Black in Robotics ‘Meet The Members’ collection: Andrew Dupree

Within the event studios of San Francisco-based Dexterity, Inc. there’s a robotic arm that stands as tall as a human. It’s positioned between a conveyor belt and a number of other wood pallets, all of that are typical of most warehouse packing amenities. However that is no typical warehouse facility.

That is the placement the place most warehouse packing amenities would have groups of individuals manually choosing up packing containers from the conveyor belt and punctiliously inserting them onto the pallets for wrapping and transport, however there are not any such folks right here. As an alternative, because the packages come down the belt, this robotic acknowledges them, picks them up, after which deposits them onto the goal pallet with a mild contact. It could possibly do all of this by itself, and when a human does enter its neighborhood, the robotic is aware of to keep away from the human’s space due to a “mild curtain” sensor.

Andrew Dupree is among the product managers growing expertise like this at Dexterity (p.s. they’re hiring!) and, on this ‘Meet the Members’ put up, we’ll have a look at his journey from pure engineering and dealing with nonprofits in Haiti to doing product improvement within the bay space for a number of budding {hardware} startups.

Andrew’s trajectory

Andrew described his early childhood as that of a typical “blerd” (aka a black nerd). His father was an early adopter of issues like private computer systems and Andrew vividly remembers his first pc, a Gateway machine, being delivered to the home.

He spent tons of time poring over the machine and creating web sites together with his brother utilizing Angelfire and HTML. This ardour for expertise later be mixed with a drive to have a social influence on the College of Maryland – School Park. The plan was to do “a Laptop Engineering diploma specializing in low-cost computer systems”, however whereas Andrew labored by way of programs like Sign Idea, he famous that one thing appeared to be lacking from his expertise.

His first try to search out that “lacking piece” was to affix a laboratory at UC Berkeley for an internship at their TIER Lab. When the internship was completed and he returned to the East Coast, he remained linked to the native Data and Communications Know-how for Creating International locations (ICT4D) neighborhood. It was at one of many neighborhood’s meetups that he was launched to a nonprofit working in Haiti and “they really knew the professor that I’d labored with in Berkeley as a result of it’s a small scene.”

Andrew leveraged this connection to succeed in out to them with a suggestion:

I reached out to them and mentioned “Look, I’ve executed this internship and I’ve executed this work. Are you hiring?”

They usually have been like “No.”

Then I mentioned, “Are you positive?”

They usually mentioned “We’re positive.”

Then I requested “What if I volunteer?”

They usually responded “Let’s discuss.”

And thus, he had locked in an eight month expertise with the nonprofit Inveneo specializing in organising pc labs and implementing pc literacy packages in Haiti. There was just one element that he wanted to work out: Determining what to do with the graduate college admissions provides that had begun to return in. He started to ask round about deferring his admission for a 12 months with stunning outcomes.

“The entire different grad colleges that I requested about deferring [said “No”, but] Stanford really actually bent over backwards to assist me defer. They don’t have a correct deferral, however they [found a way] and actually hooked me up.”

— Andrew

Whereas Stanford’s graduate college supply was being labored out, he dove into the world of Haiti’s Inveneo which was stuffed with ups and downs. Andrew humbly summarizes his feelings with “Fixing the world is admittedly arduous. I had good days the place I felt like ‘I’m actually making an influence’ and I had dangerous days the place I felt like ‘My work is doing nothing right here. It is a powerful problem.’” When he ultimately returned to america for his Grasp’s at Stanford, he determined to focus extra on the engineering abilities that he had not had the time to deal with whereas working on the nonprofit. In his engineering lessons once more, he felt like he was lacking one thing, not accessing part of himself that he actually needed to.

“… I ended up doing a bunch of design lessons. And [specifically the] enterprise administration for engineers class, that final one was an enormous eye opener for me. As a result of I spotted we have been doing case research, and analyzing enterprise methods [and more]. I actually loved that materials.”

— Andrew

Andrew did so properly within the class that the professor strong-armed him into TA’ing it the next 12 months. Interested by how he might mix his love for enterprise administration together with his engineering experience, Andrew requested this professor what careers would finest combine these two worlds. “That’s simple,” the professor defined. “You develop into a product supervisor.”

So, as Andrew started his profession, he sought out experiences to work with or develop into a product supervisor. After engaged on a number of essential {hardware} engineering groups, he was capable of efficiently make the bounce and has held the title of product supervisor (in some kind) at a number of Silicon Valley hardware-focused tech firms.

He’s presently thrilled to be a product supervisor on the excessive progress start-up Dexterity, Inc. which develops “full-stack, end-to-end techniques for kitting, choosing, packing, counting, sorting, palletizing, and order achievement.”

“… Working at a small, high-growth startup is quite a lot of enjoyable … and I believe that robotics in Provide Chain/Logistics is large. It’s going to be even larger. … I’ve labored in a bunch of various industries at this level and that is my first expertise working in an business the place clients actually have an enormous downside they usually want you to assist them resolve it.”

— Andrew

Along with his work at Dexterity, Andrew is happy to return to his ardour for social influence. After studying and reflecting on his a number of experiences (each in business and with ICT4D), he needs “to proceed to consider tangibly [making] steps in direction of social influence and making the world a greater place. I’m undecided what that appears like but, however I’m excited to determine that out.”

Andrew’s challenges

Discovering Andrew’s inside “product supervisor” may need been accelerated if he had been extra receptive to the thought earlier on. He recollects colleagues teasing him whereas on the College of Maryland with “Oh, you’re simply gonna be a enterprise supervisor sooner or later.” The tradition of valuing technical experience above all else inspired folks like him to reject the thought of changing into a enterprise supervisor or chief. It’s an issue that also exists at present and that Andrew wish to counter:

“I believe what I’d’ve internalized earlier is that there are quite a lot of methods to contribute in technical areas/technical disciplines [like robotics]. For instance, it’s important to grasp the issue that you simply’re making an attempt to unravel, to outline that clearly, to speak that clearly and in addition to maintain engineering efforts centered on an impactful end result.”

— Andrew

One other problem that Andrew encountered was making an attempt to get a Product Supervisor place with solely engineering expertise on his resumé. Realizing that he wanted to persuade potential recruiters of his capabilities, he:

1. Showcased his understanding of {hardware} and enterprise by way of weblog posts on his web site,
2. Mentioned related product administration occasions and concepts with others on Twitter, and
3. Moonlit as a product supervisor whereas additionally performing his present function (as a undertaking supervisor)

Be happy to take a look at his web site, the place he has authored dozens of weblog posts on subjects starting from round buffers to conducting consumer analysis to understanding the choices for {hardware} housings. Utilizing this method, Andrew efficiently showcased an understanding of product administration that gained him the eye of a number of attention-grabbing {hardware} groups.

Andrew’s phrases of knowledge

We requested Andrew to share among the intangible classes he has discovered by way of the challenges talked about above and he had many. A number of the essential ones are described beneath.

One of many classes that has served Andrew properly is the significance of self-help books. As he places it: “Lots of people have been doing this `human` factor for some time. There’s in all probability no have to reinvent the wheel.” He particularly picks up books which can be pervasive or problem his present concepts in regards to the world. Some examples of books which have beforehand landed on his studying record are:

“You’ve obtained to separate out among the nonsense, however being proactive about your private progress … is one thing that I’ve been intentional about.”

— Andrew

His plan for changing into a Product Supervisor was one of many issues that he had been intentional about and he established a technique that was capable of get him into the profession of his alternative!

Andrew additionally advises in opposition to pressuring your self to all the time be in a rush, whether or not or not it’s in robotics or in life.

“One of many issues that’s stunned me in hindsight is that there’s quite a lot of time. There’s no large rush. It appears like if in case you have turned twenty-six and haven’t made a sure influence, then [there’s a problem.] However wanting again, I see that I’ve labored throughout a bunch of various industries from Educational Analysis to Client Tech. A few totally different flavors of business stuff. And I’ve had a minimum of three or 4 totally different job features totally. There actually doesn’t have to be a rush.”

— Andrew

Extra from Andrew

To see extra from Andrew, please be happy to go to his web site.

Additionally, Dexterity is rising and would possibly want a Black roboticist such as you! Attain out to Andrew on our Slack (or by way of his contact information above) should you’re excited by a job there!

Acknowledgements

Drafts of this text have been corrected and improved by Andrew Dupree, Nosa Edoimioya, and Nailah Seale. All present errors are the fault of Kwesi Rutledge. Please attain out to him should you spot any!