“I believe sustainability can be the standard way of working and designing,” said Cochran. “Each one of us has the opportunity to create and be a part of the new industrial revolution. We can make the word ‘sustainability’ a reality.”

Samuel Cochran was born into a family who lived close to the earth. Sam's parents passed on the importance of designing for the greater good on to him. He joined Green Peace while in elementary school and every science fair project he created had to do with the environment and man's relationship to it, from erosion to recycling. Through his time at high school he focused his studies in applied physics and art, eventually leading him to the field of industrial design.

Samuel received his Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute in 2005. Sam's senior thesis project at Pratt was GROW, a hybrid solar and wind device that took on the bio-mimic form of ivy. GROW attaches to the side of buildings to turn the sun’s light into solar energy and electricity. The wind energy is captured through piezoelectric devices that generate wind power from the fluttering of the solar leaves. Collapsible, portable, and beautiful, Grow won immediate praise from architects and designers when it was displayed at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York City in May 2005. It was featured in “Design and the Elastic Mind,” an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from February 24 through May 12, 2008, with the sponsorship of the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. It was also featured on various blogs and in Icon Magazine and Azure Magazine from the ICFF exposure.

Cochran’s start-up company, SMIT (Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology) began as a sustainable business plan proposed in his sister Teresita’s master’s thesis project in New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, from which she received her degree in 2005. Formed in the spring of 2005, SMIT is a sustainability-minded design company whose first goal was to bring GROW from concept to reality. SMIT moved into Pratt’s Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation. “The incubator network has been a huge advantage,” said Cochran, “from connecting me with the right people, to solving legal issues and finding investors.” SMIT already has a patent pending on the combination of photovoltaics (solar panels) and piezoelectric devices.

Sam was a designer on The Dumpster Shed project for the Mayor's office of NYC from 2005-2006, and is currently doing pro bono work as design director on the Lab on a Chip project in conjunction with Columbia University and Smart Design.

Sam has also taught Drawing for Industrial Designers at Pratt Institute from 2006-2007.