SUMMARY

PepperPet is a youth electronics startup that is building augmented-reality experiences and holographic digital pet products for individuals who yearn to adopt pets, but can’t do so due to allergies, high maintenance costs, and strict building rules. Our main product, also called the PepperPet, is an interactive, holographic digital pet projected in a portable box.

MY ROLE

I am the founder, engineer, and product designer of the PepperPet team. My responsibilities include leading the team, delegating tasks, hardware engineering & manufacturing, electrical engineering, game development, performing customer/market research, financial management, product design, branding, and 3D modeling & printing.

STATUS

Manufacture-Ready Prototype & Intellectual Property in progress

AWARDS

  • NYU InnoVention Competition Finalist and Audience Choice Winner (Spring 2019)

  • Winner of the NYU Tandon General Engineering Rapid Assembly and Prototyping Challenge (Fall 2018)

  • Nick Russo Award for Outstanding General Engineering Design (Fall 2018)

  • NYU Prototyping Fund Award (Spring 2019)

BACKGROUND

It all began when I heard about the NYU Tandon School of Engineering Rapid Assembly and Design Challenge (RAD), a semester-long design project where students can propose a problem to solve and build a working prototype of the solution. Out of 150 applications, my proposal to build a holographic digital pet (named PepperPet) was accepted. 

The idea to create the PepperPet came about when my younger sister asked our parents for a pet cat, but we knew we couldn’t get one due to allergies and strict building rules.

I took the role as team lead, chief programmer and product designer of the PepperPet team. We used the design process to create iterations of our prototype, and repeatedly tested our prototype while conducting customer/market research through interviews and surveys. At the end of the semester, the PepperPet team presented our prototype to a panel of judges. PepperPet was announced as the winner of the Rapid Assembly and Prototyping Challenge and a recipient of the Nick Russo Award for Outstanding General Engineering Design. We received the awards during the Fall 2019 NYU Tandon Convocation Ceremony.

In Spring 2019, I transformed PepperPet into a startup. Not only were we awarded the NYU Prototyping Fund to build a more polished prototype, but we additionally got accepted into the NYU InnoVention Competition (IVC) along with 11 other startups. Throughout the competition, we performed more customer and market research, tested iterations of our work-like and look-like prototypes, and further improved our business strategies using the lean startup method. We presented our business and product to panels of venture capitalists and angel investors, and eventually got to the finals with 5 other startups. We had a booth set up for both the Prototyping Fund Demo Day at the Leslie eLab and NYU InnoVention Competition Demo Day at the Amazon Web Services Loft. PepperPet gave its final presentation and was awarded the Audience Choice Award for the NYU InnoVention Competition ‘19.

PRESS

Some information about this project is kept confidential. Case study and more information available upon request.