Journey and Reward - A Q&A With Meenu Satiya, NU '17

Meenu Satiya, NU '17, graduated from Northwestern University with a Masters in Engineering Management (MEM). She also has a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from The Aeronautical Society of India and has worked at Airbus and Cessna. Satiya is currently a Program Management Intern at HERE Technologies. She took NUvention: Transportation in the Fall of 2017 and shares that experience here.

What did you gain from the Fall 2017 NUvention: Transportation course?

The course was very helpful for me. I come from a completely corporate background. Only having worked at large corporations, like Airbus and Cessna Aircrafts, for a few years, I didn’t have any idea of how a startup worked or if I wanted to work on an idea. NUvention: Transportation taught me the basics and all of the steps involved in starting out as an entrepreneur.

What did you work on during NUvention: Transportation?

I had an idea in mind about baggage tracking for the airlines. After working on our initial idea week through week and doing extensive research, our team’s original idea completely converted into a different idea. As I got to speak with a lot of industry experts regarding market demand, launch, and sustainability of the idea, our team switched to working on a sensor-based security innovation for airports called CLAEM.

Editor's Note: Click this link to view Team CLAEM's Fall 2017 Final PowerPoint presentation.

What was NUvention: Transportation’s format?

As an Aeronautical Engineer, the most encouraging thing about NUvention: Transportation was that it is sponsored by Boeing. We had so many people coming from the Boeing company to guest lecture, so personally, I loved the guest lectures. The variety of guest speakers we had in the class was amazing. They ranged from logistics, automotive to aviation industry experts. In every class, there was something new to learn about a different aspect of the transportation industry. Another important dimension which enhanced learning in the class were the case studies, which were taught by Professor Mark Werwath. There was a lot to learn from the chosen case studies, and the detailed discussions during class based on these case studies really helped me learn about entrepreneurship.

How did Nuvention: Transportation impact you personally?

I got my summer internship at HERE (a company which offers data-driven location solutions), because I took the NUvention: Transportation class. I didn’t have much of an idea about HERE before, but when I got to learn about the company from Tony Belkin, NUvention: Transportation Advisor and Head of Engineering at HERE, I got very interested in learning more about the company and getting involved.

What was surprising/different about this course that was from other academic courses you’ve taken?

Other courses are syllabus-driven. NUvention: Transportation is self-driven. You can develop anything, from something as simple as a pin to something as complex as an air-drone. So, if one is motivated, he or she can achieve wonders through this class.

What was the teaching style and how did it impact you and the class?

Professor Mark Werwath makes you think deeply and makes you work on your ideas in unconventional ways. He will show you the dark road innovators face, but he will make sure you find a way into the brightness and possible avenues for an innovation to succeed. He emphasized sharing feedback across all three teams in the class which helped a lot in developing our idea.

What are you taking away from Farley’s NUvention program academically and entrepreneurially?

This course has given me incredible networking opportunities and the opportunity to work with advisors from different industries. I have already worked in Northwestern’s Garage on a startup where I applied the learnings from this course successfully.