Step inside the MIT Museum as curator Deborah G. Douglas resurrects Claude Shannon’s legendary 1950 “Theseus” maze‑solving mouse—the electromechanical demo that introduced the world to machine learning decades before the term existed. In this hands‑on session Douglas:Recounts Shannon’s journey from his MIT master’s thesis (where he coined the “bit”) to Bell Labs breakthroughs in information theory and cryptography.Reveals how Shannon and his wife Betty turned a Christmas Meccano set and surplus relays into a self‑learning mouse that stunned LIFE and TIME audiences.Shows the painstaking restoration and Arduino‑powered replica that now lets visitors watch Theseus explore, learn, and adapt in real time.Explains why this playful gadget cements Shannon’s place not just in communication theory, but at the dawn of artificial intelligence.Witness the moment the replica rediscovers its cheese, learn how museum curators reverse‑engineer history, and appreciate the playful genius whose “useless” experiments reshaped our digital century. Debbie Douglass arrived at the MIT Museum. Deborah Douglas has a dual role—Senior Director of Collections and Curator of Science and Technology. And she not only collects and curates, but also serves as a teacher, a speaker and a visible advocate for all things MIT.Debbie led the creation of the “MIT 150 Exhibition,” working with community members to select 150 objects most important to the Institute. In 2016, she led the creation of another wonderful exhibit when MIT celebrated 100 years in Cambridge.She contributed to the decades-long planning of the new MIT Museum – and at the same time, she was managing an enormous effort to digitize the Museum’s collections and create an online portal for open access to the amazing assets of MIT. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

MIT mechanical‑engineering professor and VulcanForms co‑founder John Hart shows how the convergence of high‑power lasers, metal 3‑D printing, and AI‑driven “digital threads” is reinventing manufacturing from the factory floor up. Tracing a line from Gutenberg’s press to modern jet‑engine parts, Hart explains why today’s fragmented, globe‑spanning supply chains can be “re‑architected” into flexible, information‑rich production networks that fabricate hip implants, smartwatch housings, and aerospace components on the same industrial printer. MIT News MIT Department of Mechanical EngineeringInside VulcanForms’ 150,000‑sq‑ft Devens, MA “foundry,” racks of synchronized lasers hum like data centers while machine‑vision systems build a real‑time digital twin of every layer. Hart details the software stack that simulates heat flows, catches microscopic flaws on the fly, and feeds back data to improve alloys discovered through large‑scale numerical searches. The result: parts that emerge stronger, lighter, and faster than legacy processes can deliver. MIT News Additive ManufacturingLooking ahead, Hart argues that multimodal AI models will fuse design, simulation, and production into a single conversational interface—collapsing complexity, unlocking custom materials on demand, and shifting value toward “cloud manufacturing” platforms. The talk closes with three implications: radically new product architectures, highly reconfigurable factories, and a rebalanced global value chain where production itself becomes a high‑value, data‑driven asset. John Hart is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity and Center for Additive and Digital Advanced Production Technologies (APT) at MIT. John’s research focuses on additive manufacturing, nanostructured materials, and the integration of computation and automation in process discovery.John has published more than 125 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is co-inventor on over 50 patents, many of which have been licensed commercially. He has also co-founded three advanced manufacturing startup companies, including Desktop Metal. John has been recognized by prestigious awards from NSF, ONR, AFOSR, DARPA, ASME, and SME, by two R&D 100 awards, by several best paper awards, and most recently by the MIT Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Why are one‑in‑four female collegiate runners sidelined by the same pelvic stress injury while their male teammates stay healthy—and why do women still wait years for diagnoses like endometriosis? In this candid lightning talk, MIT machine‑learning master’s student and former varsity distance runner Lily shares how her own back‑to‑back pelvic fractures exposed a systemic blind spot: less than 1 percent of global R&D targets female‑specific conditions, and women are diagnosed four years later than men across 770 diseases.Lily spotlights MIT’s new Female Medicine through Machine Learning (FEML) initiative, showing how AI models trained on inclusive data can:Screen for endometriosis non‑invasively using multi‑omics and symptom dataDetect bias in state‑of‑the‑art chest‑X‑ray algorithms that miss Black, Hispanic, and low‑income womenMine wearables and patient‑reported data for personalized insights at scaleShe then demos the prototype she’s building with classmates and FEML: a private, AI‑powered chat tool that answers birth‑control questions with evidence‑based, personalized guidance—no Reddit rabbit holes required.Lily call to action is clear: “AI systems mirror what—and who—we value.” With the right datasets, validation standards, and equity‑first mindset, we can stop asking women to wait and start delivering the answers their health demands today. Lily Janjigian is working in the Earth Intelligence Lab, conducting computer vision research for agriculture mapping. Lily was a member of the varsity cross country and track & field teams throughout her undergrad, and is a huge fan of distance running. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

"Don’t let others define your success" challenges traditional ideas of achievement by encouraging a personal and authentic approach to success. The talk inspires self-trust, resilience, and the courage to follow unique paths, reminding us that true success is defined from within, not by external expectations. Sattorbek Yuldashev is the Principal of Khiva Presidential School. He has been teaching English and helping students prepare for the IELTS exam for over 8 years. He holds an IELTS score of 8.5 and has been leading the school as Principal since January 2022. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

NOTE FROM TED: This talk represents the speaker's personal views and approach to policy. TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give TEDx organizers are described in more detail here: http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/tedx_content_guidelines.pdfExplore sustainability and reflect on its growing importance today—especially in the Philippines—while examining why it may be especially pressing in the current climate. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Perpetual Help and a Master's in Liberal Arts, Climate and Society from Columbia University. He has also received education from prestigious schools such as Wharton, Harvard, and MIT. He was the Chief of Staff for Senator Grace Poe and Chairman of the FPJ Panday Bayanihan Foundation. He recently graduated from the Master's in National Security Administration for Senior Executives at the National Defense College of The Philippines. He co-chairs the strategic communications committee of the Army Reserve Command and advises the PNP's Aviation Security Group, strengthening our nation's aviation security and military communications. A Trustee at the Blockchain Council of the Philippines and has been elected Chairman of the Global AI Council's Advisory Board. Author of "A Sustainable Future," published by Manila Bulletin, Brian is committed to helping Filipinos tackle climate change head-on. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Carl Miller joined TEDxManchester to tell us about his extraordinary discovery of a “Kill List” on the Dark Web. It was a ‘murder for hire’ website where people were paying tens of thousands to have hundreds of individuals targeted for assassination. Carl informs the police but when law enforcement are slow to react to the threat, he takes matters into his own hands and embarks on a high-stakes race to warn those in danger and unravel the sinister network behind the list.Carl Miller explores the mysteries and dangers of the digital age. He founded the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos and is the author of the prize-winning 2018 book The Death of the Gods: The New Global Power Grab published by Penguin. He is also the host of the international hit podcast Kill List which was named the No 1 podcast of 2024 by The Guardian newspaper.This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx