TEDxUSC 2011: Actions Really Do Speak Louder Than Words
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The stage at Bovard Auditorium for TEDxUSC. Photo Credits to Kim Nowacki
The talks today featured speakers such as Andrew Hessel, Stephen Smith, Rick Nahmias, Jill Tarter, Aram Sinnreich, Jennifer Pahlka, and more, all focused on one thing, calling the audience into action. Here is a basic look at a few interesting topics discussed today.
Andrew Hessel, Co-Founder of The Pink Army Cooperative
He is a self-proclaimed programmer and biologist, talked about actually writing DNA based on chemical sequences. He focused his talk on pulling comparisons from the hacker movement in programming and how open source has led to massive developments in software.
He firmly believes that this methodology applied to DNA design can lead to many different innovations that we have never thought of. He co-founded The Pink Army Cooperative, with the mindset that cancer can be cured today by allowing the current breakthroughs to be open source and letting the younger generation try to solve the big problems being faced in the research.
Jose Antonio Rosa, Professor at University of Wyoming
He focused on discussing how the next four billion were the most important demographic in the coming future. The next four billion, referring to the poor people in countries all over the world. Many of these individuals are creating inexpensive, yet effective solutions to daily life problems, such as a hammock that will never break. These solutions are found by simply scavenging through the surroundings of the world and being creative, which is what Rosa emphasized.
Alan Horsager, Researcher at USC Keck School of Medicine
He gave one of the most intriguing scientific presentations of the day, explained his research about creating light-sensitive cells which can be used inside the retina, effectively eliminating blindness. It was a short talk, but the implications of this are clearly incredible. This was very true to TED, because it was short, sweet, to-the-point, but very eye-opening, metaphorically and literally.
He discussed how the farming industry has seen only one change: lower wages for more work. What Nahmias has done is create a concept called "Fruitanthropy," which effectively takes volunteers to pick fruit from local homeowners, and give that fruit to the hungry and food shelters. Nahmias calls this "a win to the fourth."
Dr. Jill Tarter, Director of the Center of SETI Research
Based in Mountain View, CA, she discussed how close we are to actually discovering life beyond Earth. The spacecraft Kepler has managed to find close to 500 million planets that have potential for life. She plans on using new technology to try and trace "technosignatures" that would theoretically be sent out by extraterrestrials.
Andrew McGregor, President and Founder of the Tiziano Project
He showcased The Tiziano Project, which aims to empower individuals all over the world to utilize the power of a camera and the natural sense of journalism. He has travelled to the middle east, China, and other locations to teach journalism techniques. He says that journalists are educators, and his mission is to share his talent with others.
Jennifer Pahlka, Founder of Code For America
She then discussed how the mindset of a tech startup could truly create change in the government. She founded a group called Code For America. Similar to Teach For America, Code For America takes the brightest young computer scientists and allows them to try and make policy changes in national government.
As with all TED talks, TEDxUSC continued the tradition of giving ideas worth sharing, but TEDxUSC 2011 took it further by sharing ideas that should engage listeners to action.
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