Spotlight on a UC San Diego GAIA Competitor: Daniel’s Journey from Campus to Competition

By Sofia Patterson-Melendrez

At the heart of GAIA’s mission is empowering student engineers to tackle global sustainability challenges with innovation, collaboration, and heart. This year, we had the honor of welcoming Daniel, a driven engineering student from UC San Diego, to Cornell University for our annual GAIA Sustainability Competition. His team’s work focused on designing affordable, durable bike sensor suites in partnership with World Bicycle Relief, a nonprofit that provides bicycles to underserved communities as a tool for economic and social empowerment.

Daniel first heard about the competition through a class announcement and immediately recognized the opportunity to make an impact. What followed was a whirlwind of leadership, learning, and transformation.

“When I discovered GAIA, I didn’t just see a competition—I saw a call to action,” Daniel shared. “It pushed me to step outside of my comfort zone and build something from the ground up.”

He rallied a team of fellow UCSD students, many of whom had never participated in a national engineering competition before. Together, they formed a project team focused on creating a rugged, low-cost sensor system that could be installed on WBR’s bikes to track usage and wear-and-tear in the field. Throughout the spring, Daniel and his team dove into circuit design, energy harvesting techniques, and modular prototyping—all while coordinating across different majors, schedules, and campuses.

“Building a team from scratch wasn’t easy,” Daniel noted. “But the mentorship from GAIA and the support of my peers made all the difference. It taught me how to lead with empathy, plan with clarity, and iterate without fear.”

At the final showcase in Ithaca this past May, Daniel presented his team’s solution to a panel of judges from academia, industry, and international NGOs. Beyond the technical validation, it was the spirit of collaboration and purpose that stood out.

“Being at Cornell, meeting students from across the country, and seeing everyone’s projects—it was a surreal experience,” he said. “It reminded me that engineering isn’t just about solving problems. It’s about who you solve them for.”

Daniel’s story exemplifies the kind of changemaking GAIA aims to foster: interdisciplinary, global, and grounded in service. His work doesn’t end with the competition—he’s already exploring ways to scale the sensor suite project and recruit more UCSD students to participate in the next GAIA cycle.

“I walked away from GAIA more confident, more connected, and more committed to using my skills to serve others.”

Daniel (second from left to right) and the UCSD team at cornell university

Interested in joining the next cohort of GAIA competitors? Applications are now open! Learn more about how you can design for impact at www.gaiacompetition.com and follow us on Instagram/LinkedIn to see what our community is building next.