Alex Odundo | Fiber Decortication: Mechanizing a Manual Process

Alex will share with us his process for developing cost-effective and efficient decorticating and spinning machines to mechanize sisal fiber processing and spinning that was previously being done by hand. Participants must complete the PRL safety orientation to join this workshop.

Alex Odundo is the founder of SIFA Machinery LTD. and Olex Technology Enterprises. He helped establish Lake Basin Agrotech LTD., the Kisumu Innovators Association Group, and the South Nyanza Sisal Association Forum. He has published a paper on plant-based sanitary pads with the Prakash Lab (BioEngineering), featured in the Stanford Report here, and also collaborated with the Ministry of Science and Technology, Kenya Sisal Board, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Labor, among others, in the development of agricultural and waste management tools. Alex trained in mechanical engineering production at Kisumu Polytechnic and in engineering fabrication and design at TechShop San Francisco. He was a TED Fellow in 2012. 

Sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center and made possible by support from an anonymous donor honoring the Directorship of former SHC Director John Bender, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities