Past Travel Grant Recipients
Anushka Shahdadpuri
- Master’s student
- 2023 J-WAFS Travel Grantee
- Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Anushka Shahdadpuri is currently pursuing a master's degree in City Planning in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She is the founder of Aamchi, a community-led organization in India dedicated to addressing Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) issues in informal settlements. Aamchi employs a dual approach with both IoT-enabled rainwater harvesting technology, as well as waterless technology based on hydrothermal carbonization. Her contributions through Aamchi have earned her the MIT PKG Ideas Social Innovation Award (2023), the Sandbox Innovation Grant at MIT (2022-23), and the UN Youth Innovation Award (2021). Notably, she was recently honored with the Meta The World Around Young Climate Prize's "25 Under 25.”
Anushka's work has been featured in exhibitions, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Copenhagen Film Festival in Copenhagen, and the For Cities Exhibition in Tokyo and Kyoto.
With a background in design and community architecture, Anushka has collaborated with various interdisciplinary art and education organizations in Delhi and Mumbai, focusing on affordable housing, grassroots advocacy, public policy, and community development.