Akshay Dinakar

Akshay Dinakar, Product Design, BS’19, founder of Tangible 

Growing up, my dream job was to be an entrepreneur, but neither of my parents were business people. So I had no idea what a startup pitch should even look like when I took part in a BASES competition in my freshman year. Several design classes I took in my junior and senior years kindled my love for interactive interfaces and immersive technology that incorporated physical touch. These classes equipped me with a professional foundation in consumer hardware – and enabled me to eventually found my company Tangible. As a founder, there’s no limit on what I’m allowed to be curious about, This allows me to question any constraints and focus on solving the “root problem”, rather than build a “workaround solution”. The chance to build something that could take an entire leap forward for humankind, as opposed to just a single step, was a huge draw for me to entrepreneurship.

Akshay Dinakar's Learning Path

• ME203: Design and Manufacturing
• ARTSTUDI 162: Embodied Interfaces
• ENGR 145 Technology Entrepreneurship (ENGR 145S)
• MS&E 472 Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders' Seminar
• ME 216A: Advanced Product Design: Needfinding