Riya Mehta

Riya Mehta

Canada

Hey! I’m Riya, a 17 year old innovator ans researcher at The Hospital for Sick Children. At 16, I became a student researcher at SickKids. joined the Heart Research Centre department which allowed me to look into artificial heart tissue and 3D technologies for heart scans. In terms of admin work, I spent time doing research tasks & working through the database/updating research reports. I joined the program at 16 when I realized I wanted to expand my knowledge about medicine. Much of my time was allocated to research seminars I attended being in the research institute in departments such as microbiology, stem cells, AI & genomics. I realized that I wanted to pursue a career that could leverage the potential of thousands of doctors and researchers to help the world. I conducted a research project that used AR to develop live Cardiac models of the heart using just an anatomy textbook for guidance, as a method to track a disease. You can see this project here https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WJQITivhv2IAbgzXR9E9W2K2nDXOW0tb7F9_uowPuvA/edit#slide=id.g690248ae63458f9c_0.
The Knowledge Society (https://tks.world/) is an accelerator program that gives ambitious students that want to change the world an opportunity to learn about emerging technology/the world’s biggest problems through mentorship & consulting. I joined TKS at 16 and entered my first year “Innovate” where I had weekly sessions learning about technologies and then developing solutions to solve problems using them. The program exposed me to opportunities such as speaking at large conferences & receiving mentorship at world class companies. I got to participate in consulting challenges, where I consulted for numerous companies; Sidewalk Labs (Google’s spinoff company) and Oxford Properties (one of the world’s largest real estate companies). During my second year “Activate”, I am learning about startup building, while solving the world’s biggest problems. My portfolio can be viewed here with my past speaking opportunities and media: https://tks.life/profile/riya.mehta#about.
Through the Knowledge Society I got exposed to startup building and together with my co-founder, we launched a company called Futureshot Factory (https://futureshotfactory.com/) where we consult and partner with companies such as IBM, UN Women in USA, Girl Up, FLIK, TED-ED and more, to develop projects solving the Sustainable Development Goals. That can be shown through workshops, conferences/webinars, assisting in research or starting campaigns to raise awareness about gender equality, climate change and education more specifically. At Futureshot Factory, we’re passionate about turning moonshots into earthshots. We believe that humanity needs to set more moonshot goals in order to force innovation and collaboration. Futureshot is a place for moonshot thinkers, guided by youth. We currently have 3 interns with us who we mentor and have weekly sessions with that assist us in our project development. Our future goals include investing in youth to develop projects around the SDG’s, acting as an incubator for new ideas.

Building my own personal brand allowed me to speak at massive conferences around the world, on my journey in STEM, to digital health & entrepreneurship. Some of my most notable presentations have been at Evoke (IBM’s largest development conference), Collision (the largest technology conference in the world), YOUNGA (The United Nations for Youth), SXSW (one of the world’s largest tech festivals-https://schedule.sxsw.com/2020/speakers/2022353)
& EYQ. Speaking at these conferences made me realize I can show impact through sharing my story. I’ve been intentional about spreading a message that you can do anything at any age, if you work for what you want to achieve. The moment after doing a talk, when young kids come up to me and say “you’ve changed my life”, is the reason why I enforce the importance of diversity in business. I have always wanted other people to look at me as someone who could help them be a better person. To confidently say that I have, is a true blessing.