Alumni Profile: Fearless Innovator
Lisa Seacat DeLuca, MSTC ’10, is the most prolific female inventor in IBM history.
By Patricio Cantú
Of the millions of patent applications registered worldwide, more than 600 of them bear the name of Lisa Seacat DeLuca. In 13 years work- ing for IBM, DeLuca has become the most prolific female inventor in the company’s history, an achievement that contributed to her induction into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame last year and to the McCombs Hall of Fame Rising Stars this year.
One of DeLuca’s hundreds of inventions is a conference call alert system programmed to signal when a specific topic comes up or a specific person begins talking. Another is a locator that recommends points of interest within your GPS software based on the items in your car.
“As an inventor, problems are exciting,” says DeLuca. “When I run into a problem, I think of it as an opportunity for innovation.”
DeLuca has been following this fearless approach for many years. When she was a high school student with no coding experience, she applied to Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating with a degree in computer science, she went to work for IBM. Four years later, she entered the McCombs one-year Master’s in Technology Commercialization Program.
“As a computer science undergraduate working in the industry, there was never a requirement for a master’s to get to the next level,” says DeLuca. “But I wanted the MSTC for my own personal growth. It allowed me to stretch the business side of my way of thinking to help me understand how to bring to market the technologies I was busy developing.”
She is now a master inventor, a distinguished engineer, and the director of offering management for Internet of Things Building Insights at IBM. In addition, she has been recognized as one of MIT’s 35 Innovators Under 35, one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, and IBM’s Working Mother of the Year by Working Mother magazine.
“I love my job. I am passionate about it,” says DeLuca. “And I credit the McCombs MSTC program for expanding my thinking about entrepre- neurialism. I’ve applied that mindset to my work at IBM and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s turned out.”
This article appeared in the fall 2018 issue of McCombs magazine. Click on the link to see the full issue.
