Episode 5: Sameera Chukkapalli Holmes & Jason Knight | The Power of Open Source (Part 1 of 2)

About this episode

This week Majenta's DesignLab colleague, Giovanni Salinas, joins her as our special co-host. Over the next four episodes, we will be talking about the power of open source technology and how it can be incorporated into socially impactful design. To kick off this theme, we catch up with social entrepreneur Sameera Chukkapalli Holmes & industrial designer and founder Jason Knight. Our conversation was so enriching that we’ve broken this interview up into two episodes. The first will focus on Jason and Sameera’s backgrounds, how they met, and why they choose to harness the power of open source for social good. The second episode will focus more closely on their current projects, and go in depth on their Hackaday Prize 2020 Cal Earth Dream Team project.

In addition to founding and directing NeedLab, Sameera was recently selected as an "Obama Leader" by the Obama Foundation. She has designed and implemented human and environment-focused solutions in partnership with UN-Habitat and other City governments on 4 continents. As a maker and social entrepreneur, Sameera enjoys teaching workshops and making sustainable design solutions accessible to all. She describes Needlab as an organization which aims to “solve problems related to habitat and urban resilience in cities and rural communities.” A core ideology their work revolves around is ‘Think global, Act local’, and this can be seen in their people-focused designs. She is also a Hackaday Prize 2022 Judge.

Jason Knight is a product designer interested in biological fabrication and sustainable design who received a degree in Industrial and Product Design at Brunel University in London. He is a Technical Consultant for Needlab, the founder of Recycled Plastic Skateboard Deck (RPSD for short), co-founder of MANDIN Collective, a researcher for Precious Plastic, and an honorary member of Illutron.

You can follow @Supplyframe and @Hackaday on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter, and @SupplyframeDesignLab on Instagram and Twitter.

The BOM is a Supplyframe podcast hosted by Majenta Strongheart, written, produced, and edited by Frank Driscoll and co-edited by Daniel Ferera. Executive producers are Ryan Tillotson and Tyler Nielsen. Theme music is by Ana Hogben, with show art by Thomas Schneider. Special thanks to Giovanni Salinas, Bruce Dominguez, Thomas Woodward, Jin Kumar, Jordon Clark, Matt Gunn, the entire Supplyframe Team, and you, our wonderful listeners.

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