This past Saturday, the University hosted a TEDx event in the Talley Student Center Ballroom. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, is a set of conferences held around the world in an attempt to circulate “ideas worth spreading,” the organization’s motto.
TEDx events are licensed TED events which are set up and run independently. TEDxNCSU’s discussion question was “what really matters?” The half-day event consisted of discussion from faculty, students and influential people in the global community, who each had a maximum of 18 minutes to relay their thoughts on a particular subject to the audience.
200 tickets to the discussion were available for free at Talley Student Center on Oct. 11 and sold out within a few hours, revealing the extent of the event’s popularity.
Ameera Bayoumi, a senior in industrial engineering, said she attended the event because it was extra credit for her environmental ethics class and because it was being sponsored by her college.
“I was going to go to the show regardless, but the fact that the College of Engineering was sponsoring it made me even more excited to go. I really enjoyed the discussions they had that centered around engineering because I could really relate to them,” Bayoumi said.
Francis de Los Reyes, a professor in environmental engineering, was primarily in charge of the event because he has a TED license. Many other volunteers were part of the advisory team that was heading TEDxNCSU, including David Dean, Tracy Dixon, Michelle Grainger, Jennifer Weston and Jessica Wilson.
“Because the theme of the event was very broad, we were able to have faculty members, students and others outside of the N.C. State community come together to speak about a wide range of topics, from race relations, to environmental protection, to global health policy,” Los Reyes said. “In fact, it’s this fact about the discussions that is the core of TED. Basically, if they are good ideas, they should be spread to others.”
The event featured Marshall Brain, founder of the site HowStuffWorks; Saul Flores, a Caldwell Fellow philanthropist; Michael Giancola, director of the Center for Student Leadership; Dick Gordon, host of American Public Media’s “The Story” and many others. Grains of Time, the University’s all-male a cappella group, also performed during the second half of the event.
The topics of discussion ranged in subject from global health policy to history of race relations in the United States.
After the show, those in attendance applauded the efforts of those who put the event together, calling it a great success. Tayyaba Rayyast, a junior in biological sciences, was in attendance throughout the entire duration of the event and was intrigued by all the presentations.
“At first, I thought the show would not be too organized because the theme was so broad, but now that I look back on it, I think the theme was the best decision they made. It was really interesting and fun to hear the perspectives people had on a wide array of topics,” Rayyast said.
Ahsan Raina, a senior in chemical engineering, was also in the audience during the event and appreciated the efforts of those who presented.
“Not everyone can stand in front of a large crowd and convey their sometimes-controversial point of views to the audience — it really takes guts to do that. But, I think that was one of the biggest reasons why I enjoyed the event,” Raina said. “Everyone was so open-minded and professional in the audience and I think the event owes a large part of their success to that fact alone.”
TEDxNCSU was presented by the College of Engineering and the Office of Sustainability. It was also sponsored in a large part by Bayer Crop Science and CREE. Further, the presenters of the event thanked the College of Design and the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Program for lending their expertise to the event.
