Character Web showing Interaction

Lorraine Higgins and Scott Jiusto: Advisors

Scott Jiusto and Lorraine Higgins are advisors to the WPI Cape Town 2013 teams.  Professor Jiusto acts as the go-between for the IQP teams and their local Cape Town sponsors. Professor Higgins brings a Rhetoric focus to the engineering-based projects and aids in the composition of the research process. Professor Jiusto carries with him years of experience advising the Cape Town programme and is a vital source of knowledge to the project teams.

John McKerry: Liason, Blue Sky Project Leader

John McKerry is our project liaison and plays a major role in contributing to the hands-on aspect of Blue Sky Recycling. He is the one that the pickers will phone when they are ready to have their goods picked up, he goes out with his workers to collect recyclables, and sets up the truck schedule on a daily basis, to name a few of his duties.

Gershwin Kohler: Liason, Blue Sky CORC Representative

Gershwin Kohler is our other project liaison that acts as the NGO’s correspondent from CORC. He oversees all paperwork for the programme and is the basic finances bookkeeper.

Sidharth Rupani: Co-Advisor

Sid Rupani is a 2005 Worcester Polytechnic Institute graduate who works for Llamasoft, a software company located in Cape Town. He advises our team in business strategies and aids us in finding contacts to further develop our work, such as Chester from Dimagi.

Chester Kwak: Dimagi Field Manager

Chester Kwak is the Field Manager of Dimagi who travels the world in order to promote CommSell and the other applications created within Dimagi’s programmes. He worked with our team to create an application that digitizes much of Blue Sky’s itemizing process.

David Pratt: Anchor Correspondent

David Pratt is the National Sales Manager of Anchor Industries, the company we settled on purchasing the hoist from. He worked with our team to provide us with engineering drawings, quotes, and general information about the hoist for Blue Sky’s trucks and facility.

Pickers: Blue Sky’s livelihood

The pickers come from all over South Africa and collect recycled materials in order to sell to Blue Sky. Pickers cover a wide range of demographics: men and women, young and old, Xhosa speakers and Afrikaans speakers and Zulu speakers.  Without their goods, Blue Sky would not be able to maintain their business or support approximately 1500 families across Cape Town.Blue sky seeks to promote picker welfare through fair pricing efforts, that add value to the picker’s materials.