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When Cleopatra fell in love with Marc Antony, her cat was right there. When Lincoln ended slavery his cat was by his side. When Freddie Mercury died he left his fortune to his cats. When The Beatles went on tour John Lennon brought his cat with him.
Cats have been alongside the biggest events in history, including the defining event of the 21st century, the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn how a cat taught Ryan Robinson, a prominent quantum engineer, what’s important in fighting a pandemic and helped his team* become some of the youngest people in history to work with the White House.

Videography credit to Ashley Yu, Jason Shameson, and Ebonique Stepney


*= Led by Logan Thrasher Collins Introducing Ryan Robinson - a quantum visionary creating quantum-inspired technology to end the pandemic, with the ultimate goal to make the world a better place by redefining the computer in the 21st century. Having studied at MIT under Seth Lloyd and then under Eric Lander (father of the Human Genome Project), Ryan understood the need for computing power to create devices that would ultimately improve people's health. He created Conduit while still a student, and since graduating Ryan has worked with Conduit to develop a computer network called, "Collective Computing" that can help simulate quantum computing. In the wake of the pandemic, Conduit is currently working with the White House to find a treatment for COVID19 and is also developing a rapid COVID19 test called nanoSPLASH. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx