Theme: Blueprint

A blueprint is a guide for making something, a design or pattern that can be followed. A blueprint is also a map, a guide, a plan. A person can have a “blueprint for success”, or a blueprint that guides his/her life rooted in a particular religion or philosophy. There are “genetic blueprints”, recipes for making living things. Blueprints guide us through unfamiliar terrain, help TV characters in devising an escape plan from prison, but blueprints may also be outdated and lead us astray. They can be restricting, confusing, difficult to decipher. With so many ways to interpret a blueprint, we challenge our speakers to present their take on the theme while drawing from personal and professional experiences.

SAP Lounge
MacKimmie Library Block
Calgary, Alberta
Canada

Dawn Johnston

Dawn Johnston is a senior instructor in the Department of Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary. She holds a PhD in Communications Studies from University of Calgary and is both proud and grateful to have built a career at her alma mater. Her research and teaching interests are at the intersection of communications and cultural studies, with a particular interest in the constructions and representations of gender and sexuality in popular culture. As an avid feminist and a pop culture junkie, she is especially excited for any opportunity to talk about how to be a critical media consumer while still having fun.

Giuseppe Iaria

Dr. Giuseppe Iaria is an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary. He is a member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health. Dr. Iaria graduated with a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience in 2003. He has conducted behavioural and neuroimaging studies in both healthy individuals and brain-damaged patients. Dr. Iaria’s research team makes use of neuroimaging, genetic, behavioral and neuropsychological approaches to investigate the cognitive skills and neural mechanisms underlying the human ability to orient and navigate in the surrounding. His main research interest is to understand the fundamental mechanisms related to spatial cognition throughout the life span and in the event of clinical conditions affecting the central nervous system.

Rita Egizii

A visionary entrepreneur, community builder, and educator, Rita’s career began in basic science research in the field of neurophysiology. She left science to get her BComm degree and graduated from the Haskayne School of Business in 1996, with distinction and the recipient of the Silver Medallion from the University of Calgary Board of Governors. Rita has founded several successful businesses and was the Western Regional Finalist for the Canadian Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1997. She has been an international delegate on Government of Canada Trade Missions and trade summits and has sat on several federal task forces. In June 2012, she was presented with one the University of Calgary’s highest honours, the Order of the University of Calgary. She is currently employed as Director of Alumni Relations at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary.

Robert Schulz

Dr. Bob Schulz is a Professor of Strategy and Global Management with the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, where he has taught since 1973. His practical approach to learning and student “live” projects at the undergraduate and EMBA levels has resulted in 23 awards for outstanding teaching, including “top 10″ among 39,000 professors in Canada. As a coach, his students have won 82 national case competitions and earned 23 international awards. Dr. Schulz was the first recipient of the Order of the University of Calgary. As a director/investor in more than 15 public or private technology start-ups, he brings insightful experiences and wisdom to students and emerging companies. “Dr. Bob”, as he is often called by many current and former students, is well-known as a super-connector, high-speed thinker, and practical visionary.

Thomas Keenan

As an educator, author and public speaker, Tom Keenan combines a deep technical knowledge with lively insights into the social and cultural aspects of technology. He was educated at Columbia University, and is a popular professor of Environmental Design and Computer Science at the University of Calgary, a Fellow of the Canadian Information Processing Society and the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies. Tom taught Canada’s first computer crime course, and was involved in drafting the country’s inaugural computer crime legislation. Tom learned to fly a plane in Alberta, scrubbed in on an organ transplant operation in Belgium, and helped defuse on IED in Afghanistan. He is eager to apply his knowledge and wisdom help build a smart society where we can reap the amazing benefits of technology while also understanding the risks that come along with each of them.