Earlier this year, Devanshi Guglani took on the MacGyver-in-a-Box Design Challenge, winning first place for her project addressing global sanitation and public health issues. As a master’s student in Computer Science MS’26 at Columbia Engineering, she’s leveraging her background, entrepreneurial mindset, and technical skills to tackle critical humanitarian challenges.

Her approach to this design competition is rooted in personal experience. With a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Claremont McKenna College, Devanshi brings a unique blend of technical expertise and social consciousness to her work. Her experience spans from her contribution to machine learning research at the USDA on mosquito borne diseases to building homes and sanitation systems for underserved communities in Cambodia. These experiences, combined with childhood observations of sanitation challenges in India, have shaped her mission to create sustainable solutions for those who need them most.

Devanshi, team lead for “Porta Party” creating the Porta Squatty, addressing multiple critical needs: hygiene, odor control, safety, and sustainable waste management. This work represents the essence of “Engineering for Humanity” and we are so excited to see what Devanshi accomplishes next.