Theme: Kaizen

In the spirit of 'Ideas Worth Spreading', Princess Sumaya University for Technology proudly presents TEDxPSUT; an independently organized TED event which will take place on November 24th, 2018.
Under the theme ‘Kaizen’, we summon the Jordanian youth to grasp inspirational and revolutionary thoughts, and spread them in our society to enforce the constant improvement in all aspects of our lives. ‘Kaizen’ is a Japanese word with the literal meaning “continuous improvement," which has developed into a philosophy where every single step -no matter how big or small- contributes to becoming better in any aspect. It can encompass any and all disciplines. Inspired by that, a group of hand-picked, outstanding, and inspirational speakers will offer their expertise to you, connecting a variety of fields to our main theme in order to enrich the presence of making a change to the better.
The event is open not only to students, but to anyone captivated by the idea of TED. We welcome all applicants to attend!

Friendship Auditorium
Princess Sumaya University for Technology
Amman, ٰĀmmān (Al ٰĀşimah)
Jordan

Ahmad Al-Assad

Talentologist

Ahmad Al-Assad, founder of 'Talentology Training Company', is considered to be one of the top motivational speakers in the field. His vision and passion is to help people discover their talents and build their lives around them. Ahmad is a certified trainer from the Institute of Leadership & Management – Britain. He holds a BA in Marketing and a masters degree in creativity and giftedness. He has also earned a certificate in Strengths based education from Clifton Strengths School. He is currently running a delivering training workshops focusing on employees’ self-development and management skills. Qatar Foundation, Saudi Telecom, Dewa, Orange, Zain, Umniah, Nuqul Group are some of the regular companies he trains in. Ahmad also provides training programs to university and school students.

Asma'a Kayyali

Entrepreneurship Lecturer & Trainer

Asma'a Kayyali is a Project Manager at JOHUD. She is a former Business Lecturer at Princess Sumaya University for Technology, in which she has taught an Entrepreneurship course for undergraduates for two years. She holds a masters degree in Business Entrepreneurship and since earning it she worked as a freelance certified trainer with tens of organizations, private and public, universities and NGOs. She has trained hundreds of participants across Jordan, Turkey, and Tunisia, many of which established their startups with her follow-up mentorship program. Ms. Kayyali won the third place at the Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition held in 2012. She has also established an online platform and training academy in 2015 to help build awareness about entrepreneurship.

Farah Hourani

Fashion Designer

Creating fashion inspired by art is how Farah indulges her passion for mixing new materials into wearable art.Farah creates futuristic inspired designs that are dominated by ambiguous sci-fi concepts.Recently, she has ventured into the concept of fashion design meets technology through the latest laser cutting techniques.She has participated in runway shows in London, Beirut, Los Angeles, Barcelona and Amman and took part in the first season of the Fashion Star Arabia Series on Dubai One – reaching the finalist stage.She has collaborated with edraak.org to teach Fashion 101, in addition to participating in several panel discussions to support women including the ‘What She Said’ series at the W Hotel in Amman.Farah's current focus is creating an educational platform for women that serves as a go to guide for all things related to creating a fashion brand starting from sewing and pattern making to branding and accepting all challenges related to building an identity in the fashion world.

Hadeel Abu Soufeh

Activist & Consultant on Disability Rights

Hadeel Abu Soufeh is a consultant and a trainer of disability rights. She has been active in the rights of people with disabilities (PWDs) for six years. She began her experience in this field by being an active member in the campaign "It’s Time" at the University of Jordan to demand the right of education for people with disabilities on the basis of equality in opportunities with others. Hadeel is also the co-founder of 'Cumestier', which is an initiative that focuses on the importance of volunteering among people with disabilities in hopes to create a more inclusive community. In January 2015, she received the United Nations Volunteering/MBC Hope Award for her work with ‘Sar Waqtha’ and her volunteering. She provides technical assistance and training to organizations to guarantee inclusion of PWDs within these organizations. In December 2017, she was appointed as a member of the higher council for affairs of persons with disabilities’ board of Trustees.

Hamzah Al-Khawaldeh

Data Scientist

Hamzah Al-Khawaldeh is a Masters student of Data Science at Princess Sumaya University for Technology. He has a B.Sc degree in Computer Information Systems. He is a senior consultant in Business Intelligence & Big Data Applications with about 11 years of experience using Oracle and IBM technologies with various projects and implementations in public and private sectors regionally. Hamzah is the co-founder of Astrolabe Artificial Intelligence Academy that specializes in the fourth Industrial Revolution field. His goal in Astrolabe is to provide the entrepreneurs and innovators working in the fourth industrial revolution fields with technical support through an integrated journey from idea to product. Leading to the creation of environmental, social and economic value that facilitates and accelerates the shift towards sustainable manufacturing and production in the Arab World.

Hani Akasheh

Medical Doctor + Public Health Advocate

Hani Akasheh is a medical doctor and an entrepreneur. He is the founder of Human Energy Management, an educational and training platform that focuses on raising awareness on psychosomatic disease and mental health empowerment through delivering multi-modal, visual and educational programs. With over 250 public workshops/lectures delivered to a broad range of audience ranging from universities, youth empowerment programs to leading tech and corporate giants. His core mission in life is to marry science, technology and art into the awe inspiring universe of human transformation/optimization. Dr.Akasheh is also the founder of a non-profit company that focuses on delivering neuroscience and neuroeducation training to kindergarten teachers in under resourced areas in Jordan, with hopes of spreading more awareness on neurologically-friendly upbringing and ultimately bridging the gap between powerful scientific ideas and non scientific communities involved in childhood care and education.

Hanna Salameh

Architect

Hanna Salameh is a Jordanian architect, designer and artist ranked as one of the top 45 influential architects in the Middle East. Hanna completed both his bachelors and masters degree in architecture at McGill University in Canada. He is adamant about developing a new perspective on the production of modern architecture that is both relevant and specific to its context and culture while breaking architectural stereotypes and challenging social norms. Hanna is a sustainability enthusiast who has developed projects of high energy efficiency and environmental consciousness, with the main focus on the health benefits that are associated with “smart & green design”. He has given talks and lectures at several notable institutions including McGill University, University of Jordan, Greater Amman Municipality and Jordan Engineers Association.

Hiba Shabrouq

Product Marketing Expert

Hiba is a telecommunications engineer and a holder of a master’s degree in business entrepreneurship from PSUT. She’s been working in Orange Jordan for the past 6 years. Her experience expanded from the technical, into the enterprise telecom solutions consultation, and into the marketing field now as a product marketing expert. She was recently awarded the 2018 Stevie Award as the “Employee of the Year” for Women in Business/Telecommunications. She was also selected this year as the only Jordanian Women Ambassador in a forum held in Dallas. Hiba was selected as a TechWomen Emerging Leader in 2017, got her professional mentorship at LinkedIn HQ, and was part of the Jordanian team who won a seed grant for their project “Ozwah” that got the support of Queen Rania Al Abdalla. Moreover, Hiba is the president of New Horizons Toastmasters club. She was also named as Aspire 2017 Young Professional in Romania, and a 2017 WeMENA champions as female entrepreneur for resilient future.

Khalil Wahhab

Coach + Trainer

Khalil Wahhab seeks a better world through practicing his passion of supporting individuals in their journey of self actualization. He works with teams to unleash their capabilities through investing in their members’ potential and uniqueness appearing in their gifts and skills. He accomplishes this through utilizing coaching and tailored long term development programs. Khalil is the first Jordanian to join the worldwide guru and mentor of leadership – John C. Maxwell – in his international team of leadership coaches, trainers,and speakers. And in addition to his personal growth journey, being mentored by his mentor John, he is also contributing through his team in leadership development for individuals scaling up to governments, believing that “from leadership we either fall or prosper.” He established ‘Paradigm Shift Jordan’; a space dedicated for growth oriented individuals, couples, and teams who seek a supporting environment throughout their journey towards a life of significance.

Mohannad Abu Rizk

Film Director + Writer

Raised in Amman –Jordan, Mohannad Abu Rizk lives to be in film! He achieved a BA degree in Digital Filmmaking from SAE Institute in 2015, then founded ‘Sira Films’ to be its creative director and writer. Sira Films aims to become a leading movement in making a creative environment for films in Jordan, becoming one of the first online content creators to specialise in fiction short films, web-series, among other projects. Throughout the past few years he was able to lead Sira Production to work on projects with reputable clients such as UEFA Foundation, Sony, Global Citizen, BBC, UBER, AJ+, PEPSICO, French Embassy in Jordan, Jordan Tourism Board, and others. He has also been chosen by the Royal Film Commission to be part of Rawi's screenwriters’ lab of 2018 to develop the script of his feature film. Rawi's lab provides mentorship from acclaimed filmmakers, some of which are Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominated.

Omar Al Abdallat

Cartoonist

Omar Adnan Al Abdallat is an award-winning and an internationally acclaimed cartoonist. Omar is a seasoned trainer and a lecturer in creative production, drawing, caricature, creative thinking, and social media engagement through art. He worked in creative production and was a driver of creativity in many renowned companies like Rubicon, Abu Mahjoob, and Kharabeesh. He created several characters that became national symbols and are associated with Jordanian youth, such as Awad Abu Shiffeh, Abu Samra, Al Sheikh Khafash, Al Zaeem, and M3alem Sehs. In addition to that, he published over 2000 cartoons and 500 videos. Omar is a motivational and inspirational speaker who participated in many local, regional and international events, to name a few: TEDx Oporto in Portugal in 2015, Al Doha 8th convention held by Al Jazeera in 2014, Arab Cartoon Festival 2016 in Belgium, in addition to being a speaker at a cartoon conference in the State of New York in 2017.

Rana Dajani

Scientist + Social Entrepreneur

Dr. Rana Dajani is a Jordanian molecular biologist and Associate Professor at Hashemite University.She earned her PhD in molecular biology in 2005 from the University of Iowa.She has a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and a Eisenhower Fellowship.Dr. Dajani is a Fulbright scholar alumna,having received two Fulbright awards.She is a former Yale visiting professor at the Yale stem cell center and a visiting Scholar at both the University of Cambridge and the Stem Cell Therapy Center,Jordan.She spearheaded the effort to establish a law for stem cell research ethics in Jordan.She is a strong advocate for the theory of biological evolution and its compatibility with Islam.As such, she was a speaker at the Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowship symposium at the University of Cambridge and at the British Council ‘Belief in Dialogue’ conference,McGill University and MIT. She is also a Member of the Board of Trustees for Phi scientific Institute.

Yasmeen Shabsough

Football Player

Yasmeen is a passionate football player who began her journey at the age of 12. She won the National League title 4 times and represented Jordan in many international tournaments. In 2016, she took part in the Local Organizing Committee for the FIFA U17 Women's World Cup in Jordan. In 2017, Yasmeen joined the Equal Playing Field (EPF) initiative which climbed to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to set the Guinness World Record for the Highest Played Altitude Football Match. Yasmeen helped bring EPF to Jordan and co-organized/participated in the second EPF Challenge, "Jordan Quest 2018". Together they set another World Record, the Lowest Played Altitude Football Match, at the Dead Sea. Yasmeen’s passion provides girls and women a safe space to smash through the invisible barriers and experience how sports can positively shape their lives.