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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Bilge Yildiz

Bilge Yildiz is the Breene M. Kerr (1951) Professor in the Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Departments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she leads the Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces. Yildiz’s research focuses on laying the scientific groundwork to enable next generation electrochemical devices for energy conversion and information processing. The scientific insights derived from her research guide the design of novel materials and interfaces for efficient and durable solid oxide fuel cells, electrolytic water splitting, brain-inspired computing, and solid state batteries. Yildiz’s teaching and research efforts have been recognized by the Argonne Pace Setter (2006), ANS Outstanding Teaching (2008), NSF CAREER (2011), IU-MRS Somiya (2012), the ECS Charles Tobias Young Investigator (2012), the ACerS Ross Coffin Purdy (2018), the LG Chem Global Innovation Contest (2020), Rahmi M. Koc Medal of Science (2022), and the Faraday Medal of the RSC (2024) awards. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2021), the Royal Society of Chemistry (2022), and the Electrochemical Society (2023) and an elected member of the Austrian Academy of Science (2023).

Deborah Douglas

Debbie Douglas is the Senior Director of Collections and Curator of Science and Technology at the MIT Museum. She leads the Collections Team that aims to make accessible more than 1.5 million artifacts that can be used to tell important (and often entertaining) stories about science, technology, architecture, photography, art, and MIT.

Emre Gençer

Emre Gençer is the co-founder and CEO of Sesame Sustainability an advanced software platform offering comprehensive cost and sustainability assessments for the electric power, transportation, and industrial sectors. Sesame delivers high-resolution insights that empower decision-makers with actionable data, enhancing strategic planning and implementation. Prior to founding Sesame Sustainability, Emre was a principal research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), where he led the Energy Systems Modeling group. His research focused on optimizing energy technologies and integrating them into net-zero greenhouse gas systems, tackling both established and emerging energy challenges. His influential research has been published in top-tier journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature Scientific Reports. Emre’s work has notably shaped major studies, including the Energy Future Initiative’s (EFI) U.S. Hydrogen Demand Action Plan and MITEI’s Mobility of the Future. His innovative concepts, including Hydricity and SUFEWS, have been featured by leading technology news platforms, highlighting his significant impact on the energy sector. Emre holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and dual B.Sc. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Mathematics from Bogazici University in Istanbul. His entrepreneurial vision and research expertise continue to drive advancements in sustainable energy solutions.

Jacopo Buongiorno

Jacopo Buongiorno is the TEPCO Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Director of the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems (CANES), and the Director of Science and Technology of the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory. He has published over 100 journal articles in the areas of reactor safety and design, two-phase flow and heat transfer, and nanofluid technology. For his research work and teaching he won several awards, among which recently the 2022 ANS Presidential Citation. Buongiorno is a consultant for the nuclear industry in the area of reactor thermal-hydraulics, and a member of the Accrediting Board of the National Academy of Nuclear Training. He is also a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society, a Fellow of the NUclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH) conference, a member of the ASME, past member of the Naval Studies Board (2017-2019), and a participant in the Defense Science Study Group (2014-2015).

MIT Chorallaries

performance by - Katherine Lin Sarah Cao Grace Smith Makenzie Cunningham Janhavi Joglekar Sharon Zhu Zen Ho Sang John Magira Khari Payne Henri Jackson Luke Robitaille

Song Han

Song Han's research interest is efficient deep learning computing. He received his PhD degree from Stanford University advised by Prof. Bill Dally. He is also an Associate Professor at MIT (songhan.mit.edu). Song proposed the “Deep Compression” technique that is widely used for efficient AI, and “Efficient Inference Engine” that first brought weight sparsity to modern AI accelerator design. His team’s work on hardware-aware neural architecture search (once-for-all network) enables users to design, optimize, shrink and deploy AI models to resource-constrained hardware devices, receiving the first place in many low-power computer vision contests in flagship AI conferences. He pioneered the TinyML research that brings deep learning to IoT devices, enabling learning on the edge. Song received best paper awards at ICLR and FPGA. Song was named “35 Innovators Under 35” by MIT Technology Review for his contribution on “deep compression” technique that “lets powerful artificial intelligence (AI) programs run more efficiently on low-power mobile devices.” Song received the NSF CAREER Award for “efficient algorithms and hardware for accelerated machine learning”, the IEEE “AIs 10 to Watch: The Future of AI” award, and the Sloan Research Fellowship.

T. Konstantin Rusch

T. Konstantin Rusch is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), working under the guidance of Professor Daniela Rus. He earned his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Machine Learning from ETH Zurich, where he was advised by Professor Siddhartha Mishra.

Vijay Gadepally

Vijay Gadepally is a Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Supercomputing Center, a Visiting Scientist with MIT Connection Sciences and the Chief Technology Officer of Radium Cloud. Vijay also advises multiple early-stage venture backed startups. Vijay holds a M.Sc. and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The Ohio State University and a B.Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. Vijay’s research in high performance computing, artificial intelligence and environmentally-friendly computing has been featured in numerous articles in the popular press and has received numerous academic awards at conferences. In 2017, Vijay was named to AFCEA’s inaugural 40 under 40 list and was awarded MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Early Career Technical Achievement Award. In 2011, Vijay received an Outstanding Graduate Student Award at The Ohio State University.