Yale Divinity School (YDS) and the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY) are located far apart on Yale’s campus — with YDS’ Georgian-style campus perched on Prospect Hill while CITY occupies office space downtown — but a new initiative aims to bring them closer.

“Penta, founded by Trang Duong, a Brown student, and Victor Wang and Henry Iseman, both from Yale, collects used prosthetic devices from prosthetic clinic chains around the U.S., and brings them to Vietnam and other developing countries. Penta plans to help 6,000 amputees over the next three years.”

“Smart” devices are everywhere, from the Amazon Echo to the Fitbit. This fall, students from all corners of campus had a chance to imagine and prototype their own smart devices and systems as part of a cohort-based Intensive held at Tsai CITY.

One student is constructing a giant block wall, while another forms shapes with Play-Doh. At nearby tables, students draw and rifle through a stack of worksheets, pausing occasionally to reflect before diving back in.

How do you build a mentor network that inspires students from all backgrounds and disciplines in the journey of innovation? We recently sat down with Victor Padilla-Taylor, Tsai CITY’s new Director of Mentor, Advisor, and Partner Networks, to get his perspective on this question.

“Since the beginning of 2016, women-led companies have received only 4.4% of all venture capital, according to PitchBook Data. Furthermore, while teams led by men receive an average of $12 million, women-led teams receive an average of $5 million. The numbers only shrink when considering ventures helmed by women of color.

How do we plan the future of humankind? Attendees of a design sprint — an exercise similar in nature to a hack-athon — hosted by the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking addressed this lofty question on Monday.

“Last Tuesday, innovation centers from across Yale convened an audience of over 100 friends and alumni of Yale SOM in the Bay Area to gain insight on impact investing and sustainable business practices.”

14 student teams have been selected to develop their ideas as part of CITY’s fall 2018 Accelerator cohort. The Accelerator, which runs every fall and spring semester, guides student innovators through the process of building effective organizations, projects, and ventures.