1 + 1 = 3

TEDx Auckland (Part 1)

So on Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the TEDx Auckland event! For those of you who’ve never heard of TED, get out. Kidding, here’s the website: http://www.ted.com/ It’s basically a conference where people come to talk about exciting and inspirational things, covering a broad range of subjects such as technology, entertainment, design, and many more. If you ever feel bored and uninspired, go to the TED site and listen to some of the talks. Some may even change your world :)

Anyway, TEDx is an independently held conference around the world (i.e. organised by people of that city). I had such a great time there I thought I’d write a quick blog post about it before I go sleep (8am ward rounds noooo).
There were a total of 17 speakers, most of whom I’d never heard of, except one person (Professor John Windsor, who teaches surgery at Auckland Hospital. We got some awesome lectures/tutorials from him!). I’ll list all of the speakers and write a few words about what they talked about and what I thought of it.

1. Dr Michelle Dickinson is a nanotechnology engineer who talked about the various applications of nanotechnology and science. I found it awesome because she showed some examples of how science can make dreams come true, like flight (superconductor/magnet hovering, pretty cool stuff). 
2. Andrew Patterson is a famous architect who showcased some of his designs and introduced us to some basic concepts in architecture. It was quite cool seeing some of his designs, and how he incorporates various themes (e.g. Maori culture) into his designs. 
3. Dr David Krofcheck is a physicist who talked about the Higgs Boson. I found him to be a funny presenter, but his talk wasn’t that useful for me since I’d already learnt most of the stuff he talked about on the internet in much simpler terms. 
4. Dr Assil Russel is a dental surgeon who talked about her program which helps provide medical care to Iraqi children. Her talk centred around how everyone can help just by having an “I care” attitude and showing compassion. Her talk was quite inspirational and I think many people liked her the best that day haha.
5. Alistair Knott is a computer scientist and linguist who talked about linguistics and how it is helping the development of more natural AI speech (think Siri and Google Now). To be honest, I found his talk quite interesting because he talked about how the brain conceives language and I could understand the neuroscience behind it haha.
6. Pip Hall is a water ballerina. I really liked her talk because she is a middle-aged woman who, along with her friends, decided to start a water ballet group to pursue a more joyous life. And as you know, I am very pro “find your joy in life” :)
7. Dr Paul Wood is a psychologist who had an interesting story. He told us about his life story which involved murder at the age of 18 and going to prison for ten years. There, he took up a bachelor of psychology and even earned his masters degree…in PRISON. He talked about how we should all break out of the prison of our own minds. It made me think, if someone can get a masters degree in prison, we really have no excuse not to do anything…
8. Professor John Windsor is a surgeon who talked about multiple organ failure. Now, I found his talk fascinating because he talked about new research showing how lymphatic drainage from ischamic gut may cause multiple organ failure, which we never learned about in med school. However, his talk did sound a bit like a med school lecture so it confused some of the non-science people XD But definitely one of my fav talks that day.
9. Sam Hunt is a NZ poet who recited a lot of his poems. I actually found this segment just a tad boring because I’m not really a poetry guy, but I did find some of them quite beautiful.
10. Emma Rogan is a designer who talked about the 100 Days Project - an idea which she took from a Yales Design Class assignment where you have to create something every day. I think this is a very good idea and in fact, it is what I made this blog for! Although nowadays I have much less time, I still try to post an ARK post as often as I can, and if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I brag about my Encyclopaedia of Absolute and Relative Knowledge being such a lifechanger lol. I think everyone should try the 100 Days Project! Just set a theme, some rules, and away you go~
11. Aakash Poira and Jade Tan are two computer scientists who came to talk about a product called MobileEye, which is an app that allows blind people to “see” by taking a photo, sending it to a friend, and getting feedback about what is in that photo. Smart idea I must say! Especially in such a digital world.
12. Sean Gourley is an entrepreneur/physicist/athlete who came to talk about his product, Quid. This was fascinating because he talked about augmented intelligence - the concept of combining the intuition of a human and the analytical power of a computer to produce awesomeness. Quid is a program that takes Google searches, analyses it and produces visual maps of how all the info link up. It’s fascinating stuff. Plus, his talk was the most “TED-like” haha. Probably one of my favourite talks that day.

Uh oh, it’s 12:20am and I really need to sleep to get my minimum 6 hours sleep… I’ll complete this list tomorrow, but you get the gist of how awesome that day was for me! Part 2 coming tomorrow~ XD

Good night everyone!

(Continued here in Part 2: http://jinavie.tumblr.com/post/33154253024/tedx-auckland-part-2)