Amit Gandhi

2016 - 2017

Alumni

Legatum Fellow

From:

United States of America

Sector:

IT/Telecom

Location:

Rwanda

Degree:

PhD, School of Engineering

Sensen is a remote sensing product that monitors the impact and usage of technologies deployed by international development organizations. While applicable to many quality of life improving products, the initial focus of the enterprise is developing sensors for wheelchairs. Sensors assess wheelchair use patterns and capture information that allows organizations to make better decisions about purchasing and distributing wheelchairs and track program impact in real time.

While designing and evaluating technologies to solve consumer challenges in resource-constrained markets, Amit realized the difficulties of collecting reliable information on how people actually use products. Reliable information is essential for improving product design and measuring efficacy. Amit is drawing from his experience working with communities and his engineering skills to develop a scalable remote data collection platform as a component of Sensen.

Amit formerly worked in Brazil developing a solar water heating system for use in urban slums. As an undergraduate, Amit was an organizer and design mentor for International Development Design Summits that bring together people from different backgrounds to develop innovative solutions for people living in poverty.

Amit earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He is a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering in the School of Engineering.