d.hydrate
Design for Extreme Affordability (ME206AB) // Social E Lab // Mountain Hazelnuts Venture
I consulted on this project with Mountain Hazelnuts Venture, an organization based in Bhutan that distributes hazelnut plants to rural subsistence farmers. The company aims to aid farmers in gaining a stable, additional income by helping them grow and eventually sell the hazelnut harvests in the world market.
My team and I developed an economical hazelnut solar drying crate called d.hydrate for farmers to ensure their harvest don’t mold before they can sell them. I carried out user interviews, prototyping, parametric testing to refine functionality of the device, test infrastructure development to mimic Bhutanese environmental conditions, and in-field testing with the product in Bhutan with farmers. During in-field testing, the crate was 30% more effective than alternative drying methods.
Initial development occurred during Stanford's Design for Extreme Affordability class (a partnership between Stanford GSB and Stanford d.school). As the project lead, I pitched to and secured funding from the Social Entrepreneurship Lab to continue development of the product, where I hired another engineer, managed project priorities, led technical development of the product, and managed our partnership with Mountain Hazelnuts Venture. The project was finally handed off to them in 2016.
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