Students revive TEDxUCLA as a campuswide ‘festival of ideas’

It was a late-night YouTube rabbit hole about mushroom leather that changed the course of Cylin Wang's college career.

At the time, Wang was a first-year student at UCLA studying economics and feeling increasingly unsure about her academic path. Then, while scrolling online, she landed on a TED Talk about a group of engineers making mushroom leather as a sustainable alternative to cowhide.

"I was like, 'OK, let me switch my major to materials engineering,'" Wang recalled.

Now a fifth-year engineering student - who is also pursuing an art history major - Wang is helping bring the platform that inspired her back to UCLA.

After months of organizing, speaker coaching and navigating university logistics, Wang and a growing team of students are reviving TEDxUCLA. It returns to the Northwest Auditorium on May 26 for the first time since 2023.

The conference, themed "Renaissance and Revival," will feature 10 UCLA-affiliated speakers delivering TED-style talks on topics including artificial intelligence, friendship research, urban cooling, art history and community life.

Building connections on campus

For Wang, the event is ultimately about creating more opportunities for intellectual connection across campus.

"One of the things I love most about UCLA is that the most important lessons I've learned here came from speaking and connecting with other people," she said.

Wang began to seriously consider bringing TEDxUCLA back after attending TEDNext 2025 in Atlanta, thanks to a grant from the Bruin Bridge-Builder Funds, which support students working to foster insightful dialogue among those with differing viewpoints. Wang says mentors connected to UCLA's Dialogue across Difference initiative - the granting organization - at the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute helped her every step of the way as she connected with TEDx organizers from around the world and saw how local communities were using the platform to spark conversation across disciplines and perspectives.

TEDxUCLA, first launched on campus in 2011, had already been on Wang's radar. After going to the 2023 event as a student, she noticed the organization went quiet the following year.

"I reached out to the previous organizer and asked, 'Is this happening?'" she said. "And then he said, 'Why don't you take over?'"

Wang began building a student organizing team to help revive the conference. She estimates she has spent more than 300 hours on the project since January.

The student organizers reviewed roughly 150 speaker applications while also identifying voices across campus they believe reflect UCLA's intellectual and cultural diversity.

"We're looking for people haunted by a great idea," said Wang, adding that TEDxUCLA's appeal lies in the unusual mix of disciplines and perspectives it creates. "I think it's probably one of the only places on campus where you can hear a great talk about science, then immediately one about art, and one about politics and one about life, then one about entertainment."

That philosophy shaped a speaker lineup that includes MySpace co-founder Brett Brewer discussing the future of social media; UCLA friendship researcher Jaimie Krems; UCLA urban environment researcher V. Kelly Turner; Google Cloud strategist Sharad Aggarwal; UCLA art historian Tiffany Barber; and UCLA senior custodian Daniel Estrada, who will reflect on invisibility, labor and community after 15 years working overnight shifts on campus.

The event's theme also emerged from reflection on the current moment at UCLA and beyond, Wang says, with "revival" representing not only the revival of TEDxUCLA itself, but also recovery after the Los Angeles wildfires and the importance of optimism during what she describes as a turbulent period for higher education and many communities.

"I think it's so important to be in a dark age, thinking ahead to a renaissance," she said. "If not a torch of hope, then a candlelight of hope would help."

TEDxUCLA details and speakers

The event will run from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, May 26, at UCLA's Northwest Auditorium. Tickets are available on the website. Speakers will include:

Brett Brewer
UCLA alumnus and co-founder of MySpace, speaking about redesigning social media for future generations.

Jaimie Krems
UCLA friendship researcher and professor of psychology, discussing the importance of friendship and human connection.

Sharad Aggarwal
UCLA alumnus and global head of strategy and operations at Google Cloud, reflecting on artificial intelligence and what 2026 could mean for the technology's future.

Tiffany Barber
UCLA art historian, exploring W.E.B. Du Bois, the Harlem Renaissance and "data consciousness" in the AI era.

Celine Shaw
UCLA alumna and engineer who is also a professional ballerina, speaking about creativity and learning.

V. Kelly Turner
UCLA professor of urban planning and geography, discussing how cities can be designed for urban cooling and climate resilience.

Corey Bosfield
UCLA Executive MBA student with synesthesia, reflecting on music, color and perception.

Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda
UCLA professor and chair of the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano and Central American Studies, exploring AI, migration and global economic rebalancing.

Daniel Estrada
UCLA senior custodian, sharing reflections from 15 years working overnight shifts across campus.

Martin Burns
UCLA alumnus who's working to advance a UCLA-developed medical technology aimed at preventing bed sores, discussing innovation and healthcare accessibility.