Atmaja Patil’s Aggie Superpower is Asking Good Questions
On Saturday, June 13, at 2:30 p.m., graduating seniors from the University of California, Davis, will convene at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento to honor the completion of their degrees. At the ceremony, they, along with their families and friends will hear from student speaker, biological systems engineering major Atmaja Patil.
Patil said a UC Davis education gives Aggies a shared superpower: “The confidence to question the status quo. To look at a problem and ask, ‘Why does it have to be this way?’”
There is no shortage of problems in the world, she said. “Across every industry, every community, every corner of the world we're heading into, those problems need people who know how to ask the right questions.”
Their degree will help graduates change the world. “It is a tool, it is permission, and above all, it is a responsibility to make a real difference.”
Questions took on an essential role for Patil when she became an entrepreneur. In her sophomore year when she couldn’t get a physics class she needed, an academic advisor suggested “Introduction to Entrepreneurship.”
“That class changed my life, because it led me to the Student Startup Center,” Patil said.
The College of Engineering center is equipped to help students prototype ideas and collaborate on technology ventures. There, Patil said, she learned that products solve problems, and problems reveal themselves when you ask good questions.
As the center’s venture development manager for the last two years, she has helped more than 50 student startup teams launch and scale their ventures.
Patil co-founded the startup Oasis, which automates state compliance reporting for small public water utilities in California. And as one of three owners of the Davis Curry Club, Patil oversees marketing and outreach for the student-run small business, which delivers surplus food from an Indian restaurant to customers in Davis.
A product management intern at Cisco last summer, Patil will join the company as a product manager with its enterprise routing team.