Medha Ghatikesh

M.S. Software Management, Carnegie Mellon U/Silicon Valley

310 - Young Women in Research: Innovations Impacting Tomorrow

Passionate about finding a technological solution to eradicating poverty, at the age of 19 Medha Ghatikesh co-founded a start-up, Vital Gifts, that enabled the exchange of real, Fairtrade gifts on Facebook. Her aim was to help create sustainable employment for artisans and producers in developing countries.

Medha has a software engineering background and worked as a Java developer in the Healthcare IT domain at Orion Health, New Zealand's largest software exporter.

She is currently pursuing an MS in Software Management at Carnegie Mellon University/Silicon Valley, where she's working with a co-founder on a product that aims to make it easier for people to find paths to their desired career, enabling more people to do what they love. Medha will graduate in August 2013.