The Student Innovation program fosters growth by giving students the opportunity to engage with one another, faculty, and members of the wider global community involved in innovation. This program also coordinates the InVenture Prize.
The program is committed to being deliberatively innovative by helping to Create the Next in Education (CNE) and is designed to support the following Georgia Tech Strategic Plan Goals:
- Goal 1: Be among the most highly respected technology focused learning institutions in the world
- Goal 3: Ensure that innovation, entrepreneurship, and public service are fundamental characteristics of our graduates
The program is also designed to support the following Georgia Tech Institute-wide Objectives:
- 1: Be the “Innovation Institute”
- 4: Pursue globally significant grand challenges using our campus and region as a test bed for research and application
- 8: Explore collaborative partnerships
The Student Innovation program has meaningful interactions with all major campus units, including, but not limited to: all six colleges, programs across campus focused on entrepreneurship and innovation, Student Life, and Campus Services. These connections include campus-wide events/competitions, course instructors, targeted in-class presentations, incoming student and family presentations, and curriculum development.
Chris Reaves, Ph.D.
Executive Director for Experiential and Engaged Learning
Director, Undergraduate Research & Student Innovation
chris.reaves@gatech.edu
404.385.7325
Dr. Reaves joined Georgia Tech in January 2011 as the director of undergraduate research and student innovation. He oversees and supports undergraduate research programs, provides support for student symposia, conferences and competitions related to undergraduate research and student innovation and campus communications related to both efforts. Prior to coming to Tech, Dr. Reaves was the founding director of the Office for Undergraduate Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He earned a B.S. in Education and a M.P.A. from Jacksonville State University (AL) and a Ph.D. in Urban and Public Affairs with a concentration in Urban Planning and Development from the University of Louisville.
Miranda Darden, B.S
Program and Operations Manager for Experiential and Engaged Learning
Miranda Darden serves as the Program and Operations Manager in the Office of Experiential and Engaged Learning, where she supports key initiatives such as Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). In this role, she helps coordinate high-impact events like the InVenture Prize and administers signature programs including the PURA Travel Award.
Miranda earned a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management from the University of Southern Mississippi. During her time at Southern Miss, she gained hands-on experience working with work-study students and supporting campus events. Her professional background includes roles at Gwinnett Technical College, where she contributed to both the Foundation Office and the Marketing and Communications Department, and at the College Board, where she served as Assistant Director on the Business Planning & Operations team.
With more than eight years of experience in the education sector, Miranda is passionate about student development and success. She is dedicated to helping students grow, discover new opportunities, and reach their full potential.
Olga Kotlyar, MBA
Assistant Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Olga Kotlyar is the Assistant Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Georgia Tech, where she leads initiatives that advance student innovation, entrepreneurship, and experiential learning. With over 17 years of experience in higher education, Olga is deeply committed to and passionate about student success.
Before joining Georgia Tech in 2018, Olga held roles in both the private sector and academic institutions, including Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and the University of Cambridge in the UK. At Georgia Tech, she served in a variety of operational capacities before stepping into her current leadership role in 2024.
In her current position, Olga works closely with academic units, faculty, and campus partners to foster a thriving community of student inventors and entrepreneurs. She supports a dynamic ecosystem that includes incubators, makerspaces, pitch competitions, hackathons, internships, courses, and student organizations.
Olga oversees signature programs such as the InVenture Prize, the ACC InVenture Prize, and develops new programming to expand opportunities for students to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship across disciplines.
She holds a B.A. in Education and Political Science from Ben Gurion University of the Negev and an MBA from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. Olga is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.