Students Host 'Fearless' TEDxCMU Event April 4

PITTSBURGH, March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- In the spirit of "ideas worth spreading," Carnegie Mellon University students will host their inaugural TEDxCMU event from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, April 4 in the University Center's McConomy Auditorium.

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"TEDxCMU is more than a conference -- we want people to be engaged and not only learn from the speakers, but also the participants around them," said Sachit Gupta, a senior information systems major.

Gupta and Yongho Shin, a junior business administration major, co-founded TEDxCMU. Ten undergraduate and graduate students representing a variety of academic disciplines are organizing the event. This year's theme is "Fearless."

TEDxCMU is modeled after the annual TED conferences. The events challenge the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes on the same theme. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

Approximately 450 individuals selected through an application process have been invited to participate in the event. The talks will be streamed live at http://tedxcmu.com/watch and archived on TEDx's YouTube channel.

One speaker, cartoonist and multi-disciplinary artist Raghava KK, is no stranger to TED. In February 2010, he spoke at the TED Conference in Long Beach, Calif., along with director James Cameron, musician Sheryl Crow, playwright Eve Ensler and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. CNN featured Raghava in its "TED Talk Tuesdays" coverage and named the artist to its list of "Ten fascinating people you've never heard of." He presently lives and works in Bangalore, India, and Brooklyn, N.Y.

Additional TEDxCMU speakers include:

• Robert F. Culbertson III: Culbertson is a Carnegie Mellon alumnus, adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of two Pittsburgh-based companies, VentureBeginnings Inc. and GetAbby.
• Jonathan Fields: Fields is a former private equity attorney turned entrepreneur, author and blogger. He is the author of "Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love."
• Chris Guillebeau: Guillebeau is a blogger and world traveler who created "The Art of Nonconformity" project to chronicle his writing about how to change the world by achieving significant, personal goals while helping others at the same time.
• Mk Haley: After 16 years with Walt Disney Imagineering in California, Haley recently joined the faculty at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center and Disney R&D Lab.
• Chase Jarvis: A photographer, director and social artist, Jarvis has received international recognition for his work with brands like Nike, Pepsi, Volvo, Reebok, Apple and Red Bull. His recent personal work has gained the attention of curators, art critics, mainstream audiences and celebrities.
• Nathan Martin: A Carnegie Mellon alumnus, Martin is the founder and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Deeplocal, which helps companies rapidly develop and implement new ideas and technology.
• Stacey Monk: A Carnegie Mellon alumna, Monk founded Epic Change, a nonprofit recognized nationally for creating TweetsGiving, one of the first efforts to harness the power of Twitter to do good.

TEDxCMU will feature performances by Carnegie Mellon's Dancer's Symposium Company and first-year design major Jackson Chu, who will play a Chinese instrument called the "erhu."  

Additional information about TEDxCMU is available at http://tedxcmu.com. Updates are also posted to Twitter @tedxcmu and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TEDxCMU.

About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the fine arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia and Europe. The university is in the midst of a $1 billion fundraising campaign, titled "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.

About TEDx: In the spirit of "ideas worth spreading," TED has created TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxCMU, where x = independently organized TED event. At TEDxCMU, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

About TED: TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, Calif., with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world; and the TEDFellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED.

TEDGlobal 2010, "And Now the Good News," will be held July 13–16, 2010, in Oxford, UK. TED2011, "The Rediscovery of Wonder," will be held Feb. 28–March 4, 2011, in Long Beach, Calif., with the TEDActive simulcast in Palm Springs, Calif.

SOURCE Carnegie Mellon University