Theme: Future World

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).

Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, K1S5B6
Canada

Celine Fitzgerald

Celine Fitzgerald is a recent St. Lawrence College Graduate, and a current 4th year Psychology major at Carleton University. Celine’s passion for people and food come with her wherever she goes, competing in a variety of fruit décor competitions internationally. Her fruit décor has been put on display at such events. Celine also volunteers with the Student Alliance for Mental Health and hopes to obtain her Masters in Social Psychology in the following years. Celine’s interest in the importance of interpersonal communication was inspired by her own disconnect from Facebook.

Chris Tomalty

Chris Tomalty is a graduate of Carleton's Public Affairs and Policy Management program, where he wrote his Honours Research Essay on money laundering and tax evasion within his International Studies specialization. In addition to his academic requirements, he took a deep interest in the many things that could be exposed by statistics and put that to work in his life and extracurricular activities. Chris is looking forward to discussing the role of the individual information revolution in our society and how we should deal with the challenges it creates.

Christian Robillard

Since the age of 14 years old Christian has been in and around the charitable sector: be it front line delivery, fund raising, or planning various event, programming and initiatives for a number of different demographics. Christian is currently the Executive Director of the Student Philanthropy Council at Carleton University that seeks to foster a culture of philanthropy on Carleton’s campus by fund raising for campus based causes and by providing professional development opportunities for the Carleton philanthropic community. Christian is also a speaker for the United Way speaker’s bureau where he speaks on the topic of investing in young people, and is a recent recipient of the Governor General’s Caring Canadian award for service towards building a smarter, more caring nation.

Christopher Dieni

Christopher Anthony Dieni is a part-time professor of Biotechnology at Algonquin College and a contract instructor in the Institute of Biochemistry at Carleton University. He has taught undergraduate and college courses in immunology, toxicology, pharmacology, and biochemistry, among others. He has supervised honours students conducting thesis research projects in the areas of nanotoxicology, chemical-biological interactions, enzymology, and physiology. Chris is the inaugural recipient of the Carleton University Alumni Association Young Alumni Achievement Award, presented to him in 2013. He was twice-nominated by his students for teaching awards while at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB.

Claudia Buttera

Claudia Buttera has been a laboratory coordinator in the Department of Biology for 27 years and was a recipient of the 2014 Capital Educator Award. Although information is a foundational block of education, she believes that successfully educating for the future has to be about much more than information transfer. It will require us to be creative and collaborative in our approach and to re-direct energy and focus toward the fundamental human drivers for learning as usable tools so that students can successfully transform information, into new ideas.

Isaac Wurmann

Isaac Wurmann is a first year journalism and human rights student from Winnipeg, on Treaty One territory. Inspired by a childhood narrated by CBC radio, he hopes to one day become a political reporter with a particular interest in indigenous issues, foreign policy, and the justice system. In other parts of his life, Isaac has been called a poet, baker, and amateur map collector.

Jim Davies

Jim Davies is an associate professor in the Institute of Cognitive Science at Carleton University. Director of the Science of Imagination Laboratory, he explores processes of visualization in humans and machines and specializes in artificial intelligence, analogy, problem-solving, and the psychology of art, religion, and creativity. His work has shown how people use visual thinking to solve problems, and how they visualize imagined situations and worlds. In his spare time, he is a published poet, an internationally-produced playwright, and a professional painter, calligrapher, and swing dancer. http://www.jimdavies.org/

Paul Donaldson

Originally from Vancouver, BC, Paul Donaldson has worn many hats in his professional and academic careers. Previous roles include a Border Security Officer at Vancouver International Airport, a Broadcaster in interior BC, an Announcer for University of Victoria (UVic) Vikes Athletics, a Research Assistant for UVic’s Department of Political Science, and a Teaching Assistant at Carleton University. Out all of this experience, Paul has learned one thing: he is a life-long learner and lover of public speaking. He has over 15 years of public speaking experience in an academic and professional capacity and, following his life-long passion, in November 2014, Paul started a Public Speaking Consultancy where he works with students and professionals to connect them with their natural speaking style and ability.

Phill Motuzas

Phill Motuzas has spent most of his life developing user interfaces and as a result he strongly identifies with Tron because they both fight for the user. Also, because light cycles are just plain awesome. Phill has been fortunate enough to work with a lot of very talented people on a number of challenging and forward thinking projects. He has worked on user experiences for award-winning prototypes, award-losing prototypes, and devices we use everyday. As a professor at Algonquin College he challenges his students to design next-generation user experiences by focusing on how new technologies can be applied to solve user problems.

Pramodh Yapa

Pramodh Yapa is a final year Theoretical Physics student, who has had the privilege of working in physics laboratories around Canada, stoking a desire to spread the excitement present in fundamental physics research today. Pramodh's physics interests range from low temperature particle physics to condensed matter theory. Outside the shackles of academia, Pramodh Yapa is an avid hiker, aspiring musician and perspiring swing dancer. After graduating, Pramodh will be moving to the West Coast to do an MSc. in Theoretical Quantum Computing at the University of Victoria.

Todd Julie

Todd Julie is a Masters candidate at Carleton's School of Public Policy and Administration, as well as a Junior Research Associate with the Institute on Governance. He was a finalist in IPAC/CAPPA’s inaugural Blueprint 2020 National Student Paper competition. His paper, entitled The Promise and Potential of Gamification for Open Dialogue, proposes a gamified solution to the federal government’s citizen engagement efforts. He will present an expanded lecture on these ideas in May, at the IPAC-CAPPA Research Conference on May 25th and 26th, 2015, at Glendon College, York University, as part of a panel on Gamification. Todd’s other research expertise is in digital governance and more specifically digital regulation. He can be followed @ToddJuliePrime on Twitter.

Yannick D’Mello

Yannick D’Mello is an Engineering Physics student with an Economics minor. Through his passion for research, he has lived in cities across Canada, Germany and India and backpacked to many more. His love for learning pushed him into other activities as well, and he has worked as an artist, martial arts teacher, tutor and dance teacher. After moving to Ottawa for his degree, Yannick founded the Ottawa Jive Hive – a well-known non-profit dance community that hosts weekly dances and collaborates with bands and dance schools across Canada. He also plays varsity water polo and is the President of two societies, including the Carleton Engineering Physics Society that has recently started its own mentoring program and Coffee with a Professor series. Yannick’s aspiration as he leaves Ottawa and moves on to graduate school, is that these two organizations continue to grow in his absence.