Where Tomorrow’s Innovators Will Come From
By Lisa Bodell for ForbesWomenAs a CEO and futurist in the innovation space for several decades, I constantly encounter predictions about the future. These come from experts, authors and academics who are armed with data points and connections to support their hypotheses. But the most promising prediction I’ve come across? It’s who will solve the world’s biggest problems.Very likely, it’ll be the talented teenagers at The Knowledge Society (TKS). Earlier this month, the World Economic Forum listed TKS as a global leader in educational innovation and creativity. The mission of this Canada-based human accelerator is to build the leaders and innovators of tomorrow, and its results are enviable: Since its creation in 2016, TKS students have founded such start-ups as Synex Medical, SmartCane and WaypointAR; they’ve spoken at global conferences like Web Summit, SXSW and C2 HBCU; and they’ve been offered Microsoft and IBM internships at just 14 years old.TKS has already trained more than 500 kids in such areas as artificial intelligence, regenerative medicine and quantum computing. Through project-based learning and real-world skill-building — along with collaboration and guidance from world-class mentors — TKS is training 13- to 17-year-olds to innovate and solve the world’s biggest problems.The organization is the brainchild of brothers Navid and Nadeem Nathoo, who were inspired to create the program they wish had existed when they were young.