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y t n ! t u Ple o b A k l a T to
People Languages
BY TIM SLAVIN
Allison Grey is a mechanical engineer who works at Plenty, a company in San Francisco, California that builds technology for vertical farming. Their technology grows food indoors instead of out in open fields.
We recently had an opportunity to chat with her about what she does, and what inspires her work. beanz: In what ways do you find technology to be magical for you? Allie: I find technology to be magical because it allows us to change the way humans have always done things and create things that have never existed before. The thing that interests me most about technology is the ways it can be used to help people,
improve their lives, and solve problems. Before college and during my first year or two I thought I would go into the medical robotics field, with the goal of helping people. I still find that field to be fascinating, but over time I realized there are countless ways technology helps people outside the medical space. Tasers save lives when used instead of guns, so working at Axon is what changed my perspective. Then I found Plenty. I feel our work does help people and the planet and will continue to do so at an increasing scale as we grow. The challenging part of technology is that it is constantly changing and improving, which could feel overwhelming, but that is what makes it fun and exciting! beanz: What kinds of problems do you try to solve at Plenty? Allie: Plenty is on a mission to change the way people eat, making extraordinary flavor and nutrition more available in a way that's better for people and the planet.
Agriculture has been the same for thousands of years, but we are revolutionizing it. We're bringing the farm indoors, making it vertical, and using technology for all stages from seeding to growing to harvesting to packaging. Additionally, the produce is always pesticide-free and grown using less than 1% of the land and 5% of the water of outdoor farming. One of the problems I work on specifically is designing machinery that is robust, capable of handling large quantities of produce, and is food safe and easily cleanable to reduce the risk of bacteria growing indoors. I use paper and pencil to do initial ideation, and then I design the robot on the computer using SolidWorks for Computer-Aided Design (CAD). I work with a crossfunctional team of mechanical design engineers, control engineers, project managers, and machinists to solve problems and create solutions. beanz: How much did school help you with what you’re doing? Allie: I learned the mechanical engineering and robotics skills necessary to have a strong foundation. I learned hands-on skills like prototyping and CAD and precision machining. I learned how to work hard, think creatively, and take on large projects and execute
