Can You Change Everything?

On September 18, 2006, Anousheh captured headlines around the world as the first female private space explorer traveling to and staying onboard of the International Space Station for 10 days. Back on Earth, as a successful serial entrepreneur, Anousheh returned to her job as co-founder and Chairman of her latest technology company, Prodea Systems. In her previous endeavor, Anousheh had served as co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board for Telecom Technologies, Inc. An active proponent of world- changing technologies and social entrepreneurship, in 2004 Anousheh and her family provided the title sponsorship for the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million cash award for the first non-governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks.

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Ira has been a painter, animator, designer/developer, programmer, art/creative director, managing director, professor and author. He holds a BFA (Cornell University) and MFA (University of Pennsylvania). Previously with the Bowery Gallery and H2O Associates, Ira has also taught and lectured widely. Schools include Seton Hall University, UC Santa Barbara, Lafayette College, the Art Institute of Seattle, University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, Bryn Mawr College, Miami University, City and Guilds of London Art School and University of Edinburgh. Ira is an associate professor at SMU, with a joint appointment to the Meadows School of the Arts and Lyle School of Engineering. He directs the Center for Creative Computation. Working across numerous disciplines (visualization, digital humanities, software development and artificial life), Ira’s research explores computation as a primary and universal creative medium. He is the author of Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art and The Essential Guide to Processing for Flash Developers.

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Soggy Science: Paddling the Extra Mile for Education

Aaron is a Chicago Public School teacher, currently teaching biology and zoology at Kelly High School on the city’s south side. Prior to becoming a high school teacher, he served as a US Peace Corps volunteer for three years in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu where he worked as a classroom teacher, curriculum designer and manager of a cyclone relief fund. As a 2008 Fund for Teachers fellow, Aaron paddled a kayak more than 1000 miles down the lower Mississippi River to study nutrient pollution and design a river ecology unit for high school students. His writing and photographs have appeared in Sea Kayaker Magazine, Wavelength Paddling and on GoNomad.com.

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SMU Lyle School of Engineering student Mary Moore and TEDxSMU host Rives demonstrate the water purification system, the Life Straw, in October 2009.

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Engineering and Humanity

Jeffrey Talley, just selected for his second star (Major General) in the U.S. Army Reserve and lauded for his recent work in the “engineering battle for Baghdad,” is joining SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering as Chair of the Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering and Bobby B. Lyle Professor of Leadership and Global Entrepreneurship. Talley recently completed a year of service as Baghdad Provincial Engineer under Gen. David Petraeus, where he commanded more than 4,000 engineers and soldiers in the 926th Engineer Brigade. Talley is credited with developing a military and policy strategy widely referred to as “engineering the peace” that aims to reduce violence in destabilized communities by rapidly rebuilding infrastructure, schools and hospitals. His work is credited with reducing violence and terrorism in the militia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, and he was awarded two Bronze Stars.

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

William Kamkwamba was born in Dowa, Malawi in 1987 and raised in Masitala village along the central plains. One of seven children born to sustenance farmers who grew maize and tobacco, his childhood was often interrupted by drought and hunger. At age twelve, Kamkwamba became fascinated with electricity – a luxury enjoyed by only 2 percent of Malawi. He taught himself radio repair and began tinkering with bicycle dynamos, hoping to understand the inner workings of generators. During a devastating famine in 2001, William dropped out of high school. As thousands died across the country, he continued his education by visiting a small library near his village. After seeing windmills on the cover of an 8th grade science book, he set out to build his own machine using scavenged parts from a scrap yard. His first windmill was made from PVC pipe, a tractor fan, an old bicycle frame,

Bryan Mealer is the author of All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, written with William Kamkwamba. A former Associated Press staff writer based in Kinshasa, Congo, Mealer has reported across the African continent. His work has also appeared in Esquire and Harper’s, among other publications. Born and raised in Texas, he now lives in Brooklyn.

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Agency

Joshua Prince-Ramus is Principal of REX Architecture P.C. Buildings currently under construction include the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in Texas; Museum Plaza, a 62-story art institute and mixed-use development in Louisville, Kentucky; and the Istanbul headquarters for Vakko, Turkey’s preeminent fashion company. REX recently won the international competition to design the new central library for Kortrijk, Belgium, and is one of three finalists for the new Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.

Prince-Ramus was a founding partner of OMA New York—an American affiliate of the Netherlands-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture—and served as its Principal until he renamed the firm REX in 2006. While REX was still known as OMA New York, Prince-Ramus was Principal in Charge of the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas and the Seattle Central Library, hailed as Time magazine’s 2004 Building of the Year and by the late New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp as “the most exciting new building it has been my honor to review in more than 30 years of writing about architecture.”

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Aerial Photography – A Lofty View of What Will Change Everything

Bobby is the author and photographer of seven photographic books, including Through the Eyes of the Gods: An Aerial Vision of Africa (2005), Through the Eyes of the Condor: An Aerial Vision of Latin America (2007), and African Critters (2008), each published by National Geographic. Since 2002, Haas has focused his artistic endeavors primarily on aerial photography in an effort to capture the grandeur and mystique of Earth’s continents from this unique perspective. Haas is Chairman of the Board of Haas Wheat & Partners, a Dallas-based private investment firm. The Firm’s national reputation as a leading strategic investor has been established over the past few decades in a series of noteworthy acquisitions, including Dr Pepper Company and The Seven-Up Company. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, Haas has endowed professorships and been a frequent lecturer at both institutions.

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I Remember a Different Me

After growing up in Dallas, Rogers Hartmann moved to Los Angeles to begin what would be an almost twenty year career in the film business managing screenwriters, directors and novelists. She continues to manage clients, but is currently producing film and television, as well. In June of 2008, Rogers was diagnosed with Dystonia, more specifically, Spasmodic Torticollis. Almost immediately, Rogers was invited to appear on Oprah with Michael J. Fox, The Today Show with Meredith Vieira and NBC in the Dallas/Forth Worth Metroplex. She then decided to take a break from television interviews, so she could focus more time on writing articles for a variety of publications, some local and some national. It is estimated that over 400 million people have seen her personal story.

You can learn more about Rogers’ organization Beat Dystonia at lifewithdystonia.com.

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