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).

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Akshat Dave

Akshat is a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT Media Lab in the Camera Culture group led by Prof. Ramesh Raskar. He received his Ph.D. from Rice University and Masters and Bachelors from IIT Madras. His research lies at the intersection of applied optics, computer vision and machine learning. His work has been recognized by Ralph Budd Best Thesis Award, OSA Best Paper Prize and fellowships by Texas Instruments and Qualcomm.

Alaa Maalouf

"Dr. Alaa Maalouf is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT CSAIL, working with CSAIL director Prof. Daniela Rus. He is also an associate at Harvard SEAS, and a machine learning researcher at project CETI. Before that, he obtained his PhD. from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Haifa, where he was supervised by Prof. Dan Feldman. He worked at several tech companies and startups including Mellanox Technologies (acquired by NVIDIA) as a chip design engineer, and DataHeroes as a lead machine learning researcher. In 2025, Dr. Maalouf will be joining the University of Haifa as the Neubauer assistant professor of Computer Science."

Andreea Bobu

Andreea Bobu is an incoming Assistant Professor in the AeroAstro Department at MIT. Her work is at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, and mathematical human modeling. Specifically, Andreea studies algorithmic human-robot interaction, with a focus on how autonomous agents and humans can efficiently and interactively arrive at shared representations of their tasks for more seamless and reliable interaction. She obtained her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley with Anca Dragan in 2023. Prior to her Ph.D. she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT in 2017. She was the recipient of the Apple AI/ML Ph.D. fellowship, is a Rising Star in EECS and an R:SS and HRI Pioneer, and has won best paper award at HRI 2020 and the Emerging Research Award at the International Symposium on the Mathematics of Neuroscience 2023.

Andres Rico

Andres is a Ph.D. student from Mexico City at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. He has a background in robotics, AI, and innovation. He is interested in understanding ways in which we can improve how we design, manage, and operate cities. His current work at MIT is focused on the development of community-scale, low-cost, and opportunistic sensor networks and algorithms. These systems aim to empower local communities with better information for resource management and promote larger scale policy changes; enhancing the social and environmental performance of cities.

Andrew Lo

"Andrew W. Lo is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the director of MIT’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering, a principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, and an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His current research focuses on systemic risk in the financial system; evolutionary approaches to investor behavior, bounded rationality, and financial regulation; and applying financial engineering to develop new funding models for biomedical innovation and fusion energy. Lo has published extensively in academic journals (see http://alo.mit.edu) and his most recent book is The Adaptive Markets Hypothesis: An Evolutionary Approach to Understanding Financial System Dynamics. His awards include Batterymarch, Guggenheim, and Sloan Fellowships; the Paul A. Samuelson Award; the Eugene Fama Prize; the IAFE-SunGard Financial Engineer of the Year; the Global Association of Risk Professionals Risk Manager of the Year; one of TIME’s “100 most influential people in the world”; and awards for teaching excellence from both Wharton and MIT. He received a B.A. in economics from Yale University and an A.M. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. "

Annika Thomas

Annika Thomas is a PhD candidate at MIT’s Aerospace Controls Laboratory, specializing in robotic perception. She aspires to design, integrate, and optimize autonomous robotic systems while contributing to a more inclusive culture of women in STEM.

Cayden Pierce

Cayden Pierce is a graduate researcher at the MIT Media Lab with a focus on using wearables and augmented reality to enhance human communication and learning. With a background in software, electrical engineering, and design, his work spans various facets of human-computer interaction. Cayden is currently involved in developing smart glasses that leverage AI and context-aware technology to transform traditional language learning methods, aiming to make learning faster, better, and more rewarding. Some of his previous projects include a mobile engineering research lab, brain stimulation musical headphones, visual-feedback benchpress, understanding language model latent space, visual brain decoding wearables, and other systems at the edges of human augmentation.

Deborah Douglas

Deborah Douglas has been interested in aerospace history for forty years. Her passion is sharing stories about the history of technology. Amazingly, Douglas’ first job was at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and she has done stints at the NASA Langley Research Center, and Science History Institute before joining the MIT Museum in 1999 as the inaugural curator of science and technology. She writes books and articles, curates exhibitions, contributes to documentary videos, teaches a class on MIT history and is privileged to work as part of a talented team who care for 1.5 million artifacts in the MIT Museum’s collections. "

Emily Capodilupo

"Emily Capodilupo is the Senior Vice President of Research, Algorithms, and Data at WHOOP, Inc., where she leads all efforts around creating algorithms to optimize human performance using physiological data. In this capacity, Emily oversees research efforts which have produced novel findings around predicting risk for COVID-19 prior to symptom onset, identifying differences in daily vital sign patterns between women who have term and preterm pregnancies, and the relationship between long-term sleep patterns and mental health. Emily is passionate about closing the gap in understanding women’s health, an area that has long been under-funded and under-investigated by traditional academic research, and working toward a world in which we all have access to actionable data that enables health span elongating decision making. "

Geoff von Maltzahn

Geoffrey von Maltzahn joined Flagship Pioneering in 2009 and serves as general partner. He is an inventor, entrepreneur, CEO, and the co-founder of multiple groundbreaking companies that integrate biology and data science to transform human health and sustainability. Geoffrey has co-founded companies that have, in aggregate, achieved over $10 billion in public and private market capitalization. Through his role in Flagship Labs, the company’s innovation foundry, Geoffrey has created companies that include Quotient Therapeutics, Tessera Therapeutics, Generate:Biomedicines, Indigo Agriculture, Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), and Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB). These are pioneering, respectively, somatic genomics, Gene Writing™, generative biology, carbon farming and plant microbiome products, engineered cells and cell-specific gene therapies, and the first human microbiome therapeutics. Geoffrey currently serves as CEO of Quotient Therapeutics, board chair of Tessera Therapeutics, chief innovation officer and board director of Indigo Agriculture, board director of Generate:Biomedicines, and as CEO of multiple new stealth therapeutics and sustainability companies. Geoffrey has served as founding chief executive officer of several Flagship companies including: Tessera Therapeutics, where he led the development of its pioneering Gene Writing™ technology; Cobalt Biomedicine, which he led from inception to merger with Sana Biotechnology; and Indigo, where he led the development of the company’s plant microbiome platform and the discovery of the company’s first commercial products: Indigo Cotton, Indigo Wheat, Indigo Corn, and Indigo Soy, which are now used on millions of acres. Previously, Geoffrey was the chief technology officer of Seres Therapeutics, where he led the discovery of SER-109, the first microbiome therapeutic to report positive Phase 3 data, and built out the company’s discovery platform. Geoffrey has deep expertise in genome engineering, the microbiome, bioengineering, and nanotechnology. He is listed as an inventor on over 200 patent applications and patents, and he has co-authored more than 20 peer-reviewed articles. Geoffrey has received a number of awards and honors, including Bloomberg 50's Ones to Watch; Business Insider’s 30 Biotech Leaders Under 40; Endpoints 20 Biopharma Leaders Under 40; Fierce Pharma’s Most Influential People in Biopharma; Codex’s World’s Top 50 Innovators; Boston Chamber of Commerce Ten Outstanding Young Leaders; the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, awarded to the most innovative students at MIT; the National Inventors Hall of Fame Graduate Student Prize; the Biomedical Engineering Society Graduate Research Award; and the Harvard-MIT Martha Gray Prize. Geoffrey and his inventions have been profiled by Forbes, The Economist, CNN, Bloomberg, WIRED, Fast Company, Business Insider, Scientific American, Popular Science, Boston Globe, TechCrunch, Barron’s, Endpoints, Fierce Biotech, MIT Technology Review, and other media. Geoffrey was awarded a PhD in biomedical engineering and medical physics from MIT under the mentorship of Sangeeta N. Bhatia, MD, PhD; an MS in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego; and an SB in chemical engineering from MIT.

Guy Fedorkow

Guy C. Fedorkow received his BASc and MASc in Engineering Sciences at University of Toronto, and went on to develop both communications and high-throughput parallel computer architectures at Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, MA, Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, where he has served as system architect for a number of communications products. Guy’s work currently includes infrastructure security and trusted computing topics at Juniper Networks, the Trusted Computing Group and IETF. In addition, Guy works on history-of-computing in collaboration with colleagues at the MIT Museum and at the Computer History Museum.

John Leonard

John J. Leonard is Samuel C. Collins Professor of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering and Associate Department Head for Education in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is also a member of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). His research addresses the problems of navigation and mapping for autonomous underwater vehicles, self-driving vehicles, and other types of mobile robots. He holds the degrees of B.S.E.E. in Electrical Engineering and Science from the University of Pennsylvania (1987) and D.Phil. in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford (1994). He is an IEEE Fellow (2014) and an AAAS Fellow (2020). Prof. Leonard is a Technical Advisor at Toyota Research Institute.

MIT Video Game Orchestra

The MIT Video Game Orchestra is a student-led ensemble at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dedicated to playing original arrangements of video game music, film soundtracks, and all kinds of music not usually heard in concert halls. Made up of a mix of orchestral, band, and popular instruments, we play a wide variety of genres. All our arrangements are written by members of the orchestra and are tailored for the group, and we hold workshops to help members develop their arranging and orchestration skills. Check out our social media pages at https://linktr.ee/mitvgo!

Runako Gentles

Runako Gentles is an international student from Jamaica studying environmental engineering at MIT. He is working towards helping the Caribbean adapt to climate change and develop sustainably. He wants to combine his love for public speaking, music and entrepreneurship to move the needle in achieving a more sustainable and equitable world. In the upcoming fall, he will going to Stanford University to pursue a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering.

Steve Brown

Steve Brown is an AI innovator and entrepreneur with a dynamic background in software development, filmmaking, physics, and startups. Based in Malibu, California, Steve’s work focuses on leveraging media and technology to transform human relationships and our connection with the planet. As Founder of BotSciences, he is pioneering AI agents as tutors to revolutionize personalized education. At Abundance360 and PHD Ventures, Steve developed AI applications to enhance mindset, purpose, and community. He also directs and produces impactful documentaries at Ignite Channel Inc., including "CHASING EINSTEIN," "POACHED," "TWINSTERS," and "SPARK: A Burning Man Story." Additionally, Steve co-founded Sneakertopia, and held board roles at Invently LLC and Hudl. With two successful startup exits and over 100 U.S. patents, Steve's innovative approach continues to push the boundaries of AI and media, unlocking human potential and exploring new realms of understanding.

Tobin South

Tobin South is a PhD Candidate at MIT working on privacy and verifiability for AI, an Australian-American Fulbright Scholar, and an entrepreneur.

Tsun-Hsuan Johnson Wang

Tsun-Hsuan Johnson Wang is a PhD student in the Distrbuted Robotics Lab at MIT CSAIL. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan. He also did research in the industrial research groups such as Liquid AI, MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, Uber Advanced Technologies Group, etc. His research lies in the intersection of robotics, simulation, and machine learning and his goal is to build intelligence that can interact reliably with the physical world.