Maryam Saleh

“Design is critical to responsibly deploying innovations to the marketplace.”

Maryam Saleh is a technology and innovation leader passionate about translating impactful ideas for society. She serves as Executive Director of the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship at Illinois Tech and holds a joint appointment as Industry Professor at the Institute of Design (ID) and the Stuart School of Business. Her work bridges academia, industry, and civic sectors to help move ideas into ventures that create social and economic value.

Maryam holds a PhD in Computational Neuroscience from the University of Chicago and a BS in Computer Engineering from Brown University, where she also studied painting and photography through the Rhode Island School of Design.

Activities at Illinois Tech

Maryam has shaped campus-wide innovation strategy through her leadership at the Kaplan Institute and active involvement in strategic initiatives. She leads programs that equip students, faculty, and community partners with the tools, networks, and mindset to launch startups and succeed in the workforce.

She founded Illinois Tech’s Startup Studio, which integrates academic coursework, venture coaching, and a pitch competition. She also launched TechForward, an initiative to fund and support researchers in building teams to translate their research into practice.

Her teaching and mentorship emphasize applied learning and entrepreneurial thinking. Maryam advises student teams across design, engineering, and business, and has supported alumni in securing early-stage funding from organizations such as Techstars, Y Combinator, and Google for Startups. She also serves on PhD dissertation committees at ID and has helped fund innovation coaching positions for ID students.

Industry Experience

Maryam’s career spans VC-backed startups, higher education, and startup incubators. She was part of the founding team at Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, where she helped develop BrainGate™, one of the first brain-computer interfaces aimed at restoring movement in people with paralysis. She has also helped nurture and spin out medical device startups at Northwestern University and later served as VP of Programs at MATTER, Chicago’s healthcare incubator. More recently, she led the health insurance market entry strategy at Machinify, an AI-driven healthcare payments company acquired by New Mountain Capital in 2025. She advises and serves on the boards of early-stage companies in sectors ranging from medical devices to EV infrastructure to consumer products. She is a reviewer for the National Science Foundation’s SBIR program and has been named to both Crain’s Tech 50 and 40 Under 40 lists.