1) What is the TED organization about?
The TED organization is about spreading creative and interesting ideas out to the public. They have scientists of all kinds discuss different topics that are relevent to our world today.
2) What is the purpose of their website and how does the functionality of their site support that?
The purpose of their website is to enhance and engage people to be excited about learning new things.
3) As Engineers and Problem Solvers, which topic areas (the choices from the "Show talks related to:" section on the sidebar) are of most interest to us? Justify your answer.
The topic areas that are of most interest to us would have to be technology, design, business, and science because we are engineers who deal with progress in technology in sciene and design. The business aspect of it would be that once an idea or product is designed and produced there needs to be a way to market it, which would fall into the business category of things.
4) Based on your previous answer, what are 3 talks (videos) on the site that appear like they would be of most interest to you as an Engineer/Problem Solver? Justify your choices.
Rob Harmon- How the market can keep streams flowing
William Kamkwamba- How I harnessed the wind
Naomi Klein- Addicted to Risk
All these videos contain ideas that we have learned about in class. The first video takes science and engineering into the business world. The second video is about someone who overcome a barrier and with the help of science and motivation, he was able to help his family out by building a windmill in his small town in Africa. The third video talks about how we are addicted to risk and pushing forward to explore new boundaries. As a engineer/problem solver that is what we are doing on a daily basis, trying to study and find new solutions to probles in our world.
5) Charles Limb- Your brain on improv
- Is it possible to study creativity scientifically?
- Charles Limb is fascinated with sound/music and surgery
- He uses an intense creative example of Keith Jarrett, a well known jazz improviser, who never plays concerts the same way.
- He believes that artistic creativity is a neurologic product that can be examined using rigorous scientific methods.
- playing jazz in a fMRI scanner
- What happens in the brain when something is repeated and memorized versus what happens in the brain when something is improvised?
- In his experiments he found that when someone was improvising the left side of the brain lights up, the language cortex and the visual cortex lights up.
- Then uses a function fMRI with hip hop hop/rap, including him rapping.
6) How could you get involved in the field/technology/issue you chose to hear about? What experience/skills/training/education would you need to learn to get involved with this field?
I could get involved in the field/technology/issue I've chosen to hear about by volunteering at a research institute in a hospital or also going to a music store and talking to the people who work there. I would probably have to get a degree in cognative psychology, computer science, and pre-med. Internships in these fields could also be very beneficial to get involved in this field.
