Anesta Kothari is a recent graduate of the Masters in Design Engineering program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), where she pursued ideas and prototypes around health and wellness. She is curious about the science behind food, healthcare, buildings, and behind our everyday products, where design and engineering merge and have a larger and more global impact.
During her first year at Harvard, she has worked on various projects related to health and well-being - healthcare data analysis, product design, sensory experience design, and health data management platform. Her current thesis project has led her beyond her architectural background and into the field of biotech engineering. Her thesis project, Smart Toilet Paper, a simple, paper-based device that can quantify specific elements of the gut microbiome from fecal samples, was recently awarded as the “Outstanding Design Engineering Project.”
Previously, she has received her Bachelor of Architecture from California College of the Arts, where she graduated with high distinction and was awarded the Henry Adams School Medal. She was also a recipient of the AIA SF Unbuilt Merit Award for one of her academic projects. Throughout her experience, she has worked with both conceptual and built projects, as well as exhibitions in both academic and professional settings.
She constantly looks for challenges through multiple design competitions in her evenings and she spends her weekends on the ice, where she enjoys coaching figure skating to both kids and adults.
CV available upon request.