Inspiring Young AI and Tech Entrepreneurs with Tara Chklovski, Founder and CEO Technovation

In this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer welcomes Tara Chklovski, the founder and CEO of Technovation, a global nonprofit that has been at the intersection of AI and education since 2016. Tara shares her journey from growing up in India to pursuing a PhD in aerospace engineering and eventually launching a mobile entrepreneurship program just two years after the iPhone debuted.

The conversation dives into the Technovation accelerator model, a three-month program for girls and young women ages 8 to 24. Tara explains how the program empowers students to identify real-world problems in their communities and build tech-based startups to solve them. We discuss the importance of fostering a problem-solving mindset, the critical role of human mentorship in an AI-driven world, and why the "personalized learning" trend might be too narrow a lens for the future of education.

Key Insights:

💡 Early Intervention: Why we shouldn’t underestimate children's ability to tackle complex community problems as early as age eight.

🤖 AI as a Teammate: How Technovation’s "AI in Action" curriculum uses artificial intelligence as a brainstorming partner and subject matter expert for student teams.

🌍 Global Innovation: Stories of impact from 120 countries, including an alumna whose AI startup was acquired at age 19 and a student in India tracking environmental health through bird songs.

🏗️ Resilient Skills: Shifting the focus from simple AI literacy to building durable skills like user research, business planning, and civic responsibility.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to Tara Chklovski and Technovation 01:00 - Tara’s origin story: From India to aerospace engineering 03:15 - The mission to unlock human potential through STEM 04:20 - Breaking down the Technovation accelerator model 07:15 - Why educators should be early adopters of new tech 10:45 - Addressing the gender gap in technical careers 15:30 - The "AI in Action" curriculum and free resources 21:30 - How AI elevates project-based learning in classrooms 24:30 - The three functions of modern schools 31:00 - Concerns regarding "personalized learning" bandwagons 35:45 - A call to action for the current Technovation season

Subscribe to Trending in Ed wherever you get your podcasts—you don’t want to miss conversations like this one. To learn more about the program or access the free curriculum, visit technovation.org.