Jay Flores: 2023 Early Career Award recipient

BSME ’12
Global STEM Ambassador, Founder and CEO, Invent the Change; Mystery Science Guide, Discovery Education

A mechanical engineer and passionate STEM ambassador who inspires young people to become tomorrow’s innovators and generate creative solutions to our planet’s complex problems.

Whether he’s leaping across an obstacle on the NBC show American Ninja Warrior, cooking up a new science demonstration or delivering a motivating keynote, Jay Flores works to inspire youth to explore STEM and become tomorrow’s innovators.

Through his company Invent the Change, he shares cool, real-life examples of STEM applications to nurture kids’ sense of wonder and highlight the importance of science and math skills. “I’m passionate about inspiring more young kids from diverse backgrounds to pursue STEM learning opportunities and also supporting them to keep them engaged in STEM as they get older,” he says.

A Milwaukee native, Flores attended UW-Madison on a full scholarship as a Rockwell Scholar. His involvement in the UW-Madison chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers ignited his interest in STEM outreach, and Flores says his UW-Madison education has been integral to his success. “The leadership opportunities and educational experiences I took advantage of at UW-Madison gave me the skills and confidence to be adaptable, tackle challenges and pursue exciting opportunities, such as launching my own business,” he says.

After graduation, Flores worked in technical sales for Rockwell Automation before becoming the company’s first global STEM ambassador. In 2021, he founded Invent the Change and debuted It’s Not Magic, It’s Science!, a viral YouTube series in which he uses household items to conduct simple but surprising experiments. Today he performs his shows live.

In 2022, Flores fulfilled a longtime dream: After 10 years of rejected applications, he competed on American Ninja Warrior and made it to the semifinals. In 2024, he returned, bringing his message to a massive audience.

How did your engineering education enable your success?

The combination of the UW-Madison engineering curriculum and the student organization opportunities on campus really allowed me to grow my critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which have been important in my career. I learned that engineering is just problem solving, and you get to decide what types of problems you want to solve with an engineering mindset.

Of what professional accomplishment are you most proud?

Launching my video series It’s Not Magic, It’s Science! It was during the pandemic, and I set a goal to write a book related to STEM. I failed miserably at writing the book, but I didn’t want to completely give up on the idea. And I’m pretty comfortable on camera, so I decided to try to make some videos instead. The idea was to create science experiments disguised as magic tricks that would be as entertaining as they were educational, and that pretty much anybody could do with simple, low-cost household items. It was awesome to see the huge success of these videos on social media. And now, doing live in-person events and seeing kids’ reactions has been an absolute blast.

Which do you prefer?

Fun on the Terrace or fun on Lake Mendota?
Lake Mendota. On a nice day, I’d rather be out on the water.

Sweet Caroline or Jump Around?
Jump Around. My sister also went to UW-Madison and for her graduation year, commencement was in Camp Randall. They played Jump Around, and my dad was so excited to do that. It was awesome to see his excitement and reaction to it. My dad was an engineer but via military training not via degree, so for me it was a cool moment when my dad got to have this experience because he didn’t go to college.

UW Arboretum or Picnic Point?
Picnic Point. The Arboretum is awesome, but I spent more time running to Picnic Point.