Maya Shroff is part of the MDevEng Class of 2026.

What brought you to Berkeley’s MDevEng program?

Coming from undergrad doing a mechanical engineering degree, I feel like we were taught a lot about the many, different ways to build things. But I feel like once graduating, it was like, OK, now I know how to build, but who am I building for? Why am I building it?Is it actually going to be helpful? I was feeling like I needed to develop that space a bit more. And then I saw the Development Engineering program and I was like, Wow, this is cool. I’m very interested in agriculture and technology and merging the two in a very sustainable way. And for that also, you need a lot of understanding for how to actually make things for people.

What DevEng projects are you working on right now?

Big data and development: Me and our team, including Alejandro Rodriguez and Longyu Gong in the MDevEng program, we’re trying to build a platform to help support agroecological farmers in Latin America. I’m excited to see how that will turn out. And then in critical systems, I’m looking at the history of land tenure in California for agriculture and diving into that and seeing all the different factors that are influencing why it’s hard for farmers to get land and keep their land.

When you’re not pursuing social impact, what are your hobbies?

I’ve been really enjoying exploring Berkeley’s nature; all the hiking paths around here have been very nice. Walking through Berkeley Bowl and just seeing the grocery options. And then some pottery — that’s fun.