“A systems perspective can add greatly to product design and better ensure success of the product in the field,” Pratik comments, “Furthermore, engineers, designers, and business people working together can inspire each other to create better solutions more smoothly.”
Pratik has designed products such as a home-scale biogas digester that runs on food waste and an off-grid submersible irrigation pump that uses compressed air. He has worked extensively with people with visual impairment trying to address why most technology has not been accessible to people with disabilities. As a mechanical engineering student, Pratik restored a motorcycle and used it to travel solo across parts of India and later worked as a mechanic maintaining bikes of the same make. He also played and sang in a band. He has even discovered and helped describe a new species of frog. Pratik is passionate about products that have the capacity to give birth to extended ecosystems and markets around them. His experience working with various wildlife conservation organizations in different parts of India has given him great respect for the power ofecosystems. He strongly believes in the inter-connectedness of things.