On March 8, 2026, Maya Achuthan ’24 will take the TEDxUBC stage to share a vision shaped by leadership, curiosity, and a willingness to cross boundaries.
A Schulich Leaders Scholarship recipient, former Head Prefect, and active participant in athletics and academics at St. Michaels University School, Maya built a reputation early on as someone who embraced challenge and connection. Now a second-year biomedical engineering student at the University of British Columbia, she is bringing that same perspective to a wider audience.
Her talk introduces the idea behind The Civic Circuit, a student-led initiative she founded to address what she sees as a gap in STEM education. Designing technology is only part of the equation, she believes. Understanding the systems it enters — including policy, regulation, economics, and civic responsibility — is what helps good ideas reach the people they are meant to serve.
“I’ve had the chance to move through very different worlds,” she said. “Each experience shaped how I think about the intersection of technology and society.”
A Foundation at SMUS
The roots of that perspective trace back to her time at SMUS.
Encouraged by her interest in economics and supported by Economics teacher Graham Lilly, Maya reached out to an MLA’s office while still in high school and secured a summer role at just 16. The experience gave her early exposure to how policy is debated and implemented.
“As someone who wanted to go into engineering, it was eye-opening to see how many decisions about technical industries are made by people who have never worked directly in those fields,” she said.
Beyond academics, SMUS became a place where Maya stepped fully into her voice. After a year of remote learning through the pandemic, she approached campus life with intention. Through leadership roles, athletics, and the support of teachers and mentors, she expanded her confidence and impact.
“I never felt scared to try something new,” she said. “I was only met with encouragement.”
That sense of support and willingness to engage would later become central to her work at university.
Learning Across Disciplines
At UBC, Maya pursued biomedical engineering while seeking hands-on experience in research labs and biotech startups. She worked with Axolotl Biosciences, a Victoria-based company developing bio-inks for bioprinting, and is now involved with Cerecura Nanotherapeutics, a startup focused on developing RNA-based therapies for brain disease.
“It was a front-row seat to how innovation actually moves,” she said. “Not just the science, but everything around it.”
Across those settings, one theme stood out.
“In the real world, I’m never in a room full of engineers,” she said. “And those problems are never solved only by engineers.”
Bringing it Together on the TEDx Stage
Through The Civic Circuit, Maya is putting that cross-disciplinary thinking into practice. The initiative reflects her belief that innovation is strongest when engineers, policymakers, and thinkers from different disciplines learn to work together early in the process.
“It’s one thing to talk about these ideas,” Maya said. “It’s another to see what students come up with when they actually work across disciplines.”
Her TEDxUBC talk brings those threads together — the leadership foundation built at SMUS, her exposure to policy and innovation, and her conviction that collaboration is essential to meaningful progress.
For current SMUS students, her advice is simple: “What you put in is what you get out.”
As she steps onto the TEDxUBC stage this March, Maya Achuthan continues to connect ideas, people, and perspectives that do not always meet, building bridges that help innovation move forward with purpose.
