Ignite Seattle 7 – Ignite Seattle

Geek Generation – Lauren Bricker @brickware

Don’t call Lauren Bricker a teacher, she’s more of a “Geek Generator.” For the last two years she’s been teaching computer science at a local private high school. It’s incredibly interesting, rewarding, and yes, a lot of work.

Lauren talks about her experiences teaching CS to high school kids and tells us how we can help generate more geeks.

About Lauren Bricker

Lauren Bricker teaches AP Computer Science to high school students (10-12th grade) and has a software consultancy, Brickware. You can find her on on Twitter @brickware.

How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Counterfactuals – Daniel Westreich

When looking at data regarding Web site user behavior or in Daniel Westreich’s case, epidemiology, we have to be remember that correlation does not imply causation. That is, just because two events were observed close together in time, it is false to assume that one caused the other. Causal inference is hard.

With great examples, Daniel Westreich presents counterfactuals, causation and correlation at a pragmatic, hands-on level.

About Daniel Westreich

Former Microsoft developer, Daniel Westreich is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Department of Epidemiology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he leads the Causal Inference Research Group.

Life’s Too Short To Eat Bad Food – Vanessa Fox

Between working long hours, working on geek side projects (and at least in my case, raising kids), putting together a dinner party seems like a lot of work.

Coming from someone who spends more time on the road than in her house, search engine optimization expert, Vanessa Fox gives us her tips on throwing a successful, yet simple dinner party for foodies.

About Vanessa Fox

When Vanessa isn’t talking about food, you can find her working on SEO projects at Nine By Blue. You can find Vanessa Fox on her blog, on Twitter @vanessafox or hosting Office Hours on Webmaster Radio.

Creating Communal Creative Space – Willow Brugh

The experience of building a maker space from scratch is certainly a project, Willow Brugh talks about her experience in doing so, what advice others have shared with her, and what spaces like this (Hackerbot, Saturday House are already available in Seattle.

About Willow Brugh

You can find Willow on her blog, on Twitter @willowbl00. You can find more information about Jigsaw Renaissance at http://www.jigsawrenaissance.org/, the hacker space mentioned in Willow’s talk.

I Wish I Was Taller – Elan Lee

Software and hardware developers spend a lot of time combing through the flaws and defects that their products have. But what about their own flaws and defects? Is it as simple as filing a bug?

Elan Lee had always wanted to be taller. Here’s his story of the attempts to fix his bug.

About Elan Lee

Game designer and storyteller, Elan Lee has made a career keeping people entertained. He is a founder of Fourth Wall Studios, where he currently serves as Chief Designer. When he’s not creating Alternate Reality Games, you can find him on Twitter at @elanlee

Elan gave the talk “Life – if you’re bored, you’re doing it wrong” at Ignite Seattle 4.

Lies to Ignore – Jessica Hagy

With her familiar charts, graphs, diagrams and deadpan humor, Jessica Hagy indexes Ignite Seattle.

About Jessica Hagy

A recent transplant from Columbus, Ohio, Jessica Hagy writes (and draws) the popular blog, Indexed. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the BBC Magazine and has won numerous awards. A collection of Indexed was published last year.

You can find Jessica on Twitter @jessicahagy.

Addiction! Staying afloat in the stream – Mónica Guzmán

Glued to email, your RSS reader or Twitter? Has your hand grown by 133 grams — the approximate weight of an iPhone? The Web is a stream, and it’s easy to drown. Mónica Guzmán returns to the Ignite stage to offer tips, tricks and cautionary tales to guide you through the perils of an always connected lifestyle.

About Mónica Guzmán

Mónica Guzmán is a reporter for the Seattle PI‘s Big Blog You can find her on Twitter @moniguzman or organizing the next Big Blog meetup, which is this Wednesday, November 11th from 5:30 – 7 pm at Cupcake Royale in Ballard.

Mónica gave the “how to be a better news commenter” talk at Ignite Seattle 5 and Ignite Gnomedex.

What Makes the Greenest Cab? – Gregory Heller

Green transportation is all the rage these days, especially hybrid and electric vehicles. Popular wisdom may lead some, including civic leaders and politicians to believe that the greenest vehicle is a hybrid. NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg has been fighting to “Green” the Yellow Cab fleet in that city by forcing all new cabs to be hybrids. The iconic New York City taxi cab often sets the pace for the rest of the country’s cabs.

Would hybrids in NYC really make green cabs? And would the rest of the country’s cab industries follow suit? The answer may surprise you.

About Gregory Heller

Gregory Heller is a partner at Civic Actions, an internet strategy and web development consultancy dedicated to empowering social change organizations.

You can find Gregory on his blog and on Twitter @gregoryheller. Gregory also writes about food on his @hungryseattle Twitter feed. You can find the slides to his presentation here.

60 Minutes in Whale (and How I Learned to Use a Machete!) – Mandy Sorensen

Ever wondered what to do with a half-alive beached whale on a remote island in the Pacific? Veterinarian Mandy Sorenson recounts her experience of dealing with this very problem while visiting the Pacific island of Rarotonga in 2006.

After a remarkable and significant attempt to keep a beached juvenile beak nosed whale alive, Mandy was left with the very dirty duty of performing a full scale necropsy (autopsy) while learning how to most effectively use a machete and a rock as her primary surgical tool.

NOTE: Some of the images in this video are fairly gruesome. If you’re squeamish, you might consider not watching.

If you didn’t watch the video, I’ll give you the moral: plastic bags have no place in the ocean.

About Mandy Sorenson

When she’s not performing whale autopsies, you can find Mandy Sorenson in her day job as a “surfing veterinarian” here in Seattle. Follow her on Twitter at mandercrosby.

How I Learned to Appreciate Dance Being Married to a Ballerina – Todd Sawicki

At past Ignites, we’ve learned that being married to a geek or startup jock can be rough and finding that geek girl can be tough but rarely, do we hear the geek’s side of the story.

Todd Sawicki takes us on a trip into his married life and shares what he has learned being married to a former professional ballerina. Most of us couldn’t tell the difference between a first and fifth position and a Plié vs. a Passé.

In this passionate talk, we learn that even a geek can learn to appreciate and love classical dance.

About Todd Sawicki

Todd Sawicki is a veteran of numerous tech startups, but lately, you can find him around Cheezburger HQ (purveyors of I Can Has Cheezburger and Fail Blog) as Chief Revenue Officer. When he’s not saying “OH HAI” to advertisers, you can find him on Twitter, on his blog or talking shop at Hops and Chops.