Theme: Laying the Tracks

Build It • Examine It • Discover It

Oh, how we seek to master the mystery and add it to inventory! The first brick is laid, then the next, and soon a city is born.

TEDxDouglasville 2016 finds its theme rooted in the city of Douglasville’s origins and infrastructure. As the adage goes: If you build it they will come. And so the tracks were laid and Douglasville was born.

We are the everyday pioneers and builders. Some of us constantly search for new ideas, applications, and territories. That courageous step into the unknown adds a gleam of adventurous character to both ourselves and our local communities. Others light a match to the mystery: building new technologies, settling cities, and even connecting the globe with a shared vision.

At TEDxDouglasville 2016, we’ll be exploring the intricacies of pioneering and building, in the sciences, the arts, in education, and even within the business community. With a talented staff, phenomenal speakers, and the continual support of Metro-Atlanta and West Georgia communities, TEDxDouglasville lays tracks to ideas worth spreading, in hopes of building something extraordinary.

Douglas County High School
8705 Campbellton St
Douglasville, Georgia, 30134
United States

Brandon McCormick

film director

Brandon McCormick is the founder of Whitestone Motion Pictures and the Producer/Director for all of Whitestone’s films. Brandon has made a number of award winning short films that have created a body of work that is unique and inspiring. But above all, he’s a storyteller. Brandon began making films at age fifteen at 12 Stone Church, which was dedicated to employing the arts to communicate its message. After more than a decade of experience, his vision and style as a filmmaker are distinct. Brandon lives in Buford, Georgia with his beautiful wife Kimberly and 2 daughters, Storie and Ever. Brandon credits the beauty of his family, his friends and the Appalachian mountains as his muse to create art and film.

Brian Hammer

higher education administrator

Brian Hammer is an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biology studying molecular mechanisms bacteria use to convert external chemical information into changes in behavior. Most of his research has involved waterborne disease-causing bacteria. Previously he uncovered signaling networks in bacteria that control attachment and disease factors, and is currently studying how microbes interact within complex communities. Hammer was named a 2015 Scialog® fellow, and is a current recipient of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation. Hammer was a 2013-14 fellow of the National Academies Summer Institute on Undergraduate Education, and recipient of Georgia Tech’s 2011 Undergraduate Faculty of the Year Award and 2014 Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award.

Laura Cadonati

biologist

Prof. Cadonati joined the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics at Georgia Tech in January 2015. She was previously Associate Professor in the Physics department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she has been a member of the faculty since 2007. She received her Laurea degree from the University of Milano, in Italy, and a PhD in Physics from Princeton University, working on the Borexino solar neutrino experiment, and later joined the LIGO Laboratory at MIT as a postdoc and research scientist. Prof. Cadonati’s research interest include gravitational waves and particle astrophysics. She chairs the LIGO Data Analysis Council and her group’s main focus is the detection of gravitational wave transients in LIGO.

Laura Cadonati

astrophysicist

Prof. Cadonati joined the Center for Relativistic Astrophysics at Georgia Tech in January 2015. She was previously Associate Professor in the Physics department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she has been a member of the faculty since 2007. She received her Laurea degree from the University of Milano, in Italy, and a PhD in Physics from Princeton University, working on the Borexino solar neutrino experiment, and later joined the LIGO Laboratory at MIT as a postdoc and research scientist. Prof. Cadonati’s research interest include gravitational waves and particle astrophysics. She chairs the LIGO Data Analysis Council and her group’s main focus is the detection of gravitational wave transients in LIGO.

Pedro De Abreu

teaching fellow

Pedro De Abreu is a Harvard University scholar, teaching fellow, published author, and successful entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of 14x Innovation Group, an international innovation development practice that helps organizations solve complex issues and make innovative breakthroughs using a unique blend of neuroscience, social psychology, and teaching methods from Harvard Business School. A Harvard-educated social psychologist,Pedro studied how the interplay of environmental and social factors influences the development of high-performing individuals. Pedro was appointed South Carolina’s New Century Scholar by USA Today and the Coca-Cola Foundation, and was a Forbes 30 Under 30 finalist in 2016. He is a winner of the Harvard Leadership in Education Award, a TEDMED delegate, Magellan Scholar, Walker Institute Scholar, City of Columbia Fellow, Darla Moore Emerging Leader, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Midlands Council of Governments.

Raja Schaar

industrial designer + toymaker

Raja Schaar, BSID, MAAE is an industrial designer and design lecturer with the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at GA Tech and Emory University. Raja has been a member of Georgia Tech’s faculty since 2004—teaching for both the College of Architecture and the College of Engineering. As Lecturer for the Biomedical Engineering program, Schaar teaches design and entrepreneurship courses and co-manages the BME machine shop. As a College of Architecture faculty member, she developed and taught both undergraduate and graduate courses for the School of Industrial Design, and led design studios for the College of Architecture’s Common First Year program. Her academic focus is on K-16 design pedagogy, innovation and entrepreneurship, human-centered design methodologies, STEM/STEAM education, biologically inspired design, and sustainability.