Ashdeep Seth is an independent designer, engineer, and educator who works on social innovation projects in Africa and Asia, with a focus on India. She designs and develops hardware and software technologies in agriculture and healthcare for low-resource communities. She is also a university connect ambassador for ASEI and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Development Engineering at UC Berkeley.
Ashdeep is North Indian; born and raised in Dubai, she moved to the United States in 2015 to study Product Design at Stanford University. She discovered her passion for social innovation while at IIT Madras Research Park working in their Healthcare Technology Innovation Center. Her motivation from working at IIT spawned her interest in several other similar projects. Currently, she designs affordable greenhouses for Indian smallholder farmers in association with Kheyti in Hyderabad. She works with Clinic+O in Guinea developing a mobile application used by a network of local community health workers to provide primary care services to marginalized communities. She is also a Senior Expert Fellow at Engineering for Change.
As Ashdeep says, growing up in an international expat area like Dubai allowed her to encounter various cultures and outlooks at a young age, and made her wonder who she wants to be. Her parents’ work as architects and community builders also laid her career foundations and made her realize what she wanted to do, what her interests were, and how she wished to apply herself in society. This foundation has eventually led her to apply herself at the intersection of technology and social impact.
Her message to young people is to ‘stay hungry and stay humble’: be deeply curious, be grounded, find opportunities, especially amidst seeming difficulties, and nurture relationships. She attributes her success to the great relationships she has developed over the years. If you wish to take her advice, ASEI is one of the organizations that can help you build connections with industry professionals and leaders.
Website: www.ashseth.com
Linkedin: https://www.
* This Article is contributed by Aditya Guthey – ASEI youth coordinator. He is available via linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaguthey/
