#tedxmilehigh Conference

Tedx MileHigh did not disappoint.  The range of ideas was amazing and surprising. This summary is only a small bit of awesomeness that was this day.

The first speaker was a tattoo technologist.  Carson Bruns is from University of Colorado Boulder and is researching ways tattoos could be helpful in heath.  He has tested UV ray sensitive tattoos that would allow you to know if your sunscreen has been worn off.  He has also tested temperature sensitive tattoos that would be able to tell you if you have a fever or not.

Matt Vogl was from University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus working on Mental Health issues.  He developed Augmented Reality sessions for prisoners in Alaska to be able to assimilate back into society after years of solitary confinement.

Alejandro Jimenz performed poetry out loud with three dancers who told of his family history in Mexico and the United States. He talked about Implicit Bias. Josh Dunn from University of Colorado at Colorado Springs discussed the importance of opposing views. Sabine Doebel discussed the need of teaching executive function and how it can change your life. Susan Cottrell discussed her faith and her family and how she ended up having to choose when her daughter came out as gay.  She felt like the family made her choose her church or her child.  But she has started other Christians in this same problem. Christoff Keplinger was a robotics Innovator who compared Rosie the Robot from the Retsons to the 180 artificial muscles to the hasel artificial muscles.

They also announced the upcoming Ted Talk Adventures which are free and usually hosted by a Ted Speaker.

Apryl Alexander from University of Denver talked about how in college she volunteered at a Women’s Shelter.  1/3 of sex offenders are under 18.  4% of youth never commit another sex crime. Sex Ed needs to be required in all schools. Sex Consent Education is only required in California. Ethan Mann is a microbiology maverick. He studied fowling shich is when barnacles and algae get on ships.  They stick to ships, whales, but not sharks.  Sharks have denticles that are diamond shape. Sharklet Technologies started because the surface energy allows textured surface to have repelling abilities.  Using a catheter for first testing on humans to see if the technology will lower infectious disease.  Laura Rovner from the University of Denver works fro the constitutional rights of prisoners. No one deserves to be tortured by the USA, but solitary confinement is torture. The prisoners use dog runs for exercise. Their vision changes because they don’t ever look more than 10 ft away.  Human identity is socially created.  Prisons are not transparent and they should be.  We have an obligation to bear witness.  Go to solitarywatch.org. Prisons must switch from vengeance and solitary confinement to something more human.

Kimberly Corban was raped in her own apartment and left for dead at age 20.  Somehow she survived.  She is Pro Gun for protection.  6 out of 1000 rapist get convicted. She released her name so that she can turn herself from a victim into a survivor.  In 2013 went to Colorado Legislators to tell her story. IN 2015 NRA wanted her as a spokesperson. In 2016 she was on CNN with O’Bama.  She hates this idea that you are either with us or against us.  Her story was hijacked for political gain.  Most people do not fit in one political box.

Mark Martin is a beat boxer whose mom was a special ed teacher.  When Mark found out how boring speech therapy was, he decided to see if he could make it more fun. When he learned about International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) he realized he could use it with Beat Boxing to teach speech.

Maytham Ashadood was a combat interpreter in Iraq for the US Army.  The combat interpreters were also cultural interpreters.   Then suddenly combat interpreters were targets and so were their families.  He applied for American citizenship for many years and was finally granted it.  He moved to Denver but they would not recognize his college credits, he would have to start over.  Maytham then realized that refugees don’t have instate tuition, but they don’t have any state.  So he worked until he gained instate tuition and has fought for those refugees coming over that have no state, so that they can receive instate tutition.