Wednesday, April 11, 2012

TED Challenge 2012

1) What is the TED organization about?

The TED organization is about the spreading of useful ideas and knowledge intended to educate and introduce a variety of useful topics to everyone. TED stands for Technology, Engineering, and Design.

2) What is the purpose of their website and how does the functionality of their site support that?

The purpose of the sight is to offer free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers. The functionality of the website supports it by uploading thousands of videos and speeches by thinkers, free, of course, and easy to access, displaying various videos as soon as you load the page.

3) As Engineers and Problem Solvers, which topic areas (the choices from the "Show talks related to:" section on the sidebar) are of most interest to us? Justify your answer.

I believe that the most interesting areas to engineers are the design, technology, and global issues tabs because we use design to come up with solutions to problems, technology to arrange what constraints and what we can do with them, and global problems because some of the problems may need engineers to come up with a solution to them.

4) Based on your previous answer, what are 3 talks (videos) on the site that appear like they would be of most interest to you as an Engineer/Problem Solver? Justify your choices.

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology, this talk solved the problem of humans being distant from our technology, how it is nothing like us, so Pranav created a solution where we use our bodies and surroundings to enact with this new technology, currently hung around our necks.

Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic?, Eben Bayer is a very Eco-friendly man, and he has his own company that takes an organic (really -- it's based on mycelium, a living, growing organism) adhesive that turns agriwaste into a foam-like material for packaging and insulation. He proposes that instead of our widespread use of plastic, we can use mushrooms, combined with other organic compounds, and make a safe to use plastic.

Klaus Stadlmann: The world’s smallest 3D printer, this man, Klaus, actually decided to invent the world's smallest 3-D printer when his laser printer broke while attempting to print off his thesis for his Vienna Technical University PhD.

5) Each student will watch a unique video (clear your choice with me... first come, first served!). Watch the video. Embed the video in your blog post and create a bulletized outline of the key issues presented in the talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html
  • Humans are too distant from technology
  • Need a way to enact better with technology
  • Use our bodies and motions to enact with new technology

6) How could you get involved in the field/technology/issue you chose to hear about? What experience/skills/training/education would you need to learn to get involved with this field?

I believe that to get involved with the technology advancement, I would need the education and skills of the engineering of the product, to know it well, inside and out. I would also need a lot of experience with robotics, like maybe a prostetic limb that the person could control, and then advance from there.

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