Public Inventor Deneille Guiseppi is a software developer working on the Global Open Source Quality Assurance (GOSQAS) website, a project headed by Invention Coaches Victoria Jaqua, Christina Cole, Robert Read, and Vincent Erdos. The GOSQAS system allows procurers of medical devices to record the received state of their devices before shipping them to the next user or shipper. This allows one to track the device and its quality globally without authentication, assuring to the end-user that it is authentic and of high quality. As a key part of the GOSQAS project’s development team, Guiseppi shared her unique background, what brought her to Public Invention, and the importance of creativity while working on this project.
Inventor Highlight: Deneille Guiseppi
Guiseppi began her journey at McGill University in Montreal, where she originally studied mathematics and theater for her undergraduate degree. However, she switched to computer science due to its focus on solving real-world problems, and its ability to make an impact on users.
“[During] my second year I went straight into my major, and I really wanted to do math. I [have] loved math since high school. Then, I did one computer science course and met my best friend, and I was like, I missed this. I missed that there’s math in it, and there’s the ability to solve a problem,” Guiseppi said. “I wanted to do something where I’m solving a problem, and I’m doing physical applications of it, so that [I can] feel like I’m making some impact.”
Guiseppi graduated in 2021 and, with the support of organizations like Rewriting the Code, was hired as a software developer for several startups. While she enjoys the high-speed environment and the emphasis on continuing to learn that the startup world provides, it often left Guiseppi wanting more time to spend on developing new software. When she found Melanie Laporte’s Public Invention posting about the GOSQAS project, it was just what Guiseppi needed. She reached out to her for more information, and was quickly onboarded to the project.
“I [told] Melanie, I’m really interested in applying for this, but I hadn’t been doing a lot of coding and I felt like I lacked some skills. I’d mostly been doing QA [quality assurance] stuff,” Guiseppi remembered. “[But] I did the interview with Victoria and Robert. I met them early in March, I believe. Then they reached out to me and said they would like me to join, and I joined them mid-March.”
The Open-Source Spirit in Practice: The GOSQAS Team
“No one has an ego. We’re building towards something, and everyone’s so excited about what we’re building.” – Deneille Guiseppi
Open Mentorship
The GOSQAS team was unlike the previous teams with which Guiseppi had worked. While it included the high energy and collaborative environment of startups, it also had a unique mentoring and community aspect that Guiseppi came to value.
“I really like how accessible everyone is, Robert and Victoria, and Vincent as well. [In his] office hours we just program with Vincent or talk through an issue, which is really helpful. There’s others who join in, and we ask questions back and forth, which is really good, too.” Guiseppi said, “No one has an ego. We’re building towards something, and everyone’s so excited about what we’re building.”
Innovative Creativity
Guiseppi also found that her creativity, a quality that she values as an artist, theater director, and game developer, thrived in the creative problem-solving environment that the GOSQAS team provides.
“A lot of the time, we have to get creative with things. We’re building something that’s new,” Guiseppi said. “That’s where you’re like, ‘Okay, how can I use this? Yes, I have this technical background, but how can I create this?’ [There is] a creative way to do it. ‘How do I link the back end and the front end together?’ There’s creativity in that.”
Constant Collaboration
This creativity also flourished with open source’s emphasis on collaboration, mentorship, and teamwork. In the GOSQAS team, this often takes the form of constant collaboration between inventors brought together by a shared mission. However, as a whole, Guiseppi emphasized that the open-source movement supports greater levels of innovation through its prompting of wider participation on any given project.
“More heads are better than one or three or ten. [In] open source, you get that. You get more people and their eyes on it,” Guiseppi said. “They’re able to contribute, just even by messaging…and I really like that. I like that collaborative sense, and there’s more creation to be had.”
GOSQAS in Action
With the help of volunteers like Guiseppi, the GOSQAS project has already been used in places like Ukraine and Sudan, where tourniquets are currently tracked for quality assurance. The team is also working on a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and a manufacturing side of the project called Distributed Medical Device Manufacturing (DMDM). Thus, the GOSQAS team continues to collaborate and use their creativity on additional projects which make a real difference for people across the world. Armed with their innovative creativity and collaborative mentors, GOSQAS continues to grow and develop more tools that support the safe distribution of medical devices to areas that need them the most.