*What*: Krysta Yousoufian: Fair Trade Phone? Creating More Socially and
Environmentally Responsible Electronic Devices
*When:* Tuesday, Feb 10 at 12pm
*Where:* The Allen Center, CSE 203
Please join us for this week’s Change Seminar. This week former UW
student Krysta Yousoufian will be stopping by to talk about a side
project she is passionate about: a fair trade smartphone. Come learn
more about the supply chain behind our ubiquitous devices and what we
can do to make it more sustainable.
Please note, there will be a Change Seminar next week Feb 17.
*Abstract:*
Most of us love our smartphones and other gadgets, and we talk at length
about their potential for global development. But there is a dark side
to this proliferation of electronic devices: a host of social and
environmental costs embedded throughout their lifecycle. How can we do
better? At my workplace, a group of passionate employees has been
looking at how we can create a more socially, environmentally
responsible smartphone. Begun during a company-wide Hackathon and
continued on our own time, our project aims to put these issues on the
map, create a real alternative, and ultimately change the way the
industry does business.
We want you to be part of the conversation. Join a discussion on
questions such as: How do we address the most pressing social and
environmental costs of our devices? How do we create a device that
consumers can trust is "better," and will they buy it? Are "do well" and
"do good" even compatible?
This is an entirely a personal project on our own time. Although our
project has benefited from company channels for encouraging innovation,
we speak only on behalf of ourselves.
*About the speaker:*
Krysta Yousoufian is a UW CSE and Change alumna, receiving her BS and MS
from the department in 2011 and 2012, respectively. As an undergrad,
she worked with Richard Anderson and PATH on global health research.
After graduating, she joined Microsoft as a software engineer looking at
health from another angle: first on the HealthVault team and then on
Microsoft Health. Krysta's passion is for the development of fairer,
more sustainable economies, expressed through side endeavors such
as weekly volunteer customer service at Ten Thousand Villages, a
nonprofit, fair-trade retail store. Krysta began her current electronics
initiative as a natural integration of her personal and professional
interests.
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