Post College Goals

by | Aug 14, 2013 | Blog

Over the past 5 years getting my BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly, I have learned so many things about engineering, technology, design, and challenges we stand to solve in this world. Through the time I have spent having diverse experiences, conversations, and time to read, research, and think about ideas, I may have found a few things that I am really, really passionate in doing in my life. I have learned so much in the past 5 years, especially about who I am, and where I want to fit in in this world.

I want to make a difference. A big one. I want to help solve some of the biggest social and environmental challenges of our time. I want to accomplish this primarily through technology based ventures that have wide reaching effects. I can’t say that one or even a few specific fields are where I am most interested, as I am interested in most all of them! What matters is that no matter which field I am working in or what exactly the project is, I am working to solve some large challenges in my own unique way that I believe in.

Solving the following challenges (that are in no particular order) may sound like I am just a dreamer, thinking of a far off utopia, and that is true. But hey, moonshots matter, and doing incremental work just doesn’t interest me. I want to rebuild things from the ground up, take a new approach, do what nobody else has done or even thinks is possible. This is the approach my role models such as Elon Musk, David and Tom Kelley, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Steve Jobs take, and I want to follow in their footsteps.

  1. How might we feed everyone healthy, organic, and sustainably produced food while building the health of our soil and our ecosystems?
  2. How might we transport ourselves in a fast, safe, affordable, efficient, convenient, and environmentally friendly manner?
  3. How might we live sustainably with modern conveniences in a manner that is resilient to failures and disasters?
  4. How might we derive and use energy and resources in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way?
  5. How might we govern ourselves in a transparent, fair, and equitable manner?
  6. How might we form communities that are more unified?
  7. How might we provide quality education for everyone?
  8. How might we create opportunity and abundance for everyone, allowing more self actualization?
What projects and ideas do I have in the pipeline that are working towards theses goals? Well, a lot. And they are going to take a LOT of work to make any impact. In fact, so much work that I will probably not ever have enough time to work on them all. But here are a few – the ones that I am working on the most right now.
  • FarmBot – A reincarnation of TRAG systems that is open-source and built for hackability and scalability. This project is tackling challenge 1, 3, 4, and 8 above. This is my main focus.
  • OpenFarm – A free and open database for farming and gardening knowledge, built to power FarmBot. This is my secondary focus.
  • Bike Med Kit – Helping to make bike riding more accessible. This is tackling challenges 2,6, and 8 above.
  • Pods – Essentially a super efficient roller coaster designed for public transportation. This is tackling challenges 2, 3, 4, and 8 above.