Human life and dark matter — these are just two topics that will be discussed in depth at Saturday’s TEDxTAMU conference.
TEDxTAMU will focus on the passionate ideas from some inspired thinkers at Texas A&M. TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, influential talks. TED — which stands for technology, entertainment and design — began in 1984 and today covers almost all topics, from science to business to global issues. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.
This is the third year that TEDx TAMU has hosted a conference. This year’s conference saw its tickets sell out two weeks before opening night. The conference will comprise of two sessions. The first session is called as ‘The Unteachable,’ which deals with the issues of human life.
“The Unteachable is about the things that you cannot learn in classroom, things that are more abstract,” said Angie Cisneros, TEDx TAMU marketing team member.
The second session is centered around “Ground breaking ideas” focused on science and technology.
“It deals with the ideas that people might want to implement, like the ideas based on science,” said Emily Pfeiffer, human resource development sophomore and marketing team member.
TEDx TAMU began three years ago, when a group of freshmen were challenged to put on a spring program that focused on leadership.
“After brainstorming many different program ideas, my executive at the time Dillon Thomison, brought to us the idea of bringing TED talks to campus, saidEnid Escobedo, health junior and one of the freshmen who brought TEDx to campus. “As a group of 20 freshmen, we then decided to run with this idea and put on a conference where we brought professional fellow Aggies to come speak and share their knowledge on leadership and the world”.
The speakers for TEDxTAMU were chosen from a wide variety of people affiliated with Texas A&M. All of them wish to convey their message and passion for their respective themes.
David Toback, professor of physics and astronomy, will speak on dark matter and the Big Bang. He has researched at Fermilab and CERN — world-class particle physics accelerators — and teaches a popular introduction to physics course called “Big Bang and Black Holes.”
”The people of the world pay lots of taxes so we can solve these important mysteries of the universe, and they deserve to understand the mysteries as well as some of the answers we have already learned,” Toback said in an email. “I want everyone to understand the excitement of the big bang and dark matter. It’s my job, but it’s also my passion.”
Bart Taylor, a dedicated career and technology teacher with fifteen years of experience in the classroom, is another speaker. He will speak about how to motivate the 21st century learner by sharing a few tools and techniques that he has seen make a difference in the students’ education.
”I have a natural ability to motivate kids, so I wanted to share my passion and enthusiasm for my love of teaching so that I could possibly help inspire the next generation of amazing educators,” Taylor said.
A full list of TEDxTAMU speakers is available online at tedxtamu.com. The website will also feature a livestream of the conference, which runs all day at the Geren Auditorium at Texas A&M on Saturday.
