Building the World's First Water Bottle with Utensils | Steffek Rainey

In Episode 7, we meet Steffek Rainey, a Master’s Candidate in Design Engineering (MDE) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Steffek shares his journey into design, his decision to pursue the MDE program, and what he’s building with Evera Bottle to address the plastic pollution crisis.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

No way. This is real. You can go to school for two years and just build things. I was like, no exam focus is the new F-word. In the space between is where the magic happens. I didn't know that like design was a career path.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Welcome to the Beyond Harvard Podcast. I'm your host, Rashad Awiersinger, a graduate student here at Harvard University. On this week's episode, we meet Steffic Rainey, a design student and founder. Stefik shares his journey building the world's first water bottle. Take a listen as we learn more about Stephic's journey here at Harvard and Beyond. Enjoy. Steffic Rainey, welcome to Beyond Harvard.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

I'm excited to have you, Stephik. I want to set the stage a little bit for the audience. You grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. You studied international business in undergrad. You founded your own company. You're a social impact designer. And now you're studying here at Harvard University across both the design school and the engineering school.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

And so I want to get into your whole journey. But before we do so, Stefak, maybe you could sketch the route for us a little bit and talk to us what it was like growing up in Louisiana and then how that shows up in who you are today.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Yeah, yeah. Thanks for that introduction. Yeah, I was born in Baton Rouge, which is in southeast Louisiana. And growing up, my childhood was spent running around with my sister, you know, going out into the woods and different like lakes and streams and stuff, surrounded by water and nature. We were always outside. So I think that fostered a real love for the environment and for nature from a very young age. And then when it was time to go to college, I decided to move out to California to go to the University of San Diego. And I think living near the beach in San Diego just like really invigorated that passion for protecting the environment, especially the ocean. And that has sort of been a driving force for everything that I have created and designed and that I work for to this day.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

That is awesome. So it seems like growing up close to nature and sort of very much immersing yourself in nature has informed some of your interests to where you are now. Sevik, you're a designer, and that's a huge part of your identity. How would you describe yourself as a kid? Were you always a tinker? Did you like to play around and build things? What where which parts of design do you think maybe showed up in your early childhood?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Yeah, yeah. Before I even knew like what design was, I was always a maker and a tinkerer and a builder. I would like dig in the trash and find like things that I could use to build things with. I would create buildings out of like cardboard Amazon boxes and stuff. And I would um build things out of wood and any materials that I could get my hands on. I also, of course, loved Legos and all of those types of um sets where you could build things. And I also really enjoyed art. I would paint, I would draw uh everything that I saw around me. But I didn't know what design was. I didn't know that this was actually something you could do for the rest of your life, that this was an actual career path. I just knew that I liked making things and I liked building things. Um But now I know, reflecting back on that, that I think that was a very like foundational period in my life in which I was discovering the path that I would take now.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

And so how did you actually learn and identify that design and pursuing a career as a designer is a thing and an exist and something you can do?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, it actually didn't really happen until I came here to Harvard. Um when I went to undergrad, I knew that I wanted to, you know, make things and put them out into the world.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

But I didn't know that like design was a career path, as I mentioned.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

So people told me, maybe you should study business, because then you can be an entrepreneur and you can build things and bring them out into the world. But then after I got a degree in business, I realized I don't really like business very much. And I wanted to explore more opportunities and pivot and really hone in on my creative skills that I had always, you know, appreciated and loved throughout my life, creating things. And by serendipity, uh, I stumbled upon the master's in design engineering program here at Harvard. And as I read about the program on the website, I was like, no way, this is this is real. Like this is like you can go to school for two years and just build things, and like I don't have to study like accounting or finance or whatever. Like I had just spent the past years of my life doing and hating it.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

And I get a grade for this?

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Like I was like, no exams, like I just build projects and present exams. Yeah. And um, and I was like, this is incredible. Yeah. So I applied and I was like, let's see, let's see what happens.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Not much of hesitation there.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah, of course. Um and you know by uh by you know, chance or good luck or whatever, I ended up getting accepted to the program, and and I knew that this would be the right place for me. I had a feeling before I even had ever stepped foot on the Harvard campus or knew anything uh really about this university, this institution, yeah, I just had a feeling like I think this is gonna be like the right choice for me. Here we are.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

And here we are. And I I want to get into it, Stefan. Um the Master's of Design Engineering is a fairly new program.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

It's less than a decade old. Um and it's bridging these two opposing forces in some sense, right? It's it's design and engineering, um, and it bridges them and kind of brings those worlds together. Can you speak a little bit more to us about the program itself? Um, what what your experience has been like in the program, and just a little more information there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Yeah. So, like you mentioned, it's a it's a fairly new program, especially given the long history of Harvard. Um, I think it's one of the most recent degrees to actually be added to uh or by Harvard University, I think, since the early 20th century. Wow. So it was a long time coming to actually make this a reality, but it was due to a dedicated group of faculty that wanted to see this come about, that wanted to try this experiment. Because if if you look out into the world, you know, there's so many huge issues going on in in our world that need addressing, right? And they believed that the way to solve some of these issues would be to cultivate people who are able to work in these ambiguous and volatile environments and build real tangible solutions to put out into the world and hopefully help to solve some of these giant issues. And so they sort of took these two fields that most people would think have nothing to do with each other, design and engineering. One is very, you know, human-centered, the other is very systems-oriented. And they combined the two because they realized that that like ambiguity, that that uh space in between is where the magic happens, right? Because you're you're not held down by fitting into one particular box. And so I have really enjoyed my time in this program. I've gotten to build so many amazing things and meet so many amazing people. And the coolest thing is that in my cohort of 30 people, we have individuals from so many different backgrounds. Like me coming from business, people coming from computer science or aerospace engineering or product design. Yes, so many different things. Yeah. And so we all have totally different experiences and backgrounds, but we all have the same mindset. And it's that we want to build solutions to huge problems in the world, whether that be you know climate change or plastic pollution or waterborne diseases.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

That's that's fascinating. And I I love how you frame the program, Steph, I guess very much sort of not building in silos, right? Or you're sort of pigeonhole typically into a certain industry. But it seems like not only is it so diverse in terms of the the types of students the program attracts, but also just the curriculum itself and and how what it's really founded upon, which is the genesis of how do we bring design and engineering and and create a program that sort of sits at the middle and brings all of these disciplines together. Um, and so can you break down to us a little bit more about how the program itself is structured? I know it's two years and there's a studio component, and so could you maybe share a little bit more in terms of what the program logistically looks like.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah, I love the way you put it. Um and this program is intentionally open-ended and ambiguous. Um, you know, in today's world, everybody expects, you know, somebody to fit in one particular box. You know, you're uh a product designer, you're a UI designer, you're a mechanical engineer. Yeah. But this program kind of rejects that and it says, no, you it can you know um bring together all of these different skills. You don't have to be a master in one particular field, because in fact you might actually be very biased if you've been working in the same field your entire life. And so one of one of our professors in the program uh has this phrase where she always says, focus is the new F-word.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

Focus is the new F word. Well, explain that, because I feel like usually, especially in this day and age, we're like always trying to get ourselves to to focus, right? And stick to anything.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

So yeah, curious to Yeah, so there's there's this um theory in ecology that's like the edge effect.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

And basically when you have two different biomes that meet at one geographical location, say a rainforest and a desert, the point where they meet actually has the greatest amount of biodiversity. And you can also look into religious or philosophical themes like such as the middle way in Buddhism.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Right? And so all throughout nature, throughout history and human culture, there has been this idea that in the space between is where the magic happens, that you don't have to go to the extremes to hyperfocus in one particular thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

That when you're in the middle, your your mind is open because you're not held down or biased by any preconceived notions or you know any personal uh beliefs or past experiences that you have in a particular field. Um and so the the curriculum of the program really takes that into account. And so we have a very um intensive studio environment in the first year where we're in the studio three days a week, officially, but we're really there all the time working on our projects. Um and and they take random pairings of students, they put you together, and they give you a huge problem to tackle, and you have a semester to create a solution to that. So, for example, in one of my studios, um, our theme was water. Super broad. Super broad. Ambiguous, ambiguous, like I mentioned, they do that intentionally. And through our research, we found out that we were really passionate about like waterborne diseases.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Um, something that we take for granted here, you know, living in in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is that when we turn on the tap, the water is going to be clean. But for actually for billions of people around the globe, that's not the case.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Right? Um, they don't know whether a drink of water could be their last because of contamination from harmful bacteria. Um and so that was like a huge issue that we knew we wanted to tackle. But but how do you even tackle an issue so big like that? Where do you even start? And so we started with the people. We talked to people in these communities that go out and walk miles to to fetch a bucket of water to bring back to their family. And they told us that they don't know whether this water is contaminated. They don't have the knowledge, but actually they're super aware of this problem because they see members of their communities getting sick and dying all the time from something extremely preventable. If we were to contract one of these uh bacterial infections here in the US, um a simple oral rehydration would would probably um cure us within a few days. But in these locations with very little resources and access to health care, these infections can oftentimes be deadly. So we decided to create a solution for those people and the problems that they're facing every day and the knowledge gap that they're experiencing, that they're telling us is an issue. And so we needed we needed to create something that was very affordable, cheap, easy to use, easy to distribute. And so we eventually created this system that can detect waterborne diseases from just a drop of water using only a smartphone, which we found from our research a lot of people have smartphones. Sometimes in some of these places the adoption rate is over 97%.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

And with a simple smartphone and an internet connection, they can then know whether their water is safe, but also that data gets transmitted upstream to decision makers, to health authorities, so they can direct resources to address outbreaks before they even begin.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

So I I brought it, I brought a prototype with me. What you'd like to see.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Um so this is the device, and essentially it's just powered by nothing more than a smartphone, and it's adaptable to many different smartphone sizes. And then you have these individual test kits which unfold and they read like a book, and they have everything that the user would need to perform one test. And they can extract one little drop of water, put it into the device, and within 20 minutes it gives them a clear readout, either clean or contaminated.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

No way. Wow. And wow, this is insane. And so this is a project that you worked on with your classmates.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Yes. Came out of the MDE studio. And this is, you know, one example of the many, many projects that are coming out of the MDE program.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

And how long did it take for your for you and your your colleagues to build this?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

We did this in one semester.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

In one semester? Yeah. And that's testing, or that's, I guess, first learning more about the population and then getting max solution. All within one semester.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

We're in the studio like three days a week. Not like seven days a week, like 25 hours a day.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

25 hours a day.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

You know, there were many late nights at like 2 a.m. where we're just like hunched over our table. We got like empty coffee cups, crumpled up sketches, and we're just like, oh my god, like where do we go next? But eventually we we make it work.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

Yeah, because then you have something sort of as tangible and physical as this where you can really feel the efforts of your labor kind of intuition. Um, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

And I think this is kind of a an example of the MDE curriculum in that we're given challenges and then we're tasked to solve them in a very short time frame.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

And it's very open-ended. Like there's not much uh you know, direction in that you have to create one particular type of solution or it has to look this way, or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

And I'm curious to know, Stephanie, kind of through the journey of building that solution, for instance, what what did you learn more broadly about design and what did that experience kind of teach you?

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

I think I learned that design is really about seeing people, listening to people. Design is fundamentally human. It's one human solving a problem for another human. And I think something that we often forget is that there are people behind these problems. You can say waterborne disease is a huge issue all day long, but we spoke to the people who live 10,000 miles away who we may never meet. And we heard from them and we heard about the problems that they're experiencing, and we were able to create something that works for them, and then we were able to send our prototype to India, and we were able to get feedback from users, and hear things as simple as like, well, you know, I I thought that this step in the process was a little confusing, or I don't know if people are really gonna trust this thing, or this, you know, what if the colors were different or the shape was different, or what do I do if I don't have access to Wi-Fi? Simple things like that that you might not think of at first. But then when you understand what the user is going through and you empathize with them, you listen to them, I think that's the most fundamental part of the design.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

I love that perspective on Stephanie and and how you framed it as a design being both about empathy and keeping it human-centered.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

Um, and I I think what's interesting when you talked about how you created this product is you started first with the users, right? And you worked and worked to connect with them and then worked backwards from their problems to really think about a solution as opposed to sort of creating something and almost pitching pitching it to them. Yeah. Um and I think that slight reframe is perhaps a really important differentiator in kind of how we define design and good quality design.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

Um you've talked a lot about also kind of the magic in the middle that that happens with this with this program. And I'd love to get into your journey more holistically as a designer and how. You um you know found yourself in this space. You founded Avera Bottle, which is the world's first water bottle with cutlery inside. Um and so I'd love to learn more about how Avera was born and how exactly you you came up with this.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um so as I mentioned before, I grew up surrounded by water uh in Louisiana. And then when I lived in California, I was right next to the beach. And it something that I noticed all the time is the increasing amount of plastic pollution in our waterways, on our beaches. There are some streams in Louisiana that have a plastic buildup that is meters high. You can walk over it, but you can find items of of a plastic soda bottles or whatever from the 1970s, even before then. They're still there. But the plastic doesn't go away, it doesn't degrade, it stays there pretty much forever until it breaks down into tiny pieces, gets into our drinking water, gets into our bloodstreams, kills millions of animals every year. And witnessing this issue every day just really invigorated this passion to do something about it. From a young age, even in Louisiana, I was organizing litter cleanups. We were doing it. We were going out with our, you know, pickers and and uh and trash bags and and picking up plastic. And I realized I want to I want to do something more about this. I want to build something. Like I mentioned, I had always been a maker.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

So I thought, well, why don't I just build a solution to this problem? Why don't I build something that I want to use, and then maybe other people would want to use it.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

And so that eventually led me to create a Vera bottle, which is perfectly playthrough right here. Right here. And it's the world's first water bottle with reusable cutlery inside. And so it's a 500 milliliter insulated bottle, just like any other.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

But the bottom actually unscrews.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

So exciting.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

And you can see inside there you have a stainless steel fork, spoon, knife, straw, and chopsticks. Now we can take everything out and everything unfolds. So here's a stainless steel straw. You have a fork.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Oh my goodness, it toxic.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah, and um we can even assemble this little set of chopsticks. Chopsticks. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

I'm so happy to have chopsticks made the cut. And they're all often overlooked in the cutleries.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

I learned that from talking to users and asking people what do you want to see in this? And so many people told me, chopsticks. I want to see chopsticks because I I encounter disposable chopsticks all the time.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

And so I was like, well, that's easy. Let me add that into the product.

SPEAKER_03 25:42

It's probably like the easiest. Wow. Yeah. That's a good one. So you listen to the users and stop.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Exactly. And so the idea behind this product would be that you can have reusables with you at all times. Yeah. And so you can say no to most plastic that you will encounter on a daily basis at any moment. Because they live inside your water bottle.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Exactly. So neatly tucked in here.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Yeah, an object that people carry with them everywhere. You know, I carry a water bottle with me everywhere I go.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And I'm not going to forget it because I need water, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

And when it, you know, neatly and seamlessly tucks away inside the bottle that has the same exact geometry as any other bottle that you might encounter. Then we can actually begin to change habits because you have it on hand all the time. How could you, how could you not use it, right? And so it's about those little nudges of behavior change through thoughtful design and through listening to users, that then we can begin to scale up and create massive change. Right? So if you use this to replace all of the plastic that you would encounter from food and beverage in a year, you could actually save about 50 pounds or 23 kilograms of plastic every year. We don't realize how much we consume on a daily basis. And so that's 50 pounds from one person.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

You know, imagine we scale that up to all of Harvard University. Now we're looking at hundreds of thousands of pounds. And we scale that up to the entire city of Boston, and we're looking at tens of millions of pounds saved.

unknown 27:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

And so it's just little choices like that can multiply the impact at scale. And I I truly believe that's how we're gonna, you know, drive change and actually tackle these huge issues like plastic pollution.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Yeah, it's in the small day-to-day habits, right? And the little things that we do. Um and so it's almost correcting for or adjusting that behavior change, right? And then trying to do something more sustainable. Um and just to give yourself some context, Stephic, you built this before you you came to Harvard. So this was pre-Harvard invention.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

Um and I'm curious, though, given you are such a young founder, what I mean, I know entrepreneurship in general is no easy feat. But then when you're solving a, you know, not only just doing it at such an early age, but then you're having to deal with prototyping and manufacturing and supply chain issues and and all of that. How did you overcome some of these battles of perhaps pursuing and continuing to keep at keeping it?

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Yeah. Yeah, it was no easy feat. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Where do I start?

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Yeah, no, literally. This is you know a nice, beautiful product now, but this is the result of years and years of blood sweating. And we don't see the blood sweating.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

We don't see the forks and the cage off sticks.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Dedication. Um, yeah, I actually invented this before I came to Harvard.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

As I mentioned, I was a maker. I wanted to build something. I created the first prototype just like out of cardboard on my bedroom floor.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

I would cut out little forks like out of paper and like see, oh, how could this fold? How could this work? Um because actually getting everything to fold into such a small space was very difficult.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Um, and it was just through a long time of iterative prototyping that I figured out how to make it work.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Um, but those early prototypes were very rudimentary, made of paper, tape, cardboard. Eventually, um, you know, I made some 3D printed prototypes, but they still didn't look very great. They still couldn't even hold water because the water would leak out of the 3D print. And so I never had a formal education in product design, but I sort of learned throughout the process. I taught myself because I was like, well, if I want to bring this product to market, what do I have to do? I have to create prototypes, I have to find a manufacturer, we have to make molds to produce the product, we have to do packaging, and we have to figure out distribution, and then everything that comes along with the company and incorporating the legal aspects and marketing and financing it.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

All the fun stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

All the fun stuff.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

I just had to learn all of that on my own and teach myself throughout the process, just googling things, watching YouTube videos, like how do you how do you use a 3D printer? I had never done that before.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Um and throughout that process, I sort of became an unofficial designer just through experiencing the process of going through and creating this product. Um, and that was also sort of the motivation for wanting to come to the design engineering program at Harvard. Um because I was like, well, I think now it's time to actually learn how to do this for real. Yeah. Um and not just keep making things up on my own.

SPEAKER_03 32:07

Right. I mean, it's it's interesting because as you mentioned, Stephic, you sort of almost backwards worked your way into being a designer, right? You have built something and then and now you're really studying, studying it hands-on, but I'm sure in many ways your experience building Avera Bottle has has been something you've been able to bring into the classroom and has you know probably informed your perspective on on how you how you show up as a designer. Um I'm really curious to know, Stef. We've talked about Avera, which is pre-Harvard. We've talked about your experience here at Harvard. What's next? How are you thinking about post-Harvard and the spaces you want to be, the problems you want to solve, the people you want to work with? Share a little bit more about that with this.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

Yeah, that's a great question. Because graduation is approaching quickly. And as for where exactly I will be, what I will be doing, I don't really know yet.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

That's okay though. You don't have to know what you're gonna do. Nobody does. Anybody who says they know what they're gonna do, they're lying. But what I do know is that I want to continue solving problems for people.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

I want to continue building things to address some of these huge systemic issues in this world. And I want to make the world a better place through the things that I create. And so I know that no matter where I am or what I'm doing, I will always stay true to that. And I will definitely continue bringing this out into the world and some of my other innovations. Um, and I'm really excited for for what comes next, even if I don't know exactly what comes next.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

Right. That's part of the fun, right? Um, before we close out, I'd love to get into a little rapid fire with the Prashana segment. All right, so I'm gonna, a couple questions for for you. Um you you grew up in Louisiana, you went to school, you did your undergraduate years in San Diego. Yeah. And now you've spent the past couple here years here in Boston. If you had to choose between the Northeast, the South, or the West Coast, how would you rank? How would you rank those?

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Oh, that's a tough one. Um I think California might take the crown.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

You just cannot beat sunny and 75 weather all year round, being right next to the beach, seeing beautiful every day, being able to go hike outdoors. Um I love Louisiana. It will always be my home. Um, and I love the culture down there. I think it's something very unique that a lot of people don't um realize.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Uh that we have this huge, rich culture. It's a it's a melting pot of so many different um people and cuisines and and traditions. And I think that's what makes it such a wonderful place.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

And then So Louisiana's number two.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Sure, we'll put it at number two.

SPEAKER_03 35:37

California, Louisiana.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

I also have still, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Um become more affectionate for Boston.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Um It's a really good way of putting it.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

I do like Boston. It's a really cool place, and I I think it's so unique in that there are so many smart, ambitious people here just being in this ecosystem.

SPEAKER_03 36:02

It's a really great place to go to school.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

Like, yeah, it's a great place to learn from other people and to be motivated because like you think you're doing a lot, then you like meet the next person and they're like, they're doing even more, and it's like, okay, now I have to catch up. And everybody's just so focused on building things and and the supportive feedback that you get from your peers. Although I really don't like winter, so I think that might be why it it doesn't rank higher, but I think Boston is still a pretty cool place. But the snow is not for me.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

I'm right there with you. Um awesome. Could you the next one I have for you, Stephic, is Ivera comes in a couple different colors, right? Yes. It comes in black, white, and gray. Yes. Which one is your favorite?

SPEAKER_01 36:49

I have to say gray, and I think it's why we have the gray here, right here. Um yeah, a lot of people might not realize this, but I'm kind of a perfectionist. I obsess over the details probably a little too much. And when it was coming down to picking the colors, the manufacturer was like, okay, what colors do you want us to produce? And I like looked at so many different pan tone swatches.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

And people, I was like asking people, what do you like between these two colors? And they're like, that's the same color. I'm like, no, it's not, it's different.

SPEAKER_03 37:29

One has a lighter shade or darker undertone.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah, yeah. But then I eventually picked this gray that's like halfway between a cool gray and a warm gray. I don't know how to describe it, but I just love this color so much.

SPEAKER_03 37:45

It's a nice shade of a gray.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Yeah, it's like a perfect neutral color. Um this is my favorite color. Although I realize most customers just like buying black or white, and they don't necessarily always buy my favorite color. But at least it's your favorite.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

It's awesome. Um, stuffic. So your your program sits between both the graduate school of design and the school of engineering. You have to pick between the two.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Oh, you keep giving yourself a question.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

It's like asking people like, do you like this side of the river better or that?

SPEAKER_01 38:25

That's true because uh the design school is on the Cambridge side, the engineering schools on the Alston side.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

So um I don't know if that helps. I've spent like almost every day just traversing the bridge, going back and forth over each side of the bridge.

SPEAKER_03 38:39

Especially over winter, that's tough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Yeah, I definitely got my steps in. Uh walking all the way to Alston. Um that's tough. I don't think I can. I don't think I can choose. I I think I might have to plead the fifth in this one. It's like asking a parent to choose their favorite child, right? I I think I I'm so lucky for the opportunity to be a part of both communities.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

The design school and the engineering school. Um if I had to pick the the physical facilities, the buildings, which is not really that important, but I'd have to pick the engineering school because that's where our studio exists. Um I I love that that building. It's it's so amazing.

SPEAKER_03 39:26

So the design studio is in the engineering school, not the design school.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

I think it's because that building was built more recently, and so we were able to add more space.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Um Okay, got it. Um which class had the greatest impact on you if you take it here?

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Wow. I think um our course studio in MDE. I talked about one of our past projects that we've done in that in that course, but it it it's really not just a class like you would think of as a normal class, where we're not really just like sitting in lectures and taking notes and then taking exams.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

We're just thrown into the environment, paired up with random classmates who at the beginning of the program we didn't know each other. Now, of course, we're a super tight-knit community. Um but at first it was like getting to know people, understanding how to work with people. Now we're we're tasked with solving this huge problem together. And I think that of course, that experience just taught me so much about design, about creating human-centered solutions, about thinking in systems because the product is only as good as the system that it exists within. You have to think of the entire ecosystem, about all of the different stakeholders at every level, all of the different environmental social factors. And the course also taught me how to work in groups, how to lead design teams and yeah, how do we collaborate, how do we quickly coalesce around a shared vision when we have so many different opinions? Or disagree and exactly, which disagreement is great because that it you know brings about new ideas.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

And so I yeah, I I think that course was extremely impactful for me because it was like an education experience unlike anything else I had ever experienced before. Unlike anything most people will probably experience, is not a traditional class in that sense.

SPEAKER_03 42:01

Totally. Um that's great to hear. Civic, you shared a lot about your own journey and and your journey both personally and then as a designer. What is one takeaway you would want to leave the audience with as we close out?

SPEAKER_00 42:18

That's good. I think that you are creative.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

A lot of people don't realize that creativity is one of the most innate aspects of being human. We are creative beings as humans. We're we're meant to solve problems. And so people like me create these, you know, products, shiny looking products. Um but creativity doesn't always have to look like that. It doesn't always have to happen in the studio or in a lab. Creativity can mean writing a note to a friend, or stopping and looking at a problem that most people walk past, or just changing one aspect of your daily routine. And when we're creative, we sort of experience what it means to truly be human. If that makes sense.