Software and Sustainability

17 Jan 2019

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Living in Hawaii is a dream for many people, and as a kid growing up in Hawaii admiring all the beauty that is around me, I realized that we need to do try our best trying to help preserve not only Hawaii’s beauty but our planet’s. During high school I volunteered my free-time at our multiple service clubs to help out the community, the service clubs usually had events such as cleaning up and helping others in need. This time spent helping out led me to research other ways I can benefit others around me, with the research it led me into Computer Engineering more specifically embedded systems and IoT.

At the time my only experience with code was through this youtube video saying that schools should teach you how to code released back in 2013. The research I’ve done gave me a reason to dive deeper into this new world of software and pursue my interests into sustainability.

In my freshman year of college, I joined SCEL(Smart Campus Energy Lab) where their goal is to support efforts in creating new technologies, techniques, and products related to sustainability or renewable energy. We designed and fabricated a “Smart Can” where it would detect if you were going to throw away trash using an infrared sensor and Arduino Uno. This first project gave me the experience and familiarity with embedded systems and IoT I needed to solidify my career choice. Currently, I am in the ‘Ike Wai project; ‘Ike meaning knowledge and Wai meaning water in Hawaiian. The project’s mission is to help secure Hawaii’s future by promoting water resource management through research and education.

Discovering technologies and making innovations toward sustainability has been a goal of mine for a while and I intend to reach it by developing my software skills with embedded systems and IoT, by taking this class I hope to expand my toolbox for various applications not only in embedded systems and IoT.