William Henry Felinski is an inventor, designer, and artist born and raised in Philadelphia, PA where he currently lives. Felinski was exposed to science, art, and design at a young age leading him into biotechnology. He fondly remembers attending research lectures at UPenn’s LRSM with his father who was a chemist and school district teacher all the way until graduating high school from Science Leadership Academy in 2012.
MyGrow™ Design was born from Felinski’s passionate graduate school research thesis to construct a zero petroleum based consumer good that tackles single usage environmentally hazardous product life cycles while keeping rooted in his two passions: biking and biomaterials. Having worked with shape memory alloy materials and mycelium before entering the University of the Arts in 2017, Felinski concentrated his studies in biofabrication, design strategy, and sustainable material applications as the Presidential Fellow at the University of the Arts. In May 2019, he earned his Master of Design (MDes) in Product Design.
Felinski's thesis “Design for Biofabrication: Innovative Manufacturing for Product Design” proposes how biological mechanisms might replace existing manufacturing and fabrication techniques as demonstrated by developing a compostable bicycle helmet (MyGrow™ Helmet) entirely grown from fungi instead of an assembly method dependent on petroleum.
He was awarded a departmental fellowship within the graduate product design program for the duration of May 2019 – May 2020 to further develop MyGrow™ Design. In summer 2020, Felinski grew MyGrow™ Design’s team from two to six and was accepted into the 2020 Pennovation Accelerator to join nine other startup companies that were selected out of 70 total applications across diverse industries during COVID-19.
Additional studies include time in Los Angeles, California at SCI–Arc studying architecture; Amsterdam, The Netherlands on exchange for international arts administration strategic development during Holland Festival; and programs at the University of Pennsylvania in materials science, mathematics, and entrepreneurship at LRSM, LPS, and Wharton School respectively. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Studio Art + Arts Administration from Goucher College where he minored in Business Management.
