Theme: Beyond The Conversation

A conversation is an exchange of ideas using words. These conversations can be dialogues about hopes and dreams, current events, or fond memories of days past. Conversations happen everyday, but what about the conversations that inspire us to take action? Beyond the Conversation highlights the individuals who take action to go above and beyond the initial dialogue, inspiring others to make a difference.

Our event will feature:

An illuminating stage design
3 sessions
12 Speakers, 1 Student Speaker, and 3 Performances
Interactive activities and exhibits during intermissions

and much more!

Mondavi Center
1 Shields Avenue
Davis, California, 95616
United States

ALISA

Baile De Fuego

Baile De Fuego is UC Davis' premier salsa, bachata, and general latin dance club founded this year. Here we will have two of its members (Imaan Taghavi & Kristen Duke) showcase Salsa and Bachata. You will be enthralled with endless spins and grins. You will be dazzled with daring dips and flips. Please put your hands together for Baile De Fuego.

World Touch Performance

World Touch Experiment is a duo formed by two students sharing the same passion to arrange world music with no boundaries. Shayan Azizi, Pianist, inspired by the works of Chopin, believes that music isn't music if it doesn't make the heart dance or cry. Rafael Solari, born in Bolivia, fuels his strong passion for percussion instruments by applying Peruvian and Bolivian rhythms to global styles of music.

Akshay Oberai

Akshay Oberai is Co-founder and CEO of TipdOff, a financial social network which empowers individual investors to make smart stock market decisions. Before TipdOff, Akshay worked in business development at cyber security firm Norse where he focused on the financial industry and was instrumental in securing major accounts such as Discover. Akshay was also a co-founder of Software Plantation, which successfully became the virtual software provider for Pranalytica, the world’s leading designer of High Power Midwave Infrared and Longwave Infrared Quantum Cascade Lasers for homeland security. He loves giving back and is an avid philanthropist. In his spare time when he isn’t thinking of the next big idea, he enjoys following basketball and politics, both of which are a passion of his. While he loves his career choice, another dream of his was to be an attorney. Akshay graduated from Pepperdine University where he studied Business Administration and Political Science.

Cathie Apple

Cathie Apple has spent thirty years playing the flute, and fifteen years teaching yoga. On the music side of her life, she is a founding member of Sacramento’s new music ensemble Citywater, and performs with the Sacramento Baroque Soloists, Camerata Capistrano, Celtic bands Cahersiveen and Lady of the Lake, and Kritan band Radiant Friend. On the yoga side of life, she teaches Hatha, Vinyasa, and Bikram styles of yoga at Arden Hot Yoga and other Sacramento area studios and gyms.

Clay Brandow

Clay Brandow is a recently retired hydrologist now seeking other diversions. A college student in the early 1970’s, he became involved in planning, building and living in the Domes at Baggins End on the UC Davis campus. This improbable student-built housing project, which is still going strong four decades later, taught him life lessons about patience, persistence, and perseverance. Naturally prone to pessimism, he needs to re-learn this life lesson from time to time. Clay met the love of his life, Brooke, at the Domes and they married in 1978. They have two grown daughters and a two-year old granddaughter. After graduating from UC Davis in the mid-1970’s, Clay and Brooke worked in the Sierra Nevada and the southern San Joaquin Valley. They returned to Davis in 1986, where they live today.

Elizabeth Sweet

Toys today are dominated by pretty pink princesses and brawny superheroes, but has it always been this way? Elizabeth Sweet is a sociologist whose research on gender, children’s toys, and social inequality examines this question. She has written about gender and toys for the New York Times and The Atlantic and her work has been featured in many national and international press outlets, including The Guardian, NPR, and MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Show. Born and raised just outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Elizabeth spent a decade living in Oregon before coming to Davis, California for graduate school. She currently works as a postdoctoral scholar and lecturer in sociology at UC Davis and she is the proud mom of a 13-year-old daughter and three feisty cats.

Gurminder Singh

Gurminder Singh is a Professor of Computer Science at the Naval Postgraduate School and the Founder and CEO of OpunUp, Inc. He wants to open up the world’s knowledge and make it accessible to everyone by democratizing contact between people. He thinks he has found a way to do so! Gurminder is a big believer in volunteerism and entrepreneurship, and sees a big value where these two intersect.

Helen Koo

Dr. Helen S. Koo is a fashion designer, researcher, and educator who loves fashion and cares about our health and environment. She is working as an assistant professor in the Department of Design at UC Davis, and a director of the Fashion Design and Technology Lab (FT Lab). She teaches fashion design courses and her research and creative activity interests include apparel design and product development, wearable technology, functional garments, and sustainable designs. Her recent works have involved developing garments for people with disabilities and chronic diseases. Helen has lived in the US for seven years in Texas, Minnesota, Alabama, and California. She loves traveling, taking photos, and spending time with her family and friends. She will share smart fashion, which is expanding the boundaries of fashion design by implying interdisciplinary technologies and techniques, and explain how it can change our lives.

Krishna Subramanian

Krishna Subramanian is a UC Davis Alumnus that dropped out of medical school to pursue entrepreneurship. He is classically trained to play the Tabla by Zakhir Hussein and composed his first song at the age of 10 that was played by the SF Symphony. Krishna’s love for photography has led him to create a community driven photo book for San Francisco. Krishna is constantly intrigued at pushing the limits of technology but that fearlessness once found himself trapped in an endless loop on an F1 track going over 200 MPH. Krishna founded India’s first recommendation platform Burrp!, acquired by Network 18. He then co-founded BlueLithium, an online ad network that was acquired by Yahoo! for $300 million. His next venture, Mobclix, a mobile ad exchange, was acquired by Velti. Krishna currently runs an incubator, Team in Residence, investing in early stage companies.

Krishna Subramanian

Krishna Subramanian is a UC Davis Alumnus that dropped out of medical school to pursue entrepreneurship. He is classically trained to play the Tabla by Zakhir Hussein and composed his first song at the age of 10 that was played by the SF Symphony. Krishna’s love for photography has led him to create a community driven photo book for San Francisco. Krishna is constantly intrigued at pushing the limits of technology but that fearlessness once found himself trapped in an endless loop on an F1 track going over 200 MPH. Krishna founded India’s first recommendation platform Burrp!, acquired by Network 18. He then co-founded BlueLithium, an online ad network that was acquired by Yahoo! for $300 million. His next venture, Mobclix, a mobile ad exchange, was acquired by Velti. Krishna currently runs an incubator, Team in Residence, investing in early stage companies.

Matthias Gruber

Matthias Gruber is a cognitive neuroscientist in the Dynamic Memory Lab at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience. He is investigating why we remember some things better than others. He is especially interested in how we can harness the power of curiosity to benefit learning in daily life. Originally from Regensburg in Southern Germany, his hometown is also known for being the most northern city of “Italy.” Do not ask him why that is because he usually does not stop raving about his hometown! Having lived in Northern California since 2011, Gruber enjoys the down-to-earth and eco-friendly vibe in Davis. When he is not in the lab writing scripts to analyze brain data, you can either see him with his 2-year old son at the playground, skiing in Tahoe, or enjoying a high-quality drip coffee around town.

Rose Truong

Since she was young, Rose has been able to make herself comfortable in any situation. She could talk to any person, without intimidation, as if she had known them her whole life. She is a leader in the Biomedical Engineering Society and is especially proud to learn biomedical engineering at UC Davis because it allows her to combine innovation with community. She contributes to society by working toward solving today’s medical problems. She has two cats, Bernoulli and Feynman, both of whom she loves way too much, enough to buy raw cat food on a college student budget.

Sarah Meredith

Sarah Meredith currently serves as Director of the UC Davis Center for Advocacy, Resources and Education (CARE), the on-campus, confidential resource for students, staff, and faculty who have experienced sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, and stalking. Her career in violence intervention and prevention started in 2003 when she moved to South Lake Tahoe and began working with the South Lake Tahoe Women’s Center. Since then, she has served as a victim advocate, an educator, a grant manager, and a program director. Over the course of her career, she has worked with hundreds of survivors of violence, and has facilitated countless educational programs and professional trainings to various learners, including children and teens, college students, advocates, law enforcement officers, and prosecutors. When she’s not working, Sarah loves to be outside or in the yoga studio. She is a collector of plants and books, and is well-known for her risotto making skills.

TJ Lee

TJ is a recent UCD alumna from LA, now residing in excitingly expensive San Francisco. She currently works as a Community Manager at Mozilla, collaborating on marketing campaigns and managing a global volunteer program. TJ also co-founded Oppin, a career development website featuring job-hunting strategies from top professionals. While not grinding and fighting parking tickets in the city, you can find her snapping photos, coffee shop bumming, and blogging on life and love advice. She has an infectious passion for fried chicken and even held a birthday party at KFC. Guess you can tell she’s all about doing what you want to live life to the fullest! Even if it means exchanging a 10-piece bucket for a cake.

Wendy Meluch

Wendy Meluch holds a MA in Museum Studies from San Francisco State University, and BA’s in Anthropology and Tourism Management, and a Certificate of Latin American Studies from Michigan State University. As a specialist in museum evaluation, Wendy talks with visitors to understand how exhibitions can best connect with the public. Some of her recent projects have have looked at self-identity and ethnic affinity, climate change, firearms in our society, and making STEM accessible to students with indigenous heritage. Wendy’s work weaves together her diverse interests in anthropology, tourism, creativity, science literacy, art, performing arts – even belly dancing! She attributes her wide range of interests, and fascination with people to extensive travel in her youth, including celebrating her 15th birthday on Easter Island before it became a tourist destination.