(June 16, 2024) When she was 15 years old, Archika Dogra founded Innoverge, a non-profit organisation dedicated to addressing educational inequity by promoting STEM education for social good. In her leadership, Innoverge has impacted over 10,000 underrepresented students across 14 countries through 75 youth-run chapters. Her significant contributions to education and social upliftment earned her spots on the Forbes 30 Under 30 lists in North America and Seattle in 2023.
As a student at Princeton University, Archika’s dedication to making a difference got recognised once more. This year, she is one of the eight recipients of the Spirit of Princeton Award. Sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, the award honours undergraduates who have demonstrated a strong commitment to student organisations, athletics, community service, religious life, residential life, and the arts within the campus.
Archika Dogra
“Through my pursuits, I’ve always looked to make a positive impact on the world,” the 22-year-old said in an interview, reflecting on her journey from Greater Seattle where she was raised, to the halls of Princeton University, New Jersey.
In May, Archika graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, and is set to start the next chapter of her life in San Francisco as an Associate Product Manager on the Databricks Artificial Intelligence Platform.
A consistent achiever
Apart from her work with Innoverge, Archika Dogra boasts an impressive array of accomplishments. She worked on a project involving a computer vision model that helped map poverty in Uganda, aiding resource redistribution efforts.
In 2018, she was one of 45 interns nationwide selected for the NASA SEES internship in Austin, Texas, where she developed a web application to aid flood response efforts in Texas. Later that summer, she supported research at the intersection of neuroscience and machine learning at the University of Washington. In 2019, she interned at Sensoria Health, a Redmond startup focused on wearable technologies.
Her achievements also include being a 2018 Congressional App Challenge winner, a 2019 Mars Generation Global 24 Under 24 STEM Leader, a 2020 Google Computer Science Summer Institute Scholar, and 2020 Coca-Cola Scholar. Additionally, Archika led TEDxYouth@Redmond as its 2019 president, founded her school’s Technology Student Association, and served as captain of its debate team.
Archika Dogra as a keynote speaker at the EduData Summit
After speaking at the 2019 World Innovation Summit for Education in Qatar, the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City, and the 2024 QS Quacquarelli Symonds Edudata Summit on artificial intelligence and education, she has become a strong advocate for the power of the youth narrative.
Discovering the charisma of technology
In 2017 Archika got an opportunity to attend an Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Outreach Summer Program called AI4ALL which was being conducted by computer scientists Olga Russakovsky and Fei-Fei Li, professors in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and co-directors of Stanford’s Human-Centred AI Institute. “At AI4ALL, I had the opportunity to explore machine learning intersected with social good in very tangible ways, meet a community of dedicated and brilliant women, and grow under the mentorship of phenomenal faculty and researchers,” she shared.
The opportunity triggered in her a fascination for technology at a time when she was more inclined towards humanities.
Always driven by a desire to work for social good, the transformational programme made her realise that she could leverage technology to make a greater impact on the causes she cared about. With time her interest in STEM deepened.
Archika Dogra at the AI4ALL programme in 2017
Making a difference through Innoverge
Soon after, Archika laid the foundation of her nonprofit Innoverge that partners with community centres, schools and libraries to offer long-term STEM and humanities-focused programming for K-8 students.
“I started Innoverge after realising how much of a need there was not only in the diversity of who had access to a STEM education, but diversity in the way that STEM was being taught,” she said.
During her first experience with the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Outreach Summer Program, AI4ALL, she was one of only two girls among 32 attendees. This stark disparity opened her eyes to the gender imbalance in the field and inspired her to start her nonprofit to address the issue.
Over time, her work gained momentum, inspiring young people in 14 countries to volunteer for the cause. Recognizing the impact of her efforts, organisations like Microsoft, Disney, AI4ALL, and Vital Voices have supported her work.
Innoverge conducts various initiatives both in-person and virtually, centred around the STEMxHumanities model. “At Innoverge, we integrate STEM fields with empathy, storytelling, leadership, ethics, and humanity by intentionally focusing on the intersection of STEM education with the humanities and social sciences. Our programming and workshops, range from CSxPolitics to NeurosciencexEthics,” shared the youngster.
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Contributions at Princeton
During her time at Princeton, Archika held multiple leadership roles, including serving as co-president of the Entrepreneurship Club and co-president of Princeton South Asian Theatrics. She enriched the broader university community through her mentorship with academic service. Additionally, she was the recruitment chair for the Orange Key tour guides, a member of the Undergraduate Student Government movies committee, and served as an accessibility notetaker.
Archika looks at the future with hope – where technology would uplift marginalised communities and level the playing field.
