Confirmed Speakers

• Dr. Nehru E. Cherukupalli
  Dr. Nehru has served on the Presidential advisory committee in Geology, served as an advisor to the FBI and is a long standing member of the Space and Meteorite research department at the Natural History Museum in New York. More than 40 years at Brooklyn College/CUNY Geology department, he has held every office in the department and has helped to shape the Brooklyn College and CUNY Geology Baccalaureate, Masters and PhD programs. Timely and useful, Dr. Nehru's TEDtalk will present new ideas about how anyone, even You, can use Geology to better prepare for Earthquakes, Tsunamies and other natural disasters. You will learn what you can do, without municipal support, to prepare for disasters, keeping you and your family safer.
• Zac Schavrick
  Zac Shavrick has been a metal sculptor all his life. Fascinated by his father's work, Zac would join him in his metal shop where they welded together. By age five, Zac was welding on his own, by seven, he was fabricating entire sculptures. His creativity was influenced by his world of games, fantasy novels and movies, including Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. Zac later attended Purchase College to fine tune his craft and concentrate on his art. Before his senior year, Brakewell Steel commissioned a large-scale sculpture, his creation, titled: The Dumpster Divers, is a 16 feet tall twelve figures emerging from a dumpster . Zac's TEDtalk will focus on Individual learning and how to identify and deal with your way of learning, drawing from his own unique life.
• Dr. Andil Gosine
  Trinidad-born Andil Gosine is an Associate Professor at York University in Toronto, and a Visiting Fellow to the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2010-11. His scholarship and artistic practice consider questions about nature, migration and sexuality, and include groundbreaking book and journal publications, radio documentaries and a prize-winning short film. Drawing on the confluence of a variety of contemporary and historical sources and inspirations, including longing, labor and home, his current project WARDROBES examines the simultaneity of beauty with brutality, and the work of fabric and fashion in mediating longing, pleasure and the worth of bodies. This project will be documented in his forthcoming book with Paradigm press, due out in 2012, and is the basis of Andil's TEDtalk on art, beauty and the fascinating complexity of human creativity, "Ohrni and Cutlass."
• Maria Torres
  An acclaimed Performer, Maria Torres is a Choreographer and Director with extensive experience in Theater, Film, Television, Video and Commercial industries. Her resume touts diversity from all angles. As a performer, Maria has graced both the Broadway stage, starring in Swing!, and the big screen in "Dance with Me," starring Chayanne and Vanessa Williams. Maria choreographed the video for Enrique Iglesias hit single Bailamos and Reggaeton artist Don Omar’s most recent tour-King of Kings, among others. In the world of film, Maria has worked with MTV, NBC, HBO, BBC, Walt Disney, and John Leguizamo. Maria trained renowned actors such as Patrick Dempsey and Amy Adams in Disney’s "Enchanted" to Choreographing Jennifer Lopez in "El Cantante." Maria‘s choreography can been seen this season on the hit show "So You Think You Can Dance." As a teacher, Maria has taught all over the world at an array of prestigious dance institutions with the goal of sharing her Latin culture with people of all backgrounds. Why dance? With so many shows about dancing, we see a lot but not quite getting it. Making a connection with yourself to better understand others is one lesson. This interactive TEDtalk by Maria Torres is guaranteed to leave you breathless.
• Sunmee Summer Kim
  Sunmee was born in Seoul, but was raised in New Zealand, South Korea and Canada. Her research interests are cultural differences, enterprise users, holistic system design approaches and business innovation. Sunmee is a Lead Business Innovation Researcher with the Innovation & Design group at Motorola Solutions. Her focus at Motorola for the past four years has been customer research, business innovation modeling and product portfolio strategies. She loves to travel around the world and is passionate about people and the links between them. Sunmee has a background in Industrial Design from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and a Master’s degree in Technology Management from Columbia University.