From a fresh-out-of-college founder whose startup is already being used by 60 companies, to standout interns at some of Wisconsin's most well-known corporations, the 2022 Wisconsin Inno Under 25 class includes five impressive technologists and innovators from across the state.
The following individuals were nominated by readers and members of Wisconsin's technology ecosystem and selected by the Wisconsin Inno and Milwaukee Business Journal editorial team. To be eligible, individuals must have been age 25 or younger as of Aug. 7.
Natalie Vargas, 22
Emerging technology associate, Molson Coors Beverage Co.
"Instead of feeling discouraged, it makes me feel like, I too, deserve a seat at the table."
Natalie Vargas was a sophomore computer science student at Marquette University when the pandemic hit. After the spring of 2020 semester, she decided to leave school because the tuition felt prohibitively expensive.
While working jobs at Home Depot and as a Spanish interpreter at Covid-19 testing sites, she applied to an immersive technology training program through the nonprofit organization i.c. stars. When she was accepted, she cut her hours at both jobs to focus on the program.
"I took it super-seriously," Vargas said. "Being mediocre wasn’t an option for me."
After the four-month program, she was contracted by the emerging technology team at Molson Coors Beverage Co. to build an internal website called TechConnect, designed to educate the company's employees about the information technology department's transformation and projects.
Vargas has since returned to school to finish her bachelor's degree — this time at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee — and recently completed a summer technology architecture internship at Molson Coors. Her team earned second place in the 2022 Light the Hoan Intern Challenge, a March Madness-style competition where interns at Milwaukee companies code light shows for the city's Hoan Bridge.
This fall, Vargas returned to the company's emerging technology team as a part-time associate. She also serves as a mentor for new i.c. stars participants.
"Natalie is a rising star, innovator and woman in tech who has already made a mark and will undoubtedly become an influencer and leader in Wisconsin," i.c. stars executive director Blanca Gonzales and Molson Coors senior manager Jonah Turner wrote in Vargas's Inno Under 25 nomination.
Born and raised on Milwaukee's south side, Vargas is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Working in engineering and technology, she said she's often the only woman and Latina in the room.
"Instead of feeling discouraged, it makes me feel like, I too, deserve a seat at the table," Vargas said.
Tyrone Powell, 23
CEO of Unext
"France isn't as entrepreneurial-minded as the U.S. I didn't imagine myself in business until college."
Powell is the founder of Unext, a Green Bay startup that matches students with organizations and companies offering job shadowing experiences, internships, volunteer opportunities and employment.
Originally from France, Powell and his family moved to Wauwatosa when he was in high school. He then attended the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where he played basketball during his freshman and sophomore years.
"France isn't as entrepreneurial-minded as the U.S.," Powell said. "I didn't imagine myself in business until college."
Powell started Unext in 2019 while at UW-Green Bay, after noticing it was difficult for him and his friends to gain real-world experience in their fields of study. When Powell did eventually find a shadowing opportunity related to his computer science major, he quickly realized it wasn't for him but soon found a passion for business and entrepreneurship.
Starting Unext during college was beneficial because Powell was able to leverage resources such as professors and student pitch competitions, Powell said. He served as president of the campus's Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization during his senior year.
Additionally, Powell tapped his other students to get feedback about Unext through surveys and to spread the word about the service, he said.
Since graduating in May, Powell has been pursuing Unext full time. He works with several part-time web developers, designers and sales representatives.
The platform has had its soft launch and plans to officially launch this fall, Powell said. It has around 200 active student users and about 60 employers on the platform, he said.
Outside of the university setting, Powell has participated in local entrepreneurship programs including The Blueprint Green Bay, a startup incubator program run by Milwaukee-based Young Enterprising Society, and FOR-M, an incubator program sponsored by the MKE Tech Hub Coalition. He recently was among a group of past FOR-M participants who were selected to receive a $10,000 grant.
Rebecca Alcock, 26*
University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
"We need to use our resources more efficiently now more than ever."
Alcock is a doctoral student studying industrial and systems engineering at UW-Madison. She also earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in biomedical engineering there. Her ultimate goal is to tackle challenges at the intersection of climate and health, she said.
As a graduate student, Alcock worked as a Fab Fellow at the UW-Madison Makerspace where she hosted workshops and developed a prototyping curriculum. Around the same time, she was involved with Engineers Without Borders, which included volunteering in Guatemala.
"All those things kind of came together at the right time," Alcock said. "That's how I ultimately decided that I want to continue to put my engineering skills to service and find ways to design global health systems that help people lead healthier and more productive lives."
Alcock's research mission is to combine her training in mathematical optimization and machine learning with her background in product design to address pressing global health and planetary health challenges.
"We need to use our resources more efficiently now more than ever," Alcock said. "We can use this math modeling to design health systems — or any kind of system, really — that simultaneously mitigates climate change and safeguards human, animal and environmental health."
In March 2020, Alcock worked on Covid-19 response efforts by developing a system called Shield Net designed to efficiently and fairly connect health systems with face shield manufacturers. She also worked with the United Nations Development Programme to scale Shield Net and the university's Badger Shield program globally.
While Alcock has a list of other achievements, she's most proud of the way in which her work has inspired younger girls, she said. She recently was notified that two female students in North Carolina and Texas wrote about her Covid response efforts for a contest about women in engineering for the National Academy of Engineering's EngineerGirl site.
*Alcock meets the Wisconsin Inno Under 25 eligibility requirements because she was age 25 at the time of nomination.
Tatiana Lawson, 22
Gateway Capital Partners and Exact Sciences Corp. intern
"I'm still loving the finance ... and the IT field is getting more and more interesting ... both are giving me the joy that I'm having right now."
Tatiana Lawson is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a part-time intern at Madison-based cancer diagnostic firm Exact Sciences. She was also a summer intern at Milwaukee-based venture capital firm Gateway Capital Partners and is currently the vice president of her campus's Financial Management Association.
Lawson grew up in Togo, a small country in West Africa. She became interested in finance at a young age, she said.
"I remember going to a bank with my dad one day ... I remember I was telling him, 'I want to work in this field,'" Lawson said.
Lawson's family moved to Madison about four years ago, when Lawson was in high school. As a native French speaker, she had to learn English when she arrived.
Following her early interest in the field, Lawson became a finance major in college. But after taking a computer programming class as an elective, she found she also had a passion for technology.
"I'm more divided now," Lawson said. "I'm still loving the finance ... and the IT field is getting more and more interesting. ...I feel like both are giving me the joy that I'm having right now."
As a finance and information technology double major, Lawson has pursued internships in both fields.
During her Gateway Capital internship last spring, Lawson worked with Gateway Capital managing director Dana Guthrie on connecting with entrepreneurs and running return analyses for potential investments, Lawson said.
At Exact Sciences, Lawson works on an IT team assisting the company's sales department with data-related requests, she said.
Looking ahead, Lawson said she would love to find a job in which she could combine her interests in finance and IT, she said. She'd be particularly attracted to companies that offer opportunities for ongoing training, she added.
Luke Lochner, 21
Robotic process automation intern at Generac Power Systems
"The world is growing with data and to be able to understand it and make sense of it is important."
Originally from Pewaukee, Luke Lochner got interested in technology through sports data, he said. Now a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he's majoring in data science and minoring in computer science and economic analytics.
This summer, Lochner was a robotic process automation (RPA) intern at Generac Power Systems and earned two certifications in UiPath, an RPA coding program.
RPA bots can automate tedious computerized tasks that humans would otherwise spend time doing, Lochner said.
For instance, Lochner helped design a bot that creates order forms for materials that need to be replenished based on what the company used up while manufacturing generators, he said. The process could take a few hours for an employee to complete but the bot can do it in minutes, he estimated.
"Never having developed RPA before, he learned quickly," Generac chief information officer Tim Dickson said when nominating Lochner. "(He) now has the passion to incorporate artificial intelligence into RPA and is working part-time at Generac ... helping incorporate these two sets of emerging technologies for the betterment of intelligent automation at scale for Generac."
Lochner's first project with Generac was working on a community service project for Discovery World. The team created a bot that creates incident reports about broken exhibits to help the museum's staff fix exhibits more quickly.
Lochner is on track to graduate in spring 2023 and said he hopes to get a job in Wisconsin working for a company where his skills can make an impact.
"I just want to make sure I'm enjoying what I'm doing, but also making a difference in what I'm doing," Lochner said. "There's so much potential in data to help in making that impact because the world is growing with data and to be able to understand it and make sense of it is important."
