Serving Community and Helping Environment using Technology

Since her arrival at Princeton, junior Ishani Sud has made a difference by thinking inside the box. Not just any box, but rather a solar-powered oven she designed her freshman year with classmate Lauren Wang, under the guidance of Wole Soboyejo, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Powered by the sun’s energy and constructed with locally available materials, the ovens can be built and used in developing nations, thereby allowing advancement while preserving the environment and local economies.
Because they are powered by the sun’s energy, the ovens could slow deforestation that results from harvesting wood for cooking fires.


Ishani Sud has combined her interests in engineering and outreach to implement a solar oven project in Africa. The ovens, which she designed with classmate Lauren Wang, are constructed with locally available materials. Sud spent last summer in Kenya continuing previous work on the project and in Tanzania launching a similar program at a school for indigenous people.
Many factors led to Sud’s passion for science and community activism. The daughter of an environmental engineer and a geneticist, she was moved by the extreme poverty she encountered on childhood trips to her parents’ native India.
“This was a nice experience because it gave me a chance to learn about the community, give back, manage a project and learn about the actual science and research that goes into it,” Sud said.

Sud, is now organizing a group of students to research and design ceramic water filters built with basic materials, such as clay and plant matter.
“I want to be able to make a real difference in whatever community I’m working with or serving,” Sud says.