UW CSE alum and soon-to-be faculty member Kurtis Heimerl (UW CSE B.S. ’07, UC Berkeley Ph.D. ’13) co-founded startup company Endaga to help under-served communities in remote areas of the world to build small-scale, independent cellular networks that they own and run themselves. The company – which was spun out of UC Berkeley, where Kurtis completed his Master’s, Ph.D. and postdoc working with another UW CSE alum, Tapan Parikh (Ph.D., ’07) – epitomizes the potential for technology to meaningfully improve quality of life around the globe.
Now, thanks to Facebook, Kurtis and the Endaga team are starting a new chapter as they work to improve connectivity for people everywhere.
While this means that we have to wait a little longer for his official homecoming, we are excited to see what comes out of this new partnership. We are also delighted to report that Kurtis intends to spend a couple of days a month at UW CSE engaging with our faculty and students between now and when he takes up his faculty position next September.
Read more about the new partnership on the Endaga blog here.
Congratulations to Kurtis and his colleagues – we will enjoy watching their progress and look forward to the day Kurtis brings his considerable talents full-time to UW CSE!