IGNITE ITHACA is a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea – and the guts to get onstage and share it with their hometown crowd.
by Tom Mansell
Tom is a PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering at Cornell University. Since coming to Ithaca, he has used the opportunity to learn as much as he can about wine in the heart of the 3rd biggest wine-producing state in the US. Under the tutelage of some enologists, microbiologists, and viticulturists in the newly created Program in Vitculture and Enology, he has learned some of the basics of wine science and winemaking. These scientists have taught him that a little understanding of microbiology, plant biology, and chemistry can go a long way towards decoding the world of wine.
by Matteo Wyllyamz
Matteo currently describes himself as a "Beatnik superhero, disguised as geek, loitering at the intersection of Art and Science." He is currently working as an independent teacher, trainer, consultant, designer, artist, and author. His interests include futurism and "technorealism."
by Bob Picone
Bob Picone is graduate student at Cornell University receiving a Master degree in Labor Relations. He spent the last 4 years as a construction engineer out of Philadelphia, PA and is a proud, proud Phillies fan.
by Julia Reich
Julia is the Principal of Julia Reich Design, a small, award-winning creative brand strategy and graphic design firm located in the Finger Lakes. She has a special passion working in the food, wine, environmental and agriculture sectors. In addition to running her design studio, Julia is the President of the Aurora Arts & Merchants Association, a member of Cayuga Club Toastmasters, and an occasional food writer. She also conducts public speaking engagements on branding and self-promotion for small businesses, and writes a blog, The Citiots Guide to Country Living.
http://www.juliareichdesign.com/
http://twitter.com/juliareich
by Shira Golding
Shira Golding is a filmmaker, musician, photographer, designer and community acitivist. After six years in NYC working in the documentary film world, she moved to Ithaca in search of community and with a goal of living as sustainably as possible. In the last year, she helped start Share Tompkins and co-directed Frac Attack, an environmental zombie thriller about the perils of natural gas drilling. Shira and her partner Ari Moore run a creative and consulting services company called Shirari Inducstries: www.shirari.com
by Franklin Crawford
Franklin Crawford is an Ithacan-American and editor-in-chief/writer/photgrapher for tinytowntimes.com, an online news, art and entertainment publication for Ithacan-Americans and lovers of tiny towns everywhere. Before starting tinytowntimes he was a columnist and general assignment for the Ithaca Journal from 1988 to 1998; he then worked at Cornell for 10 years for their "house organ," The Cornell Chronicle. He is best known for staying in one place and getting old and in a lot of trouble there, which is here, Tinytown, USA.
by Ed Cormany
Ed is a grad student in Linguistics at Cornell University, focusing on minimalist theoretical syntax and historical syntax. Before you even ask, he only speaks two languages; this is totally normal for American-born linguists. Non-professionally, he's a diehard omnivore, sports junkie, and interwebs addict.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/
http://descriptively.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/ecormany
by Phoebe Wyllyamz
Phoebe has researched modern parenting principles extensively, and is a big believer in "attachment parenting," unschooling, cloth diapering, extended breastfeeding, keeping male children "intact," etc. Her own children have benefited greatly from these approaches and are excelling both in physical and mental development.
http://twitter.com/BreastfeedingMB
http://www.facebook.com/BreastfeedingMeansBusiness
by Jeff Lipton
Jeffrey Lipton is a PhD Student in the Cornell Computational Synthesis Lab. He works on developing digital fabrication technology and applications. He founded the Cornell Fab@Home student project team, and is one of the designers and directors of the Fab@Home project. The project is an open-source world-wide collaboration on personal fabrication. Jeff has published on architectural and culinary applications of digital fabrications as well as novel processes.
by Pete Marchetto
Pete Marchetto is a self-proclaimed physicist-at-large. He currently works on recording and tracking equipment for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and is an electronics hobbyist. His background in small businesses, academic research, and volunteer organizations inspired him to want to build a hackerspace in Ithaca.
by Max Evjen
Max Evjen is the Artistic and Executive Director of Redshift Productions, a company that facilitates collaboration between scientists and artists to create artistic works as outreach. He is also a freelance marketing, public relations and organizational development consultant serving arts, entertainment and recreation organizations. Max has worked as a teaching artist for an arts in education organization in New York City, and has been an educational consultant on projects for Cornell University. Max holds a BFA in Performing Arts: Acting with honors from Adelphi University, and an MBA with an emphasis in marketing and communications from Ithaca College.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Redshift-Productions/121755119382
http://twitter.com/redshifty
by Matt Bernius
Matt Bernius is a PhD student at Cornell's Department of Anthropology and a Researcher at Large for the Open Publishing Lab at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His research takes place at the intersection of technology, publishing, and culture, exploring the future of journalism and reading, social media, the anthropology of knowledge, and artificial intelligence.
by Dave Cameron
Dave is one of the organizers of Ignite Ithaca. He is a contributing writer for Edible Finger Lakes magazine and is the creator of EatingIthaca.com, a local foods blog and podcast.
http://davecameron.tumblr.com/
http://www.eatingithaca.com/
http://twitter.com/davecameron
by Dave Cameron
Dave is one of the organizers of Ignite Ithaca. He is a contributing writer for Edible Finger Lakes magazine and is the creator of EatingIthaca.com, a local foods blog and podcast.
http://davecameron.tumblr.com/
http://www.eatingithaca.com/
http://twitter.com/davecameron
by Rob Engelsman
Rob, aka DJ McScruff of 92 WICB, is a senior journalism major at Ithaca College, which means he will need a job soon and is welcoming all offers.. In his free time he hosts four TV shows on ICTV, is shooting a documentary on the Hangar Theatre and, most importantly, is station manager of 92 WICB.
http://rcengelsman.com/
http://www.wicb.org/
http://www.ictv.org/
http://twitter.com/rcengelsman
by Dirk Swart
Dirk Swart loves to invent and build solutions to problems, and produces open source electronics kits through Wicked Device LLC. He also works for Cornell University, and in 2008-2009 was a visiting fellow at Boston University's Pardee Center, a long range future think tank, where he scenario planned about the technological future of Africa.
by Hod Lipson
Hod joined the departments of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and the faculty of Computing & Information Science of Cornell University in 2001. Prior to this appointment, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Brandeis University's Computer Science Department and a Lecturer at MIT's Mechanical Engineering Department. He received his PhD in 1998 from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. Before joining academia, he spent several years as a research engineer in the mechanical, electronic and software industries.
http://www.mae.cornell.edu/lipson/
http://twitter.com/hodlipson
by Doug Turnbull
“My work focuses on creating a better, music discovery experience. That is, by combining new computational tools with better interactive design, we can improve how both musicians grow their audiences and listeners discover new music.”
by Gwyn Whieldon
Gwyneth Whieldon is a graduate student in mathematics here at Cornell. Her research hits math from all over the spectrum, but she loves math facts that just seem impossible - but are true anyway!
http://www.math.cornell.edu/People/Grads/whieldon.html
http://twitter.com/loneshieldbeare
by Stacey Shackford
Stacey is a journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor in the US and abroad, including several years as a local beat reporter for the Ithaca Journal. She currently works at Cornell University.
by Yael Saar
Yael Saar, mother of two boys, draws from her experience with PPD, and the extensive toolbox of coping skills she collected in order to disarm it. Formerly a volunteer counselor at the crisis and suicide prevention hot-line, Yael now leads support groups in Ithaca NY, and online at www.ppdtojoy.com.
by Danielle Klock
Danille Klock is co-founder and managing partner of Mouselink Media Group. Topographical thinker. Grateful. She met all of her current business partners through social media. Her perfect office would include a bed with lots of pillows.
http://www.mouselinkmedia.com/
http://twitter.com/digitalklock
by Jason Woodward
Jason is a software developer and information integrator at Cornell University. He thinks those who can be involved should be involved.
by Paul Houle
“I earned a PhD in physics at Cornell University and 1998 and I've spent 15 years developing web-related software. I've worked on major community projects such as the arxiv.org e-print archive and Tivejo, which was the leading voice chat service in Brazil in the early zeroes.”
http://gen5.info/q/
http://ookaboo.com
http://carpictures.cc
http://ny-pictures.com
http://twitter.com/paul_houle
by Lily Gershon
Lily is one of the founders of the Dacha Project, a sustainable, educational homestead in Freeville. When she isn't building and gardening, she is working on her novel about the circus, traveling cross country and helping to organize the Ithaca Freeskool. She is a nerd and likes school, but hates waking up early. Lily isn't terribly funny but she likes jokes, please tell her one.
by Jeremy Blum
Jeremy is huge geek, and he couldn't be more proud of it. He's been tearing things apart and putting them back together since he was 5, started self-educating himself in circuit theory in 9th grade, and is now a respected member of the hardware hacking community online. His open-source hardware projects have been featured on sites like gizmodo, engadget, hack-a-day, parallax, and several others. Jeremy maintains a blog at jeremyblum.com and you can check him out on youtube or twitter.