A number of speakers gathered in rooms 206 and 209 of the Old University Union last Saturday afternoon to give talks on innovative topics as part of the “TEDx” event.
TEDx is a project of Technology, Entertainment, Design, a non-profit organization aimed at sharing ideas and knowledge through conferences and online videos.
“TEDx events provide a free open source platform that encourages the distribution of great ideas,” said TEDx spokeswoman Melody Serafino. TEDx events, though licensed by TED, are independently organized.
Henry Baughman, a junior majoring in economics, and Leonard Simmons, a sophomore double-majoring in political science and philosophy, politics and law, are TEDx Binghamton’s two lead organizers.
“I think this is perfect for the kids on campus that are TED junkies. People who love TED will love that it finally came to their campus,” said Aaron Cohn, Student Association vice president for programming. “As we try to put ourselves in the plane of the top 20 universities in the country, it’s events like this that those campuses have.”
Baughman said he and Simmons got the idea for the event when they were watching videos on TED’s website and saw TEDx being advertised.
According to Simmons, the seven professors who were chosen to speak at the TEDx event are considered to be experts in their field.
“We tried to diversify among the departments, spoke to a lot of students, looked at the disciplines and specialties, and built a schedule of events around those talents,” Simmons said. “I think organization, and getting a multitude of faculty and organizations to work together, was very challenging, and required a strong support structure of the many students involved to make it happen.”
“These conventions really expand the notion of what education can be by involving the public in conversations that too often happen only, or mostly, on university and college campuses,” said Anna Gotlib, an assistant professor of philosophy at BU. “Since technological innovations eventually affect us all, I think that it is very important that as many people as possible participate, and TED conventions make these kinds of important conversations accessible and engaging.”
Gotlib spoke at the TEDx event about progressive research in memory modification and related ethical and legal concerns.
TEDx events are growing in popularity, according to Serafino.
“In 2009 alone 279 TEDx events were hosted,” she said. “That number more than tripled to 984 events in 2010. For 2011-12, there are already 691 events being coordinated in 42 languages and 93 countries.”
In addition to organizing the event, Baughman and Simmons are working on a much larger project: turning TEDx into an annual event on the BU campus.
“Right now we are in the process of raising $4,000 to send a selected professor to TED Active 2012 in Palm Springs, Calif., which goes on from Feb. 27 to March 2,” Simmons said.
Max Pensky, chair of the philosophy department, has been chosen to attend. This would allow TEDx Binghamton to expand and hold larger events in the future.
TEDx regulations state that no more than 100 individuals may attend TEDx events.
— El Heller and Sereena Karsou contributed to this report.