Handily
Microsoft ® Kinect-Powered Vocational Training and Assessment for Technicians
Vocational training done right!
HARSHAL JAWALE
Musician, poet, videographer, yoga practitioner, sound engineer, traveler, hiker, nature lover and resident techie, Harshal brings an incredibly multifaceted persona to the Handily team. Harshal has worked in IT departments of some of the worlds largest companies for over a decade. From Japan to Silicon Valley to India, his passport is chockablock full of stamps from exotic locations that Harshal has worked and played in. His latest stop - Ladakh!
Harshal loves the idea of a company that enables a green-collar worker to make a living. That's why he's decided to invest his extensive experience and talents in Handily. Harshal has last worked as the manager for Cisco.com. He holds a BS and an MBA from Pune University, India, Film & Television credentials from Ohlone College in Silicon Valley and a PMP certification, and a diploma in finance (*WHEW*).
VIPUL S REDEY
Vipul comes from a family of educators and always pictured himself teaching too. Fate would have it otherwise and took him on a scenic drive through engineering school at the University of Pune, India, past an MBA at the Ivey Business School in Canada and the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines, and a 11-year stint as a Product Manager in Cisco's hardware, software and services groups. Along the way, he managed billion-dollar core products, wrote ads for dog food, and participated wholeheartedly in the dotcom bust. The dual education and entrepreneurial bugs re-bit him, taking him to Stanford's Learning, Design & Technology program, and ultimately to a partnership with buddies Harshal and Aneeqa to found Handily.
When he isn't stress-testing Netflix or gorging himself on exotic cuisines, he accompanies his outdoorsy wife, Sumita, on hikes, biking trips and for a swim.
Vipul's portfolio can be found here:
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ANEEQA ISHAQ
Aneeqa is an electrical engineer by training, but a usability design aficionado by preference. After completing a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from NUST, Pakistan, she is almost done with a Masters degree in Learning, Design & Technology from the Stanford University School of Education, where Handily is her graduate project.
Aneeqa's enormous IQ is evident from the number of scholarships she's won. These have taken her everywhere from Bangkok to Geneva. When she isn't getting straight As and busting the grade curve, Aneeqa loves to travel and explore our world.
Aneeqa's portfolio can be found here:
http://aneeqaishaq.wix.com/portfolio
THE STORY SO FAR...
It all started off when Harshal and Vipul, long-time buddies, decided a while back that they wanted to do something entrepreneurial together. They'd known each other for the greater part of the last decade and has worked together on several projects at a non-profit organization. Harshal and Vipul were both passionate about education and brainstormed their way through several ideas from web comics that teach kids soft skills to fabrication labs for schools. That was when they serendipitously hit upon the idea of green-collar vocational training using the Microsoft Kinect. Vipul had ample experience in professional IT education at Cisco, and Harshal was amply capable of architecting the concept.
Enter Aneeqa Ishaq, a brilliant usability designer who was also Vipul's classmate at Stanford. Together, they validated the concept with several leading academics at Stanford University's education and environmental engineering schools. They also underwent first-hand real-life user empathy exercises while installing solar panels on peoples roofs and studying wind turbines.
Adding a major shot in the arm, Persistent Systems Limited, a leader in outsourced software product development is excited about the concept and has become an extension to the Handily engineering effort. A team of experienced Kinect gesture technology engineers from Persistent Sytems are participating in prototyping Handily.
It's a modest start so far for a idea that every one of us believes has a not-so-modest future. ​
AMOL BAWANTHADE
Amol may be an electrical engineer, but what he excels at (and is passionate about most) are multimedia and animation. Having watched Amol churn out graphic elements for Handily at a furious pace, we're convinced that the superhero animation in his show reel was no special effect - Amol has super-powers beyond those owned by any mere mortal graphics professional we know!
Amol's show reel can be found here.