TEDxNijmegen and TEDx Youth at MIT

Today, EyeWire‘s Amy Robinson will be presenting EyeWire and discussing the power of crowd-sourcing at TEDxNijmegen. You can check out the livestream of the entire event here at 1:30pm US EDT. This will be EyeWire’s debut on the TEDx stage, but certainly not its last: it will be making another appearance at TEDxAtlanta on May 7th!

On the note of TEDx, the TEDx Youth Charles River event was hosted at the Stata Center at MIT yesterday, April 7th, and featured a number of inspiring young people who all spoke on the theme of “redefining.” A summary of each below:

Romi Kadri:

“…focused on remaining creative and adventurous as he applies his network and experience to drive the world’s most valuable, high-impact ideas to market.”

Claire O’Connell of EyeWire will be teaching about EyeWire on a bike trip across the USA this summer, and Romi put her team, Spokes, in touch with Free Flow bikes in the UK, who is donating 7 bikes toward the cause!

Romi discussed a disconnect between people who love to craft and invent, and people who seek to bring products and ideas to market. He brought a whole new definition to the “quality v. quantity” dichotomy – some work their entire lives to create something of high quality, but never quite get it out to the world; others, meanwhile, try idea after idea, in hopes that one will work out.

Romi definined quality as:

  1. Unique
  2. Meaningful 
  3. Experiential 

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Delian A.:

MIT sophomore ; Thiel 20 under 20 finalist ; always wears one black and one white shoe 🙂

“The Magical Bracelet” that monitors blood sugar levels and correspondingly administer insulin ; Jerry the teddy bear for diabetic children who the children feel can empathize with their condition ; medication adherence (taking as much medicine as one is prescribed when they are supposed to). Delian’s final message: the only way to drive innovations like this in healthcare is for consumers to demand it.

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Divya Srinivasan:

Founder of MIT’s GlobeMed Chapter ; featured in WBUR-NPRUSA Today, and The Boston Globe for spurring the mental health task force at MIT ; a cappella singer, runner and dancer. What doesn’t she do?!

The importance of fostering a supportive environment in order to battle mental health disorders on college campuses across the country. Divya left the audience only after sealing a verbal pact with us to tell our family, friends, spouses, and even people we don’t know that we’re here to listen and support. Incredible people care about carrying happiness into the future. 🙂 

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Sivakami Sambasivam:

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Starting with an image of premade cakes at an ice cream shop, Siv made the comparison between the cakes available to buy in an ice cream shop and the jobs featured on career fair lists. Her awe-inspiring talk left the audience pondering the question: “will you order one of the premade cakes, design your own, or go out there and buy your own ingredients?”

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Kevin Rustagi:

Kevin, cofounder of Kickstarter ultra-success Ministry of Supply, focused on sharing ideas: the world is headed toward a point in time when it will be one giant brain, with ideas elegantly connected and what’s now called “small talk” generating the big ideas of tomorrow. “We are all connected – sharing allows us to think inside of someone else.”

The process of innovating and sharing?

idea (spark) — share (in a trusted circle) — prototype (tell a few more people) — ask questions (but not of many people! Who likes this, and who thinks it’s interesting?) — test (put it out there — lots of people!) 

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Samantha Smith:

Designer of her own major in government, human nature, and innovation; co-founder of Startup Booster, a company working to grow entrepreneurship in Hungary; co-author of an untitled multi-media book & brand that introduces teens to the topic of major world issues

Remove the self from systems analysis

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Ian Cinnamon:

Author of programming textbook for Mcgraw-Hill (before starting college, as a 14 year old!) ; creator the 22nd best selling iPhone app ; Stanford bound bundle of awesomeness!

Enjoy the game of life, and love what you do

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What an amazing collection of people to have in one place!

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