Here's who's making the call for this year's Houston Innovation Awards. Photos courtesy

Nominations are closed, applications are out, and the city of Houston is waiting to see who are the finalists for the 2022 Houston Innovation Awards. But first — who are tasked with the job of deciding the honorees for the Houston Innovation Awards Gala on November 9?

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A cohort of eight of the best innovation leaders in the Bayou City — representing all corners of tech and innovation, from energy and hard tech to software and startup acceleration. Introducing: The 2022 Houston Innovation Awards judges:

Carolyn Rodz, founder and CEO of Hello Alice

Carolyn Rodz, founder and CEO of Hello Alice

Photo courtesy of Hello Alice

Carolyn Rodz is a leader in Houston innovation — both as a startup founder and as a resources for startups and small businesses across the country. As CEO, she leads Hello Alice, a company Rodz founded with Elizabeth Gore, on its mission to provide support and guidance to small business owners.

Rodz is no stranger to InnovationMap's awards program. Last year, Hello Alice was a finalist in three categories and took home the win for BIPOC-owned business.

Wogbe Ofori, founder of Wrx Companies

Photo courtesy

​Wogbe Ofori is a champion of Houston innovation, startup mentor, investor, and more. He's particularly passionate about hard tech and serves as an adviser to Houston-based Nauticus Robotics and CaringBand. He also participates as a mentor across several organizations, including MassChallenge, Capital Factory, Founder Institute, and the University of Houston.

Scott Gale, executive director of Halliburton Labs

Photo courtesy

After several years in strategy at Halliburton, Scott Gale switched gears to lead Halliburton Labs, which launched in 2020. The startup incubation lab focuses on supporting early-stage companies within climatetech and the future of energy.

Ashley Danna, senior manager of regional economic development of Greater Houston Partnership

Photo courtesy

It's Ashley Danna's job at GHP to have a pulse on companies in Houston — including tech and life science businesses. Her role is focused on marketing the Houston region as a business magnet to expanding and relocating domestic businesses to foster job creation and economic growth while collaborating and strengthening relationships with external stakeholders.

Kelly McCormick, professor at the University of Houston

Photo courtesy

Kelly McCormick has spent the better part of a decade molding young, entrepreneurial minds at the University of Houston, both as a professor and as leading UH's student startup accelerator, Red Labs.

Paul Cherukuri, vice president of innovation at Rice University

Photo courtesy of Rice

Paul Cherukuri, the executive director of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering, was named the inaugural vice president for innovation at Rice University in August. In his role, Cherukuri leads Rice’s technology and commercialization infrastructure to translate breakthrough discoveries into inventions for the benefit of society.

Lawson Gow, CEO of Houston Exponential

Photo courtesy of The Cannon

Lawson Gow wears many hats within the Houston innovation ecosystem. He founded The Cannon, a Houston-wide coworking company, and now oversees Houston Exponential. He also is the founder and CEO of sportstech-focused Pokatok and chief strategy officer of SportsMap SPAC.

Natalie Harms, editor of InnovationMap

Photo courtesy

Natalie Harms has been at the helm of InnovationMap — Houston's voice for Innovation — since its inception in October 2018. She oversees all editorial operations of the site and hosts its weekly podcast, the Houston Innovators Podcast.

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3 Houston innovators who made headlines in May 2025

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Editor's note: Houston innovators are making waves this month with revolutionary VC funding, big steps towards humanoid robotics, and software that is impacting the agriculture sector. Here are three Houston innovators to know right now.

Zach Ellis, founder and partner of South Loop Ventures

Zach Ellis. Photo via LinkedIn

Zach Ellis Jr., founder and general partner of South Loop Ventures, says the firm wants to address the "billion-dollar blind spot" of inequitable distribution of venture capital to underrepresented founders of color. The Houston-based firm recently closed its debut fund for more than $21 million. Learn more.

Ty Audronis, CEO and founder of Tempest Droneworx

Ty Audronis, CEO and founder of Tempest Droneworx

Ty Audronis, center. Photo via LinkedIn.

Ty Audronis and his company, Tempest Droneworx, made a splash at SXSW Interactive 2025, winning the Best Speed Pitch award at the annual festival. The company is known for it flagship product, Harbinger, a software solution that agnostically gathers data at virtually any scale and presents that data in easy-to-understand visualizations using a video game engine. Audronis says his company won based on its merits and the impact it’s making and will make on the world, beginning with agriculture. Learn more.

Nicolaus Radford, CEO of Persona AI

Nicolaus Radford, founder and CEO of Nauticus RoboticsNicolaus Radford. Image via LinkedIn

Houston-based Persona AI and CEO Nicolaus Radford continue to make steps toward deploying a rugged humanoid robot, and with that comes the expansion of its operations at Houston's Ion. Radford and company will establish a state-of-the-art development center in the prominent corner suite on the first floor of the building, with the expansion slated to begin in June. “We chose the Ion because it’s more than just a building — it’s a thriving innovation ecosystem,” Radford says. Learn more.

Houston university to launch artificial intelligence major, one of first in nation

BS in AI

Rice University announced this month that it plans to introduce a Bachelor of Science in AI in the fall 2025 semester.

The new degree program will be part of the university's department of computer science in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing and is one of only a few like it in the country. It aims to focus on "responsible and interdisciplinary approaches to AI," according to a news release from the university.

“We are in a moment of rapid transformation driven by AI, and Rice is committed to preparing students not just to participate in that future but to shape it responsibly,” Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said in the release. “This new major builds on our strengths in computing and education and is a vital part of our broader vision to lead in ethical AI and deliver real-world solutions across health, sustainability and resilient communities.”

John Greiner, an assistant teaching professor of computer science in Rice's online Master of Computer Science program, will serve as the new program's director. Vicente Ordóñez-Román, an associate professor of computer science, was also instrumental in developing and approving the new major.

Until now, Rice students could study AI through elective courses and an advanced degree. The new bachelor's degree program opens up deeper learning opportunities to undergrads by blending traditional engineering and math requirements with other courses on ethics and philosophy as they relate to AI.

“With the major, we’re really setting out a curriculum that makes sense as a whole,” Greiner said in the release. “We are not simply taking a collection of courses that have been created already and putting a new wrapper around them. We’re actually creating a brand new curriculum. Most of the required courses are brand new courses designed for this major.”

Students in the program will also benefit from resources through Rice’s growing AI ecosystem, like the Ken Kennedy Institute, which focuses on AI solutions and ethical AI. The university also opened its new AI-focused "innovation factory," Rice Nexus, earlier this year.

“We have been building expertise in artificial intelligence,” Ordóñez-Román added in the release. “There are people working here on natural language processing, information retrieval systems for machine learning, more theoretical machine learning, quantum machine learning. We have a lot of expertise in these areas, and I think we’re trying to leverage that strength we’re building.”