One of the true luminaries of personal computing, Alan Kay conceived of laptops and graphical interfaces years before they were realized. At XeroxPARC, Apple, HP and Disney, he has developed tools for improving the mind.

Richard Baraniuk founded Connexions -- now called OpenStax -- a free, open-source, global clearinghouse of course materials. Students and educators tap into its vast store of texts on everything from engineering to ornithology to music, adapting the content as they see fit.

A teacher, writer and member of the Kenyan parliament, Joseph Lekuton has an inspiring vision for Kenya.

Curtis Wong is manager of Next Media Research for Microsoft, whose focus "spans the linear and interactive media spectrum from television, broadband and gaming to emerging media forms." He's a leader on the WorldWide Telescope project.

Liz Coleman radically remade Bennington College in the mid-1990s, in pursuit of a new vision: higher education as a performing art.

José Antonio Abreu founded El Sistema in 1975 to help Venezuelan kids learn to play musical instruments and be part of an orchestra. The TED Prize winner's bold idea has seeded hundreds of youth orchestras -- and many happy lives.

Cédric Villani tackles perplexing problems in mathematical physics, analysis and geometry with rigor, wit and a signature personal style.

Matt Ridley argues that, through history, the engine of human progress and prosperity has been, and is, "ideas having sex with each other."

After working at Microsoft for almost a decade, Patrick Awuah returned home to Ghana and cofounded Ashesi University, a small liberal arts college that aims to educate Africa's next generation of leaders. Its first class of students graduated in 2006.

The US state of Florida is facing down environmental threats that affect millions of people a year, such as toxic algal blooms and hurricanes. The solutions will take Biologist (and Florida resident) Graham Worthy proposes that by breaking down academic silos and engaging interdisciplinary teams, Florida might finally start solving some of its i...

The International Space Station is roughly the size of a six-bedroom house and weighs more than 320 cars — it's so large that no single rocket could have lifted it into orbit. Instead, it was assembled piece by piece while hurtling through space at 28,000 kilometers per hour, lapping the Earth once every 90 minutes. Tien Nguyen explains how. [Di...

Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education -- one that dynamically combines all areas of study to address the great problems of our day.

Percussionist and composer Dame Evelyn Glennie lost nearly all of her hearing by age 12. Rather than isolating her, it has given her a unique connection to her music.

How much should we invest in teachers, and what should new investment actually involve? Education innovator Randy Seriguchi Jr. suggests the US should create a "G.I. Bill" for teachers, with a particular emphasis on uplifting Black male professionals. He shares a model of this idea in action through community partnerships in San Francisco, which...

Lisa Damour explains why intense feelings -- including negative ones -- are an inevitable part of life, and how we can better understand them.

Ndidi Nwuneli has advice for Africans who believe in God -- and Africans who don't. To the religious, she advises against using God to outsource responsibility for what happens in their lives. To the non-religious, she asks that they keep an open mind and work with faith-based organizations, especially on issues like health care and education. "...

Co-ops are a big part of the global economy: they employ 10% of the world's workforce and over two trillion dollars flow through their doors every year. At a co-op, there's no single person with overarching, top-down power over everyone else, like a CEO at a traditional company. So what exactly is a co-op and how does it work? Explore the differ...

Focus groups have been widely used by organizations and individuals to find out how their products and ideas will be received by an audience. From the usage of household products to a politician's popularity, almost everything can be explored with this technique. But how are focus groups put together? And how did they come about in the first pla...

Writer Annie Rauwerda makes a habit of getting lost among the seemingly endless digital archives of Wikipedia, discovering fake towns, promiscuous tortoises, 19th-century fangirls and so much more. An avid editor of the crowd-sourced platform, she speaks to the joys of exploring niche and humorous subjects, accidentally learning just for fun — a...

Even with public trust at an all-time low, Wikipedia continues to maintain people's confidence. How do they do it? Former CEO of Wikimedia Foundation Katherine Maher delves into the transparent, adaptable and community-building ways the online encyclopedia brings free and reliable information to the public -- while also accounting for bias and d...

Yara Shahidi is an award-winning actor and producer, and the breakout star of the ABC series "black-ish" and "grown-ish."

In 1988, Matt Goldman co-founded Blue Man Group, an off-Broadway production that became a sensation known for its humor, blue body paint and wild stunts. The show works on the premise that certain conditions can create "aha moments" -- moments of surprise, learning and exuberance -- frequent and intentional rather than random and occasional. Now...

Michel Dugon researches the potential of spider venom as a source of novel therapeutic agents.

Have you ever talked with a friend about a problem, only to realize that he just doesn't seem to grasp why the issue is so important to you? Have you ever presented an idea to a group, and it's met with utter confusion? What's going on here? Katherine Hampsten describes why miscommunication occurs so frequently, and how we can minimize frustrati...

A viral video star known for his gravity-defying, elegant street dance moves, Lil Buck is a fertile collaborator across disciplines and media.

Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD, studies how socioeconomic inequality relates to children's cognitive and brain development.

Hidden truths permeate our world; they're inaccessible to our senses, but math allows us to go beyond our intuition to uncover their mysteries. In this survey of mathematical breakthroughs, Fields Medal winner Cédric Villani speaks to the thrill of discovery and details the sometimes perplexing life of a mathematician. "Beautiful mathematical ex...

As an early-education leader and mother of two, Jesse Ilhardt dreams of a world where all children grow and learn in the context of play and nurturing relationships.

Leland Melvin is an engineer, educator, former NASA astronaut and NFL wide receiver. He shares his stories of perseverance and excellence to inspire communities for lasting positive change.

A researcher at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, Roy Gould gives the first public demo of the World Wide Telescope, a powerful new web-based tool for exploring the universe, developed by TEDster Curtis Wong and his team at Microsoft.