about us
Our initial team of three members (Pranav, Justin, and Alex), formerly known as iLumen8, was formed approximately one year ago when the team developed an electrical circuit that enabled body heat to be converted into electricity. Since then, thanks to the Challenge Lab class at UC Berkeley, we have doubled in size and became the versatile team we are today: WeLumen8. Coming from developing or unequal countries, we have always felt very concerned with development challenges at a global level, and particularly with education.
Alex²
Hawaii
Sarah
& Justin
California
Miya
Morocco
Pranav
india
MuhammaD
New York
Eric
oregon
Company Structure
Pranav
alex
Justin
Muhammad
miya
Sarah
alexander
eric
Meet the team
Pranav Vaidhyanathan
Chief Executive Officer & Chief Technical Officer
As a double major in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Engineering Physics, Pranav’s passion for physics and math has helped him represent India at the International Physics Olympiad, where he earned a bronze medal. Currently, Pranav is taking graduate Physics course and is involved in Berkeley Physics research at Lawrence Berkeley Labs with both Yury Kolomensky and Marjorie Shapiro. As a theoretical physicist, Pranav’s greatest work only involves some chalk, a chalkboard, and his mind. His theoretical research and work laid the groundwork for WeLumen8. Through WeLumen8, Pranav hopes to help other students from his hometown in Chennai, India. Growing up seeing the disparity of inequality and the consequences that income inequality has on education, Pranav hopes to help students achieve their goals by equipping them with the tools necessary to focus on their education.
Alex Yamada
Chief Engineer
Currently studying Mechanical Engineering under the department’s prestigious Mary C. and William G. Drake Scholarship program, Alex has a profound physics knowledge that is only rivaled by his passion to work on hardware projects. Since he was in middle school, Alex has led various underwater robotics projects, which led him to various international titles including awards at the Intel ISEF. As the lead designer for WeLumen8, Alex has worked with various engineering platforms to generate CADs and design models to translate ideas into tangible products. Through WeLumen8, Alex hopes to help the people from his island of Oahu, where locals suffer from frequent power outages and electrical grid failures due to harsh weather conditions and lack of technical infrastructure.
Justin Kim
Operations Manager
Currently studying Economics and Operations, Research, and Management Science, Justin has worked to bring together the team members of WeLumen8. Using his organizational skills, Justin has been essential in identifying tasks that needed to be completed and assigning them accordingly to ensure that deadlines were always met. With his familiarity with the lean startup method, Justin has worked to include multiple lean startup techniques into both the engineering and business sides of WeLumen8.
Muhammad Siddiqui
Head of Research & Development
Currently doing a Master's in Chemical Engineering, Muhammad brings his experience in research and product development to WeLumen8. He has previously worked in the R&D team for Sartorius, a biotechnology manufacturer, on developing freezing and shipping solutions for biologic drugs. Prior to Sartorius, he did his Bachelor's at New York University also in Chemical Engineering. His skills are in materials testing, process optimization, prototyping, and product adoption. Muhammad hopes his contribution to WeLumen8 will help create technological solutions that have a meaningful impact on society.
Sarah Zhang
Head of Marketing
Sarah is a second year student at UC Berkeley studying political economy. She has a strong background in the marketing and teaching as a decal instructor at the Haas School of Business in the Digital Marketing Today course. This past summer, she worked at Warner Bros. as a digital servicing intern in the Worldwide Television Department, promoting new shows and movies through a variety of marketing strategies. With her nonprofit organization, Glasses for Our Youth LLC that provides glasses to children in Mexico without access to healthcare, she has always had a passion for connecting children in poverty with the access to resources.
Miya Lamrani
Head of Outreach / Public Relations
Miya is a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley pursuing her Master in Management at the ESSEC Business School in Paris, France. She has a significant amount of industry experience including being a Strategic and Business Developer for AlumnEye and a Business Analyst at Nexans. Her previous experience with networking and outreach has been vital towards establishing a strong connection with NGOs throughout both Mexico and Morocco. Her ability to converse in five different languages is another skill of Miya's that has been very useful in communicating with partners around the world.
alexander Lum
CADD / Engineer
Currently studying Computer Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Alexander has immense design experience with both AutoCAD and Fusion360 softwares. His determination and passion for helping his local community are evident through the numerous community-based projects he has completed in the past. A few examples of this are the projects he has led as lead designer of the Pearl City High School construction course, which completed benches, stairs, walkways, aquaponic systems, and storage areas. The knowledge and experience that he has gained through his prior community-oriented projects have been especially helpful with human-centered design thinking and ergonomic design concepts.
Eric Schlitzkus
Engineer
Eric is currently a Mechanical Engineering student pursuing his education at Oregon State University. He has always had a strong passion for engineering, growing up under his father who founded his own painting and roofing company. This presented him the opportunity to not only grow up around the construction industry, but also gain valuable hands-on experience from a very young age. His strong foundation in engineering has been enabled him to contribute significantly to each WeLumen8 design.