Along with Jim and Carole Young, the TEDx SMU conference was coordinated by Geoffrey Orsak. Geoffrey Orsak, PhD “has been called one of this nation’s key leaders in engineering research and education and its impact on economic development and global competitiveness. The editors of EDN – a leading international publication for the fields of engineering design and innovation wrote that Dr. Orsak is ‘one of the brightest minds in the world in engineering education’. And in 2006, the editors of EE Times magazine called him a ‘true pioneer and visionary’ and named him their first ever Educator of the Year in engineering and science.”
In my interview with Geoffrey Orsak while backstage at Tedx SMU, I asked: What was your purpose in bringing TEDx to Dallas and SMU?
Geoffrey says, “I love these big, crazy ideas, and sharing ideas with people all over the community. Our theme is: What Will Change Everything?”
Geoffrey Orsak and his team will have follow up with attendees to keep each thinking and addressing that question. They’ll also be showing clips of the presenters on their TEDx site.
Join us to see and hear what he has to say. His excitement over these“big, crazy ideas” is catching.
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Niki Nicastro McCuistion
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Along with Geoffrey Orsak, the TEDx SMU conference was coordinated by Carole and Jim Young, ardent TED conference devotees. The Youngs and Geoffrey brought TEDx to SMU. They worked with Bobbie and Sharon Lyle- Lyle School of Engineering to get this done.As Carole says, “One step at a time. If you’re very passionate, you can change the world.” Jim echos, “Individually we can make a difference, we can, each one of us, change the world.”
Join us and our TEDx guests as we talk about things that matter with people who care. Visit the website for more information on TEDx SMU.
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During a recent breakfast sponsored by the National Math and Science Initiative, headed up by Tom Luce, I had the unique and thoroughly amazing opportunity of watching and interviewing Arthur Benjamin (Art), a Mathemagician and Professor at Harvey Mudd College in California. Harvey Mudd, a liberal arts college, specializes in science and engineering. It boasts well-rounded undergraduates from a liberal arts perspective. Forty percent of whom go on to receive PhD’s, one of the highest percentiles in the nation.
During his presentation, Art Benjamin demonstrated his ability to square numbers in his head, while the rest of us followed along and tried to beat him while using calculators. Even to the 7th percentile, he was faster than the calculator and of course the people using them. At one point he missed an answer by one point. His comment, ”I do occasionally make mistakes, like picking the wrong people.”
Art Benjamin used a book of calendars and people birthdays to ‘guess’ when someone’s birthday had fallen. He was right 100% of the time. Art has been squaring numbers for 30 years and he shows us his system that appears elegant, logical and simple. What was powerful about his presentation was that he demonstrated through logic that: (1) ordinary mortals can master this, and (2) everyday people can be better equipped to handle math.
Art Benjamin’s presentation ties in with the goal of the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) who is working to increase our competitive edge in the global marketplace through math and science, both of which are essential to move our economy forward. America’s 50 million public school students are not getting the math and science skills they need to prepare them for good jobs and to keep America competitive in the global economy.
NMSI is the public-private partnership that provides the ideas, inspiration, and resources to help America close the competitive gap. Check out their website to get an idea of the phenomenal and necessary work they are doing to assure we stay competitive in the global marketplace by utilizing our young people’s math and science ability. Their work has truly made an impact.
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At TEDxSMU last month we had a brief visit with William Kamkwamba, the Don Quixote of Africa, and Bryan Mealer, journalist. William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer are co-authors of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, one of Amazon’s Top 10 books of the year.
A truly remarkable story, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is the story of William Kamkwamba, a young man from Malawi, who, in 2002, at fourteen years of age endured one of the worst famines in Malawi’s history. The famine killed thousands of people and forced the Kamkwamba family of 20 to the brink of starvation. William had to drop out of school since his father, a corn and tobacco farmer, could not afford the $80 a year school fees.
But William was just as hungry for education as he was food. William tells us,
“I looked at my father in those dry fields and knew it was a future I could not accept.” Becoming a farmer “who farmed to live rather than for profit was unacceptable.”
So he continued studying on his own at a local library which had just opened in his old school. The library was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Even though his English was very rudimentary he taught himself basic physics, primarily through studying the diagrams and photos in the bedraggled fifth grade science book, Using Energy. In his autobiography, he says, “The book has since changed my life.”
While his villagers poked fun and thought him crazy, William rummaged through junk at scrap yards and used garbage- discarded tractor fans, shock absorbers, plastic pipes, and bicycle parts and built a windmill that generated enough electricity to produce twelve volts that powered four lights. A second windmill was able to irrigate the family garden. Since electricity is a luxury that fewer than 2 percent of Malawians enjoy, news spread. In his book he says, “A windmill meant more than just power. It was freedom.” He tells us, “My family would never go hungry again.”
Bryan Mealer, whose work has appeared in Esquire and Harper’s, among other publications, is the author of All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo and a former Associated Press staff writer, had been based in Kinshasa, Congo for four years. He was despondent and burned out, constantly reporting on the bad news that comes out of Africa. He happened to read a Wall Street Journal story about William, after William had gone to a TED conference, and said to himself, “This is the story I’ve always wanted to write.” He believes a reporter has a responsibility to tell the news, good or bad, but “to find good stories you have to look for them.” The two teamed up to write an inspiring work.
Join us in this short clip as we talk about things that matter with people who care…
Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer The McCuistion Program
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The Nobelity Project is first and foremost about noble people doing the right things. However, they are also noble laureates, renowned for their work in various disciplines. Turk and his wife Christie have traveled the world interviewing these noble laureates. In our interview with Turk Pipkin, a very tall Texan wearing a T-shirt reading: “One peace at a time. Take the first step.” I ask him about his shirt and he says: “It’s our latest. We made a movie about problems and people wanted to know about solutions.”
Turk visited 20 countries to gain a perspective on what ennobles us and what are the most pressing problems needing solutions, today and in the future. We asked him what is one of the most critical issues we face:
“Water. It’s a huge problem. We interviewed one couple who work in Ethiopia. They founded A Glimmer of Hope.”
Turk tells us, “Here is one couple working with the problems of 2 million people.” A Glimmer of Hope tackles 3000 projects surrounding the water issue. “They will dig 2000 wells, 60 feet deep. It costs them $4000 to provide water for 500 people” Not bad at $8 a head.
Join us and Turk Pipkin as we talk about what an average person can do to make something noble happen that produces radical change.
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Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer
The McCuistion Program
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In 2005 Tanya Pinto started Baal Don, which means “Child Donation” in Hindi. Baal Don is a charity formed to help children in India. Tanya, born in India, took a sabbatical from her high powered Dallas advertising work to volunteer at Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Calcutta.
“The timing was right,” she tells us. “I had no pets, no boyfriend and I wanted to do something important. If I was going to give back, I thought, now’s the time.”
Tanya, also one of the presenters at TEDx SMU, says,
“I really wanted to work in an orphanage. My Grandpa was an orphan. So here I was, an Indian girl who had never lived in India, the country of my birth. So I went to Mother Teresa’s orphanage. There were 300 kids, 27 in a class. I washed nappies, changed diapers and taught.”
Tanya tells us of a people who have so little and yet are happy. She played with street children and got to know them and their names. There are 1 billion people in India and of these, 18 million are street kids and 40 % of the kids in India suffer from malnutrition. The turning point for Tanya was a quote by Mother Teresa that she saw on a wall in a Calcutta classroom, “If you can’t feed 100 people, then feed just one.”
Tanya chose to focus on that on. “I can raise money, I can feed one or two kids, and I can improve conditions.”
Join us and Tanya Pinto at TEDx SMU and hear more about her work.
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Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer the McCuistion Program
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
After Art Benjamin’s impressive display of the math skills that have given him the title of a mathemagician, we were able to speak with him backstage. Below we have posted a clip from his backstage interview where he discusses his passion for math. He states that he believes that everyone has the potential to do well in math. He expounds on this topic by discussing why he believes some have trouble with math. He ends by explaining the usefulness of practical math and what he feels would make math education more relevant for all. For the five minute clip, see the video below.
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Dan Burrus is considered, one of the top three gurus in the country on the future. In the 90’s he wrote the best seller Technotrends and many of his key points have become fact. His newest book, Flash Foresight: How To See the Invisible And Do The Impossible, takes a look at what we can do to transform our lives- in this century and decade- and pokes holes at the traditional ways of looking at the world and how we run our businesses.
He asks, “wouldn’t it be amazing if you could predict the future and be right?” Dan states that we can indeed predict the future. And we can have a better future as a result. Dan who bases his predictions on scientific principles tells us, “we all have a sense of foresight, but we don’t know how to trust or use it, yet it is a sense we can accurately make sense of”.
In part two of this series Dan talks about how to see invisible opportunities and solutions to seemingly impossible problems. He covers several additional points from his book:
- The key to doing something that seems impossible is to see invisible solutions.
- Take your biggest problems and skip them. You’ll often find that if there is a recurring problem, that isn’t the real problem you have to solve.
- Opposites work better.
- Anticipate by solving tomorrow’s problems before they happen.
- Direct your future or someone else will. Take charge of it.
His rapid fire dialogue and common sense solutions to many of the quirks of life and business challenges we all share will leave you saying, “Now why didn’t I think of that?”
Tune in and hear more of these incredible insights, as we talk about things that matter with people who care…
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1919 – 9.18.2011
