The last month (November) I was at Sigfox Connect 2019 listening to Rohit Singh from WWF Asia talk about “How IoT is a game changer for wildlife protection”. When he started his talk, he mentioned something that struck a cord with me. “80% of people never get to do what they love as a job”. He was talking about how his father and brother both worked at a ketchup bottling manufacturing plant yet he went on to rescue bears. Now he is the president of the rangers federation of Asia; who has been working to tackle wildlife crime for the past 15 years. This made me ask myself the question, “Did I grow up to do what I love?” I reflected on that all night.
80% of the people never get to do what they love as a job. -Rohit Singh
That statement made me reflect on who I wanted to be when I was 10 years old. Back then I wanted to be a scientist and find a discovery that could help change the world. While reflecting I found an interview I did back in the Fall of 2007 for John Hopkins Ed Tech Magazine. This interview was done after one of the most defining summers of my life; Summer 2007.
2007: The year it all changed
Earlier that year I would finish my sophomore year of high school. I was looking for new ways in which I could make an impact on Climate Change. That was a topic I had been interested in after discovering “An Inconvenient Truth” the year before. I paired myself with a classmate to join a competition called “The Global Challenge.” It was a global competition for high school students to come up with solutions to help fight Global Warming. They paired 2 students from the US with 2 international students to work on the project. We had to come up with a concept and write a business plan for it. The challenge was developed to promote STEM and build an international team to understand the concept of globalization while also promoting ideas to battle Global Warming.
My team (The BluFactors) wanted to do a project that could be sustainable and make an impact in our community. We ended up coming up with the AlgaEnergy. The concept was to turn algae into fuel for transportation, heat, and energy. Algae has always been seen as a source for food and fuel that can help make a positive impact on the globe. We spent the next three months designing and writing that BP. That summer, we got picked as one of the top 10 global teams for the Global Challenge. We won a trip to the Engineering Summer Camp at the University of Vermont and a small scholarship. At UVM we got to present at project in front of other American high school students and faculty members. That was the summer that made me want to become an engineer and start thinking on how my team could make a real world impact. It was also the summer I discovered the book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman (2005 edition); which changed my perspective on globalization.
A decade later, we did not end up building the AlgaEnergy, but I did end up becoming an engineer. I left my home country in 2009, moving across the globe to pursue a higher education. In 2017, I obtained my masters degree in Mechanical engineering. Climate Change, remained in the back of my mind for the whole decade.
From passion to career
To end the decade, I’m the Co-founder of a startup that is digitally transforming traditional businesses (FOX-TECH); having a real world impact on the food value chain. We have worked with dairy/pork/poultry farms, warehouses (read more on this), and retail to empower them and take action to the side effects of Global Warming. My favorite deployment, up to when this article was written, is the one at Yang Ming National park where we are monitoring over 20 hectares of forest to prevent wildfires. Through our solution we are able to have a global impact in the local economies. From 2007 to 2009 it was all those little steps taken that made me who I have become today.
Not many of us have the chance to wake up everyday to do the things that make them happy. I feel I’m one of the lucky ones that can say they do. Most importantly I’m proud to be part of an amazing team that is making an effort to help businesses and tackle Climate Change one step at a time.
Interested on how to make an impact as an individual to fight Climate Change?
You don’t need to wait another decade to start making those small steps. There are many different movements that have started in the last couple of year which you can join from going Zero Waste to reducing your Carbon footprint. To simpler steps like buying locally grown produce, switching forms of transportation to greener ones (car pooling, public transportation, walking, etc.), and even changing your diet.
- What to learn more on the start up? Check out our website
- Learn about our deployments worldwide (DigiTimes Link)
