Kwabena Boahen wants to understand how brains work -- and to build a computer that works like the brain by reverse-engineering the nervous system. His group at Stanford is developing Neurogrid, a hardware platform that will emulate the cortex’s inner workings.

As the president of Syyn Labs, Adam Sadowsky merges art and technology to create interactive projects big and small.

The band OK Go dreamed up the idea of a massive Rube Goldberg machine for their next music video -- and Adam Sadowsky's team was charged with building it. He tells the story of the effort and engineering behind their labyrinthine creation that quickly became the YouTube sensation "This Too Shall Pass."

Scientists and entrepreneurs have been cooking up innovative ways to put food on our tables. What are they serving up next?

Robert Lang merges mathematics with aesthetics to fold elegant modern origami. His scientific approach helps him make folds once thought impossible -- and has secured his place as one of the first great Western masters of the art.

Jon Nguyen is an award winning aeronautics and graphics engineer at NASA.

Gautam Bhan studies how cities produce and reproduce poverty and inequality.

In January 1953, a tidal surge shook the North Sea. The titanic waves flooded the Dutch coastline, killing almost 2,000 people. 54 years later, a similar storm threatened the region. But this time, they were ready. This was thanks to a massive, interlocking system known as the Delta Works— the most sophisticated flood prevention project in the w...

Natalie Jeremijenko's unusual lab puts art to work, and addresses environmental woes by combining engineering know-how with public art and a team of volunteers. These real-life experiments include: Walking tadpoles, texting "fish," planting fire-hydrant gardens and more.

Logging countless hours behind an X-ray machine, Nick Veasey illuminates the labyrinthine secrets hidden beneath the exteriors of everyday objects.

Melissa Marshall aims to teach great communication skills to scientists and engineers, so that they can effectively share their work.

Nikolai Begg is a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering whose passion is rethinking medical devices.

Get to know your heart a bit better with insightful talks on this powerful, life-sustaining organ.

Nina Tandon studies ways to use electrical signals to grow artificial tissues for transplants and other therapies.

John La Grou, a long-time electronics inventor, audio designer and entrepreneur, wants to save lives (and energy) with a new, smarter type of electrical outlet.

Klaus Stadlmann was pursuing his PhD at Vienna's Technical University when a broken laser system gave him some unexpected free time to think. Instead of working on his thesis, he decided to build the world's smallest 3D printer.

Rodney Brooks builds robots based on biological principles of movement and reasoning. The goal: a robot who can figure things out.

Arthur Ganson's kinetic metal sculptures mix high art with gearhead humor. He's also the inventor of the kids' construction toy Toobers & Zots.

Carlo Ratti directs the MIT SENSEable City Lab, which explores the "real-time city" by studying the way sensors and electronics relate to the built environment.

The Apollo 11 moon landing was about the astronauts, mission control, software and hardware all working together as a seamless integrated system. None of which would have been possible without the contributions of one engineer: Margaret Hamilton. Who was this pioneer? Matt Porter and Margaret Hamilton detail how a woman and her team launched the...

Graphene is often called the "material of superlatives" because so much about it is extreme. Made of a single layer of carbon atoms, it is the thinnest structure ever (it is actually 2D). It is impermeable, stronger than diamond, and the best thermal conductor found to date. Mikael Fogelstrom, head of the Graphene Institute at Chalmers Universit...

Dennis Hong is the founder and director of RoMeLa -- a Virginia Tech robotics lab that has pioneered several breakthroughs in robot design and engineering.

Kelli Anderson shatters our expectations about reality by injecting humor and surprise into everyday objects. She shares her disruptive and clever designs.

TED Fellow Manu Prakash is on a mission to bring radical new technology to global health.

Adam Grosser is a general partner at Foundation Capital -- and a refrigeration visionary.

How do companies like SpaceX make sudden breakthroughs on decades-old challenges? Emerging tech expert Antoine Gourévitch explains how deep tech -- a new approach to innovation that merges science, engineering and design thinking -- is unlocking solutions to problems in space exploration, biology, energy and more. As Gourévitch says: "[deep tech...

TED Resident Fawn Qiu designs fun, low-cost projects that use familiar materials like paper and fabric to introduce engineering to kids. In this quick, clever talk, she shares how nontraditional workshops like hers can change the perception of technology and inspire students to participate in creating it.

Tal Golesworthy is a boiler engineer -- he knows piping and plumbing. When he needed surgery to repair a life-threatening problem with his aorta, he mixed his engineering skills with his doctors' medical knowledge to design a better repair job.

As the dean of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science, Vijay Kumar studies the control and coordination of multi-robot formations.

As the CEO of MIT-inspired WiTricity, Eric Giler has a plan to beam electric power through the air to wirelessly power your laptop or recharge your car. You may never plug in again.