While the STEM landscape is still largely male-dominated, that hasn’t stopped women from forging forward and making their mark in a variety of ways. In fact, some women haven’t settled for simply cracking the glass ceiling, they are working on shattering it by becoming STEM innovators and entrepreneurs — despite whatever stumbling blocks and closed doors they might face.

Check out what just a handful of these bold and bright women of STEM are up to.

Colleen Costello, Co-founder Vital Vio
With 1 in 25 patients acquiring an infection during their hospital stay, it wasn’t a surprise Colleen Costello’s grandmother encountered the same issue several years ago. But the traumatic experience stuck with Costello, so during her senior year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, she teamed up with James Peterson to create a light technology that would kill germs without harming patients.

Now, at the young age of 25, she is a biomedical engineer and half of the brains behind Vital Vio.

Debbie Sterling, CEO and Inventor of GoldieBlox
If you walk through the toy aisle of any store, gender stereotypes are on full display. It’s these subtle — or not-so-subtle — lines that can keep girls from pursuing STEM interests later on.

In an effort to change the “norm” for girls everywhere, Debbie Sterling invented GoldieBlox, a line of STEM toys to “get girls building” and encourage an interest in engineering from a young age. But her vision goes beyond toys. She has managed to create an entire brand that offers role models to encourage girls to keep working towards their STEM goals.

Tracy Young, Co-founder of PlanGrid
Tracy Young became an inventor and entrepreneur when she encountered a problem as a construction engineer — the cost of making physical blueprint copies was exorbitantly high. Inspired by the possibilities of the new iPad design, she imagined being able to turn the industry from paper-dependent to digital.

So she, along with three co-founders, created PlanGrid, an app that allows construction workers to create a digital blueprint, ensuring the entire team stays on the same page.

Melissa and Lavanya Jawaharlal, Co-founders of STEM Center USA
As one of Shark Tank’s success stories, Melissa and Lavanya have plenty to show for STEM Center USA, an education startup the sisters launched in 2011 to expose young kids to the awesome field of robotics.

While they both pursued mechanical engineering in college, they were inspired to take the entrepreneurial path and spread their love of STEM to kids before they were swayed by gender and vocational stereotypes. Six years later they are still going strong.

Do you know of any women entrepreneurs that are changing the world of STEM? Leave us a comment!