Ted: Ideas Worth Spreading

1) The TED organization is about spreading ideas to get important or simply interesting thoughts across. It's a chance for people to show off what they can do or know and hopefully make an impact on the rest of the world.

2) The purpose of their website is to act as an opener for ideas to start flowing. This is how people get their ideas to be noticed. It's a segue into the media, which is the most important part of making a difference--it's the path leading out to the rest of the world for everyone to see.

3) I think all of the topics listed in the sidebar are equally important to engineering. Engineering is the skillful or artful planning of something. It is typically linked to sciences, but it has so much to do with design that it can really be interpreted in many different ways

-Of the topics listed, I would probably say that Technology and Science are the two most related, followed by Global Issues, then by Design and Entertainment and Business

-Engineering is the fundamental key in life. It is used to come up with new technologies relating to anything, and of course elaborate plans are carried out with global issues that revolve around the mind of an engineer--thinking of every possible outcome of events before coming to a final decision as to what to do

-Engineering revolves around the 12 Principles of Design, allowing the thought process to be overall creative; and business also takes a lot of careful planning and thinking, although most people would overlook the connection to engineering -It's all about creativity, which is why it is linked to everything on this planet; it's like the backbone of society.

4) Three videos that really stood out to me:

-Cynthia Breazeal: The rise of personal robots--this caught my attention because of the simple fact that technology is becoming increasingly more advanced. I'm fascinated by the mechanics of such a topic as robots.

-Moshe Safdie on building uniqueness--I, personally, love architecture and anything realted to seeing new designs inspires me. I enjoy seeing new models and being able to see the major connection between art and engineering.

-Charity Tillemann-Dick: Singing after a double lung transplant--I thought it was amazing that dreams and aspirations were so closely related to the techonolgy used to make a transplant. Engineering became so important in trying to find solutions so that Charity could continue to do what she loves.

5) Rachel Armstrong: Architecture That Repairs Itself?

- Rachel Armstrong says we need to outgrow architecture made of inert materials

- make architecture that grows itself

- proposes a not-quite-alive material that does its own repairs and sequesters carbon

6) To get involvoed in this field (architecture) you would need to:

- go to a four year college and major in architecture or civil/structural engineering

- take design and engineering classes and understand the fundamentals

- apply for internships and work your way up to land a job in architecture