Theme: 2+2=5

We live in a time of great change and uncertainty; where opinions, interpretations, ideas, even facts are regularly questioned. These hard questions challenge our assumptions, our beliefs and sometimes force us to reevaluate the world around us.

Old knowledge forms foundations of discovery and fuels our desire to innovate. When we are faced with challenges, do we rise to a new level? What makes us innovative? We’re seeking to uncover the difference between impossible and possible.

What does 2+2=5 mean? We leave that decision to you.

Rashid Auditorium
Gates-Hillman Center, 4902 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213
United States

Cameron Tonkinwise

Director of Design Studies at the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University

Cameron Tonkinwise is the Director of Design Studies at the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. He also directs the School of Design’s Doctoral research program which asipmeasketor 4bring practice-based design research to task of transitioning our societies toward more sustainable futures. Cameron has a background in philosophy and continues to research what designers can learn from philosophies of making, material culture studies and sociologies of technology. Much of his research focuses on the design of service systems that lower societal materials intensity, primarily by decoupling use and ownership - in other words, systems of shared use.

Carolyn O'Donnell

Educator

Carolyn O’Donnell, a professionally certified Florida English and Social Science educator, earned a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University in 2002. Her studies focused in English literature and biological genetic sciences. Upon garnering a teaching position in Florida’s public schools, Carolyn realized she had talents in developing curricula, training colleagues in educational leadership, and coaching students in writing, reading, and test taking strategies. Also at that time, she sought out her own teachers to learn self-reflection practices that would give her the courage to live a more impassioned, conscious life. Carolyn began traveling, and has since visited 30 countries; she learned the art of photography, made meditation and conscious living a priority, and pursued poetry writing.

Christopher Olivola

Assistant Professor of Marketing

Christopher Olivola is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. Before joining Tepper and Carnegie Mellon, he was a Newton International Fellow at the Warwick Business School and University College, London. He received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Chicago and a joint-PhD in psychology and policy from Princeton University. Before that, he spent his pre-adult life growing up on 4 different continents (mostly in developing countries).

David Selverian

Student

David Selverian is a junior at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is majoring Decision Science. Originally from North Wales, Pennsylvania, David is interested in understanding how and why people make the choices that they do, especially in the context of business.

Deborah Gilboa

Doctor

Based on her work with families worldwide, Debroah Gilboa, MD's expertise has guided her towards her philosophy of having adults step back, so youth can step up.  Media personality, author, family physician and mom of four boys, Dr. G is excited to join TEDx CMU in her hometown, at her alma mater. 

Louis-Philippe Morency

Machine Learning

Professor Morency is a tenure-track faculty member at the CMU Language Technology Institute where he leads the Multimodal Communication and Machine Learning Laboratory (MultiComp Lab). His research focuses on building the computational foundations to enable computers with the abilities to analyze, recognize and predict subtle human communicative behaviors during social interactions.

Rajiv Gandhi

Theoretical Computer Scientist

Dr. Rajiv Gandhi is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Rutgers University-Camden. He also teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2003 from the University of Maryland, College Park. His research interests lie in the broad area of theoretical computer science. Specifically, he is interested in approximation and randomized algorithms.  He is a passionate educator who loves working with students with diverse backgrounds, helping them achieve their potential.

Rubini Naidu

Student

Rubini Naidu is a fine-art photographer and activist. She merges the social sciences and photographs to bring voice to socially important topics, striving to create social awareness and reform as a result.

Scott Sandage

American Cultural Historian

Scott Sandage has taught American history at CMU for 20 years and is the author of "Born Losers: A History of Failure in America". Active as a public historian, he has been a consultant to film and radio documentaries, as well as exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution and other museums. His writings and interviews have appeared in The New York Times­, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Politico, and other mainstream publication.