Theme: Breaking Convention

TEDxQuestU will take place on March 3rd 2018 from 9am-12pm at Quest University Canada. The theme for this year's event will be "Breaking Convention" watch the video below to see some of our speakers!

Video: https://goo.gl/WvmcJY

Quest University
3200 University Boulevard
Squamish, British Columbia, V8B 0N8
Canada

Brodan Thiel

Athletic Director

Since initially dropping out of high school, Brodan has ventured out to complete his masters graduate. After returning to school, Brodan completed a Bachelor of Arts and Science at Quest University before attaining a Bachelor of Education and Teaching Certification at Simon Fraser University. His undergraduate studies focused on how role modeling in educational institutions and through sport can impact lives. Brodan then completed Masters of Education program focusing on Positive Coaching at the University of Missouri. Brodan believes that everyone has a unique purpose in life and they must go through a series of experiences in order to grow towards what they were uniquely created to do. He has become fascinated with how acts of kindness, grace, physical activity, a sense of belonging, and words of affirmation can enhance the human experience. He is currently an athletic director by day, and basketball academy owner by night,

Colin Wilt

Tech Enthusiast

Colin Wilt is a former student of Quest University Canada, focusing on history, political science, and technology. After graduation, Colin joined the Admissions team at Quest University as a Recruiter, spending time traveling in the mid-west and western regions of the United States as well as British Columbia. He is also a co-founder of Arche Technologies Ltd., a startup focusing on machine learning, data collection, and new ways of using these technologies to better our focus on providing secure browsing. His talk will focus on gaps in research on the field of ethics in technology. Having studied Non-Lethal Weapons in Peacekeeping, and in his research for Arche, Colin noticed that often developers are trying to quickly fill the gaps in technology rather then sit back and ask what would be the most ethical way of approaching said field?

Easton Smith

Futurist

Easton is a futurist and transhumanist with a background in Bioethics (Msc.) and Physics, Philosophy, and Politics (Bsc). Easton’s current focus is catastrophic risks emerging with biotechnological change. Easton believes that progress in biotechnology will create daunting new arms control issues that are so severe they will challenge our liberal-democratic political systems and could disrupt or make obsolete the semi-anarchic international order. The idea is that biotechnology progress is likely to widely disseminate the capability to engineer many different biological weapons of mass destruction. Compared to nuclear and chemical weapons, these weapons will be much more dangerous, and extremely difficult to keep track of. Easton plans to continue his research into this new arms control issue as a PhD student in international relations this coming fall.

Emma Davy

Teaching Fellow

Emma Davy completed her BSc and PhD in Chemistry at the University of Victoria in 2010 and 2015, respectively. After completion of a research post-doctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa at the Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation, Emma joined the Quest University Canada community as a teaching fellow in the physical sciences in September 2016. In this talk, Emma will discuss "breaking the convention" or the overused phrase "I'm sorry" - by Canadians, by students, and sometimes, by educators.

Grant Babin

Head Instructor Aikidaily

Grant Babin Sensei originally started practicing Aikido 20 Years ago, and has been teaching for 10. Before moving to Squamish, in 2016, he lived in Tokyo and studied intensively at the Aikikai World Headquarters under some of the best teachers in the world and was awarded the rank of 4th degree black belt in 2015. Today, he is the head instructor for Aikidaily International Academy in Squamish and teaches locally and abroad. His passion for Aikido, and other traditional martial arts, has given him a deeper understanding of how these arts can effect practitioners physically, mentally and spiritually. With certain martial arts being included in the Olympics and the growing popularity of mixed martial arts competitions, public perception of martial arts has changed.

Hannah Petrillo

Domestic Violence Survivor

Hannah's research is focused on what makes an individual healthy. Specifically, she is interested in the various ways people tend to their physical, mental, and spiritual health and how such various forms of ‘medicine’ – ranging from pharmaceuticals to meditation – manifest in the body and mind. For five years she worked with her local search and rescue team and during her gap year before attending Quest, she used her skills as an emergency medical technician/ primary care paramedic to serve communities in Uganda and Kenya. In line with her desire to help others she is now opening up about her experience of domestic violence. In this talk, she shares her story to addresses how the complexities of domestic violence can trap anyone. She hopes her talk will bring awareness and understanding to the hidden yet ever so prevalent world of abuse and will empower others to find healing in sharing their own story.

Linda Epp

Activist

Linda Epp recently was the Advanced Education Coordinator for Lil’wat Nation in Mt. Currie, BC and supported and assisted with sponsoring 45 Post-Secondary students. Her ancestry stems from the Sechelt Nation on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. She organizes the Whistler's Sisters in Spirit Vigil on October 4th which honours the hundreds of missing Aboriginal women and girls in Canada. Linda also installs "Red Dresses" in various locations in Whistler which signifies and Aboriginal woman or girl who has gone missing. In her spare time, Linda volunteers as a Village Host, in Whistler, BC.

Samantha Leigh

Waste Diversion Researcher

Samantha is a third-year student at Quest University Canada, who has researched waste management since her first year. She developed her interest in waste diversion in Ontario, where she assisted a teacher in conducting mandatory biannual waste audits for the entire school. Since then she has built her experiences by leading waste audit research at Quest. With interests in media and communication, behavioural studies, space use, and data management, Sam has created a waste management program overhaul at Quest that she hopes will make her school a leader in the Sea to Sky Corridor. When not immersed in school work, she enjoys exploring the nearby forests and rivers, and experiencing the best of what Squamish has to offer. Her talk is titled, "There's no such thing as 'garbage'".