To honor Women’s History Month, WSU Ventures and the Center for Entrepreneurship at Wichita State have collaborated to highlight influential WSU women who have made a difference in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Every week during March, we will feature an inspirational Shocker for her contributions and accomplishments.

Maggie Koops is this week's feature.

Maggie has had an incredible experience on campus learning about innovation and empathetic design. She began at Wichita State as an aerospace engineering freshman working in the NIAR Wind Tunnel, and has since transitioned into the Masters of Innovation Design program, where she collaborates with students and faculty across disciplines to make the world a better place.

Maggie was a part of the design team that won the Johnson & Johnson design competition in the spring of 2018, and she is grateful for the opportunity to design around empathy.

“People ask, ‘Well, what do you learn in your master’s program?’” Maggie says. “Empathy … that’s the number one thing I have learned.”

In her time with the MID program, she has valued the opportunity to approach problems with a human-centered focus, giving her an opportunity to exercise her empathetic design skills and to make a difference in the lives of others.

When asked what advice she would give to girls interested in pursuing engineering fields, Maggie says: “Don’t be scared of the boys … Just go engineer!”