Rocket Scientist Turned Environmentalist Working to Create Sustainable Mobility Solutions

I began my career as an aerospace engineer working on NASA earth science missions to help better understand our complex world. I was fascinated by rockets and satellite technology and how they could be used for scientific purposes. However, my excitement quickly turned to concern as I learned more about the global trends and saw the significant impacts humanity is having on the planet. I came to believe that it was no longer sufficient for me to simply observe such destruction, but instead I wanted to be part of implementing solutions. Former Vice President Al Gore summarized my mindset well when he said:

“You see that pale, blue dot? That’s us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history, has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars, all the famines, all the major advances… it’s our only home. And that is what is at stake, our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. I believe this is a moral issue, it is your time to seize this issue, it is our time to rise again to secure our future.”

These experiences helped motivate me to take the giant leap of leaving my job in aerospace in 2016 and enrolling within the dual degree MBA/MS program offered by the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan. Through this program I have learned that business and technology can be sources of positive change in the world.

One specific area that I have been drawn to is sustainable urban mobility, which aligns with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. There is incredible disruption occurring within transportation with new emerging solutions such as vehicle connectivity, autonomy, and electrification. When these technological advances are combined with new business models such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS), the potential for significant change in how we move around urban environments becomes truly great. I believe these advancements can be leveraged to create more inclusive, safer, cheaper, and more efficient mobility ecosystems while simultaneously decreasing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. One specific solution is the creation of shared, electric, and autonomous vehicle (SAEV) fleets that serve all travel demand in a city. These fleets would remove the need for personal car ownership and significantly reduce the number of vehicles in a city, thereby opening space previously occupied by parking lots for things like urban greenspace and high density development.

I am excited to explore these ideas at UNLEASH Lab 2017 next week. My goal is to work with UNLEASH talents with similar interests in mobility to create solutions that promote the use of ride share and MaaS in cities. These near term solutions would then be able to pave the way for adoption of SAEV fleets when the technology is fully proven in the future. I also hope to learn more about the mobility challenges currently taking place in other cities around the world and new ideas that may have come out of those unique situations. Overall, I look forward to the collaboration that will occur at UNLEASH with so many impressive sustainability professionals from around the world.