Dr. Shafali and Andy co-founded Uuvipak with the mission to eradicate single-use plastics. As a fusion of science and technology, we are passionate about making the world a cleaner, more sustainable, and more pleasant place to live.
During our search for a riding partner in 2021, we met through a mutual friend and instantly our values and passion for building something impactful brought us to where we are today.
Andy has completed a double degree in Software Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and Tongji University (Shanghai, China) and worked as a software developer for many years.
He became passionate about User Experience and Design and, after completing his masters in Interaction Design at the University of Queensland, had the opportunity to work with a startup on a few Australian Government projects that have had lots of reach.
In 2021, after over 10 years in the IT space, he decided to take a career leap and started looking at AgTech and FoodTech as a way into building products that can have an impact on our planet.
Dr. Shafali has over ten years of experience as a researcher. Upon completing her studies at St. Xavier’s College Mumbai, India, she got a Junior Research Scholarship at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (a premier research institute of India) for her research as a biochemist.
In 2015 she was awarded a scholarship to pursue her Doctoral research (Ph.D.) in Cell Biology at the University of Queensland, where she explored the topic of ‘Upregulation of RhoA signalling during Collective Cell Migration’, under the supervision of professor Alpha Yap, a world-renowned cell biologist. She has also worked in collaborations with many disciplines throughout her career such as Immunology, Microbiology, Oncology, Biophysics, Chemistry and Biochemistry.
She has authored leading and/or main author articles in international journals and scientific conferences. She completed her Ph.D. in 2019 and was hired as a postdoctoral research scientist at the IMB Institute at UQ.
During her academic research as Doctoral and Post-Doctoral research fellow, she discovered a passion for the environment and decided to start her own venture with the mission to create products that have a real and positive impact on the environment.
Join us on our mission to replace 2 billion pieces of single-use plastics by 2025! Drop us a note and we will be in touch as soon as possible.