Preserving food. The changing demographics of Canadian society. Horizontal enlightenment through meditation.

These were just some of the topics attendees learned about at the fifth annual TEDxToronto conference last week. The University of Toronto co-sponsored the event, and U of T Engineering boasted two of the 12 provocative presenters: Professors Brendan Frey and Steve Mann from The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE).

Both Professors Frey and Mann galvanized the more than 1,000 attendees with their presentations. Frey discussed how he and his colleagues uncover and decipher genetic recipes, and Mann related his experiences with wearable computing and its implications for surveillance and openness.

Professor Frey was impressed with the level of engagement of the attendees.

“The audience was very responsive during my talk and afterward I chatted with about two dozen attendees. They had interesting comments about my research and also I found that they were very smart, creative people who are doing interesting things themselves. It was a terrific experience,” he says.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzLp0QETUhY?feature=player_embedded]

Professor Mann says he gained a lot from the experience.

“It was a lot of fun, and I met lots of very interesting people afterwards. The whole process was quite enlightening,” he says.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z82Zavh-NhI?feature=player_embedded]