WIPO China: Rocket Scientist Aisha Bowe on a Mission to Inspire Others to Reach for the Stars
本文原载于2023年第2期《WIPO杂志》。作者为凯瑟琳·朱厄尔，产权组织信息和数字外联司。
The article was originally published in the issue 2/2023 of WIPO Magazine. The author is Catherine Jewell, Information and Digital Outreach Division, WIPO.
艾莎·博维是一名火箭科学家，也是一名经验丰富的企
业家，执掌着两家成功的企业。
（图：Courtesy of STEMBoard）
Aisha Bowe is a rocket scientist and a seasoned
entrepreneur at the helm of two successful
businesses. (Photo: Courtesy of STEMBoard)
艾莎·博维不仅是一名火箭科学家，还是一名经验丰富的企业家，执掌着两家成功的企业：STEMBoard（美国成长最快的公司之一）和LINGO（一家教育科技公司）。博维也即将创造太空历史，成为首位确认乘坐新谢泼德运载火箭与蓝色起源公司一起太空旅行的黑人女性。博维还积极倡导妇女和女童进入科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域，她致力于激励她们追求自己的梦想，勇于逐梦。
Aisha Bowe is not only a rocket scientist, she’s a seasoned entrepreneur at the helm of two successful businesses, STEMBoard, among the fastest growing companies in America, and LINGO, an educational tech company. Bowe is also about to make space history as the first black woman confirmed to travel to space with Blue Origin aboard the New Shepard launch vehicle. Bowe is also a passionate advocate for women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and is on a mission to inspire them to pursue their dreams and reach for the stars.
WIPO杂志：成为即将启航的蓝色起源任务的一员对您来说意味着什么？
WM: What does it mean for you to be part of the upcoming Blue Origin mission?
艾莎·博维：能够在太空历史中扮演一个角色，我感到兴奋、荣幸和激动。像蓝色起源这样的公司正在为平民宇航员创造绝佳的机会。能有机会从太空飞抵地球边界，我感到非常荣幸。这将是具有历史意义的时刻。
Aisha Bowe: I feel excited, honored and thrilled to be able to play a role in space history. Companies like Blue Origin are creating wonderful opportunities for citizen astronauts. I feel truly privileged to have the opportunity to reach the boundary of Earth from space. It’s going to be momentous.
这项任务将如何支持您的STEM倡导工作？
How will this mission support your STEM advocacy work?
我致力于激励全球的妇女和女童勇于逐梦，成为最好的自己。我正在尽我所能地吸引她们的想象力，使尽可能多的人感到太空令人激动、真实可感。为此，我将与世界各地的伙伴合作来达成这项使命。例如，我计划携带属于不同国家的人的各种物品，这样他/她们就也有了一些飞入过太空的东西。这次任务将是一个机会，让人们关注STEM领域的妇女和女童，并创造机会让人们与我一起探讨这一重要话题。
I’m on a mission to inspire women and girls globally to reach for the stars and become their best selves. I am doing all that I can to capture their imaginations and to make space exciting and real for as many people as possible. For this mission, I’ll be working with partners around the world to make this happen. For example, I plan to carry with me various items belonging to people in different countries, so they too own something that has flown to space. The mission will be an opportunity to shine a spotlight on women and girls in STEM and to create opportunities for people to engage with me on this important topic.
是什么促使您从事航天事业？
What prompted you to pursue a career in space?
当我还是个高中生时，我感到有些迷茫。我不知道成年后我想做什么。我记得那时想的是，我就需要找一份报酬足够我离开家，养活自己的工作。在社区大学的第一个学期，我选修了一门商业入门课程，但是我的成绩很差，当时以为我的生活已经没指望了。然而，在我父亲的劝说下，我选修了代数预科课程。我得了A，并且爱上了数学。那时我才意识到，我一直以来都有一系列思维局限，我必须打破这种局限。打破局限后，我取得了优异的学习成绩，改变了我的生活。这让我重新思考我认为自己能做到的事。当我让自己相信我可以完成密歇根大学——全国最好的航空航天院校之一的学业时，我就做到了！毕业后，我在美国国家航空航天局（NASA）做了六年的火箭科学家。我不得不一路与认为我是冒牌货的偏执观念作斗争，但是我做到了。之后我成立了两家蓬勃发展的公司，现在我的任务是帮助其他人挑战自己的思维局限并追求自己的梦想。
As a high school student, I was a little lost. I didn’t know what I wanted to do as an adult. I remember thinking I just needed to get a job that paid enough for me to be able leave home and support myself. In my first semester at Community College, I took an intro to business class, but my grades were low ─ I thought my life was over. However, my father convinced me to take a pre-algebra class. I got an A and fell in love with mathematics. That was when I realized that I was holding on to a whole range of limiting beliefs that I had to set aside. When I did, I performed well in my studies, and that was life changing. It made me rethink what I thought was possible of me. As soon as I allowed myself to believe that I could graduate from the University of Michigan, one of the best aerospace schools in the country, it happened! I then spent six years as a rocket scientist at NASA. I had to combat impostor syndrome the whole way, but I did it. I then went on to set up two thriving companies, and now I'm on a mission to help others challenge their limiting beliefs and to pursue their dreams.
艾莎·博维即将创造太空历史，成为首位确认乘坐新谢泼德运载火箭与蓝色起源公司一起太空旅行的黑人女性。（图：Blue Origin）
Aisha Bowe is about to make space history as the first black woman confirmed to travel to space with Blue Origin aboard the New Shepard launch vehicle. (Photo: Blue Origin)
是什么促使您成为一名企业家？
What prompted you to become an entrepreneur?
我在NASA学到了很多，也成长了很多。然而，我很快明白，为了产生我想要的影响，我需要创建自己的公司。我的朋友们无法理解我为什么离开NASA，但我知道自己还有更多潜能。我想让人们看到，我可以从事太空事业，可以成为一名企业家，同时也可以作为STEM倡导者环游世界。在我创办公司时，我没有资金，也没有什么人脉，但是我找到了一名导师，并利用了我的技能创造收入，使我的公司成为现在美国成长最快的公司之一。这需要激情和目标。如果我当时同意留在NASA，就不可能做到这些。
I learned and grew a lot at NASA. However, I quickly understood that to have the impact I wanted, I needed to create my own company. My friends couldn’t understand why I left NASA, but I knew that I had more in me. I wanted people to see that you can have a space career, be an entrepreneur, and travel the world as a STEM advocate. When I started the company, I had no money and few contacts, but I found a mentor and leveraged my skills to create revenue to bootstrap what is now among the fastest growing companies in America. That takes passion and purpose. I could not have done that, if I had agreed to stay at NASA.
请介绍一下您的公司以及您在为他人创造哪些机会？
Tell us about your companies and the opportunities you are creating for others?
我有一家名为STEMBoard的工程公司，为精英政府组织提供专业咨询服务。它使我能够牢牢地植根于太空领域，同时也为企业级客户提供咨询。我想通过STEMBoard创建一家有收入流的公司，使我能够年复一年地投资于重要但缺乏资金的领域。
I have an engineering company called STEMBoard, which provides professional advisory services for elite government organizations. It allows me to stay firmly rooted in the field of space while also consulting for enterprise-level clients. With STEMBoard, I wanted to create a company with a revenue stream that would allow me to make year-over-year investments in important, yet underfunded, areas.
在公司成立的第一年，我和我的员工每个人都承诺将工作的一部分收入专门用于资助教育和外联倡议。到目前为止，我们已经为此类外联活动投资了约100万美元，为许多国家的非营利组织开发了STEM课程，包括像INROADS®这样的组织。在第一年中，我们向5,000多个家庭提供了我们的编程套件，在这之后成为了学区和许多大品牌，如微软和西门子的首选编程套件。这次创业是如此成功，以至于我们把它进行了拆分，创建了我的第二家企业——专注于教育科技领域的LINGO。
In our first year as a company, my employees and I each committed to dedicating a portion of our work to fund education and outreach initiatives. To date, we’ve invested around USD 1 million in such outreach, developing STEM curricula for many national nonprofits, including organizations like INROADS®. In our first year, we provided our coding kits to over 5,000 homes, and have since become the coding kit-of-choice for school districts and many large brands, like Microsoft and Siemens. This venture was so successful that we spun it out to create my second enterprise, LINGO, which specializes in educational tech.
知识产权在您的企业中发挥了什么作用？
What role does IP play in your businesses?
从一开始，我就认识到需要在进入市场之前用商标来保护我的公司标识和品牌。我们已经扩展到对我们的课程内容和教学材料纳入版权保护。拥有有效的知识产权战略是保持我们竞争优势的关键。
From the outset, I understood the need to protect my company logo and brand with a trademark before going to market. We have expanded to include copyright protection for our course content and teaching materials. Having an effective IP strategy in place is key to maintaining our competitive advantage.
小企业为什么要注重知识产权？
Why should small businesses focus on IP?
知识产权帮助小企业保护企业品牌。有了知识产权战略，小企业就可以防止竞争对手窃取或侵占自己的业务。知识产权战略有助于提高一家机构保护创新和创意资产的能力，加强其市场地位，并可能打开投资机会的大门。任何知识产权投资，无论是与商标、版权、外观设计权、专利或商业秘密有关的投资，都会带来回报。
IP rights help small businesses protect their brand. With an IP strategy, they can prevent competitors from poaching or encroaching on their business. An IP strategy helps increase an organization's ability to protect innovative and creative assets and strengthen their market position, and may open doors to investment opportunities. Any IP investment made, whether in relation to trademarks, copyright, design rights, patents or trade secrets, will pay dividends.
NASA的韦伯太空望远镜揭示了近邻星系中复杂的气体和尘埃网络。“我们对太空的探索越深入，就越意识到我们对宇宙的了解是多么有限，”艾莎·博维说（图：Science-NASA, ESA, CSA and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing – A. Pagan (STScl) – CC-BY-2.0）
NASA’s Webb Telescope reveals intricate networks of gas and dust in nearby galaxies. “The more we explore space, the more we realize how little we know about our universe,” says Aisha Bowe (Photo: Science-NASA, ESA, CSA and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing – A. Pagan (STScl) – CC-BY-2.0)
在线阅读全文，进一步了解艾莎·博维。
Read the full article online and learn more about Aisha Bowe.
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