Building a better indoor herb garden

Randall Briggs '09, SM '18 created the GardenByte indoor herb garden to grow crops three times faster than they would do outdoors. Randall Briggs '09, SM '18 didn't set out to build indoor gardens when he arrived at MIT. The winner of the 2010 2.007 robot competition class, he was excited to work on designing fighter planes one day. But in 2016, halfway through his studies for his master's degree in mechanical engineering, Briggs's father passed away unexpectedly. "It was a big blow to me. My motivation took a big hit, so it was hard for me to keep working on my research," Briggs shares. Briggs ordered a home hydroponic garden in the hopes that growing herbs inside his apartment could bring him some positivity.