Seeing things from a new perspective, this year’s TEDxUTK presentation “On Another Wavelength” will host a diverse group of speakers looking to share new ideas through their own experiences with the UT community.

TEDxUTK is an annual, independently organized TED talk event here at UT with this year’s presentation taking place on Saturday, April 13.

Mallika Vohra, a junior majoring in anthropology and Spanish, and co-chair of the TEDxUTK speaker committee, stated that the name was inspired by her interest in the geometrical patterns of wavelength.

“The meaning behind it is just to kind of see things from a new perspective, and I really like with TED you can share new ideas and share new thoughts, and I felt like on UT’s campus you can get a lot of that type of difference in diversity within thought,” Vohra said.

Vohra got involved with TEDxUTK her freshman year of college along with the speaker committee’s other co-chair Sophia Cui, a junior majoring in psychology and minoring in child and family studies.

Cui explained that she hopes that the event will also reach beyond the borders of UT’s campus.

“The purpose of the event and also why we do this job is because we want to help bring a variety of different speakers from all different disciplines and fields to come and speak at an organized conference, and we usually do have an audience where it’s students and older people, and people that are from UT and also the Knoxville community,” Cui said.

This year’s featured speakers reflect diversity as the lineup includes a childhood drug dealer turned professor, an architect, a computer science student and more.

Those who were interested in speaking at the event applied online or were sought out by members of the speaker committee. The list of speakers usually features several UT professors, as it does this year, in addition to others who, in the slogan of TED, have “ideas worth sharing.”

James Williams, the aforementioned assistant professor of retail, hospitality and tourism at UT, will be sharing a particularly inspiring story. Williams was raised in an underprivileged family and as a teenager became involved with drug dealing and gang violence. He was also a teen parent and dropped out of high school.

However, Williams broke away from the seemingly ominous path and went on to earn six degrees, including two Ph.Ds. His story is one of inspiration, proving that with hard work and determination, anyone can rise from the most despicable of circumstances.

“He is just one of the most motivational people I’ve ever met, like when we met up with him the first time, we left that interview just like, we’re feeling great about ourselves today,” Vohra said regarding Williams. “And so we’re really excited to have him because he’s going to be our last speaker, and so he’s gonna really kind of give everyone that energy that they need to leave TED feeling like they learned something.”

Additionally, one UT undergraduate student is selected each year to speak at the conference. This year’s student is Will Lifferth, a senior studying computer science and machine learning. Students wanting to speak at the event apply and go through an interview process to be selected.

TEDxUTK, which was started in 2014, is the only TED event in East Tennessee. The conference presents a learning opportunity for Appalachian residents that may be hard to find in the area.

“In East Tennessee, we do have such low literacy rates, such low education rates, that it’s important to bring these differing ideas,” Vohra said.

In addition to fostering education, Vohra and Cui hope that the event will simply start conversations about topics that aren’t being discussed enough.

Cui explained that TED talks are conducted in a more straight-to-the-point format that distinguishes them from traditional lectures and frames the events as more sociable than rigid or scholarly.

“A lot of people come in groups or as friends, and it’s something I feel like that’s become quite social as well, like people can come have fun and come with their friends and hear new ideas and kind of start those conversations afterwards,” Cui said. “Cause we really hope that our event is a conversation starter–it’s not just something that people are sitting there listening and then they’re like, okay, and then they move on with their lives. We really hope that it has some sort of impact on every audience member’s life.”