Prize

🏆 EarthLab Community Impact Prize — Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge (2022) — $5,000 USD

On March 31, 2022, my team won the EarthLab Community Impact Prize at the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge for our hydroponics-based advanced gardening platform.

The idea grew from a personal project — I had been 3D printing a hydroponics system inspired by a group assignment. I learned about the competition through the Product Management Program introduction session and a UW mailing list and decided to apply. I initially formed a team with four freshmen, but three dropped out midway through.

Layla, a freshman majoring in Entrepreneurship, stayed on with me. Together, we applied for the competition’s prototype funding, which granted us up to $1,200 to build out the prototype.

With ML coursework consuming most of my time, I knew I could not manage the business side alone. I reached out to Sunny — an MBA candidate interning at Amazon whom I met through a Foster Business School connection — and he joined the team to develop the financial projections and business case.