In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

MIT Stata Center
MIT CSAIL, 32 Vassar Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139
United States

Behnaz Farahi

Behnaz Farahi is an award winning designer and critical maker. She is an Assistant Professor at MIT Media Lab where she leads the Critical Matter research group. She holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Media Arts and Practice from USC. Her work addresses critical issues such as feminism, emotion, perception and social interaction. Farahi has won several awards including the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Digital Design Award, Innovation By Design Fast Company Award, World Technology Award. She is a co-editor of an issue of AD, ‘3D Printed Body Architecture’ and 'Interactive Design: Towards a Responsive Environment'.

Debbie Douglas

Debbie Douglass arrived at the MIT Museum. Deborah Douglas has a dual role—Senior Director of Collections and Curator of Science and Technology. And she not only collects and curates, but also serves as a teacher, a speaker and a visible advocate for all things MIT. Debbie led the creation of the “MIT 150 Exhibition,” working with community members to select 150 objects most important to the Institute. In 2016, she led the creation of another wonderful exhibit when MIT celebrated 100 years in Cambridge. She contributed to the decades-long planning of the new MIT Museum – and at the same time, she was managing an enormous effort to digitize the Museum’s collections and create an online portal for open access to the amazing assets of MIT.

John Hart

John Hart is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity and Center for Additive and Digital Advanced Production Technologies (APT) at MIT. John’s research focuses on additive manufacturing, nanostructured materials, and the integration of computation and automation in process discovery. John has published more than 125 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is co-inventor on over 50 patents, many of which have been licensed commercially. He has also co-founded three advanced manufacturing startup companies, including Desktop Metal. John has been recognized by prestigious awards from NSF, ONR, AFOSR, DARPA, ASME, and SME, by two R&D 100 awards, by several best paper awards, and most recently by the MIT Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Lara Ozkan

Lara Ozkan is a researcher at the MIT Computer Science and AI Laboratory (CSAIL) and the MIT Media Lab, focused on the intersection of biology, computing, and health equity. After graduating from MIT with a degree in Computer Science and Molecular Biology as a U.S. Presidential Scholar, she will pursue an MPhil in Biological Science at the University of Cambridge as a Marshall Scholar.

Lauren Davis

Lauren Davis is a senior undergraduate student at MIT studying biological engineering. She is interested in structural biology and how machine learning can be used to design therapeutics. She is pursuing a Master’s in Engineering working on developing scoring functions to identify promising peptide inhibitors. Lauren also played as a defender on the MIT soccer team.

Lily Janjigian

Lily Janjigian is working in the Earth Intelligence Lab, conducting computer vision research for agriculture mapping. Lily was a member of the varsity cross country and track & field teams throughout her undergrad, and is a huge fan of distance running.

Victory Yinka-Banjo

Undergrad Student in Computer Science & Molecular Biology, MIT Incoming PhD Candidate in Computational Biology & Medicine, Cornell School of Medicine