Oregon State hosted its first-ever TEDx talk last night at the LaSells Stewart Center on campus, with an audience of around 120 people at the sold-out event.
The whole event was organized by Oregon State College of Business MBA candidate Jennifer Villalobos. Speakers focused on the theme “Our Planet,” highlighting ideas around sustainability, specifically as it relates to water and energy.
The COB staff headed over around 5 p.m., though Villalobos had been at the center all day running through preparations such as blocking the stage, running microphone checks and even cutting out the paper Earths that decorated the hall.
Note: Apologies for the grainy iPhone3 shots. We’ll have shots from the event photographer up in the next week or so.
Mark Owen, OSU Mechanical Engineering alumni, spoke first on the future of water. He noted the need for new ideas in water access and safety, demonstrating a sunlight-activated water purification bag he’s helped develop.
Next was Oregon State professor Dr. John Selker. At one point he mentioned the need for engineering and business leaders to collaborate, as technology can’t solve problems without financial backing. That got a lot of nods from the COB crowd.
Dr. Kendra Sharp, an associate professor of fluid mechanics at OSU, was next. One of the points that stuck out for me was near then end as Sharp discussed the need for new types of people to get into engineering. She reiterated the fact that the vast majority of engineers are men (she told how it took her weeks to notice she had an all-male class last year), but that also researchers with interests in other fields (humanities engineering, anyone?) need to get involved, and she invited any of her OSU colleagues to get in touch and start working for solutions.
The final, and most unlike any of the other speakers, was Jim Walls, Executive Director for the Lake County Resources Initiative. Walls is working to make Lake County — population 7,895, 71.8 percent for John McCain in 2008 — the first county in the country to completely offset its carbon emissions.
He consistently got the biggest response from the crowd and also delivered the line of the night:
“We could be the first county to offset our co2 emissions, and we’re a Republican county!”
Overall it was a great night. Congratulations to Villalobos and everyone involved. As soon as the videos are available we’ll post a link here on the blog.
