TEDx: invisible technology, genetic recipes and Spaceglasses

When the fifth annual TEDxToronto 2013 takes place September 26, three University of Toronto professors will be among the speakers dazzling the sold-out audience with their insights.

Brendan Frey and Steve Mann from the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, and Rodolphe el-Khoury from the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, will speak at the annual event. It's an independently organized offshoot of the well-known annual TED (for Technology, Entertainment and Design) Conference, where leading intellectuals, business leaders, politicians and others give engaging, thought-provoking 18-minute presentations.

The TEDx conference follows on the heels of the first university-wide TEDx event, hosted by U of  T in May, which showcased 13 speakers from a wide range of disciplines. (Read more about TEDxUofT.) 

U of T News asked Professors el-Khoury, Frey and Mann for a preview of their TEDxToronto talks.

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Rodolphe el-Khoury

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I was born in Lebanon and emigrated to the US in 1982.  I was appointed to the U of T twice; in 1999 I was recruited to initiate the Master of Urban Design program and again in 2005 for a Canada Research Chair. In 2007 I partnered with two Daniels faculty colleagues to start Khoury Levit Fong, and in 2010 launched RAD (Responsive Architecture at Daniels) with Carol Moukheiber and Christos Markopoulos.

What are you working on now?

I divide my time between teaching and directing the Urban Design program at Daniels and my professional practice with Khoury Levit Fong.

What’s your TEDxToronto talk about?

My TEDx talk focuses on RAD, which provides resources and expertise for project-based research on the spatial ramifications of embedded technology and ubiquitous computing. The research is premised on the notion that every building or landscape component can be equipped with computational power. Projects at RAD develop models for such digitally enhanced environments to better handle persistent and emerging challenges in the areas of healthcare, building technology and sustainability. I'm currently working on a number of projects that combine technology with living material to integrate into building envelopes and interiors such as the algae facade that was showcased in a Globe and Mail article. (Read the Globe article.)

What take-away message do you want to leave with the TEDxToronto attendees?

That the best technology is invisible technology, a technology that is embedded in objects and environments and that works for you with a responsiveness and efficiency found in nature.

Is there a difference between a TEDx talk and a university lecture?

Big difference. A TED talk is a performance; it is akin to showbiz as much as to academic lectures. I suspect that my lectures at the U of T will have more of a "performance" element after the TEDx experience, and that's a good thing.

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Brendan Frey

Tell us a bit about yourself.

There are many things I could talk about, but really the only thing you need to know is that I am very passionate about figuring out how DNA encodes the instructions for life. We use machine learning to crack this problem.

What are you working on now?

Deciphering genetic recipes. It's basic science, with profound medical implications.

What’s your TEDxToronto talk about?

My story of how I became a genetic code breaker, how we uncover and decipher genetic recipes, and what it means for you.

The genome contains recipes that explain how genes should be combined in different ways to do different things, depending on conditions. These recipes are very important, since they account for differences between us and different species and since many diseases are caused by errors in the recipes, not the genes.

Is there a difference between a TEDx talk and a university lecture?

Yes and no. Students need to be inspired by big ideas, and that's what TED talks are about. Students also need to learn how to develop their own ideas. This takes a lot of experimentation, analysis, hard work and guesswork, which we teach in regular lectures.

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Steve Mann

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m a designer, artist, scientist, technologist, engineer, and mathematician. During my childhood, back in the 1970s (when computers were usually massive machines that required large computer rooms) I was, as far as I know, one of only two children in Hamilton to own a computer. It was one of the first “microcomputers”. I attached it to myself as a prosthetic extension of my mind and body and for more than 30 years, I have lived my everyday life in a computer-mediated world.

What are you working on now?

As Chief Scientist for Meta-View I'm working on the Spaceglasses, together with my PhD student Raymond Lo who is the CTO (Chief Technology Officer). (Read about Spaceglasses.) These are augmented reality 3-d glasses. augmented-reality glasses that combine the power of a laptop and smartphone in a pair of stylish specs that maps virtual objects into the physical world, controlled by your hands, similar to the movie portrayals of app control via gestures in Iron Man and Avatar.

What’s your TEDxToronto talk about?

I’ll be talking about Digital Eye Glass. It acts as a camera to record the scene available to the eye as well as a display to superimpose a computer-generated imagery on the original scene available to the eye. This structure allows the user's eye to operate as both a monitor and a camera. For a long time, computer-aided vision and augmented reality were rather obscure topics, of interest only to a few corporate researchers, academics, and a small number of passionate hobbyists. Recently, however, augmented reality has captured the public consciousness. In particular, Google has lately attracted enormous attention with its Project Glass, an eyeglass-like smartphone with a wearable display. But Google Glass is much less ambitious than the computer-mediated vision systems I constructed decades ago. What Google’s involvement promises, though, is to popularize this kind of technology.

What take-away message do you want to leave with the TEDx attendees?

Thirty-five years ago people used to laugh at me wearing computers and Digital Eye Glass. Now it is a $241-billion industry. So the take-away, is to follow your dreams and inventions even if other people tell you the inventions (or you) are stupid.

Is there a difference between a TEDx talk and a university lecture?

I guess I'm about to find out.

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Tickets for TEDxToronto 2013 have been sold out for weeks, and even a satellite venue at the Centre for Social Innovation at Bloor and Christie is fully booked. But you can follow the conference live at www.tedxtoronto.com. Videos of the speakers will also be available on the TEDxToronto website after the event.

Terry Lavender is a writer with University Relations at the University of Toronto.