Going the Extra Mile—8,300 Miles, to Be Exact

Fresh from a whirlwind trip to Ho Chi Minh City, we returned with new partnerships, solved problems, and a glimpse into the future of student-led innovation at LJCDS.

At the center of this journey is Matthew DuBois ’26, whose blend of entrepreneurship, curiosity, and work ethic continues to raise the bar for what a student project can become. Many in our community saw Sunflower at the Holiday Market—a mobile, user-friendly, indoor air-quality sensor that uses AI to turn raw data into clear, actionable insights. He discovered that most indoor air quality sensors feel overly scientific, with under-designed interfaces that offer little context for the sensor readings. He was determined to build a device you’d be happy to leave out in your living room, office, or child’s bedroom—and compact enough to take with you on the go.

After receiving early support from the Torrey Explorers Fund (TEF) and the Reifschneider Endowed Award, Matthew built a functioning product over the summer. In addition to his skills from Design & Innovation classes, he leveraged modern tools like ChatGPT and YouTube to teach himself everything he needed to build a functioning, advanced electronics product.

Matthew launched a Friends & Family funding round, during which LJCDS community members chose to invest in both his idea and his growth. Their investment came not only as financial backing but as mentorship: industry wisdom, encouragement, and a note that visiting a factory is standard practice in professional hardware development. 

Bringing that product into production became the impetus for an 8,300-mile trip to Vietnam for Matthew, Head of School Dr. Jeff Terwin, and me (Director of D&I Dan Lenzen). The LJCDS ethos of going the extra mile extended across campus to make the trip happen: the departments of Global Education, Design & Innovation, and Operations joined forces to figure out how to get us to Vietnam before the new year. 

Matthew’s device proved its value during our travels, as I carried it with us everywhere we went. We watched: CO₂ rise to dangerous levels during the hour-long taxi ride to the factory, VOCs spike when flight attendants used cleaning solutions in the nearby airplane restroom, and humidity levels shift dramatically as we moved from the dry aircraft cabin into the vibrant air of Ho Chi Minh City. Each reading offered another reminder that Matthew’s vision has real impact—and real potential.

As we toured the factory, we evaluated the manufacturer’s alignment with LJCDS values. Cicor, an international electronics manufacturing company with a facility in Vietnam, was chosen as a natural partner to bring Sunflower to life at scale. They are a Swiss-owned company focused on full-service manufacturing, allowing them to create and assemble the housing, electronics and packaging that Matthew designed himself. We checked whether they were promoting workforce well-being, keeping sustainability at the forefront, and holding themselves to high performance standards. They average 64% of their energy consumption from rooftop solar panels at the factory, a statistic we saw updated live on screens there. This first-class company met all of our metrics, including a strong recommendation from LJCDS Parent Andrew (Anh) Tran.

Matthew recalls when this hit home for him, “Cicor plants a tree at the factory for every new company they work with as a symbol of partnership and environmental responsibility. One of the trees was enormous because they’ve been working together for 30 years. When you think of a factory, you imagine smoke stacks and steam rising into the air. You never think of the trees. And so here was this beautiful moment when they showed us the garden, and to them, it is how they feel about their partnerships. I thought that was incredible. It made me think we’re working with the right people.”


From rerouting a misplaced shipment that ended up in San Diego to refining intricate electronic placements on the printed circuit board, every hour at the factory underscored the value of hands-on, real-world learning. The trip made it clear that many of these challenges would have been nearly impossible to solve without being there in person with the Cicor-Vietnam team. As a member of the Manufacturing Engineering team said, “It’s so hard to show online. Thankfully, you could come visit!”

Matthew agreed, sharing, “There’s something about the face-to-face collaboration on this trip. We got more done sitting in the conference room for an hour than we had in all the hours of talking on the phone and in emails.”

Building these connections enhances what students will do in future years. We have a trusted manufacturer for injection molding, electronics, and packaging—key components in most of the products our students develop. As Matthew takes his product to Eureka Park at CES, the world’s largest technology conference for emerging startups, he continues to blaze a trail for future LJCDS students to follow. 

Head of School Jeff Terwin, Ph.D., views this kind of support as central to his role. “I see one of my primary and most important responsibilities as identifying ways I can support and remove hurdles from student aspirations,” he says. “I want each of them to know that their work matters and that we want them to think big.” 

While the trip required navigating logistical challenges, Dr. Terwin was quick to support the opportunity, recognizing that the experience would not only help Matthew but would also provide a chance to build a relationship with a partner school in Vietnam and to deepen his understanding of the production side of innovation.

For the rest of the year, in addition to Sunflower, Matthew is mentoring two 10th graders on a new project they just debuted at the TEF pitch event. The teamwork started last year in the Innovation Lab when Anthony Casey ’28 and AJ Hamson ’28 needed a project to fill their time. Matthew volunteered the three of them to lead the development of sensors for the third-grade High Altitude Balloon project. This year, Matthew brought them onto a new wearables project and helped guide them through developing a pitch for the TEF event. Soon enough, they will be developing the project independently, working with Cicor Vietnam, and passing on their knowledge to the Torreys who are growing up behind them.

This kind of intensive, cross-grade collaboration—students learning from students, building real products, and passing knowledge forward—is exactly what the HUB for Human Impact is designed to support.

And if this trip to Vietnam is any indication, students like Matthew aren’t just learning how things are made—they’re learning how to make things matter.