We’ve all experienced a moment when we feel like we are on top of the world. Perhaps we have achieved something or overcome something that once seemed impossible to navigate. We feel proud of ourselves and really feel like we are worth something.

Then there are those times where we feel hopeless. Yeah. It’s a familiar and very real feeling.

There are moments where we feel like something is never going to work. Time after time, we try our best and face rejection. Throughout these journeys, we fall down and get hurt; however, we would not be where we are today if we simply gave up.

We must remember how important it is to dust ourselves off, build ourselves up, and try again.

We must remember how it is okay to attempt something and mess up.

We must remember that failure is okay.

Failure helps us approach things in different ways and bring upon sparks of innovation and creativity.

 Failure helps us inspire ourselves and others to work hard…and to SUCCEED
…only when we all DARE TO FAIL

We were excited to showcase nine speakers who embody “Dare to Fail” in their own lives.

Meet the Speakers!

AJ(Adam) Edelman - Olympian and Four-Time National Champion in Skeleton

After initially being told that he “lacked the skills necessary to become a competitive skeleton athlete,” Edelman pursued the sport and eventually qualified for the Olympics. He is the First Orthodox Jewish Winter Olympian and became Israel’s most decorated slider. Edelman holds Israeli track records on almost every track he has raced on and has competed in two World Championships for Israel. He has won two international medals in competition-the most amongst Israeli sliding sport athletes.

Anthony Leung - Mentalist

Mind Reader and hypnotist Anthony Leung will be demonstrating how easy it is to hack our own minds and how adopting certain stories will help us embrace the cyclical relationship of success and failure. Throughout his speech, he will also be featuring mind reading and hypnosis demonstrations taken from his 2019 live show “Oblivion.”

Arunima Sharma - Founder of the Columbia University's Product Managers Club

Throughout her life from a small Indian town Meerut to Microsoft AI, Arunima has been passionate about solving problems of the communities around her thereby consistently failing, on her own terms, smartly. She was awarded Google WomenTechmakers Scholarship among other awards for her leadership and passion, but claims to have had many more failures than success stories, the hidden stories ‘persisting’ through which leads to bigger successes. She deeply believes in the concept of ‘Persistence’ for achieving professional and personal goals in life however, she does not believe in the age-old definition of straightforward, rigid persistence. She wants to redefine how we look at and understand ‘Persistence’ by what she calls ‘SAP!’- Supported Adaptive Persistence.

Jennifer Watson - Integrative Physical Therapist and Coach

Jennifer Watson, MPT, I.M.T.,C. is passionate and honored to help those achieve their own greatness with authenticity, grace and class. As a former collegiate athlete & All-American as well as a current integrative physical therapist, coach, speaker, and entrepreneur, she is ecstatic to share a message of strength, courage and hope against mountain tops that may seem unattainable. Her goal is to maximize each individual’s unique power to create their health, their leadership and ultimately their legacy to impact the world in profound ways.

Matt Balducci - Entrepreneur and Motivational Speaker

We are more then excited to have Matt Balducci speak at TEDxWPI. Matt has realized that chronic stress is a huge epidemic in our modern world and is stealing years of our lives from us. His goal is to give the simple tools needed to help as many people out there live longer, happier, stronger, and less stressed using science backed strategies that has allowed him to completely transform his life.

Miroslav Petrovic - Heart Based Speaker and Facilitator

“It’s so real I want to look away,.. yet I can’t stop looking!” Miroslav’s very presence invites you to dare to live by embracing your fears. Not even the, ‘out there’ crazy fears, but perhaps even more so our unacknowledged, ‘simple’ social fears.

Nasim Mansuri - Chemical Engineering and Professional Writing Student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Nasim Mansuri has over ten years of experience organizing systematic community service efforts in Paraguay, Tanzania, Lithuania and the United States. She is a chemical engineering and professional writing double-major at WPI, and volunteers as a teacher for children’s moral education in Worcester neighborhoods. She currently works as an entertainment writer at Hypable.com, and a writer and editor at BahaiTeachings.org. In Nasim’s talk, she will speak about the attitudes that often hinder community service efforts, and explore how we can change our mentality to effect lasting change.

Raj Singh - Serial Entrepreneur and Motivational Speaker

Raj, known as King Raj, believes in gaining freedom through passive income. While obtaining his Bachelor’s degree, he entered Corporate America and grew multiple investment businesses. Due to his success as an Entrepreneur, he left the IT field in 2007 and began to pursue his passion for music as the lead singer of a global Caribbean band. He is now a Int’l Speaker, Award Winning Author, and Business Coach whose mission is to empower others to overcome adversity, create financial freedom, and experience life to the fullest.

Sagar Mahurkar - Augmented Reality Engineer

As an Augmented Reality Engineer, Sagar Mahurkar will introduce Augmented Reality (AR), its impact and applications. He will talk about the journey of innovation leading to smartphones detecting objects and overlaying graphics on them. Sagar is an IEEE Award Winner, Journal Reviewer, and a proud WPI graduate! Since graduation in 2017, he has initiated and developed multiple projects related to AR, VR, and Video for Verizon.

Special Thanks to our Organizing Team for their efforts in coordinating and planning this event!