Saamah Abdallah
Saamah Abdallah / New Economics Foundation is involved with projects such as BRAINPOoL – an EU-funded project concerning the development of alternative indicators used in policy making, and the analysis of wellbeing data from the European Social Survey and exploring ways the city can improve wellbeing (in partnership with City University).
Saamah’s background is in the natural sciences, with a degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cambridge and having worked in Cambridge and the University of Barcelona as a research assistant. He completed an MSc in Democracy and Democratisation at University College London, where he explored views of deliberative democracy in his dissertation.
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Vanessa King
Vanessa King is a board member at Action for Happiness, speaking both nationally and internationally about the enhancement of wellbeing and resilience. Vanessa is an experienced leadership, talent and organisation development consultant, working with a wide range of international organisations in both the private and public sectors. Her expertise lies in the fields of professional services, leadership and talent and organisational development. Vanessa combines in-depth knowledge of the science of well-being with her client experience to help people get the most from work and for organisations to get the best from its people.
Vanessa will be at TEDxSouthamptonUniversity, looking at ways in which we can take action for happiness – for you, for me or for all, and discussing themes to help us explore what really matters.
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Dr. Jenny Josephs
Dr Jenny Josephs is a research psychologist and founder of UK start-up, The Bug Shack.
Inspired by the low maintenance of her own pet bugs, after completing her PhD at Southampton University she began investigating the environmental and nutritional benefits of edible insects. The Bug Shack was launched last year with the aim of promoting edible insects at science and sustainability events and engaging with people who will join the insect food revolution.
Dr Jenny Josephs will be coming to TEDxSouthamptonUniversity to discuss the relevance of eating insects in the modern age, as populations and mega-cities continue to grow, and as environmental and economic sustainability become paramount.
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Bradley L. Garrett
Bradley L. Garrett is a social geographer at the University of Southampton with an interest in unmapped, unseen and lost places. His first book, Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City (Verso Books 2013), is an ethnographic account of his adventures trespassing into ruins, tunnels and skyscrapers in eight different countries with urban explorers from around the world. His second book, Subterranean London: Cracking the Capital (Prestel Publications 2015), is a collaborative photo book that dissects the world underneath London’s streets. Details of his current research, media projects, publications and events can be found at www.bradleygarrett.com.
Bradley will be speaking at TEDxSouthamptonUniversity to discuss the starting point of a new project, ‘Pardon me we’re coming through’, looking to make London a more transparent, democratic and accessible city.
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Donna Green
Donna started work as a Research Scientist doing Mathematical Modelling at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (now Qinetiq). After 2 years Donna joined Smiths Aerospace (acquired by GE in 2007) as a Development Engineer focusing on Signal Processing algorithms. Since then Donna has gained over 13 years’ experience in developing and applying advanced analytics to a wide variety of domains including aircraft structures, energy gas turbines, wind turbines, and aircraft engines. She is now an Advanced Lead Data Scientist at GE and in recent years has been working in Aviation’s Big Data Environment and is the Training Strategy Lead. Donna has a BSc in Mathematics and is a Chartered Engineer in the Institute of Engineering and Technology.
Donna will be answering the following questions at TEDxSouthamptonUniversity on 25th April: What is Big Data? How is it being used right now and what are the challenges? What is the future and how can we best leverage it to get the full benefit for society?
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Tess Berry-Hart
Image courtesy of Emma Stoner.
Tess Berry-Hart is an author and playwright whose work ranges from sci-fi and historical novels to fictional and verbatim theatre. She studied playwriting at the Royal Court Theatre and her futuristic young-adult novels are published by Scholastic Books. The King’s Head Theatre London produced her last two plays of verbatim voices: Someone To Blame which campaigned for the successful release of Sam Hallam, one of the UK’s youngest victims of a miscarriage of justice; and commissioned Sochi 2014, a protest piece against the Winter Olympics in Russia after Putin’s legislation against the LGBT community prohibiting “the promotion” of homosexuality and “non-traditional” lifestyles.
In this world of global corporations and powerful governments, Tess looks to understand how we make our voices matter. How can we change systems and structures that are so much bigger than us?
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Kate Hadley
How can the arts implement social change for future generations and shape the world we know today? TreeCreeper, a collective of 3 theatre and arts practitioners, is trying to answer this question through community based theatre projects, developing and facilitating creative outreach work and making new theatre.
Kate Hadley, theatre and art facilitator, performer, woodlander and part of the Tree Creeper collective, is coming to TEDxSouthamptonUniversity to tell us her personal story about living a simple life away from the big cities, and how and why Treecreepers was set up. She will also talk about some of the projects that improve communities, the experience of some of the connections made and what she would like to see in the future.
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Miguel Gonzalez
What would you do if you learnt how much perfectly good food was thrown away by stores? If you were Miguel Gonzalez then you would start a social enterprise that would “harvest” this food before it reached landfill and turn it into a tasty and nutritious snack.
Miguel Gonzalez is a PhD candidate based in the Institute of Complex Systems Simulations a the University of Southampton. Originally from Venezuela, Miguel moved to the UK to pursue post-graduate studies in theoretical evolutionary biology. He is the co-founder of Biggest Tree, a social enterprise that turns surplus food into commercially viable tasty snacks.
Miguel will highlight the challenges and opportunities that come with preserving, recycling and marketing surplus food in a society where tonnes of it are wasted every year.
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Cara Sandys
Books for Free started in Southampton in October 2011, and was a Healthy Planet project and located in old Barclays Bank premises near the Bargate. Cara Sandys was the initiator of the project and set about creating a community arts space as well as a Books for Free space in the premises. There were some great evenings of music, song and comedy and the books were flying out of the door during the day. Some great links with local businesses were also made and leftover food from a local restaurant was redistributed to anyone who wanted it from the shop.
Cara is a self employed designer and maker of jewellery. She set up the Southampton and Romsey Books for Free shops, has run Stuff for Free events and volunteers for local arts organisations including The Nuffield Theatre at University of Southampton. She is coming to TEDxSouthamptonUniversity to tell you about how much the Freeconomy is really worth.
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Prof. Paul White
Paul is Professor of Statistical Signal Processing in the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) at the University of Southampton and is currently the Director of that Institute. His research interests include signal processing, underwater acoustics and bioacoustics (the way animals, especially marine mammals, use sound). He is primarily concerned with developing tools to assist in the computer-aided analysis of underwater sounds and understanding the role of those sounds in the marine environment.
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Little Bulb Theatre
Little Bulb Theatre is a national touring theatre company based in the South East of England (***** Times, ***** Herald, “One of the brightest and liveliest young theatre companies around” Telegraph). Combining innovative character work, beautiful imagery and exciting homemade music, they aspire to create performances that with humour and sadness will touch, startle and entertain. They are produced by Farnham Maltings.
TEDxSouthamptonUniversity 