Focus on: Vikas Nath
Toronto, ON
Vikas has worked with the United Nations in New York, Geneva and Delhi on environment and development issues. His previous position was Special Advisor to the South Centre (a Geneva based Intergovernmental organisation), and has provided advice and technical assistance to over 55 developing countries.
He left the United Nations to start his maker-family enterprise “HotPopRobot.com” with his kids to bring discussions on Space, Science and Technology in our everyday conversation. It encourages families and kids to make and create things, including robots, rovers and space projects, so that we can advance our knowledge about the universe and get excited about space exploration. It does several outreach events each year through maker festivals, libraries, hackathons, school fairs and community events.
HotPopRobot.com was started in 2014 after winning the NASA Space Apps Toronto and being among the top 5 in the NASA SpaceApp Global People Choice Award. Since then their family projects have won several awards.
Most recently, its project "Yes I Can" that uses data from the Canadian Satellite RadarSat-2 won the Canadian Space Agency Award in 2017 while its "Drop the Drought" project which uses satellite data to predict droughts and migration patterns won the NASA Space Apps Toronto 2017.
Vikas holds a Masters degree in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics, UK.
www.vikasnath.org
HotPopRobot.com
Vikas Nath has presented:
- Maker Families: Building together on space, science and technology (2017)