Theme: Jolting Our Minds

By looking at a work of art, a movie, a photograph, or something that we see in everyday life, our brains usually do a complex work of understanding what is in front of us. Without even being conscious of it, we read all the clues that the object can give. But what if we stop for a minute and slow down the surrounding world? What else could we notice in everyday life objects, events, or concepts? Perhaps, more than you expect.

Reboot your perspective. Reboot your vision. Reboot your surrounding.

TEDxNazarbayevUniversity 2022 invites you to take a fresh look at what we see in everyday life.

University
Kabanbay Batyr Ave., 53
Astana, Aqmola oblysy, 010000
Kazakhstan

Aisulu Zhussupbayeva

Junior student majoring in Economics and minoring in Mathematics, and Spanish and Linguistics

Student at School of Sciences and Humanities in Nazarbayev University. She defines herself as a behavioral and decision sciences enthusiast who is truly curious about every aspect of how people make decisions. She holds the position of Research Assistant and previously was a Teaching Assistant for ECON 101 course. She also launched a startup that focused on helping students make the right choice of profession and several times spoke on the topic of career choice. During her talk, she will explain a different type of people who are called multipotentialities or scanners and tell about their superpowers.

Alfrendo Satyanaga

Assistant Professor at School of Engineering and Digital Sciences

An Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Nazarbayev University. He earned his Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Along doing the research related to the topic of sustainable urban living, he received several awards for his work including the award from the Minister for National Development’s Singapore for Stability Assessment of slopes. He was also invited as a keynote speaker for several international conferences.

Bogdan Berlov

Sophomore student majoring in Mathematics, Dancer, Choreographer

Student at School of Sciences and Humanities in Nazarbayev University. He is a professional hip-hop dancer representing Kazakhstan on the world stage. Brand ambassador of EY Kazakhstan, Samsung, and Gorilla Energy. He received several awards for his achievements in his studies and dancing performances. During his talk, he will inform people about the hidden benefits of dance, and make people believe that dance can make them smarter.

Dina Baiseit

Senior student majoring in History

She is from Petropavlovsk, North Kazakhstan. She likes playing tennis, volleyball, swimming, and skating. Has a dream of doing something special to the place we are living no, our common home, Earth. She also shares that it would be not bad to travel to space with Elon Musk and other great innovators.

Malika Vassilova

Sophomore student majoring in Biological Sciences, President of NU iGEM Club

A young researcher from Kazakhstan, who is passionate about Synthetic Biology and Biosecurity. Her experience resides in a multidisciplinary field combining entrepreneurship, research, and public engagement. Being a student of Nazarbayev University, she is involved in a scientific project supported by NATO, which is focused on developing a biosensing platform for the early detection of emerging biological threats. While being presented with unprecedented opportunities via engineering living systems, she questions whether biology can solve today’s biggest challenges without creating new ones?

Ted Parent

Assistant Professor at School of Sciences and Humanities

An assistant professor of philosophy at Nazarbayev University. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, and was previously on the philosophy faculty at Virginia Tech and at Vanderbilt University. He has published in numerous academic journals on the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of religion, and metaphysics, among other topics. He also published a book in 2017, entitled Self-Reflection for the Opaque Mind: An Essay in Neo-Sellarsian Philosophy.

Thomas Duke

Instructor at School of Sciences and Humanities

An Instructor in the Writing Center and a teacher of rhetoric, public speaking, debate, and technical communication courses. He is a rhetorician who studies argumentation and communicating in persuasive and technical contexts and his recent research work is connected to improving teaching practices in the field of rhetoric. He is also a competitive debater, organizer, and leader of professional development seminars. During his talk, he will explain why research focus will kill universities as institutions in the long-run and why it will decrease the value of education.