Encouraging Girls to Become Engineers

Luz Cristal Glangchai, a scientist and founder of VentureLab in San Antonio, spoke last month at the fifth annual TedXSanAntonio event.

Glangchai wants more girls to become engineers. She runs a nonprofit organization which teaches kids as young as five to high school age skills in entrepreneurship and to experiment in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Three students companies from VentureLab have already raised $240,000 in funding, according to Glangchai.

Before launching VentureLab, Glangchai served as the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Trinity University. She also managed the Idea to Product Program at the University of Texas at Austin. And she founded NANOTaxi, a drug-delivery company that developed disease-responsive nanoparticles to target tumor tissues.

Glangchai holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from UT Austin, as well as doctoral certificates in Cellular and Molecular Imaging for Diagnostics and Therapeutics, and in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. She holds an M.S. in biomedical engineering, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in the Plan II Honors Program from UT Austin.