Collective endeavors
Through innovative work on several engineering projects, Remy Oktay ’24 has redefined the typical learning experience.
From the outside, it appears as if Remy Oktay ’24 is a one-person powerhouse.
After all, the engineering studies and environmental studies double major and data science minor has completed an impressive number of projects during his time at Lafayette. At the start of his education, he spent around 2,000 hours converting a school bus into a tiny home outfitted with modular cabinets, a composting toilet, and solar panels to power appliances and electronics. In 2022, he conducted what’s presumed to be the first electric plane flyover of a sporting event—at the 158th Rivalry home game versus the Mountain Hawks, no less—and installed a new kind of tree swing throughout campus to celebrate Earth Month. As the 2024 George Wharton Pepper Prize winner, Oktay has made it clear he knows how to get a project done.
But the signature of Oktay’s work is what you can’t see: Collaboration is at the heart of every endeavor. Oktay understands that he’s not working in a vacuum.
“I just really enjoy the process of taking an idea, taking that little wave, and bumping it up against other people’s little tiny waves until you make a bigger wave,” Oktay says. “And then you execute the project, and you reflect on it and eventually come up with a new idea. I really like that process of innovating, acting, and reflecting.”
Oktay knew from the outset he wanted to go to a school that combined the technical aspects of engineering with the collaborative nature of liberal arts.
“I never saw myself as a rote engineer, in the very defined use of the term,” Oktay says. “I always saw myself as someone who had an understanding of engineering and the ability to apply it to whatever problem I might be facing.” As a Creative and Performing Arts Scholar and Dyer Center Innovation Lead, he brings engineering prowess, environmentalism, and social consciousness to his work.
After graduation, he began working with the Lafayette Patent Program on the next phase of his tree swings. Oktay is planning to patent the technology and launch a company that will bring them to other campuses and green spaces across the country.
