2017 Annual Conference
October 14th, 2017

Thank You For Coming!


About TEDxRutgers

"HEAR IDEAS THAT MATTER"

On October 14th, 2017 TEDxRutgers is bringing together world-leading thinkers, makers, and doers at Rutgers University to discuss doing the unprecedented. The audience is composed of a diverse yet curated mix of 500 students, professors, and thought leaders from Rutgers and beyond, for a stimulating day of presentations, discussions, entertainment and art that will spark new ideas and opportunities for all.




We always hear about the big ideas, the revolutions and reinventions complete with grand stories of triumph. These are the tales that get told and the chapters that get read. But behind these sweeping narratives are smaller victories hidden beyond the links at the bottom of the page and tucked into the footnotes. In this invisible index, these little subplots are connected to other narratives and fit within the context that makes them exciting

This year we’re going to sweat the small stuff, because some of the most fascinating ideas are found in the hidden details - the weird, the obscure, and the totally tangential. What kinds of lessons can we learn from these enigmatic narratives? And why do these kinds of unexpected ideas resonate with us so deeply?


Event Details

Who?

Students of Rutgers
This event is open to any idea seeking person on or near Rutgers University campuses.

What?

Amazing Speakers
We will be showcasing a series of talented and creative minds from all over the country.

Where?

LSC Auditorium
TEDxRutgers will be happening in the Livingston Student Center Auditorium on Livingston Campus.

When?

October 14th, 2017 @ 11am
We will be unveiling on October 14th, 2017 at 11:00am. Hope to see you all there!

Meet the Team behind the magic

Meet the talented speakers

...

Elisabeth Camp

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Elisabeth Camp is an Associate Professor in the department of Philosophy, where she teaches courses about language, art, minds, and meaning. In her research, she is especially interested in forms of thinking and talking that don’t fit within the standard philosophical model of the human mind as a propositional logic machine. In the realm of communication, this includes phenomena like metaphor, sarcasm, insinuation, and slurs. In the realm of minds, it extends to maps, non-human animal cognition, imagination, and emotion. She grew up in Philadelphia and got her degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley.

...

Jonathan Fader

Sport and Performance Psychologist for New York Giants

Dr. Jonathan Fader is a licensed sport, performance and clinical psychologist. He is the Director of Mental Conditioning for the New York Football Giants and also served as the team psychologist for the New York Mets for nine seasons. He is part of The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Mental Performance Initiative. Dr. Fader is the Co-Founder of SportStrata and Union Square Practice in New York City which offer services to individuals and groups around mental health and conditioning. Fader is a frequent contributor to the national conversation on performance, appearing on CBS this Morning, CNN, Fox News, Bleacher Report and others. Represented by the Lavin Agency, he regularly speaks to groups on improving performance.

...

Scott Amyx

Managing Partner

Managing Partner at Amyx Ventures, CEO at Amyx+, TEDx, Tribeca Fellow, Singularity University, Smart City Accelerator, EU, UN, Future of Fashion, IBM IoT Futurist, Wiley Author, TechCrunch, Winner of Innovation Awards, Global IoT Thought Leader

...

Mary L. Rigdon

Center for Cognitive Science

I'm an experimental economist and a faculty member in the Center for Cognitive Science. I am the Director of the Decision and Economic Sciences Laboratory at Rutgers. Most of my research uses laboratory methods to study decision making in social dilemmas. I am particularly interested in why, how, and when people manage to cooperate for mutual benefit in situations in which their narrow self-interest suggests that they should not and what mechanisms help foster these cooperative outcomes.

...

Theresa Menders

Documentary Photographer

Documentary photographer, explorer, math maven, numbers crusher, big data wrangler, music maker, visual artisan, Other. For the last 20 years, Theresa Menders has successfully collaborated with Daniel Farber Huang on documentary photography projects as a husband and wife team, with a long-term focus on women’s and children’s issues and poverty. Their work is included in the permanent collections of numerous museums and cultural institutions, including International Center of Photography, New York Historical Society, Museum of the City of New York, Museum of Chinese in America, New York City Fire Museum, and Library of Congress. Their photography has been exhibited by the New York Historical Society, Museum of Chinese in America, and group shows including the Museum of Modern Art.

...

Daniel Huang

Documentary Photographer

Documentary photographer, explorer, visualist, gear enthusiast, breaker and maker of things, number cruncher, tangential thinker, Other. For the last 20 years, Daniel Farber Huang has successfully collaborated with Theresa Menders on documentary photography projects as a husband and wife team, with a long-term focus on women’s and children’s issues and poverty. Their collaborative work is included in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the International Center of Photography, New York Historical Society, Museum of the City of New York, Museum of Chinese in America, New York City Fire Museum, and the Library of Congress. Their photography has been exhibited by the New York Historical Society, Museum of Chinese in America, and group shows including the Museum of Modern Art.

...

Biju Parekkadan

Professor and Biotech Inventor

As an era of regenerative medicine is beginning to dawn, Dr. Biju Parekkadan is creating bioengineering tools to control the way new cell-based therapies are delivered to the human body. From reading a single page about the emerging field of genetic engineering in a high school textbook, a spark was ignited in Dr. Biju Parekkadan's mind that still breeds curiosity to this day. He now runs an applied research laboratory at Rutgers University that specializes in creating engineered human cell therapies. His inventions led to the founding of Sentien, a pioneer in combining cell therapy with drug delivery devices to treat severe inflammatory diseases. His work has even extended into the realm of science fiction as an effort to stimulate the imagination of our next generation of inventors. Dr. Parekkadan received his a PhD in Chemical and Medical Engineering from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, where he also completed all MD studies. His efforts have been recognized through notable awards including being named a Presidential Early Career Scientist by the Obama administration, the highest honor of an early stage investigator.

Meet our Student Speakers

...

Luis Fernandez

Executive Director of the Google Community Leaders Program

The two most important days in our lives are the day we are born, and the day we find out why. Luis is still working on the second part, but hopes to change the world along the way. Being a first-generation college student, education has always been the lens of empowerment for Luis. It served as his guiding light toward his passion for human rights and social justice.
Throughout his time as a student, Luis has had the opportunity to work on many different issues centered on human rights and social justice - including education access and affordability, mental health and disability rights, and advocacy around marginalized and under-represented communities. Luis' passion is also rooted in mentorship and leadership development.

...

Gia Farooqi

Co-founder & CEO of Roshni Rides, Supply Chain Student

When Gia first entered in the Hult Prize in October 2016, she had no idea about the journey that she was about to embark on. Over the course of 10 months, Gia and her team answered the Hult Prize challenge of restoring the dignity of 1 million refugees by the year 2022 through their social start-up, Roshni Rides. Gia and her team of 3 incredible friends and individuals, Hanaa, Hasan, and Moneeb, were able to bring a start-up from concept to pilot in the hopes of earning $1 million in investment money and impacting 1 million lives.
Gia is graduating this January with a major in Supply Chain Management and double minor in Political Science and Women & Gender Studies. She is a social justice advocate, a spoken word artist, and a coffee addict.

A few words about TEDx


What is TEDx?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxRutgers, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxRutgers event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.




About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 30 years ago, TED has grown to support its mission with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

The annual TED Conference takes place each spring in Vancouver, British Columbia, along with the TEDActive simulcast event in nearby Whistler. The annual TEDGlobal conference will be held this October in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world get help translating their wishes into action; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self- organized TED-style events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED.


We'd love to hear from you!

Email: tedxrutgers@gmail.com

If you have any questions, please email us at tedxrutgers@gmail.com. One of the members of the team will get back to you as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Check us out on social media!

TEDxRutgers Annual Conference 2016