Trio of Tulane students named University Innovation Fellows

Three Tulane University students are among 66 students nationwide who have been named University Innovation Fellows by the National Center for Engineering Pathways at Stanford University.

The students are Kim Ma, a first-year student studying business and finance; Thien Ninh, a junior studying neuroscience and economics; and Maria Garcia Quesada, a junior studying public health and neuroscience. See a video that the three Tulane students put together here.

The University Innovation Fellows are student leaders working to engage students with entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, design thinking and venture creation on their campuses. The program is part of national movement to help students compete in the economy of the future.

The three students join Derek Dashti of Tulane, who was named a University Innovation Fellow last year.

“It is no longer enough for engineering students to graduate with a purely technical education,” says Stanford professor Tom Byers, director of Epicenter, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and directed by Stanford and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance.

“Whether they start their own companies or join established organizations, engineers need to have an entrepreneurial mindset to identify and seize opportunities, bring their ideas to life and solve global problems.”

Over the years, fellows have founded entrepreneurship clubs and organizations, worked with faculty to create courses, hosted events and workshops and created student design spaces.

“The experience has been extremely rewarding,” says Ma. “And I want to help Tulane students from all disciplines acquire an innovative, entrepreneurial mindset with various creative tools.”

Ninh agrees. “We aspire to motivate our peers, across all disciplines, to engage in innovation and to not be intimidated to tackle the most dire problems that face the world today."