Theme: Spark

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).

Moss Arts Center
330 Turner Street NW
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia, 24060
United States

Alex Gagliano

Undergraduate, Computational Modeling & Data Analytics

Alex is an undergraduate from Virginia Tech studying Computational Modeling & Data Analytics, with a minor in International Studies. He is fascinated with the intersection between astronomy and the arts, as well as how astronomy education and research differs around the world. Alex worked as a researcher at the Cerro-Tololo Observatory in Chile and an Astronomy Ambassador with the American Astronomical Society. Most recently, he interned at the International Astronomical Union’s Office of Astronomy for Development in South Africa aiding in astroinformatics outreach. Alex hopes to enter graduate school next year, studying gravitational waves and communicating the beauty of the cosmos to others.

Amy Price Azano

Assistant Professor of Adolescent Literacy in the School of Education

Dr. Amy Price Azano is an Assistant Professor of Adolescent Literacy in the School of Education at Virginia Tech. Her scholarship focuses on rural literacies, place-based pedagogy, and the literacy needs of special populations. She is the co-Principal Investigator of Promoting PLACE (Place, Literacy, Achievement, Community, and Engagement) in Rural Schools, a five-year, 1.9 million dollar U.S. Department of Education grant designed to support gifted education programs in high-poverty rural communities. Dr. Azano has served as a keynote speaker on rural topics in the U.S. and abroad. She is also an affiliate faculty with the Virginia Tech Center for Autism Research, serves on the steering committee, leads the education research core, and founded and coordinates “SAFE: Supporting Autism Friendly Environments,” a community outreach program designed to support community inclusion and access for individuals with autism.

Josep Bassaganya-Riera

Professor, Biocomplexity Institute

Dr. Josep Bassaganya-Riera is a professor at the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech., an entrepreneur and investor. He is the scientific founder of BioTherapeutics, a biotech Company that develops oral therapeutics for autoimmune diseases and diabetes. Dr. Bassaganya-Riera directs the Nutritional Immunology and Molecular Medicine Laboratory at Virginia Tech, where he employs computational and mathematical models of the gut immune system in combination with preclinical and clinical experimentation to gain mechanistic insights about the gut immune system and to develop new therapeutics for gastrointestinal diseases. He has over 17 years of preclinical, mechanistic and translational research experience in immune-mediated, infectious and inflammatory diseases, published over 120 peer-reviewed papers, has 15 patents and has secured over $18 million in funding from NIH grants and contracts, industrial partners, and equity financing.

Joseph Wheeler

Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture + Design

Joseph Wheeler is a Professor of Architecture in Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design. He pursues professional research in environmental and sustainable design and assumes leadership positions in the implementation of design theory and ideas. In pedagogy, he believes that there is a distinct advantage to the exposure of students to the direct making of Architecture and therefore is involved in many multidisciplinary full-scale research projects. As co-director of School of Architecture + Design’s Center for Design Research, he has led multiple interdisciplinary projects which include the 2005, 2009 and 2010 Solar Decathlon house projects, the latter of which won first place overall in international competition in Madrid, Spain. He’s currently gearing up the 2018 Solar Decathlon competition in Dubai.

Lee Sandstead

Art Historian

Art historian Lee Sandstead has been on one amazing art adventure after another—from exploring the world’s greatest museums to summiting Albert Bierstadt’s Mt. Rosalie to walking over 2,200 miles through portions of France, Portugal and Spain along the medieval pilgrimage trail Camino de Santiago to document ecclesiastical art and architecture. He was host of Travel Channel’s Art Attack with Lee Sandstead, which secured a Daytime Emmy nomination. In this series of thrilling TV documentaries, Lee and crew travelled to various museums around the United States examining each museum’s five, must-see artworks in an informative, entertaining manner. Lee has long been a pioneer in new technologies in the art-history classroom, and with the release of his #1 best-selling iBook Cleaning Mona Lisa, Lee continues to use technology to spread his passion for art.

Mike Bowers

Assistant Professor, School of Neuroscience

Mike Bowers is an Assistant Professor in the School of Neuroscience at Virginia Tech. As a Postdoctoral Fellow, Mike gained international distinction for his discovery of a sex difference for a gene called FOXP2, which is responsible for brain development and language. Mike’s program of research focuses on how sex hormones and genes impact the development of the brain circuits responsible for language and communication disorders such as autism and stuttering.

Narges Dorratoltaj

Scientist in Life and Health Modeling, VT Alumna

Narges Dorratoltaj is a Virginia Tech alumnus with a PhD in biomedical and veterinary sciences and a Master of Public health with infectious disease concentration. Her research focuses on mathematical modeling of infectious diseases from epidemiological, immunological and economic perspectives. Currently, she is a scientist in life and health modeling at AIR worldwide.

Pablo Tarazaga

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department; Principal Faculty in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction

Dr. Pablo Tarazaga is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech in the Mechanical Engineering Department and is a Principal Faculty in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction. He currently directs the Virginia Tech Smart Infrastructure Laboratory and the Vibrations, Adaptive Structures and Testing Laboratory. His research focuses on the development of novel and fundamental insights that harness, measure, mitigate and analyze vibrations using complex multi physics modeling, innovative experimental testing and real-world implementations. Applications include large scale building instrumentation for human localization and tracking, security and threat detection, emergency response and evacuation, and smart material applications for fluid structure interaction in drag reduction and non-contact fluid mixing.

Reginald Stroble

Assistant Director, Office of Multicultural Student Affairs; VT Alumnus

Reginald Stroble is a Virginia Tech alumnus. He is a master’s graduate of Educational Leadership and Administration program in the School of Education, and is currently the Assistant Director of Multicultural Student Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. As a coach and mentor for young African-American boys in Richmond, he hopes to positively influence the lives of these young men the way others did for him.

Siddhartha Roy

Environmental Engineer and PhD Candidate, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Siddhartha Roy is completing his PhD in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. He works with Marc Edwards researching failure mechanisms in potable water infrastructure, specifically in copper and non-leaded plumbing. He is the student leader and communications director for the Flint water study research team. Sid helped uncover the citywide lead contamination and other corrosion-caused water quality issues in Flint, Michigan.