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A project that I'm very proud of is a school club that I started with one of my science innovations and helped me work towards reducing plastic. So I researched all about plastic water bottles, and of course, it's very destructive, it's terrible for our environment. And I had a crazy idea to create and support the consumption of edible water bottles. And to start this club, I would need to find a solution first. So I decided I was going to find a way to utilize my science lab at school to come up with a formula to create an edible water bottle. So I started doing a lot of research, and this whole process took me, like, months, but scientists were able to find a way to extract a congealing agent in seaweed and use it to create edible water bottles. And I also found a culinary technique called spherification, which could help me in the process of creating this water bottle. And so through months trying things out, I was able to mix together sodium alginate and calcium chloride to make a semi permeable, see through kind of membrane that could hold liquid. And through months of refining and creating a team, starting the club and everything, I sell these edibles, I call them at events and festivals. And it's completely biodegradable, considering it has the same components as seaweed. But it may not be the most scientifically advanced thing I've done, but I'm very proud of its impact. And, yeah, I'm very proud of this project. Thank you.

Intro Slide

You. Hey, everyone. I'm Brandon, the head of programs here at TKS. Welcome to the 2024 Application and interview. My job at TKS is to design the sessions, challenges, trainings, and workshops that allow you to level up during your year and innovate. I'm an engineer and problem solver at Heart. I've worked for companies like SpaceX and Raytheon. I've also worked for startups like Bowery, which is an agtech unicorn focused on robotic indoor vertical farming. At TKS, I'm designing programs that allow you to plug into world changing research and ideas. This is the application and interview, so you're going to get to meet some of our program directors. You have a series of four questions that are all designed to get to know you a little bit better. The people asking the questions are actually the program directors, and you're going to get to know them a little bit better, too, because they're going to introduce themselves when they're asking you the questions. So as you go through this interview, I have two tips that I think are going to help you structure your answers and think about this process. The first is just be yourself. The whole point of this interview, like I said, is to get to know you. And so there's no right or wrong answers. Be your authentic self and let that natural version of yourself come through in the answers. The second tip that I have and this is a mindset we actually talk about during the program is done is better than perfect, right? So your natural tendency in this kind of format, in this kind of interview may be to have perfect answers to all the questions. Now, don't get me wrong, it's okay to practice and rehearse a little bit and be confident in your answers, but you don't have to be perfect and scripted. Like I said, we're just trying to get to know you. And on that note, I can't wait to review your application, and I hope to see you in our program next year.

Question 1

Hey, guys. What's up? My name is Max Nolan. Before joining TKS, I was the president of a brain computer interface startup called Branco. We were incubated in the Harvard Innovation Labs, and when I joined them in 2016, there was only about 15 people in the company. Fast forward seven years. I helped that company grow to over 300 people. We raised over $100 million, and we launched products in the medical device space, in the mental health space, and in the education market. And throughout this entire journey, it was our curiosity of how we apply an emerging technology like brain computer interface to solve problems that matter. It was that curiosity that fueled our success. We're always thinking about, what is the world going to look like? Because in ten years, things are going to be very, very different, and we can position ourselves to make a real impact by following our curiosity and thinking about how things are going to change. So out of all the different research that you see going on all over the world, out of all the projects that start startups or big companies are working on all the technological breakthroughs that you hear about in the news, what are you most curious about and why?

Question 3

Yo, what's up? I'm atik. Now, before TKS, I was a management consultant. I worked at Deloitte's, a multinational consulting firm. But that was short lived because education lies deep in my heart and I needed to pivot my career. So for that reason, I've had a very eclectic, unconventional career thus far. I've ended up at places like Synthesis, which is an edtech startup that spun out of SpaceX. But for the last couple of years, I've worked with hundreds of students at TKS, and many of them have actually gone on to become the youngest employees at companies you're going to recognize, like Tesla, like Apple, like Google, like DeepMind, the youngest intern at NASA came out of TKS. Many TKS alum have actually raised millions of dollars from the likes of Sequoia for their startups. And there's a lot of TKS alum right now that are actually working at scientific labs at MIT and Harvard and Stanford in areas like gene editing and cancer treatments and brain computer interfaces. Now, contrary to what you're probably imagining right now, they actually didn't know anything coming into TKS. They didn't have a portfolio, they didn't know how to code, some of them didn't even know what AI was. But over the course of TKS, because it's not one size fits all, they used their curiosity to explore a bunch of different industries, a lot of different fields, whatever, just like, spoke to them and they built projects that actually excited them in areas that really matter. So what ended up culminating was a deep expertise and a deep passion for a specific area in emerging technology and science. What matters is not what you've done thus far. What matters is what you do from this point onwards. Now, that being said, I am very curious, what is a project that you've worked on thus far that you're most proud of?

Question 4

Hey, my name is Lyn Chen and I'm an associate director from the Knowledge Society. I am the definition of taking unconventional paths for unconventional successes. I started a company when I was 16, then when I was 20, and I raised millions of dollars from Silicon Valley, including Y Combinator, and became the youngest warp. Started under 30 at 21. So you can imagine, I believe that young people are changing the world as long as they're doing the right things with their time. And the reason why I am at the Knowledge Society today is because I want to be a part of the journey of finding the next Elon Musk, who's sitting in the classrooms getting bored in physics class, who should be building rockets instead. So I'm curious, what drives you to apply? Why do you want to be a part of the Knowledge Society?

Question 2

Hi there. I'm Raha Francis, and first off, a bit about me. Prior to joining TKS, I graduated from Harvard Law School with my JD and worked in corporate law in New York City, advising tech companies on their deals. From there, I moved more directly into business strategy as a consultant at BCG, a company that's advised everyone from billion dollar multinational clients like Pfizer to inventors for potential cures to the Zika virus on how to bring their ideas to market. From there, I moved into more grassroots strategy roles, advising startups before landing at TKS in what's, one of my most fulfilling roles yet. Okay, now let's get to your story. If you are to join TKS, you'll be starting a journey of potential impact with us. Yes, you'll learn about cutting edge technology, but more importantly, you'll learn about how to leverage that knowledge to solve issues that matter to you. You'll walk away with research frameworks on how to more rigorously diagnose issues and to develop action plans to solve them and put those into real life action. You'll also walk away with mindset frameworks on how to tackle things like failure and self compassion when it comes to your journey, in your career, and in your life. And now for our question. If you were to have all the resources, time, energy, et cetera in the world to tackle one problem, what problem would you choose to tackle? And why would you care about that problem?

Ritika Yamdagni