University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh
10/22/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/22/2024 07:25
Pair of UWO TEDxOshkosh speakers to deliver thought-provoking talks on AI, politics
UW Oshkosh alumnus, Zach Evans, a professional pianist and piano teacher, gives a TEDxOshkosh talk in 2019.
Over the seven year history of the event, the successful TEDxOshkosh series has regularly featured University of Wisconsin Oshkosh community members as speakers.
Year Eight will be no exception.
As anticipation builds for the upcoming TEDxOshkosh on Nov. 16, two UWO speakers are ready to share their innovative ideas that touch on artificial intelligence in healthcare education and trust and empathy in politics.
Seon Yoon Chung, dean of the College of Nursing, and Michael Ford, associate professor of Public Administration, director of the Masters of Public Administration program and director of the Whitburn Center for Governance and Policy Research, will take the stage, each presenting insights that promise to inspire and provoke thought with the live audience at The Grand Oshkosh and later with a global audience through the TEDxOshkosh YouTube channel.
AI's place in health care
Chung's talk, New Tools in Healthcare Education: Incorporating AI-Generated Simulations, will explore the transformative potential of generative AI in healthcare education. Her talk will delve into how generative AI can simulate real-world medical scenarios, making them more realistic.
Chung believes such advanced technology could lead to better-trained medical providers to more effectively diagnose and treat patients.
"I hope the audience will have an opportunity to see and imagine the positive implications of using generative AI, especially in healthcare education," she said.
Talking politics
Ford's talk, People Matter: Getting Governing Back into Politics, shows how an engaged public and local government can heal politics, which has increasingly become a blood sport, full of winners and losers. He said he was compelled to pitch this talk to TEDxOshkosh for two reasons.
"First, good government is a passion of mine that I am always eager to share with anyone willing to listen," Ford said. "Second, we are living through a very challenging time in our democracy and I think it is important to share a hopeful vision for how local government can heal our most challenging divides. I know this because I've seen our MPA students and graduates do this in communities across Wisconsin."
Ford hopes that the TEDxOshkosh audience will take away an understanding that politics is a tool for governing and not "a performance art that creates winners and losers." He adds, "I also hope they heed a call to action to get involved at the local level to demonstrate that we can still govern ourselves in this country."
Exploring issues
UW alumnus and Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei speaks at the 2021 TEDx Oshkosh event.
TEDxOshkosh is an independently organized TED event. Put on by a group of volunteers, it's a TED-like event bringing together thinkers and doers for a series of presentations, dubbed TEDx Talks.
The TEDxOshkosh event aims to foster a space for meaningful conversations and community engagement. Alongside Chung and Ford, this year's attendees can expect a diverse lineup of speakers who will tackle various topics, including sustainability, mental health and community resilience. Each talk will encourage audience members to reflect on their roles within the community and the impact they can have.
Craig Burnett, co-founder of TEDxOshkosh, emphasized the importance of local voices in addressing critical issues. Each year, more than 300 possible speakers from all over the U.S. and some from other countries vye for fewer than 15 speaker spots.
"TEDxOshkosh, like most successful TEDx events around the globe, finds some of its most amazing speakers by actively searching for new ideas and leading thinkers in the geographic regions closest to the event," Burnett said. "In the case of TEDxOshkosh, one of the first places we turn to for speakers is UW Oshkosh."
Speakers with strong ties to UW Oshkosh-students, faculty and alumni-have been selected to present at almost every TEDxOshkosh event since it began in 2016. Past speakers have ranged from Jim VandeHei, '95, co-founder and CEO of Axios, whose 2021 talk, The Art of Smart Brevity - Write Less, Say More,was featured on the main TED YouTube channel and has logged more than 2 million views, to Isaac Marquardt, '20, RTF, who gave his 2019 talk, Disability or Inspiration: From CP Diagnosis to Rock & RollDrummer,as a sophomore at UW Oshkosh. He used a class writing assignment as the inspiration for his talk.
Learn more:
Upcoming TEDxOshkosh event spotlights UW Oshkosh faculty and alumni