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TED talk

Procrastinating? We’ve got just the thing! The YTT have pulled together a series of TED Talks that they LOVE. Grab some popcorn and get comfy, because you’re about to get seriously inspired by these amazing engineering projects.

The Technology of Touch

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Procrastinating? We’ve got just the thing! The YTT have pulled together a series of TED Talks that they LOVE. Grab some popcorn and get comfy, because you’re about to get seriously inspired by these amazing engineering projects.

What is this TED talk about?

It’s about haptography, which is combining haptics (touch technology) with photography. The basis of this is that they can recreate the feeling of touching something using computers.

What’s amazing about it?

It’s really cool altogether! An example that the speaker gave was with dental students. They attached an accelerometer to a dental tool, and the main dental professor touches extracted teeth with it. The movements are recorded and recreated for the students. They watch a video and follow along by holding a repeating tool (which moves the same way the dental tool did).

How did it inspire you?

This is an incredible technology which has endless applications, anywhere from training dental and medical students to online shopping! It’s definitely going to become more popular and more developed as time goes on, but the implications of this technology are what inspires me. The possibilities are endless! People could do almost anything with this technology, which I find really interesting and inspiring.

What surprised you?

The main idea of it all, as weird as that sounds! I’d never heard of haptography before, and now, after hearing about it for a very brief time, I can only imagine the ways that it could be used. It’s so cool that there’s a technology that could allow you to feel like you’re touching something through a computer! I never knew that was even something that could be done!

Did you ever have an idea about developing something yourself that solves a problem in the world? Tell us all about it

I’ve thought about the idea for a technology where you could feel and smell things in a movie, TV show, or video game, but never really thought about the potential that it could be done. I never really thought about it that deeply, more as just an idea. If it could be done, however, it would be an incredible development for these forms of media. This wouldn’t solve a problem as much as it would just enrich movies, TV shows, and video games to make them better.

Moving Sculpture

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Procrastinating? We’ve got just the thing! The YTT have pulled together a series of TED Talks that they LOVE. Grab some popcorn and get comfy, because you’re about to get seriously inspired by these amazing engineering projects.

What is this TED talk about?

On a surface level this TED talk is about how a man fused his engineering and artistic sides together to create moving sculptures. On a deeper level this ted talk is about the moving cycle (like his work) of getting your internal aspirations to materialize and then how they are perceived by the external world.

What’s rad about it?

It is rad because it shows you a whole new area of engineering that I never thought about. It also manages to show how machines and the acute detailing attentiveness you need to create them are beautiful things.

How did it inspire you?

At first it made me feel very comfortable and sort of special in a way because I could relate to him about being an introverted person who communicated by physical creations. Then it further inspired me after I realized how he merged two strong passions of his together even though normally you wouldn’t think of them as one, it inspired me to listen to all my passions and try to find a way for them to work together like he did.

What surprised you?

What surprised me was my own reaction to his creations, normally I am someone who is not really into industrial or readymade art but I actually was very moved by how gracefully and intricately his machines worked and they always had a proactive function rather than a destructive one which is very nice especially in this era.

Did you ever have an idea about developing something yourself that solves a problem in the world? Tell us all about it

I’ve never really had a concrete idea of a product or invention that could change the world because I always thought since math and science weren’t my forte I wouldn’t be able to figure it out. But I have been thinking about programs I could start that would use yoga and poetry as the basis for attaining a holistic mindset and strength for those living in impoverished communities and empowering social change but I’m not sure yet how to do this because as someone from a middle class upbringing I don’t want to come off as ignorant and superficial to their real issues.

Simple Designs to Save a Life

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Procrastinating? We’ve got just the thing! The YTT have pulled together a series of TED Talks that they LOVE. Grab some popcorn and get comfy, because you’re about to get seriously inspired by these amazing engineering projects.

Amy Smith: Simple Designs to Save a Life

Amy Smith Simple Designs Feature Image

What’s this TED talk about?

This TED talk features Amy Smith, who has worked to develop better alternative cooking fuel in response to the millions of deaths caused by breathing in smoke from indoor cooking fires. She’s worked with students and volunteers to come up with a solution, which is, using farm waste from sugar mills in Haiti and turning them into fuel that the locals could both use and even make themselves.

What’s amazing about it?

What’s so awesome about the concept behind Amy’s talk is the adaptability of this technology to different areas in the world who need it. It isn’t just about distributing the materials and using the same generic thing to solve a problem. It’s about using what’s available for the locals, and helping them build the technology that works for them. It helps them solve their own problem to make everything work.

How did it inspire you?

Amy’s talk really inspired me in the way that, it wasn’t just about helping people by giving them the resources they lack to solve a problem in short-term. The solutions developed provided a long-term fix to what had been long-term problems. It wasn’t that resources were continually being provided, but it was that help was continually being developed so that they could continue to fix the problems by themselves.

What surprised you?

What surprised me most was the adaptability of the concept. Amy had started of in Haiti, and had later talked about the technology used in India, this being using what resources that they had and how it could be used to solve the problems that they had. The development of the technology and the solutions catered to what was needed most, not so much to why it was needed.

Did you ever have an idea about developing something yourself that solves a problem in the world? Tell us all about it.

I cannot recall a time in my life where I figured out a way to change the world in a positive way. I’ve only ever wanted to make it better, but never knowing how. Initially, I wanted to write and inform others of a better world, through journalism. I have long since discovered that although this is not a bad idea, I have yet to personally learn more about the world I live in before imagining and telling about a better one.

Bio-lab on a Microchip

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Procrastinating? We’ve got just the thing! The YTT have pulled together a series of TED Talks that they LOVE. Grab some popcorn and get comfy, because you’re about to get seriously inspired by these amazing engineering projects.

Frederick Balagadde: Bio-lab on a Microchip 

Frederick Balagadde-Lab-Team

What’s this TED talk about?

Frederick Balagadde grew up in sub- Saharan Africa and was effected by loses caused by HIV aids. He made it his mission to help eliminate this problem by creating small diagnostic chips to help identify the virus before it gets out of hand. This “hand held bio lab” can positively affect the lives of million who suffer in third world countries with this terrible disease.


What’s amazing about it?

Using this technology can push diagnostics and patient care to a new level. The device itself is the size of an iPhone and can be taken to remote or inaccessible locations where bio labs and facilities are unavailable. One chip can diagnose up to one hundred people and speeds up diagnosis by a whopping 50%. This small chip could save lives and help people get on track to get the medication and care they need to battle this disease.

How did it inspire you?

Seeing how many people this small device could save really inspired me. One of my engineers worked on a similar diagnostic device as well. These two things have really caused me to look into bio engineering and the development of devices that help save peopled lives. I think that there is nothing more gratifying than the feeling of helping someone or even saving them, and that is what these things do. Even today when we have so much technology and medical intelligence horrible diseases still run ramped in poorer countries and if in the future I could do something to stop that, then that would be a life changing moment for me.

What surprised you?

I think the most surprising thing to me was how just supplying the drugs wasn’t the best solution. In the video it talks about how giving people drugs without properly diagnosing them can lead to terrible mutant forms of the disease that are immune to treatment. They also talked about how these form of HIV could spread to other parts of the world and could become very costly and difficult to treat. It really surprised me how seemingly versatile these diseases can be and showed me how dangerous they really are. Seeing how many people this small device could save really inspired me. One of my engineers worked on a similar diagnostic device as well. These two things have really caused me to look into bio engineering and the development of devices that help save peopled lives. I think that there is nothing more gratifying than the feeling of helping someone or even saving them, and that is what these things do. Even today when we have so much technology and medical intelligence horrible diseases still run ramped in poorer countries and if in the future I could do something to stop that, then that would be a life changing moment for me.

Did you ever have an idea about developing something yourself that solves a problem in the world? Tell us all about it.

Technology isn’t really there yet but I have always wondered about prosthetics that can be used like normal parts of the body. Ones that are able to communicate to the brain using electrical impulses through the nervous system just like normal limbs do. Also I find stem cell research very interesting and graphing new organs that can be used for implantation on a regular basis is becoming a more real and plausible thing so I would love to get into that.

The Cheap All-Terrain Wheel Chair

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Procrastinating? We’ve got just the thing! The YTT have pulled together a series of TED Talks that they LOVE. Grab some popcorn and get comfy, because you’re about to get seriously inspired by these amazing engineering projects.

Amos Winter: The Cheap All-Terrain Wheelchair

Amos Winter's Wheelchair

What’s this TED talk about?


Affordable accessibility for the disabled,  especially those in third world countries.  

What’s amazing about it?


That design is a process and that you have to work with the people who are actually using the product in order to have success.
Also, it’s amazing how a student/academic was able to create change despite having little experience.
And of course that they helped thousands of people in need because they as engineers saw a problem and fixed it.

How did it inspire you?


It’s cool to be able to see that problems can have simple solutions and all there really needs is for a person to put it all together. Also, the amount of collaboration/communication they used to make it work (their persistence).

What surprised you?

The number of people (40 million) who needed wheelchairs but don’t have one. (I’d known that wheelchairs were expensive and basic but it didn’t occur to me how they weren’t suitable for all places).
 
Also, it surprised me that they would make a high end version of the product as well (not only a social enterprise but also a business/commercial/capitalist product). It shows that socially/world- conscious people are increasingly moving towards helping people but also making a profit/business to go along with it (less purely altruistic action).

Did you ever have an idea about developing something yourself that solves a problem in the world? Tell us all about it.

I once met a lady named Ruth Kwakwa from Ghana. She had opened a liberal arts university in Ghana and had come to Canada to talk about her journey to developing and opening Ashesi University. Like Amos Winter, she saw a need and then worked to meet its needs. She had told the audience: “If something aggravates you, find a solution. You should work on it.” After that, I began to notice small things in my life that could be better: how can we design better umbrellas so they don’t flip inside out due to the wind? Why aren’t pens sold with ink refills to prevent the amount of waste generated by disposable pens (why couldn’t everything just be refillable or come with replaceable parts)? How can I promote fixing broken items instead of throwing them away for new ones? Can houses be made more accessible and safe for the growing number of elderly people (the baby boomers)?


I realize that some of the problems may seem trivial compared to the challenges the world faces (poverty, over population, lack of resources, diseases, hunger, climate change) but that is probably because I’ve yet to be truly exposed to those problems and don’t yet fully understand the perspectives of people who face some of those problems.
Over the years, I have campaigned for many organizations and causes: from getting green bins in school to supporting clean water in Kenya to helping run one of the only gay-straight alliance/accepting differences club in the Toronto Catholic District School Board.
I think as I get exposed (on a personal level) to more problems the world faces, I’ll be able to think of more/better solutions.