Theme: Bending Beliefs

Our speakers will present current ideas and phenomena with a twist. Spanning all industries, you will leave with a new fresh and innovative perspective on how nothing has to fill a mold.

Herring Hall Room 100
Rice University
6100 Main Street
Houston, Texas, 77005
United States

Ashley Clemmer Hoffman

​Community Engagement Director at Rothko Chapel

Ashley Clemmer Hoffman has over eleven years’ experience working in Non-Profit Arts Organizations using art as a catalyst for social change. Since 2012 she has served as the Community Engagement Director at Rothko Chapel and previously as the Public Art Director at Project Row Houses. She holds a B.A. in Studio Art from Roanoke College in Salem, VA and a M.A. in Community Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD.

Dr. Marta Rodriguez

Assistant Professor at the College of Architecture of the University of Houston

Martha Rodriguez begin her professional practice at The Office for Metropolitan Architecture / Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam, where she was a part of the team who won the international competition for designing the new court Rothschild Bank in London in 2005. She subsequently started her own practice, winning several public architectural competitions in Spain, and in parallel she also taught at the ETSAM. Her creative work has been published internationally and magazines such as Arquitectura Viva and PASAJES Arquitectura y Critica, as well as in several books by the University of Valladolid Press and Mairea Libros publisher

Dr. Matthew Wettergreen

Lecturer at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, Rice University

Matthew Wettergreen has a formal education in bioengineering with a specialization in biomechanics and organ printing and an informal education in non-profit/arts management and marketing, community organizing, and digital strategy. Matthew's work (Caroline Collective, Do713, Chicago Mayoral Campaign, Bandcamp, and Record Monsters) leverages technology to deliver products, solutions, and platforms that help people connect, collaborate or work effectively together. He is currently a lecturer at Rice University in the OEDK working with undergraduate education in engineering, mentoring undergraduate students in engineering design projects, and instructing students in the physical prototyping of objects.

Dr. Niraj Mehta

Associate Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine

After completing his medical training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, he served as a full-time medical educator and Associate Program Director in the Department of Internal Medicine at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital (LBJ). For dedication and commitment to education, he has received numerous faculty teaching awards over several decades. Last year, he published his first novel, "Hopes and Fears, Dreams and Tears: A County Memoir" about his experiences from medical school through becoming a physician. Along with tremendous involvement in medical education, Dr. Mehta founded The Cupcake Project, which improves interactions between patients and their families and medical professionals by holding a small birthday celebration for patients who are in the hospital on their birthday.

Dr. Songying Fang

Associate Professor

Dr. Fang’s research focuses on how international institutions influence state behavior, using both game-theoretic and empirical analysis. She is particularly interested in domestic mechanisms that provide a link between international institutions and state foreign policy. She has published 10 papers in esteemed journals including the American Journal of Political Science, and International Organization 68. With a book and translation under her belt, she has been awarded many prestigious fellowships and awards from being a National Fellow at Stanford University, to a Visiting Scholar at the University of Manheim.

Jeff Aresty

President of Internetbar.org, Inc.

Mr. Aresty is a lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts currently living in Houston, TX. He has been involved in international business law and the role of technology in the transformation of the practice of law for almost three decades. He is a past chair of the American Bar Association Section of International Law’s Information Services, Technology, and Data Protection Committee and currently the deputy program chair; and has volunteered in other capacities for the ABA and the Massachusetts Bar Association.Additionally, Mr. Aresty is a Fellow at the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts. His involvement in the Center centers on promoting the use of online dispute resolution technology as an alternate to traditional methods. His ongoing law-technology activities concern (1) e-lawyering training, including ODR and (2) initiating global law reform in online communities.

Maggie Edmunds

Maggie Edmunds is a senior at Rice University studying Psychology, Sociology, and Business. She is also the President of Moneythink Rice, an organization that teaches financial literacy and entrepreneurship to low-income high school students. She is currently completing a Psychology Honors Thesis titled "Academic Stereotype Threat against Student-Athletes," which informs this TEDx Talk.

Timothy Campbell

Timothy "Timstuh" Campbell is a Breakdancer having danced for the San Antonio Spurs & Houston Rockets NBA Teams with his Cirque De Soleil Type Performance, Soon after Timothy became an engaging Speaker, Coach, Life Mentor & aspiring Author who has traveled the Nation due to his successful Breakdancing career.