me. My experiences in engineering, entrepreneurship, and global service over these four years have helped me direct my energy and learning towards making a real difference in the lives of others through mathematics research, Habitat for Humanity activities, and more.

My four years at Olin College have taught me the importance of engineering to help others. This portfolio highlights the work I've done designing for people in an engineering context. I've met new people, learned about their values, identified problems, and thought in depth about potential solutions to make a large impact on people's lives. In particular, this portfolio details my work in the K-12 space, both in creating products and in building curriculum and teaching students.

Coming to Olin I had a passion for making our modern lives more sustainable. While I had a specific focus, my pre-collegiate education did not provide me the proper opportunities to explore, develop and grow this passion. Right from the start I hit the ground running by co-founding REVO, a student led organization at Olin focused on building electric vehicles, and focusing my energies into learning all I could about electric vehicles. Thankfully the Olin curriculum did not encourage me to stay within this niche, and has led me to thoroughly investigate the subject of sustainability and what it means in various contexts.

When I define the words “engineer” and “entrepreneur,” and then compare myself against those definitions, often find in myself almost all of their attributes. Yet I don’t consider myself either of these. Why not? I wrote this portfolio to try to answer that question. In writing it, I found an organic feedback loop between my goals shaping my actions and my actions shaping my goals. While reflecting, I also found that the GCSP pillars of Service, Interdisciplinary Learning, Global Dimension, Entrepreneurship, and Research had woven themselves throughout. As of graduation, this progression has led to a strong identification with an engineering mindset and an international, security-based focus. Someday I may feel like an engineer, but for now I’m content to think like one, and to one day use the engineering toolset to make positive change in the world.

Over my time at Olin College, I’ve learned to see through new perspectives for my own benefit and the benefit of others. This skill has helped in my engineering design work and in my everyday life. In order to solve problems and change the world, we must understand the problems from many perspectives. It’s easy to design for ourselves, but hard to design for others. Yet with that challenge comes reward.

I tailored my college education to the areas of engineering, health, and medical anthropology. At Olin, I have achieved the greatest satisfaction, both academically and in my extracurricular activities, from understanding people’s needs and helping them accordingly. Whether using interdisciplinary teams to build tools to help people live better lives, trying to understand what motivates them, or working to spread knowledge, I directed my efforts towards the needs of people who could be helped by my work, and focused on ways to help directly or indirectly through classes, research, and extracurricular endeavors. My learning and personal growth at Olin has been key in my decision to pursue a clinical research career as an MD/PhD.

Engineering problems vary and can be approached through a number of different processes. Selecting the best process to fit the problem is a key part of making improvements and reaching the desired solution. This portfolio examines some of the various approaches available to an engineer and develops a framework for problem solving that draws inspiration from machine learning, design process, entrepreneurship, and many other fields. Using the best process to fit the task allows an engineer to make efficient and effective progress.

If you spend most of your life as a robot, how do you become a human? Quite simple really. Between creating a language for a world in my books, founding a company, teaching classes, and learning Japanese sprinkled with anime—the trick is to find something you care about and let it drive you forward.