Events

University of Pittsburgh, November 5th, 2010 – Something Completely Different

Our third TEDxUniPittsburgh event pulled together students and community members to talk about black swans – different projects, unique stories, and new ideas.

Session 1: Stories

Briana Niblick

Khet Mar

Keara McKenna

Session 2: Play

Friday Night Improvs

Adam Nelson

Session 3: Projects

Abe Taleb

Matt Hannigan/The Sprout Fund

Jon Rubin

Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center, May 8th, 2010

The theme of our second TEDxUniPittsburgh event was EXPERIENCE.
The afternoon was divided into three sections:

  • NEW Experiences
  • DESIGNING Experiences
  • HAVING Experience

It was held in the Randy Pausch Interdisciplinary Studio at CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center. We had over 100 guests in attendance.

To introduce NEW EXPERIENCES, the afternoon began with an interactive performance by Liz Chang, Dane Toney, and Michele de la Reza from Attack Theatre.

Our host, Michael Capristo, introduced roboticist Marek Michalowski. Marek gave a talk entitled The Dance of Social Interaction.

We then watched our first TED Talk video of the day, Derek Sivers, How To Start A Movement:

Continuing the New Experiences session, Jesse Schell spoke about education in The Future Is Beautiful.

Then we had a SURPRISE speaker, David Newell, better known as Mr. McFeely of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. He gave an inspiring talk about Fred Rogers and the New Experiences involved in that revolutionary educational program.

This concluded our New Experiences session. During a 30-minute discussion break many connections were made, ideas shared, and snacks consumed. To facilitate conversation, every guests’ name tag listed three things that they are passionate about (which we got when they filled out their ticket application). We also featured a few ETC project such as Mocotila and the Innovation Oakland kiosk project in our discussion area.

Andrew Hosmer kicked off our second session, DESIGNING Experiences, with Talking Through A Robot. He reflected on his experiences in designing a robot named Quasi.

Our second TED Talk video was Tom Wujec, Bulid A Tower, Build A Team.

The ETC students were represented well by The Yume Project. On stage were four of the five team members: Christine Barnes, Mike Honeck, Andy Ping Li, and David Teot. Their other team member, Yan Lin, was unavailable for the event. They presented the results of their semester’s work.

J.D. Whitewolf followed with the talk Designing Experiences: How The Brain Works (And What To Do About It!).

With the Designing Experiences session complete, we had another 30-minute discussion break. This time we asked guests to clear the room so we could prepare another surprise for them.

Our third and final session, HAVING Experience, began with that surprise. Underneath each seat was a Powerball Lottery ticket. So far, I am aware of $6 having been won from that surprise.

After the surprise we watched our final TED Talk video, Jane McGonigal, Gaming Can Make A Better World.

Our final speaker of the day was Daniel Szecket with his talk Jumping In: Choosing vs. Deciding.


Gregory Lehane | Mary Rawson | Tammy Ryan

To conclude the day, we had a one-act play called DINKS. The play was written by Tammy Ryan, directed by Marci Woodruff, and starred Mary Rawson and Gregory Lehane.

But wait, there was one more surprise…

Some lucky people in the audience had a golden ticket in their programs. They each won a book that was donated by O’Reilly books.

Watch the talks here.

University of Pittsburgh, December 5th, 2009

Our inaugural event featured six student speakers from Pitt – four undergraduate and two graduate. Through three sessions (Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis) we talked about new ideas of development and community service, the need for new values systems in both copyright law and sustainability, the archetype of the scientist, and, perhaps most of all, the ‘bottom billion’.

The event was held on Pitt’s campus in 343 Alumni Hall. With people coming and going between sessions, we estimate that we had 50 people for the first session and 60-70 for the second two. We hope to see similar or increased attendance at future events.

© 2010 TEDxUniPittsburgh. All Rights Reserved. This independent TEDx event is operated under license from TED.
This event is not being organized by the TED conferences — this is an independently organized TED event.

Special thanks to Brian Yee & TEDxCMU for sharing their clean and well-designed wordpress theme.