Consulting for Microsoft, Going on an Expedition, and MUN: My March
Hi there! My name is Rhea Mehra, and I’m a 15-year-old innovator and space enthusiast changemaker based in Dubai. I’m tirelessly working on understanding how we can use microalgae and cyanobacteria to support life on Mars so I can make us a multi-planetary species! I’m going to change the world, so here’s a sneak peek into what I’m doing now.
Highlights of this Month
Consulting for Microsoft
Completing the Expedition for the Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award
Attending my first Model United Nations + meeting Ban Ki-moon
Consulting for Microsoft 📑
As an innovator in TKS, an accelerator aimed at exposing teenagers to emerging technologies and mindsets, I had the opportunity to participate in a challenge working alongside Microsoft!
During this spring challenge, my team and I tackled the prompt: “As AI continues to grow and requires additional data centers, chip manufacturing, and energy usage – how can we sustainably continue the accelerated AI growth while saving our planet and optimizing costs?”
After weeks of research, constantly stress-testing every solution, and killing multiple developed ideas, we created our detailed recommendation deck around implementing modular data centers (MDCs) instead of large traditional data centers.
Long story short, traditional data centers are very large and expensive, therefore reducing scalability and hindering Microsoft’s aims to expand into growth regions and increase the number of data centers they have.
However, using MDC means that equivalent computing power to a traditional data center can be deployed 62.5% faster and save 18% on Initial Costs.
Moreover, if Microsoft intends to build 50 to 100 data centers each year, as they have indicated, implementing MDCs that become operational 15 months earlier could generate an extra $8 billion for the company within this timeframe.
This strategy also offers several further advantages: it’s adaptable to evolving technologies and changing demands, energy-efficient, sustainable, portable, scalable, and easily upgradeable.
For more details, be sure to check out the deck below!
I had a fantastic time working for hours on end with my amazing team Narin Yüksek, Mark Leupold, and Arnav Khanna. I couldn’t ask for a better team to make this not only a successful challenge but also a shockingly fun experience.
Throughout this challenge, I learned a lot of helpful tips and strategies to ensure great success when creating recommendation decks, and they can help you out, too.
How to Create Good Ideas and a Recommendation Deck 💻
Try to Break Your Ideas 💔
When generating and developing an idea, it’s very easy to ignore the challenging aspects that could break the solution and instead focus on tackling the easier problems and steps.
However, the best way to create a good idea is to try to break your solution, the mentality that inventors at X, The Moonshot Factory, live by.
Think about it: why would you want to spend months and months working on an idea that was doomed to fail from the beginning?
To avoid this, keep asking yourself, “How could this idea fail?” and don’t be afraid to kill idea after idea before you develop a great one. One revolutionary idea is millions of failed ones.
Prioritize Statistics and Numbers 📈
In recommendation decks, statistics and numerical data are vital to build credibility and persuasiveness.
These statistics provide tangible evidence to support proposed recommendations, offering a factual basis for decision-making.
Basically, numbers make it clear and objective rather than subjective.
When developing and pitching your solution, using numbers to compare performance and show growth is invaluable to convince decision-makers of the effectiveness of your ideas.
Take the time to do the calculations and reap the many rewards.
Make the Deck As Clear and Possible 💡
In a recommendation deck, clarity is the most important thing.
If you have a revolutionary idea but can’t explain it, the idea is worth nothing.
A rule of thumb is to look at every slide or paragraph and ask yourself, “What is the purpose of this?” Then, explain it as clearly as you can—no fluff.
Trust me, no one will be impressed by your excessive language and jargon. Use analogies, stories, clear language, numbers, and visuals to express your ideas as clearly as you can.
Read every sentence and delete it if it doesn’t add to the deck. Be honest with yourself.
Get Outside Perspectives 🤝
When you’re making a deck, it’s very easy to get in your head and lose sight of what the actual deck looks like.
Showing your deck to someone who has never heard of your subject matter removes any uncertainty and tells you if the deck makes it easy to understand the solution.
Find someone willing to give you feedback and act on the constructive criticism they give you. Don’t be shortsighted.
Duke of Edinburgh Expedition 🏕
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) is a youth development program that empowers youth to explore their potential, develop valuable skills, and foster a spirit of adventure and community service.
One key component of the DofE Silver program is completing a 3-day and 2-night outdoor adventure that challenges participants to navigate unfamiliar terrain, often in remote areas, while demonstrating teamwork, leadership, and self-reliance.
During this expedition, my wonderful team and I were responsible for carrying all our essential supplies, except water, for a three-day survival period. We cooked our meals, put up our tents nightly, dismantled them each morning, and commenced our journey promptly at 6 am.
Enduring rigorous treks of over 20 kilometers daily, often scaling mountains with heavy backpacks, we relied solely on maps and compasses to navigate the rugged terrain. Additionally, we embraced the challenges of nature, including relieving ourselves in the open wilderness.
Throughout, we also had our fair share of challenges. Through almost being disqualified, having a team member get stung by a scorpion, and enduring harsh rain in the night and day that soaked our tents and belongings, it is clear that nature was not on our side.
Despite seeming horrible at the moment, when I look back, I can only think of the positives: the entertaining yet random conversations we made to distract ourselves, the games we played while walking and resting, the beauty of seeing the sunrise against mountains, and the joy of finally seeing the ending point and having a meal.
Our tendency to focus on the negatives often blinds us to the positives that ultimately define our experiences.
Why wouldn’t we straightaway focus on the positives and ignore the negatives?
Above all, this trip taught me to always look for the bright side because no matter what, there’s always a good thing hidden in all the bad. It’s just up to us to find it.
My First Model United Nations 🌎
This month, I also had the pleasure of attending a Model United Nations (MUN) as an admin. Seeing the refreshing rooms buzzing with ideas and debates was a great way to spend my weekend.
However, the key highlight of the experience was witnessing a speech by Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations!
Throughout his speech, he urged the importance of being a global citizen and never having a closed mind when solving problems. He also highlighted the significance of teamwork and stated that the very best things happen when we hear from multiple perspectives.
This MUN was a great experience and opened my eyes to how fun debate can be. I will definitely attend more in the future.
What’s Next
This month marks the start of the Moonshot in TKS, a month-long project in which we must solve a global problem using groundbreaking technology and radical solutions. Stay tuned to see what we come up with! 🚀
I’m also working on creating a review article and video highlighting how algae can be used to support life on Mars by revitalizing the air, reusing waste, and acting as a food source. This article and video will be available very soon, so look out for it on my Medium! 🌱🌌
Thank you so much for reading until the end! If you want to keep up with me on more than a monthly basis, please reach out on my LinkedIn and X/Twitter or email me at rheagmehra@gmail.com. I’ll see you all at the end of April. Have a wonderful month! 😊
Awesome stuff!
We broke all the ideas 💔