As a member of the Speaker and Content team at TEDxPenn, I helped our speakers craft compelling talks for global audiences. Our conference drew an audience of 1000 attendees and sold about $30,000 in tickets. The speakers I worked with included Mounir Ibrahim, a U.S. diplomat to Syria who tackles deepfakes; Vince Beiser, a journalist who studies sand mafias in India; Dr. Americus Reed, a Wharton professor who researches brand loyalty, and Dr. Cynthia Sung, a mechanical engineering professor who constructs origami robots.
Vince Beiser
As an investigative journalist, Vince Beiser is always looking for the next fascinating story. Wired Magazine sent him to a remote village in India to investigate a murder over one of the most precious natural resources in the world. To give you a hint, this resources is the foundation of our modern civilization--it is in the concrete of our buildings and the chips of our computers. And it’s running out. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser will dive into the logistics behind the most abundant resource in the world, and why we’re running out of it. Author of “The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization,” every audience member will leave with a newfound appreciation for the sand on our beaches, inside our smartphones, and in our lives.
Mounir Ibrahim
As a diplomat in Syria, Mounir Ibrahim witnessed firsthand the power of visual truth through images captured on the smartphone. Unfortunately, he also noticed that visual truth could be corrupted and altered, and that genuine evidence can be dismissed as fabricated images. This led him to work for a company that uses the blockchain to authenticate digital images which has recently been awarded by Fast Company as the #1 Most Innovative Company for Social Good. Mounir Ibrahim spent years working in the State Department in Syria and saw first hand the chaos and political turmoil raging in the country. His time working in diplomacy made him aware of the prevalence of fake news and the tendencies of people in power to fabricate events. He now works at Truepic, a company that utilizes cloud computing and blockchain technology to provide photo authentication for a variety of industries, ranging from insurance to government accountability.
Cynthia Sung
Inspired by the art of origami, Dr. Cynthia Sung researches techniques for creating cutting-edge foldable robots in the hopes that one day we can live in a world where every person can customize a robot to satisfy his or her specific needs. Using computational geometry, data-driven methods, and rapid fabrication techniques, she aims to provide intuitive design and implementation tools for making foldable robots, which have vast implications in the fields of medicine, education, and even space travel. Cynthia Sung is the Gabel Family Term Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab. She received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2016 and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University in 2011. Her research interests focus on computational methods for design automation of robotic systems. Robots integrate mechanical, electronic, and computational subsystems into physical devices that perform complex tasks ranging from autonomous navigation and manipulation to cooperative and social interactions. Cynthia aims to provide designers with intuitive computer-aided design and fabrication tools for creating customized robots and behaviors. Her work lies at the intersection of computational geometry, data driven methods, and rapid fabrication techniques such as 3D printing and origami-inspired assembly.
Americus Reed
What do Nike, Apple, and Disney have in common? These are not just global brands with tremendous market valuation. These are symbols of self-expression that can connect to people’s identities. Wharton Marketing Professor Americus Reed II, argues that branding need not be some evil, capitalistic enterprise. Dr. Reed suggests that branding is an important, ubiquitous and perhaps inescapable phenomena that when embraced and harnessed properly, can actually be a positive force to help people improve their lives. Americus Reed II, is the Whitney M. Young Jr. Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School. He is intellectually obsessed with how, when, where and why people figure out who they are, act on it, change and evolve. How can people make their lives better by tapping into the power of their identities? He is the proud Dad of a 7 year mixed chick whom he constantly toils to parentally ensure that she internalizes a “warrior princess” identity and makes the world a better place.