Graduate School of Education alum Piya Sorcar (MA '06, PhD '09), founder and CEO of TeachAIDS, has been named one of the world's top young innovators by MIT Technology Review magazine.
Sorcar has been honored for leading the creation of the TeachAIDS software and its innovative use of technology in addressing many persistent problems associated with HIV prevention. She will join other TR35 honorees at the emtech MIT 2011 conference, taking place at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, October 18-19, 2011. All of the TR35 winners for 2011 will be featured in the September/October issue of Technology Review and online at www.technologyreview.com/tr35.
Sorcar is a graduate of the Learning, Sciences and Technology Design and International Comparative Education doctoral programs, as well as the master's program in Learning, Design and Technology. She developed TeachAIDS as part of her graduate work at Stanford University. She discovered through her research that cultural barriers prevented many HIV education materials from reaching those who need it most. Over hundreds of iterations, she developed a new, culturally-sensitive approach in conjunction with a team of the world’s top medical and education experts. The result was high-quality, research-based, interactive software that taught about HIV and AIDS, with unprecedented levels of acceptance and knowledge retention.
Learning Sciences & Technology Design and International Comparative Education
Class of 2009
Stanford Graduate School of Education
Mentored by Dr. Paul Kim, CTO of the Graduate School of Education
TeachAIDS develops breakthrough interactive software addressing numerous persistent problems in global HIV prevention education.
