"Kim Gorgens: Protecting the brain against concussion"-Katie Stone

Neuropsychologist, Kim Gorgens explains in this Ted Talk how important it is protect our brains from concussions. She says more than 4 million people get concussions every year. Gorgens explains that a concussion is defined as a "change in conciousness," rather than a loss of conciousness. Kim Gorgens shows an example of a hit on a football field and tells us that that hit has more force than a heavyweight boxer punching someone directly in the face. She explains that high school athletes are 3 times more likely to sustain a catastrophic injury than a college athlete. Dr. Gorgens also says that it takes children much longer to heal and their risk for more injuries increases. Also Dr. Gorgens explains how we do not fully know the long term effects of concussions yet, though the NFL's new research shows that the incidence of early on set dementing diseases in retired players with 3 or more concussions is much greater than it is in the general population. She instructs us that the only way to protect ourselves from concussions is to educate ourselves, speak out about the importance of protection, and also wear a helmet. This Ted Talk was interesting to me because I want to enter into the field of sports medicine and concussions are one the main focuses for research these days in sports medicine.

Dr. Gorgens recieved her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Southern Illinois University. She then went on to do her post-dotorate fellowship in Rehabilitation Psychology. Since 2001, Gorgens has taught at the University of Denver in their Graduate School of Professional Psychology. She was appointed by Colorado's Govenor to serve as tha hair of the state of Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund Board. Dr. Gorgens also serves as chair-elect of the Colorado Neuropsychological Society and was appointed to the American Psychological Association's Council on disability in psychology. She recieved the University of Denver Disablity Student Services Excellence in education award in 2007 for her advancement of clinical practice for people with disabilities. She also won the American Pschological Association Council of Disabilities in PsychologyMentor Award in 2008. Dr. Kim Gorgens has become successful by striving to educate people about disabilities.

Next year I will be attending San Diego State University to study Kinesiology with and emphasis in Athletic Training. I want to become an Athletic Trainer, though I am uncertain in which setting I would like to work in. Within the profession of Athletic Training there are many different opportunities. Some of these opportunities include working with high school or college teams, working with the military, or working with a dance company. At San Diego State, my junior and senior year I will be required to work with the teams. During these required hours I will be assigned to a team on or off campus and I will not only attend every practice but also travel with them. I am really excited for this part of my college experience because it will be very important that I get this hands on experience before entering the work force.

Philip Howard and Four Ways to Fix the Legal System - Jonathan Tran

http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_howard.html
The basic premise of this TED talk is to indicate the need for a reform of the legal system. Philip K. Howard notes that the legal system promotes restrictions more so than actually promoting freedoms. He points out that, in doing so, the legal system inherently contradicts itself. Howard brings up the idea that people are often restricted by law such that they are afraid to do their jobs because they might be sued for doing so. For instance, doctors often do more tests that necessary on their patients and they do so because they feel the need to cover their bases or in other words practice “Defensive Medicine”. Excluding the possibility that doctors do this for extra profit, this example suggests the impact that legal fear has on professional interactions. Howard builds on this with the concept that people often perform below their peak effectiveness when they have to be self-conscious about the possibility of being sued. He also indicates that this massive amount of laws slows political process because people and politicians tend to avoid contradictory issues that may be a source of conflict; however, avoiding these issues is the unspoken reason for the current conflicts and distrust in the legal system. Because of the risk associated with practicing their occupations, people tend not to want to take responsibility for the grey-areas of their jobs. Howard expresses the counter-intuitiveness of this mindset and suggests four methods for reform. (1) Judge the law mainly by its effect on society, not on the individual. (2) Trust in the law is an essential condition for freedom. Distrust skews behavior towards failure. (3) Law must set boundaries protecting an open field of freedom, not interceded in all disputes. (4) To rebuild boundaries of freedom, two changes are essential (a) to simplify the law (b) restore authority to judges and officials to apply law. By carrying out his first point, the law would be more effective overall as opposed to being skewered for the benefit of specific cases. By promoting the second and third, people practicing their occupations will not have to worry about absurd legal consequences and practice more effectively. By working towards the forth, the system will become less complex and easier to integrate into average everyday life. Furthermore, authority in this sense –as he states— does not take away from freedom, but actually aids in its protection. This TED talk interested me because often times people can note problems with the political system, but very few people are bold enough to provide answers and suggest solutions. I was interested in seeing what explanations Howard had and how he would defend his positions.

Howard went to Taft School, Yale College, and the University of Virginia Law School. His first policy related job was at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory working for a civil defense group that later published papers on post-war economic recovery. After law school, Howard worked at the Sullivan & Cromwell LLP law firm where he played a role in important cases such as the Chris-Craft case and the Kodak’s antitrust cases. As a young lawyer, Howard was highly active in civic affairs becoming involved in the Zoning Committee of Manhattan Community Board. His list of civic roles continues from there which eventually leads him to explore why the government seemed incapable of making sensible choices which lead him to write his book The Death of Common Sense. Generally, Howard was very ambitious and highly involved at the same time a being open and learned on the stances that he took. An important step the Howard took was founding the Common Good association which specifically advocates reforms to restore the reliability of the law and to rebuild the authority structures necessary for common choices.

After high school, I’d like to look into either business or law majors. While there isn’t necessarily a law major in undergrad, I’d like to get involved in pre-law. In the case of business, I’d really like to get involved in international business deals overseas in Asia. I think I’m leaning more towards business as I have thought further into it. I plan to minor in Chinese in addition to my major—be it law or business— and continue my study of foreign language in addition to trying to study abroad in China. In terms of a first occupation, I’d like to try and get hired into a business/marketing firm associated with some family friends or work for a more minor form the focuses on low scale international deals. I’d also like to definitely look into a graduate or professional school that has an international business or policy program. I'm really passionate about pursuing an occupation abroad and using foreign languages as a tool to do so. My aunt and a teacher that I consider very important to my development as a person were both involved in similar occupations which I found highly interesting.

How the media views advertising--Kaitlin Wesela

http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_social_media_and_the_end_of_gender.html

The TED Talk that I chose is given by Johanna Blakley, and she is talking about the role of women and demographics in the media and how it will change in the future. She explains that instead of actually tracking people true interests and passions, the media uses a generalization of people based on age groups. While a general outlook on people may help companies, it is not able to target groups as a whole. For example, it’s a generalization that all men like sports, but what about those men who actually don’t? This is what Blakley is trying to portray in her speech. She even suggests that women will be the “death” of chick flicks because of the fact that women in the media business are trying to steer clear of the sappy demographic that women possess. This video interested me because I think it is important as people that we take into consideration the differences there are between everyone. As a society we need to learn to grow and adapt together to insure that the end result of advertisements and whatnot please all parties involved.

Johanna Blakley majored in English at the University of Oregon and received her BA in 1989. She then continued her education at Orgeon and later received her MA in 1991. Apparently that was not enough for Blakely, because she then went on to obtain her PhD at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1998. But before she got her PhD, she actually taught at Santa Barbara for about 5 years in between. After her job as a lecturer and teaching assistant, she went on to work at Blueprint R&D in San Francisco as a Web consultant. Blakley help to develop a CBS cartoon called Blasteris Universe. From 2000-present, Blakley has worked at the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California doing various jobs. She guided over 50 manuscripts into publication offices and wrote grants for the Lear Centers project on American propaganda. Blakley current gives lectures and helps to develop the Masters Program at USC.

After high school, I am going to California Polytechnic University Pomona ad am majoring in Marketing & Advertising. I know that over the years at college I may change my mind, but as of now this is what I really want to do. I think that some good internships for me to have would be to work at an actual advertising firm and to experience what everyday life is like for those in that business. I think it would be cool to be able to use my creativity and artistic side to intrigue those who experience ads and commercials 24/7. For the marketing aspect, I would love to be able to intern at a company and have a mentor to show me the ropes. I am a very persuasive person an work well with people, so I think that having to give presentations and getting clients interested in a certain product would be right up my alley. I do know that when I start in this business it will take a while to climb up the totem pole, but I am really to face that challenge.

Stefan Sagmeister shares happy design - andrew wang

The TED talk which I researched was delivered by Austrian graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister. Sagmeister attended the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where he majored in graphic design; he then continued his studies at the Pratt Institute in New York. After graduation, Sagmeister worked in Hong Kong under Leo Burnett’s Hong Kong Design Group, and later went on to work under Tibor Kalman’s M&Co. Since then, he has started his own design firm and created a multitude of creative album covers for various musicians and musical groups. Sagmeister’s TED talk interested me because he made multiple correlations between happiness of the consumer and designer to good designs. As founder of Sagmeister, Inc. in New York, Stefan Sagmeister has created a myriad of award-winning designs and packages for musical releases, making him undoubtedly a leader in the field of graphic design and packaging. In his TED talk, Sagmeister introduces to the audience lists of various events and happenings in his life that have made him truly happy (on a scale from comfort to contentment, joy, delight, and bliss); he then draws the connection between those events to products of good design which he may have used, witnessed, or even experienced. Later in his talk, Sagmeister describes the work of his fellow artists and their impact on those who come in contact with their respective artwork, stating the importance of good design on the happiness of both the designer and the consumer. After establishing this correlation, he explains the method in which to be able to design in such a way as to inspire happiness in not only the designer’s self, but also in others—methods such as free thinking (without deadlines), varying tools and techniques, working on projects that have significance to the designer himself, working on one project at a time, and having finished products return satisfactorily from the production process. After graduating from high school, I may consider pursuing a career in industrial or graphic design, much like Sagmeister himself. While in college, applying for an internship at a design firm or related to product design, packaging, interface design, or even advertising may be an option. A degree in either of these fields would be beneficial, of course, but the primary concern in this field is employment, as the competition is equally, if not more, innovative and talented, so graduate school may have to be postponed until after a few years of employment. Regardless of the amount of graduate schooling I receive, the focus of Sagmeister’s TED talk related largely to my view of designers in that they have tremendous power in being able to inspire happiness in a multitude of people through their creations—both in its creation and in it being shared with others. As an intricate mix between practicality and emotional experience, good design has the ability to instill happiness as a mutual, shared feeling between the creator and the consumers and exert great influence over the behavior and reactions of those who come in contact with it—and as a result of witnessing such great influence being exerted by great designers such as Sagmeister, I feel equally compelled to create and design on my own.

The Rise of Personal Robots - Kat Soriano

After watching several TED talks, I finally found myself most interested in Cynthia Breazeal’s talk, “The Rise of Personal Robots.” At the beginning of her talk, Breazeal stated that her interest with personal robots started at a young age and matured when she was in graduate school. Throughout her talk, Breazeal covered three main areas in which having a personal robot would be most beneficial to our everyday lives. These areas include communication, health, and media. Breazeal proposed that using robots to communicate with people who live far away makes the conversation more personal. In order to do this, she attached a cell phone to a “mobile robot.” This robot made hand gestures that coincided with what the speaker was saying. After conducting a survey, Breazeal found that the person who was watching the robot’s hand gestures felt more empathy, engagement and collaboration than when speaking to the person through the normal way. In addition, Breazeal found that when using a personal robot for when trying to lose and maintain a certain weight, participants were more motivated to keep their diet for longer periods of time. This was because they developed a personal relationship with the robot and were thus more motivated to keep up with their diet. Lastly, Breazeal suggested that personal robots be used more frequently in the media whelm. She proposed that video games be made interactive through the use of personal robots. Through this new technology, children are able to get a better grasp of learning, as they are able to physically interact with the game they are playing. This talk interested me the most because it is the perfect combination of innovative thinking and engineering principles. Breazeal was able to apply what she learned in creative, fun ways that are inspiring to others.

Cynthia Breazeal graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.S. degree in both electrical engineering and computer engineering. She eventually matriculated to MIT where she received an Sc.D in both electrical engineering and computer engineering again. Breazeal’s fascination with personal robots began while she was at MIT. While there, she designed a robot that was successfully able to socially interact with humans. This robot she designed, Kismet, is currently on display at the MIT Museum. In addition, Breazeal has designed robots that have won very prestigious awards. One of her designs won a spot on TIME Magazine 50 best Inventions of 2008 and another was placed on the list of “50 Best Robots Ever” in accordance to Wired Magazine. Furthermore, Breazeal gives talks about personal robots on a world stage and is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Science Channel. She is currently a professor at MIT and runs the MIT Media Laboratory. I believe that her qualifications make her out to be one of the best leaders in her field

Like Cynthia Breazeal, I would like to find myself involved in the engineering field. More specifically, I hope to work within the entertainment industry, perhaps building mechanical props for movie sets or designing theme park attraction rides. Ideally, I would love to someday become a Disney Imgaineer and become a team member in building and designing Disney attractions. Breazeal’s TED talk really inspired me to pursue a career in which I can use engineering skills in an inspiring and innovative way. I believe that working at Disney would allow me have such a career. When I leave for college in the fall, I plan to major in engineering, and perhaps minor in design to foster the aesthetic skill needed to become a Disney Imagineer. After undergraduate school, I plan to attend graduate school and eventually get a Ph.D or Sc.D. in either mechanical or electrical engineering. If I still feel passionately about becoming an Imagineer throughout my college years, it may be in my best interest to apply for an internship at Disney over the summer. Disney offers undergraduates the opportunity to work within its theme parks along with experienced professionals. This way, I get hands-on experience in a field I will be studying and within the company I hope to someday join.

MATTHEW CHOWWWWW

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology.html

The TED talk video I chose to write about was by Martin Seligman during TED2004. In his presentation, Seligman presents a field of study created by him called Positive Psychology. The video introduces the field and what it is which intrigued me most. When introduced to psychology, I found out that it was about trying to treat people back to into a state of “normal-ness” and not necessarily into happiness. Seligman decided early on to begin this new field because of all the emphasis psychology already has on treating people who are sad and depressed. His presentation has a comedic lead-in which quickly turns into a serious discussion about positive psychology. The lead-in is about how psychology today isn’t good enough right now. He essentially narrows the types of happy lives in to three categories: the Pleasant life, where one has as many pleasures as possible and learning the skills to amplify them, the Good life, where one’s work life flows and simply put, one loves what they do and then the Meaningful life, where one knows their signature strengths and use them in service of something larger than themselves. He goes on to describe how technology, entertainment and design is increasingly becoming more developed and will soon help psychology be good enough. I was interested by this TED talk because I want to become a psychologist and his new field of study is essentially the main reason why I was interested in this major and job. Seligman’s explanation was hardly boring at all and brought new interest to a field I was already considering. It also gave me a new view as to how psychiatric methods have only brought people back to “normal” and not truly up to happiness. The reason that pushed me towards psychology is a bit on the sensitive and personal side and I don’t really feel confortable sharing that bit of information on a public forum. It does have a long background and history, occupying a large part of my life and it shows who I am once people really get to know me well.

Martin Seligman today contributes to the field of positive psychology and strives to make his vision of a happier world a reality. However, his dream for a happier world wasn’t always there. After graduating from high school, he attended Princeton for a B.A. and then continued onto University of Pennsylvania to earn a Ph.D. in psychology. He worked his way up to the Director of the Clinical Training Program of the Psychology Department at the University of Pennsylvania in 1980 through a series of education related jobs. He first started out as an associate professor and then a professor, both of psychology. All the meanwhile, he researched psychology and began a theory about learned helplessness. His research led him through important breakthroughs for depression, pushing him towards his ideas for optimism.

After high school, right now I’m thinking about going for a business major so I have a solid footing once I get out of college and a decent job. Once that is established I hope to return for graduate school and get a Ph.D. in psychology like Seligman did. Before I started my college application process, I talked to my older sister’s friend who majored in psychology. She said that internships were essential to getting a job in a field like psychology and because there’s really only one job with two types for such a major, it could be hard to find a location with many internship opportunities. So wherever I end up for college and professional schooling, I intend to jump at any internship I can get my hands on for experience. I hope to end up as a clinical psychologist or possibly a professor teaching psychology.

janiq meneze - the hidden power of smiling

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ron_gutman_the_hidden_power_of_smiling.html

The TED talk I chose for my project is called “The hidden power of smiling”. It took me a while to stumble upon this video because I was so focused on finding a video about science, but then I realized that since I want to pursue a career in dentistry, why not check out a video about smiles? Ron Gutman, the speaker, makes interesting points about smiling, and backs up his argument with scientific research. The video talks about smiling like it is some sort of medicine for life, which I believe is true. Research has proven that smiling can actually make you healthier, reduce the level of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, increase the level of mood-enhancing hormones like endorphin, and reduce overall blood pressure. Also, smiling can look good in the eyes of others. Apparently when you smile, not only do you appear to be more likable and courteous, you also appear to be more competent (says Penn State Uni.). Smiling stimulates our brain reward mechanism in a way that even chocolate cannot match. British researchers found that one smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as up to two thousand bars of chocolate! Smiling is one of the most basic, biologically-uniform expressions of all humans.

Ron Gutman, the speaker, is the founder and CEO of HealthTap, responsible for the company's innovation, vision and product. Before this, he was founder and CEO of Wellsphere, an online consumer health company that developed the world's largest community of independent health writers; it was acquired in early 2009. Ron started his journey in California with a a UC Berkeley 30 year longitudinal study that examined the photos of students in an old yearbook and tried to measure their success and well-being throughout their life. As a graduate student at Stanford, Gutman organized and led a multidisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students from the schools of Engineering, Medicine, Business, Psychology and Law to conduct research in personalized health and to design ways to help people live healthier, happier lives. He is an angel investor and advisor to health and technology companies such as Rock Health (the first Interactive Health Incubator) and Harvard Medical School's SMArt Initiative ("Substitutable Medical Apps, reusable technologies"). It seems that Ron Gutman is very passionate about what he does. From his biography, I can tell he is a good leader and a hard-working individual. It is really cool that his company, HealthTap, brings interactive software to medicine. To make this all happen, he has to collaborate with many different people. And he does this all just to design ways to help people live healthier, happier lives. What a guy.

Dentistry is kind of a weird career to pursue, but the reasons I want to become a dentist are because dentistry is a combination of science and art (my two favorite subjects), I will be able to work with people, and I love smiles/making people laugh. I will be working towards going to dental school by majoring in biochemistry at the University of San Diego next year. Biochemistry is a tough major because the course is set for kids going into medical fields. My plan is to work really hard in college and intern over the summer at a dental office. Last summer I volunteered at a school for children with Autism; I thoroughly enjoyed it and realized I want to pursue a career where I can work with people. Closer to the school year I thought it would be a good idea to go see what it is like to be a dentist, so I shadowed a dentist and an orthodontist. I watched a root canal, a bridge, and a crown. Pretty sweet. If I cannot get a job at an office or at some sort of lab, I will probably try working at an art or music shop. But once I get to college, I am definitely going to intern at a dental office. After college, I want to go to dental school. I’m not sure exactly where, but I know University of the Pacific’s Dugoni School of Dentistry is really good and Boston University’s Dental School is good, too. My dentist told me that being a dentist is more than just cleaning teeth. It’s an art form, a study of human behavior, and a rewarding job. The job seemed perfect until I found out the amount of stress that is carried with it, but I guess that’s why this video is perfect. Work hard, have fun, smile.