- August 11, 2023
Learn about Maria's internship at Sensing Local!
This summer, Maria Daniela Castillo (MCP '23) is interning at Sensing Local in Bangalore, India!
Read the below interview with Maria to learn more!
How do you get to work? How do you get around in general?
I walk to work (10 mins) and to run errands. To go out of my neighborhood, I typically take an auto. Sometimes it’s convenient to take the metro, but it doesn’t come near my place.
What is your work/internship like day-to-day?
I am working on a project called Walkable Cities. Through community engagement, participatory data collection, and data analysis, we are trying to understand what the major issues affecting walkability are with a sample of 20 neighborhoods around Bangalore. In addition to understanding the major issues and where they are present, we also analyze how much it would cost to fix them, and how the city can best prioritize actions.
Our days in the office include doing a range of data analysis in GIS and excel and pulling out major findings and turning them into actionable insights and communication materials that we can pass on to government officials directly, or to community members to bring forth to their local officials.
What is an aspect of your work that you're excited about?
The best part is that our recommendations can directly impact decision-making at the neighborhood and city level. Our team is in constant communication with community leaders, volunteers and government officials to share information and to figure out what it is that people care about changing or improving, and how our data and information can help prioritize limited resources towards the most immediate actions that also have the greatest impact.
Have you visited any new/exciting places?
I have visited Goa, Chennai - Pondicherry - Auroville, Mumbai, and locally Mysuru and Coonoor, mostly with friends. It has been great to learn more about the differences between East and West Coasts, and North and South India. Mumbai was very fun, especially because I had friends taking me around, but the rural town of Coonoor was also lovely.
I recently visited Coonoor, a nice town 9 hours away from Bangalore that has lots of tea plantations in the Nilgiri Hills. I took an overnight bus and was there for two days, drinking lots of tea with chocolate and South Indian food. The overnight sleeper bus rides were also a fun experience. But the auto rickshaw tour near the tea plantations with the mist partially covering the mountains was the best.
Have you tried any new foods you enjoyed or seen anything new?
Breakfast foods in South India are the best. There are many bread-like dishes with names I always forget, but some that I’ve enjoyed besides appam are idli, poori, dosa, vada, idiyappam, puttu, paratha. All these with potatoes (potato palya), chutneys, samba and more rice (pongal) are great. South Indian filter coffee and chai are also things I constantly look for.
