United in Sharing, Divided in Waste

Tackling NYC food sustainability problems, one neighbor at a time.

New York City faces a significant food waste crisis.

Recent surges in grocery prices have driven residents to purchase in bulk, leading to excess food and eventual waste. We have created a platform that connects neighbors to share their surplus of fresh groceries.

After shopping, users upload their receipts, indicate their excess quantities, and neighbors get notified to claim them. XS facilitates the purchase of bulk price groceries at quantities that fulfill customers’ immediate needs.

While taking advantage of the dense population of NYC, XS reduces the amount of food waste, while creating a sense of community amongst neighbors.

MODY Gene Therapy Proposal: Uncured Variation of Genetic Diabetes

MODY is an uncured form of genetic diabetes.

This unique condition manifests as a phenotypic hybrid between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, constituting 2-5% of diabetes cases, roughly affecting one in every 10,000 people. Due to the lack of awareness and testing, around 90% of MODY diabetics are initially misdiagnosed as Type 2 diabetes. The cost of genetic testing remains a significant barrier.

We propose the development of a gene therapy, full curing MODY diabetes. Gene therapy attacks the root cause of the disease, cures it, and allows MODY patients to live a life free of chronic pharmaceuticals intended for Type 1 (T1) and Type 2 (T1) diabetics.

A personal story adds weight to our proposal. My best friend has MODY3. At age 15 before her diagnosis she was hospitalized due to a small chest lesion that wouldn't heal. This seemingly unrelated symptom turned out to be a manifestation of ketoacidosis and multi-organ failure. Now, she takes both T1 and T2 medications, carefully titrated to create a patient-specific medication cocktail. A gene therapy would solve this problem entirely.

Competitive Analysis for MODY treatments in comparison to gene therapy.

Sonique: Me, pretending to be a curator.

Biweekly themed playlists for interested listeners.

After the pandemic, we craved new ways to connect. Additionally, I was frustrated by the lack of new music the Spotify algorithm was feeding me. Music discovery has always been a passion of mine, so I created a way to share my findings with friends and friends of friends. Every 2 weeks, I chose a theme. Then I spent a week diving into different genres to generate that specific mood. The second week is revision. Constant tweaking, removing and adding songs, reordering, and deleting playlists and restarting. Before the release, we chose a magazine with a similar mood to the playlist title, and cut letters to form the cover art and videos.

Each playlist is 33 songs, carefully curated, and deliberately ordered. Take a listen.