Thursday Mainstage: Collaborate

Riya Karumanchi is a 16-year-old student and entrepreneur from Toronto, Ontario, and the founder and CEO of SmartCane, a cane that senses dangerous surfaces and other obstacles, and vibrates to alert the user to treacherous situations. Karumanchi is an innovator at The Knowledge Society and an avid machine learning developer. She was named to Teen Vogue’s list of 21 Under 21 and Time Magazine's list of young inventors changing the world. Throughout her journey, Karumanchi says she’s been supported by companies like Google, Deloitte, Microsoft, The DMZ Black Innovation Fellowship and TD Canada Trust. She speaks at conferences worldwide as an advocate and champion for women and girls in STEM and health-tech innovation.

Telly Leung is an actor, singer and songwriter who has appeared on Broadway and in numerous television shows. His Broadway credits include “In Transit,” “Allegiance” (with George Takei and Lea Salonga), “Godspell,” “Rent” and “Wicked.” On TV, he's appeared in “Glee,” “Odd Mom Out,” “Deadbeat” and “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.” Leung has released two solo albums: “I’ll Cover You” and “Songs for You.” He has a bachelor’s of fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University.

Nadeem Nathoo is the co-founder of The Knowledge Society (TKS), a human accelerator whose mission is to guide young people (ages 13-17) to pioneer new industries using emerging technologies and sciences. TKS alumni have spoken at some of the world's largest conferences; worked at companies like IBM and Microsoft; raised money from leading investors globally; and are building projects in areas including brain-machine interfaces, quantum computing and genetic engineering. Prior to his role at TKS, Nathoo was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company where he advised Fortune 500 CEOs on their challenges in banking, mining, aerospace, telecommunication and advanced industries. Nathoo has successfully led turn-arounds and growth strategies with global implications, including facilitating a $500 million merger transition and a $2 billion strategic spin-off. He's also done development work in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, East Africa and Honduras. In his spare time, Nathoo is an angel investor.