mHUB's Catalyze Initiatives exist to drive equitable access within the HardTech innovation ecosystem and currently expand across three major programs: Community Partnerships, mPOWER, and the Landis Family Fellowship.
The Landis Family Fellowship for mHUB HardTech Development Services is a 6-month fellowship program for women and people of color that enables diverse talent to gain access to $6M in equipment and a pipeline for paid work in product design, innovation, and R&D with small- to medium-sized manufacturers. Get to know the Summer 2021 fellows who began their program in July.
Introducing the Hardtech Development Fellows class of 2021
Pamela Silva
I'm a Mechanical Engineer and I'm based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Through my business, PamLab Design and Engineering, I develop hardware technology with a special focus on innovation for social impact and sustainability. I currently lead design projects, provide engineering services and facilitate participatory design processes in community contexts. As a hardware-focused engineer and entrepreneur, I was very impressed when I first learned about mHUB and its mission. I joined the fellowship program because I saw it as a unique opportunity to join a community of professionals in hard-tech - a community in which we can support each other by exchanging valuable experiences, insights and resources. I am mostly looking forward to meet mentors that have already undergone similar journeys, and I hope I can also inspire fellow innovators with my experiences. While I am joining the fellowship remotely, I hope to visit the site later in the year, and make use of the wonderful mHUB facilities for prototyping.
Nathan Peckus
I am an Industrial Designer interested in product development and taking ideas from concept to reality. I've been interested in design since I was young. I was building legos and constantly doodling. Doodling turned into sketching and graphic design became a form of creative expression. Studying at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana applied design philosophy to my thought process and sketching to conceptualize ideas. A problem solving design mindset has given direction to my creativity and subsequently helped me develop strong visual communication skills. mHub is exciting for me because It's been an opportunity to be exposed to like minded people from a wide variety of disciplines and learn from them. Collaboration and brainstorming brings out my passion for design and I love coming up with ideas. My current area of focus is in prototyping and CAD modeling. I enjoy solving design challenges and believe that communication is one of the best tools for problem solving.
Jerry Vachaparambil
Before finishing my B.S. at UIUC, I taught English in the Republic of Georgia with US-AID, in Italy with ACLE, and helped build a couple of non-profits. My post-college experience includes being part of the first inbound-outbound sales training program at Groupon, starting the customer happiness team at Recruiterbox and transitioning into leading EMEA sales, and also serving on the founding team at Clutch.AI at Khosla Labs, which evolved into Domino Data Lab. Of late I'm working at the intersection of retail, data science, & advertising, as co-founder and COO of tefoLOGIC which he's hoping to build out with the mHUB product development fellowship, along with learning more about laser engraving + CNC enabled prototyping, and I'm an active member of a couple of boards.
Eseosa Osaghae
I am a fabricator, designer, and musician. I have worked on various set build outs within the city of Chicago. I have a background in Physics. I have a design company that I started called Dark Composition. Dark Composition is focused on instrument design and fabrication. I also plays piano, saxophone, and guitar. I'm a part of the set building team for Congruent Space. Congruent Space is a conceptual platform integrating art and fashion. At the store, I help to build sets for different fashion brands locally, US, and internationally based.
Elbert Dockery
Software engineer focused on mobile and web development. I am getting in the process of getting better at machine learning and computer vision to begin the transition to AR and mixed reality. I joined the fellowship because my company that I created is focused on unmanned systems. I believe that mHUB can help me learn all the machines that are available in the shop. As well as learn more about circuits and control systems. I’ll expand upon that and learn more mechanical and electrical engineering skills. I look forward to helping and assisting other people in the mHUB community with their software needs.
Anthony Anton
I have a background in Mechanical Engineering, and I am currently working as a Lab/Project Engineer at LG Electronics Home Appliance R&D Lab in the Chicago suburbs. I joined the Hardtech Development Fellowship in order to grow my skill set, make new connections, and work on interesting and innovative projects. I look forward to getting to see what the mHUB community has to offer and what I can do to contribute.
Did you know that mHUB HardTech Development Services provided members with more than $2M in income in 2021, and generated an additional $2M in 2022 alone? Learn more about how you can become a hardtech consultant!
