Posted By HR Partnership on November 22, 2009

by Missy Schmidt, Communication Manager for the Hampton Roads Partnership

Photo credit: Jess Ledbetter on Twitter

While covering the TEDxNASA event held on Friday, November 20^th at Christopher Newport University’s Ferguson Center, organized by NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) , I was asked “Why NASA and TED?”

My response: Why not? NASA’s mission is innovation… and TED is about creating space for innovation and changing the world through conversation, sharing and spreading great ideas in 18 minutes or less per idea presented. If not NASA, then who in Hampton Roads could generate the flow of creative juices required for innovation to occur?

TEDxNASA 2009 was a fantastic event that, hopefully, will become an annual one. Let’s encourage NASA LaRC to bring it back in 2010, and don’t miss the next one.

During the entire day’s proceedings, I exchanged online comments with others via Twitter, Facebook and blogs and typed well over 18 pages of notes. Some of my online conversationalists were in the Ferguson’s audience; some were watching virtually. It was amazing to see livestream viewers from all over the country, even internationally (hello Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Jordan…).

Here is a play-by-play with links, graphics, and video to help you feel as if you were with us in the audience:

LESA ROE, Director of NASA Langley Research Center welcomed everyone, about 1600 in a wide range of ages and IQs, quoting Yoda “there is no try – just do. Let’s do it.”

The $3B R&D lab she leads in Hampton Roads was the first in our nation, founded in 1917, right here in “America’s First Region.” Her passion is innovation and shaping the future in aeronautics and space, a perfect fit with the concept of TED. It was quite a revelation to learn that TEDxNASA was pulled together in only 8 weeks and almost entirely by volunteers dedicating their off-hours time to bring NASA and the power of Ted together. But, after all, they ARE rocket scientists.

CHRIS ANDERSON, who took over the leadership of TED in 2002, welcomed us via VIDEO explaining “What is TED?”

Emcee SAM HORN kept to a well-oiled timetable throughout the day and brought us such innovation-oriented quotes as this one from George Washington: “When you do a common thing in an uncommon way, you will command the world.”

Ms. Horn introduced our first speaker, DR. PAUL ARAVICH from Virginia Beach, a professor of neuroscience at Eastern Virginia Medical School. With brains and spinal cords as props, Dr. Aravich drove home his message:  The last great frontier of science is behavioral neuroscience, the study of things such as Alzheimer’s, memory, love, depression and happiness. “We’ll know more about what’s going on in the universe of space before we know about the space between our ears.” Dr. Aravich also displayed his props in the lobby during breaks.

Photo credit:  AltDaily.com who live-blogged from the event

GREGG FRALEY from the United Kingdom, an innovation consultant to Fortune 500 companies, was up next. The talk of his life:  Innovation is a complex problem. The Golden Rule of Innovation is to do what your heart desires. Play is essential. It’s how we learn.  When brainstorming, we defer judgment. If we begin to defer judgment as a lifestyle, it will help us to better meet everyday challenges, avoid comparing and be more self-expressed. Creativity is the antidote to fear. Fraley offered this analogy: If innovation is bottled water, then creativity is the spring from which the water comes. If everyone is focused in the same way on the same tasks in an organization, creativity will flourish.

MICHAEL JEFRY STEVENS, pianist from Memphis, Tennessee, and DAVE BALLOU, a trumpeter from Michigan, performed together. Their message:  jazz is math set to music.

NANCY VOGL of Michigan, author of the award-winning, multicultural children’s book, “Am I a Color Too?” shared her perspective:  What if the whole human race had nothing to do with the color of your face, wouldn’t the world be a beautiful place? She used the example of Richard & Mildred Loving of Virginia, two people in the early 60s of different races who married and fought for the right to be in love. “Some day the world will see people for the essence of who they are as human beings. The cycle of racism will end.”  She introduced her grandson Tyler who told her at an early age, “I’m a human being, a person, not a color.”

There were some light-hearted moments, too.  BRENDA BARROW of Norfolk entered the stage with a crazy outfit and robotic voice as “The Math Lady from Outer Space.” Barrow, an adjunct professor at Old Dominion University, is a regular presenter for both the National and the Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics. This woman loves math and infuses her love into children of all ages. Performing her song “I love math” in a red cowboy hat, she had the entire crowd singing along, “We love math, it’s so much fun. We love math its number one.”

Photo credit:  NASA

Next up: PAT RAWLINGS, an illustrator who documents the future of space exploration. While showing beautiful images he’s created, the talk of his life included:  “Creativity works well with structure…. Visual literacy is extremely important in explaining things to a short attention span populace.”

Photo credit: Virginia Tech

DR. DENNIS HONG, director of Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa), shared his students’ creative vision of the future both on stage and with a great interactive display in the lobby.

He covered a lot of robotics work in his 18 TED-minutes, introducing us to Tech’s robots (click here for more, including video, of their work):

• STriDER: Self-excited Tripedal Dynamic Experimental Robot (which would make a great new Star Wars character whose creation was “inspired by nature,” according to Hong)
• IMPASS: Intelligent Mobility Platform with Actuated Spoke System
• MARS: Multi Appendage Robotic System
• HyDRAS-Arm: Hyper-redundant Discrete Robotic Articulated Serpentine for Manipulation
• DARwIn: Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence
• CLIMBeR: Cable-suspended Limbed Intelligent Matching Behavior Robot
• ChIMERA Chemically induced Motion Everting Robotic Amoeba
• RAPHaEL (Robotic Air Powered Hand with Elastic Ligaments)

Hong also talked about RoboCup, an international research and education initiative whose goal by the year 2050 is to develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world soccer champion team, in other words, droid football. Read about (and see) Virginia Tech’s RoboCup  progress here.

Hong shared the secrets of success at Virginia Tech’s Robotics Lab:

1. Get inspired and take notes; he keeps a notebook and pen with LED light next to his bed in order to write down inspiration whenever it comes to him and maintains this database of ideas;
2. Refine ideas; no criticism allowed;
3. Get tools, i.e. build your batman utility belt. “Today, we educate for conformity, not innovation,” said Hong. The better your education, the more tools you have to attack big problems. Education is really important in the development of creativity;
4. Work smart, then work hard; and
5. Have fun.

Hong’s presentation was the best of the morning, and while not all locally-organized TEDx talks will make it to the main stage of TED.com, this one definitely deserves to be featured.

JANA STANFIELD, a humorist and songwriter (for entertainers like Reba McEntire and Andy Williams) from Nashville, Tennessee, is known as “The Queen of Heavy Mental” or “psychotherapy you can dance to.” Her message:  “It takes courage to create. My goal in writing songs is to restore our collective courage.” She sang “If I Were Brave.”

At this point in the program, our emcee SAM HORN, a creativity consultant in her own right and author of “POP! Stand Out in Any Crowd,” shared her message about “serendestiny” better known as hunches, gut feelings, precognition, or a “sixth sense” which Socrates referenced as the source of all scientific knowledge. “Hunches must be acted on in the moment, or the window of opportunity will be slammed shut. Trust it. Trust your creativity,” said Horn.

Next on stage was JOHN ST. AUGUSTINE, a talk radio show personality, author and motivational speaker from Chicago.  His work is an inspiring example of broadcasting dedicated to influencing, education and entertaining people on how to live a better life. He received the first standing ovation of the day by using the “let’s stand up and clap after lunch, so we wake up” routine.

John shared the now famous clip of Apollo 11, man’s first Moon Landing, saying “My life was changed in that moment. Our species had done something that no one had ever done before. We felt as if in that moment we were taking that one giant leap, too.”

His message:  “We create moments that then create us. Our lives are built on the moments, the good ones and the bad ones. Moments matter. Realizing that will add life to your years. A 3-step process put a man on the moon:  thinking about it, talking about it, then just doing it.”

Next: the co-creator of Yuri’s Night, an annual world-wide event celebrating space exploration, LORETTA HIDALGO WHITESIDES of Washington, DC. Her passionate life is unique: she’s dived to Titanic depths with Hollywood director James Cameron and done research with NASA in the Canadian Arctic.

“When I was 12 years old, I realized that the best way to help our planet was to focus on space, to use space to expand what people think is possible. Space is the ultimate blank slate. Anything is possible; we can create anything, design what we want our civilization to be.  Whatever we do will have a profound impact, as we carry civilization to the rest of the universe. We are stewards of ourselves, our home planet and beyond. Inspiring the future for humanity will require a critical mass of people.”

Photo credit: Mrdoornbos on Twitter; pictured is Tyler Cole, Nancy Vogl’s grandson whom we met earlier in the day.

Due to flight delays caused by weather, our first TED talk from space became a pre-recorded message from LELAND MELVIN, an astronaut since 1998 (and former NFL Detroit Lion) who hails from Lynchburg, Virginia. Melvin flew out last Monday on Atlantis and reached the International Space Station on Wednesday, recording his message just before leaving.

Tyler Cole (Nancy Vogl’s grandson whom we met earlier in the day) narrated. The message from Melvin:  Language and backgrounds may be different on the international space station, but the astronauts realize they have more in common than not. They’re humans from the blue orb we know as Earth and where we live is really much smaller than any of us will ever know.  In our explorations of the oceans and the cosmos, we must also explore our common humanity. If we all could see Earth from space, there would be no more war, famine or dissension; we would all work together for the common good, for our common cause… for our Planet. The biggest tragedy would be to not continuing to explore space.

STEVE SHAPIRO, an innovation consultant from Quincy, Massachusetts took the stage and articulated why we don’t only have rocket scientists speaking at TEDxNASA today.  His message:  When the brain finds a solution, the brain stops working. Expertise is a killer of creativity. Experts seek solutions very quickly, and then stop. Someone else may have already solved your problem, so look for solutions in unusual places. Creative people think more about experiences, which is the premise on which TED conferences are built.  TEDxNASA could have brought us only rocket scientists, but by bringing different disciplines together, we look at life through different angles. Innovation is about connecting the dots. Creative solutions are not rocket science.

Another outstanding and TED-main stage worthy talk of the day was ANNA MCGOWAN, an aerospace engineer at NASA Langley Research Center. She is one of NASA’s leaders in adaptive technologies for flight and delivered a different perspective on space: NASA is the AIR and Space agency, not just space. NASA began right here in Virginia in 1917, and every plane flying today has a bit of NASA technology in it. (For a peek into the future of aviation, visit NASA’s Aeronautics website.)

Anna’s message:  “Your World on Demand – it’s more than just information. “ Transportation is directly linked to our prosperity and has been since the beginning of time. We must be linked to our resources. “Overnight package” and “eBay” would mean nothing without transportation. Transportation matters to our daily lives, and aviation is the real World Wide Web.  At our current rate, there will be 1.4 Billion cars by 2030; that’s 50,000 football fields of pavement just for parking. Spreading out on the ground is not the solution to our transportation needs.

Photo credit:  The Jetson’s flying car by NASA Langley Research Center

Aviation can transform the feeding of our planet. Small, inexpensive planes can make land more accessible, can distribute medicines more effectively, and can offer small businesses, the same cost effective distribution channels as big box stores. Many things that at one time were considered ridiculous are now ubiquitous.

Airplanes of tomorrow will need to serve us differently. They’ll be unmanned, more fuel efficient, quiet, smaller for personal use, and larger for better, more widespread freight delivery

Photo credit: AirTran

Today we use a hub and spoke network for aviation. Our thinking is following these paths, too.

With the airplanes of tomorrow, we’ll have better storm reporting, disaster relief and search and rescue. They’ll truly allow us to live and work wherever we want. We and our families will become the hub in a three-dimensional network. NASA has delivered “space to create” for over 90 years; the ridiculous and the impossible have become possible.

Another outstanding presentation worthy of the TED.com main stage.

In the artistic nature of creativity, CHAKAIA BOOKER, a scavenged rubber sculptress from New York City shared her penchant for creating intricate, organic pieces from discarded Goodyears and Firestones as her form of exploration.

Serendipity by Chakaia Booker

MIKE RAYBURN, touted as the “World’s Funniest Guitar Virtuoso,” flew in from his Planet Hollywood-Las Vegas show to share his unique message (he’s always thinking!):  What if??? Rayburn uses his unique guitar skills and hilarious songs to illustrate how to step beyond perceived limitations. His examples today: Every song can be a country song!  Led Zeppelin does Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” or “Dueling Banjarabia” (think Saudi Arabian Bluegrass or Dueling Banjoes with a Middle Eastern flair).

Mike’s performance was the first time people stood in applause on their own. We howled, we cheered, we laughed; we were amazed at the sounds he could bring forth from his guitar, ending with “Quicksilver” … a beautiful instrumental.

DR. SUE MORTER of Indianapolis spoke on “Bioenergetics,” a way of understanding personality in terms of the body and its energetic processes. She did get the crowd going after the break, getting everyone on their feet to “move your body in a strange kind of way.” The closest connection I could make to TED and the spirit of innovation was this message: “pure infinite possibilities occur when you move out of your comfort zone.”

From Keith Cowing of NASA Watch (not affiliated with NASA) on Twitter: “Sue Morter let loose a torrent of pseudo-science babble the likes of which I have never seen – totally out of place at a NASA event.”

DR. JOEL S. LEVINE, a planetary and atmospheric scientist at NASA LaRC, discussed 4.6 Billion years of solar history in his 18 minutes. He opened with the July 1965 photo from Mariner 4 Flyby, the first close-up image of Mars, used by the New York Times to claim that NASA should ignore the “dead planet.”  If there is life outside of Earth, though, Mars is the most logical target, said Levine.

Mars is half the size of Earth, but its land area is comparable to Earth since much of our planet is covered by water. Mars has the largest volcanoes (bigger than the state of Arizona); important because they create atmosphere and oceans. Mars has the largest canyon in solar system and the biggest impact crater.  We still don’t understand Mars Crustal Magnetism as to why it is so heavily magnetized in some spots.

Photo credit: NASA, Frozen Water in a Crater on Mars

There is no liquid water on the surface of Mars today, but there is evidence of water earlier in its history, perhaps some remains in its polar caps, and there is evidence of frozen water below the surface. (Water is important as a key ingredient of the evolution of life.)

There is a one Billion year gap in Earth and Mars’ history. The oldest rock on Earth is one Billion years younger than those on Mars due to Earth’s tectonic plate activity which gave us our continents of today.

What is the best way to unravel the mysteries of Mars to inspire and produce the next generation of scientists and technologists? A robotic rocket-powered airplane (ARES, Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Surveyor) under construction at NASA LaRC.

How do we transport a plane to Mars? “Very carefully,” joked Levine. We’d put it in a spacecraft and send it to Mars on a 9-month trip, a process which has been tested in LaRC wind tunnels under Mars conditions and tested in the Earth’s atmosphere at 100,000 feet with a high altitude drop test. There have been 150 scientists and engineers working on this at LaRC, and “we’re ready to go.” A full scale model sits at LaRC now. “We just need a check.”

Photo credit: NASA

Dr. Levine shared a video simulation of ARES on the way to Mars, its entry, descent and deployment.

Entertainer JANA STANFIELD took the stage again and invited the event’s deaf interpreter on stage for a musical-sign collaboration of “I Will Give You Strength.”

MITCH ALBOM, an internationally renowned and best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, broadcaster and musician, took the stage as the last presenter of the day. His books have sold more than 28 million copies worldwide. Four years on the New York Times bestseller list, Albom’s “Tuesdays with Morrie” is the most successful memoir ever published.

Mitch spoke about the man behind “Tuesdays with Morrie” and his current project A Hole in the Roof Foundation to battle homelessness. Mitch’s TED message:  Happiness is relative to our current circumstances and is really about perspective. We would treat each other better if we remembered that “we’re all a child of god,” and no matter how busy we are, there’s still time to do for others.

Thirteen year old singer JAMIA NASH of Los Angeles, California (born in Virginia Beach) ended the show, accompanied on piano by MICHAEL JEFRY STEVENS who also performed earlier in the day. The President of the United States has dubbed Jamia “the definition of the future.”

STEVE CRAFT, Deputy Director for Strategic Planning NASA Langley Research Center and originator of TEDxNASA, closed out the event with a thank you to everyone, participants and planners, and added his own message: TEDxNASA is a departure from the typical NASA event. Innovation is needed to spark a new wave of entrepreneurism in the nation as one way to get out of the current financial predicament. Today’s event served as part of NASA’s outreach, combining rocket science and jazz and everything in between to “connect the dots,” so we’re all a little more creative.  He then asked us all to “text, twitter or take a photo” and spread the message.

Videos will be posted on NASA’s TEDx website TEDx-NASA.org and TED’s YouTube Channel YouTube.com/TEDxTalks and perhaps even on TED.com.

Here is the detailed Final Program for TEDxNASA 2009.

Several of TED’s most popular talks from other events around the world were distributed throughout the day’s program in video form and included (all are available on YouTube as well, but use the TED links below to learn more about the speaker and their work, too):

• Jill Bolte Taylor: how it feels to have a stroke, a brain scientist who learned about her own brain from the inside out;
• Marc Koska: 1.3 Million reasons to re-invent the syringe and save lives;
• Daniel Pink: the surprising science of motivation, using the candle problem to explain functional fixedness, exploring the mismatch between what science knows and what business does. If/then rewards, the ones we’ve built our businesses around, don’t work and often destroy creativity. Intrinsic motivation rules!
• Michael Pritchard: making filthy water drinkable; with only $20 Billion, we can meet the clean drinking water needs for the entire world (2 million kids die every year due to unclean water);
• Nandan Nilekani: one of TIME’s most influential people and his ideas for India’s future and why India should matter to us. They’re 1 Billion people (1/6 th of the world’s population), and their people are moving into prosperity;
• Josh Silver: demos adjustable liquid-filled eyeglasses; 60% of the developed world’s population have corrected vision. Poor vision is a problem of education, economics, and quality of life. His group is Centre for Vision in the Developing World;
• Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry from MIT’s Media Lab with Sixth Sense Projection Technology Demo, a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine “Minority Report” and then some. This technology provides seamless access to anything we may come across, augmenting the physical world around us with digital information, simply using hand gestures to interact with that information.

Daily Press coverage of the event:  NASA planners looked for speakers who wanted to make a contribution and weren’t going to speak just because they had a book or project to promote. None of the speakers were paid to appear, although travel and hotel charges were paid. “The audience, Steve Craft said, is “a reflection of the speakers,” with its diversity. “The goal was to give people some new connections to help toward coming up with new solutions. … That’s what it’s about — collective ingenuity.”

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