By Tala Habbal

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Six professors and two students spoke Saturday at the W.T. Young Library in a TED Talk hoping to inspire people to change the university and the world.

TED Talk, which stands for technology, entertainment and development, is a lecture series based in Montreal. TEDx is an independently organized, local TED Talk, This one focused on the topic of “Seeing Change.”

Mark Rabideau, a visiting associate professor of arts administration, was among the lecturers who argued that the power of change is not only accessible, but has the ability to invent promising futures.

“We must again show why educating a global community is essential in the 21st century,” he said.

David Kinstley, a community and leadership development sophomore, focused on farming for the future, asking the audience if they fully understood the effort required to transport food around the world. The newest trend in modern agriculture is vertical gardening — growing plants on the side of buildings — which allows food to be grown in urban environments, he said.

“When we can’t grow out, we grow up,” he said. He encouraged listeners to change their communities by changing the way they view agriculture and sustainable living.

Focusing on technology, Michelle Ellington, the Geographic Information System coordinator, spoke on the integral part technology plays in everyday life in her talk, “Mapping the New Normal.” Ellington argued that change is already here in technology.

The example she used was one she works with daily: the map. She discussed how the concept has evolved from its origins to modern GPS units.

Classics graduate student Jonathan Hall spoke about the human brain and the effects brain injuries might have on one’s perception of reality.

Dr. Joaquin Fenollar, a kinesiology and health promotion lecturer, touched on the media and said they negatively shape people’s perceptions and distort what we call “reality.”