About Design for Planet Impact

Our Team

Design for Planet Impact (DPI) was founded prior to the summer of 2025 by Georgia Tech’s very own Professor of the Practice, Mike Tinskey, whose passion lies in advancing global social good through practical, human-centered engineering.

DPI is powered by a dedicated student team composed of one graduate project manager and five undergraduate project leads, each responsible for driving innovation within their respective initiatives.

Project Manager

Fiona Chun

Team Sight — Assistive Vision Technology

Lead: Nolana Charlesz

Team H2O — Clean Water Innovations

Lead: Sarah Miligan

Team Medical Device (MD) — Reusable Suction Filter

Leads: Ayyan Qureshi & Carson Strauss

Team Comfort Companion — Therapeutic Support Device

Leads: Allison Rathbun & Carson Strauss

Our Process

Design for Planet Impact follows a human-centered, engineering-driven process to ensure that every solution is culturally informed, practical, and scalable. Our workflow includes four key stages:

1. Customer Discovery

We begin by deeply understanding the community and culture we aim to serve. This includes identifying pressing needs, social and economic challenges, and gathering insights that shape potential solution pathways.

2. Project Scoping

After generating a proposed solution, the team evaluates the overarching objective, feasibility, and resources required. This step ensures the solution is well-defined, aligned with community needs, and supported by the right tools and technical capabilities.

3. Capstone Team Prototyping

As a Georgia Tech–affiliated organization, DPI hands off well-scoped projects to Georgia Tech senior capstone teams. These teams engineer early-stage prototypes designed to be functional, scalable, and ready for further refinement.

4. Manufacturing & Implementation

Once a satisfactory prototype is developed, it is assessed for manufacturability. The long-term goal is to mass-produce the solution and deploy it within the communities it was designed for—creating sustainable, real-world impact.

DPI is a young and rapidly evolving organization. As we grow, our process continues to improve. Currently, all projects are in the prototyping and development phase, with manufacturing planned as the next major milestone.