Home is… split between Kingston, Jamaica and Colorado, USA.

My most memorable childhood experience is… any time we had a proper family gathering. Whatever the reason for getting together. I have more cousins than I can count and they can be a bit rowdy. Whatever was happening in the world, it was always good to share with the crazy people who cooked too much food, made too much noise and stayed up too late… ie, family.

My favourite foods are… stew peas, Bombay mangoes, and tree-ripened Colorado peaches.

My Kingston best-kept secret is… There’s a live music jam that happens three times a week. I go there and I am constantly reminded how talented Jamaicans are.

Bus, black cab or tube?

Tube. I’ve had many more random encounters that were fun and unexpected on trains. Always enjoy those experiences.

The song playing in my head right now is… I usually have a minimum of 10 songs in heavy rotation. Right now, I’m listening to Damian Marley’s Here We Go, Chronixx’s I Can (my nephew really likes this one, too), and an acoustic guitar version of Protoje’s Who Knows; Dennis Brown’s Created by The Father (1970; Tame Impala’s: Runway, Houses, City, Clouds; Capleton, Raggy Road; 1xtra Live at Tuff Gong; Khruangbin , Como Te Quiero; Vybz Kartel, Watch Over Us; Nicolaas Jaar, Let’s Live for Today; and Jungle House in LA.

Most iconic Jamaican… When I think of iconic Jamaicans, more than a few come to mind when I think of the past. Marcus Garvey, Sam Sharpe and Bob Marley all stand out as individuals who have had profound impact on people’s consciousness around the world. Among the living I think Usain Bolt has been a real inspiration to Jamaicans and non-Jamaicans. His work ethic, hard work and humanity which are often very much in the public eye, have touched so many lives. A friend who I didn’t even think knew that Bolt existed sent me a clip of him digging one of his friends’ grave. All the time I see how people have a more focused sense that you have to put in effort to realise potential. And Bolt embodies that, with such cool. I don’t often think about icons. History and even the present are clouded in myth versus reality, and until we have a more honest understanding of the past, I look forward. In my opinion, Jamaica needs a truth and reconciliation like they had in South Africa. I come across so many Jamaicans in yard and abroad trying to do right and realise the dream of who they want to be, and what they wish for the world. They put in honest work, despite challenges and odds that are against them. More time I really think of the iconic Jamaicans being this generation and generations to come. The ones that will break some shackles, help heal the planet, have a voice and be participants in all aspects of a more balanced world.

Why were you inspired to focus on prostheses?

A series of experiences really inspired me to develop prosthetics. In my earliest memories I have always had an interest in science fiction and biology. When I was going for my bachelor’s, a good friend of mine tore a tendon in his wrist playing basketball. Dr Scott Kozin who was performing reconstructive surgery asked him if he knew any good engineering students. About six months later, I was working in an orthopaedic research lab dissecting cadaver forearms and connecting them to hydraulic actuators for experiments to better inform surgical decisions. For the next two years, I helped in redesigning the device that pulled on the forearm tendons and researched the state-of-the-art. One day I was at a library and an elderly lady was doing research on a rare disease that her grandson had been diagnosed with. Despite not being a doctor or having any medical training she wanted to make sure that the family and the doctor were fully informed about any new information on treatment of her grandson’s illness. It struck me that she was very forthright about making sure that her family was taken care of. Years later in grad school, I worked with a group led by Frank Fronczak PhD, which was developing a soft robotic glove to help persons who had limited grip strength and function. This time I was exposed to a challenge that I was responsible for, and up to a year-and-a-half in, I still couldn’t see a clear solution. In this time I became a better machinist, I became much more disciplined, and I had to connect many different technical fields in order to eventually make a reasoned solution which proved to work well. Shortly after that, I joined a start-up in Colorado to help develop a below-elbow prosthesis. I led the development of new hardware that worked for a wide range of persons whose hands had been amputated. Consequently, the work we started in Colorado took me to Colombia, South Africa, Germany, Myanmar, and after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, we provided prostheses to groups there. The stories that mothers, daughters, friends, cousins, veterans of wars, refugees, neighbours and strangers have shared relating their experiences losing limbs, and having to survive to get help and often helping others reminds me of what’s important in life. While this was happening the National Institutes of Health branch of the US Federal Government which funds the development of the prosthesis through their Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program invited me to serve on a panel that reviewed the technical and commercialisation merit of applications for prostheses, robotics, exoskeletons, assistive and rehabilitation devices from universities and small businesses around the country. Being able to both work with amputees and have the opportunity to work with the people who are trying to advance cutting-edge technology in the world will always both humble and inspire me.

How has this journey been?

One of the hardest choices I ever made was leaving Jamaica in order to learn to be a better engineer. It was also difficult to co-found a hardware technology business. The start-up really didn’t have enough resources, didn’t have enough of just about everything that we needed to be successful on paper. Four things we did have and they were an in-depth understanding of the technology and its history, conviction, our fare share of naivety and a great sense of timing which I thank my Jamaica roots for. Knowing that I wasn’t fully prepared for the journey made me hesitant to become an entrepreneur, and as the journey continues this will always be a challenge. Members of my team and myself have fortunately had support from family, friends and colleagues, who have been invaluable in helping to create a viable business. Leveraging our strengths has led to innovation that the team could never have imagined starting out. We are finally moving from stealth mode to sharing some of the results.

You are an engineer by training and a guest lecturer at UTech. What is your message to the next generation of students in terms of thinking BIG?

Imagine a world without reggae music. Most students don’t like the sound of that. My message to them is that they can be the ones who create a future as they envision it. That their works and creativity are needed and are just as important to the world as the sound of reggae and the victories of Jamaican athletes.

Share with us the last book read… The last book I read was Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.

Last movie seen?

I took my nephew to watch the recent Spiderman movie. He really liked it. But I spent maybe half the time thinking about what was possible in the next 10 years.

What are you up to at the moment for work?

Right now, I’m helping to establish the product design and Biomedical engineering capacity at UTech. The mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering departments, along with the animation department at UTech are independently exploring making a medical monitoring and control device, and doing an electric vehicle conversion by upcycling an older model vehicle. The same group is putting the finishing touches on a project with the University of Pennsylvania and UWI for a new rehabilitation robot for persons with impaired arm functions.

Finally, what’s your personal credo?

My personal credo consists of 60 sentences. To simplify:

Right effort, energy, awareness and practice: From the finite create the infinite.