Theme: QUEST-ioning the norm

Quest University Canada is home to revolutionary ideas, and limitless questions. The culture of Quest is one in which knowledge is ever-changing, and more importantly, it is always being questioned.

TEDxQuestU will host 10 speakers whose talks will cover a diverse range of topics. It will run from 10am to 2:00pm at the MPR (Multi Purpose Room) at Quest University's campus.

Quest University
3200 University Boulevard
Squamish, British Columbia, V8B 0N8
Canada

Alex Gillespie

When Does Motivation Become Procrastination?

Whatever our situation, motivation and procrastination play a crucial role in allowing us to turn our goals into accomplishments. Alex Gillespie is an undergraduate studying marketing at Quest University Canada. In this talk, he uses Dr. Piers Steel’s model of the “procrastination equation” to introduce viewers to the variables that influence motivation. Along the way, he uses examples in a university setting give examples of how we can decrease our procrastination today.

Benjamin Sandler

What can we learn from the fake news debate?

Originally from Germany, Ben is currently doing his exchange semester at Quest University. He worked for Tesla Motors before starting his studies of Sociology, Politics and Economics at Zeppelin University where he rebuilt the entrepreneurship club. Since then he worked as a consultant for kreait - a boutique agency from Germany and consulted the likes such as BMW, Lufthansa and Red Bull and did the email marketing for the European Football Championship 2016 in Paris. While his interests are broad, the media has always been central to his attention. He has been active in the industry, working for major TV networks and media publishers and founded an online magazine. Recently his research focus has narrowed down on the media landscape.

Daniel Herrmann

How can we have better conversations?

Daniel is a fourth year at Quest University Canada originally from Toronto. He studies philosophy and computer science focused through the question how should we create artificial general intelligence? This question has led him to study decision theory and formal epistemology, which he intends to pursue further in graduate school. In this talk he discusses how an understanding of logic can help us have better conversations. In particular, he will discuss the difference between validity and soundness, and how this important distinction can help us get to the crux of a disagreement or issue. This talk is motivated by the many poor conversations in which he has participated, and dedicated to those teachers who have shown him how logic can be a powerful tool.

Eliyana Stern

Can Education Help Erase Ignorance as an Excuse for Racism and Discrimination?

Eliyana Stern is a grade nine student at Don Ross Middle School in Squamish BC. She is of Jamaican and Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Eliyana and her family moved to Squamish in 2011 from Edmonton Alberta. A criminal hate-speech incident against Eliyana in November of 2016 while at school gave her the courage to finally speak out publicly about some of what she has endured since moving to Squamish. Eliyana is tremendously proud of her ethnic and cultural background. She believes each and every one of us, (especially children) can be positively affected through exposure to ethnicities, cultures and beliefs different than our own. Her talk will focus on her experiences since moving to Squamish, and the process that took her from a stagnant place of feeling victimized to a place of empowerment and forgiveness which resulted in a strong desire to effect positive change. Eliyana hopes to create awareness of the underlying issues that perpetuate ignorance.

Jasmine Aimaq

The Box, and Stepping Outside of It

"Why do so many people find themselves stuck in a box? How do you figure out if you’re in one? And how — and why — should you find your way out? Jasmine will talk about what it means to be outside the box, and how we may do better if we care less about belonging and more about truth and living an honest life."

Johannes Bodendorfer

Of Rifles and Schoolbooks: Where do Liberal Arts and the Military Meet?

Johannes Bodendorfer is originally from Vienna, Austria. The current title of his talk “Of Rifles & Schoolbooks: Where do Liberal Arts and the Military meet?” describes his personal experience in two seemingly contradicting worlds. He is presently pursuing a liberal arts degree at Quest University Canada whereas he spent some time in the Austrian Armed Forces doing his mandatory military service. The bridge between the strict life of a soldier to the relaxed one of a student seem impossibly long. How can Liberal Arts influence military thought and vice versa? Is there such a thing as a soldier who thinks critically? Through presenting his personal experience and addressing these questions, he hopes to contribute to a very present debate: the nature of warfare is changing, should the nature of our military change too?

Leena Lamontagne-Dupuis

Are the Poor Lazy?

Leena was raised in a small lumber town in Northern Ontario. With the decreasing wood industry, she has been exposed to the harsh realities of a struggling economy. Poverty, as her talk will explore, is constructed to make it seem as an individual fault, not a contextual one, and how such stigma surrounding poverty has adverse impacts on individual’s health and social cohesion. Currently a third year, her academic interests are cultural theory, sociology, economics and their intersections.

Maria-José Araujo

An invisible refugee crisis, why are we not listening?

Maria-José is a 21 year old born in El Salvador who pursues her studies at Quest University Canada. She is passionate about her country, filmmaking, design thinking, politics and entrepreneurship. Her talk focuses on the history of violence in El Salvador and the build up to the current situation. With this talk she hopes to create awareness of an invisible refugee crisis in Central America.

Max Notarangelo

How can we Make Science Probably Accurate?

Max is a second year student at Quest University, one of hisacademic interests is philosophy of science, from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Practically, Bayesian statistics is a more optimal method for scientific inference. This talk will examine the theoretical and practical flaws of using frequentist statistics in science, and how using Bayesian statistics solves these problems.

Stuart Lantz

Why does believing in free will matter?

Stuart is a fourth year Quest undergraduate student from St. Paul, Minnesota studying stress-related disease and philosophy of mind. His studies led him to question what motivates human beings, possible answers to the mind body problem, and the necessary conditions for human experience. The question of whether or not we are free willed and what that means in our practical, everyday lives is an important part of the picture of what we are as human beings and what the consequences are of what we believe ourselves to be.