ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Cesar Harada - Inventor, environmentalist, educator
TED Senior Fellow Cesar Harada aims to harness the forces of nature as he invents innovative remedies for man-made problems like oil spills and radioactive leaks.

Why you should listen

Cesar Harada believes that ocean currents, the wind and other naturally occuring phenomenon can provide unique inspiration and novel solutions to mankind’s worst disasters, like oil spills and radioactive leaks. A French-Japanese inventor and TED senior fellow, he is the creator of Protei, a revolutionary sailing technology -- featuring a front rudder, flexible hull and open-soure hardware -- that allows for efficient clean up of both oil and plastics from the sea. Currently based in London, Harada recently traveled to Japan and is designing Protei to measure radioactivity along the country's coast.

The general coordinator of the future International Ocean Station, Harada teaches at Goldsmiths University London. A former project leader at MIT, he graduated form the Royal College of Arts Design Interactions in London and worked at the Southampton University Hydrodynamics laboratory on wave energy. Harada has also studied animantion, and his films and installations have been seen at festivals and events across the world, from the United States to Japan.

More profile about the speaker
Cesar Harada | Speaker | TED.com
TED Fellows Retreat 2015

Cesar Harada: How I teach kids to love science

Filmed:
1,776,679 views

At the Harbour School in Hong Kong, TED Senior Fellow Cesar Harada teaches citizen science and invention to the next generation of environmentalists. He's moved his classroom into an industrial mega-space where imaginative kids work with wood, metal, chemistry, biology, optics and, occasionally, power tools to create solutions to the threats facing the world's oceans. There, he instills a universal lesson that his own parents taught him at a young age: "You can make a mess, but you have to clean up after yourself."
- Inventor, environmentalist, educator
TED Senior Fellow Cesar Harada aims to harness the forces of nature as he invents innovative remedies for man-made problems like oil spills and radioactive leaks. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
When I was a kid,
my parents would tell me,
0
1800
2816
00:16
"You can make a mess,
but you have to clean up after yourself."
1
4640
3399
00:20
So freedom came with responsibility.
2
8440
3336
00:23
But my imagination would take me
to all these wonderful places,
3
11800
3576
00:27
where everything was possible.
4
15400
2096
00:29
So I grew up in a bubble of innocence --
5
17520
2896
00:32
or a bubble of ignorance, I should say,
6
20440
2336
00:34
because adults would lie to us
to protect us from the ugly truth.
7
22800
5096
00:39
And growing up, I found out
that adults make a mess,
8
27920
3576
00:43
and they're not very good
at cleaning up after themselves.
9
31520
2800
00:47
Fast forward, I am an adult now,
10
35360
2136
00:49
and I teach citizen science and invention
at the Hong Kong Harbour School.
11
37520
4976
00:54
And it doesn't take too long
12
42520
1336
00:55
before my students walk on a beach
and stumble upon piles of trash.
13
43880
4216
01:00
So as good citizens,
we clean up the beaches --
14
48120
2656
01:02
and no, he is not drinking alcohol,
and if he is, I did not give it to him.
15
50800
4720
01:07
(Laughter)
16
55880
1760
01:09
And so it's sad to say,
17
57960
1216
01:11
but today more than 80 percent
of the oceans have plastic in them.
18
59200
3776
01:15
It's a horrifying fact.
19
63000
1280
01:16
And in past decades,
20
64800
1376
01:18
we've been taking those big ships out
and those big nets,
21
66200
3456
01:21
and we collect those plastic bits
that we look at under a microscope,
22
69680
3336
01:25
and we sort them,
23
73040
1216
01:26
and then we put this data onto a map.
24
74280
1762
01:28
But that takes forever,
it's very expensive,
25
76440
2336
01:30
and so it's quite risky
to take those big boats out.
26
78800
3136
01:33
So with my students, ages six to 15,
27
81960
2936
01:36
we've been dreaming
of inventing a better way.
28
84920
2216
01:39
So we've transformed our tiny
Hong Kong classroom into a workshop.
29
87160
4416
01:43
And so we started building
this small workbench,
30
91600
2656
01:46
with different heights,
so even really short kids can participate.
31
94280
3176
01:49
And let me tell you, kids with power tools
are awesome and safe.
32
97480
4176
01:53
(Laughter)
33
101680
1336
01:55
Not really.
34
103040
1896
01:56
And so, back to plastic.
35
104960
1216
01:58
We collect this plastic and we grind it
to the size we find it in the ocean,
36
106200
3616
02:01
which is very small
because it breaks down.
37
109840
2176
02:04
And so this is how we work.
38
112040
1376
02:05
I let the imaginations
of my students run wild.
39
113440
3136
02:08
And my job is to try to collect
the best of each kid's idea
40
116600
4256
02:12
and try to combine it into something
that hopefully would work.
41
120880
4280
02:17
And so we have agreed
that instead of collecting plastic bits,
42
125920
3136
02:21
we are going to collect only the data.
43
129080
1976
02:23
So we're going to get an image
of the plastic with a robot --
44
131080
2976
02:26
so robots, kids get very excited.
45
134080
2376
02:28
And the next thing we do --
we do what we call "rapid prototyping."
46
136480
3143
02:31
We are so rapid at prototyping
47
139647
1689
02:33
that the lunch is still in the lunchbox
when we're hacking it.
48
141360
3176
02:36
(Laughter)
49
144560
1296
02:37
And we hack table lamps and webcams,
into plumbing fixtures
50
145880
4256
02:42
and we assemble that into a floating robot
that will be slowly moving through water
51
150160
5136
02:47
and through the plastic
that we have there --
52
155320
2096
02:49
and this is the image
that we get in the robot.
53
157440
2191
02:51
So we see the plastic pieces
floating slowly through the sensor,
54
159655
3721
02:55
and the computer on board
will process this image,
55
163400
3296
02:58
and measure the size of each particle,
56
166720
2096
03:00
so we have a rough estimate
of how much plastic there is in the water.
57
168840
4120
03:05
So we documented
this invention step by step
58
173520
3016
03:08
on a website for inventors
called Instructables,
59
176560
3376
03:11
in the hope that somebody
would make it even better.
60
179960
2800
03:15
What was really cool about this project
was that the students saw a local problem,
61
183838
3858
03:19
and boom -- they are trying
to immediately address it.
62
187720
2667
03:22
[I can investigate my local problem]
63
190411
2325
03:24
But my students in Hong Kong
are hyperconnected kids.
64
192760
3216
03:28
And they watch the news,
they watch the Internet,
65
196000
2296
03:30
and they came across this image.
66
198320
2240
03:33
This was a child, probably under 10,
cleaning up an oil spill bare-handed,
67
201840
4736
03:38
in the Sundarbans, which is the world's
largest mangrove forest in Bangladesh.
68
206600
4496
03:43
So they were very shocked,
69
211120
2456
03:45
because this is the water they drink,
this is the water they bathe in,
70
213600
3296
03:48
this is the water they fish in --
this is the place where they live.
71
216920
3376
03:52
And also you can see the water is brown,
the mud is brown and oil is brown,
72
220320
3896
03:56
so when everything is mixed up,
73
224240
1477
03:57
it's really hard to see
what's in the water.
74
225741
2475
04:00
But, there's a technology
that's rather simple,
75
228240
2256
04:02
that's called spectrometry,
76
230520
1536
04:04
that allows you see what's in the water.
77
232080
1905
04:06
So we built a rough prototype
of a spectrometer,
78
234009
3047
04:09
and you can shine light
through different substances
79
237080
2936
04:12
that produce different spectrums,
80
240040
2416
04:14
so that can help you
identify what's in the water.
81
242480
3856
04:18
So we packed this prototype of a sensor,
82
246360
2896
04:21
and we shipped it to Bangladesh.
83
249280
2240
04:23
So what was cool about this project
84
251989
1667
04:25
was that beyond addressing
a local problem,
85
253680
3135
04:28
or looking at a local problem,
86
256839
1430
04:30
my students used their empathy
and their sense of being creative
87
258293
3923
04:34
to help, remotely, other kids.
88
262240
2256
04:36
[I can investigate a remote problem]
89
264520
1715
04:38
So I was very compelled
by doing the second experiments,
90
266259
2620
04:40
and I wanted to take it even further --
91
268903
2513
04:43
maybe addressing an even harder problem,
and it's also closer to my heart.
92
271440
4600
04:48
So I'm half Japanese and half French,
93
276560
2616
04:51
and maybe you remember in 2011
there was a massive earthquake in Japan.
94
279200
5320
04:57
It was so violent that it triggered
several giant waves --
95
285120
3816
05:00
they are called tsunami --
96
288960
1416
05:02
and those tsunami destroyed many cities
on the eastern coast of Japan.
97
290400
6960
05:10
More than 14,000 people
died in an instant.
98
298680
3360
05:15
Also, it damaged the nuclear
power plant of Fukushima,
99
303600
3736
05:19
the nuclear power plant just by the water.
100
307360
2680
05:22
And today, I read the reports
101
310480
2416
05:24
and an average of 300 tons
102
312920
3056
05:28
are leaking from the nuclear power plant
into the Pacific Ocean.
103
316000
3576
05:31
And today the whole Pacific Ocean
has traces of contamination of cesium-137.
104
319600
6376
05:38
If you go outside on the West Coast,
you can measure Fukushima everywhere.
105
326000
4416
05:42
But if you look at the map,
it can look like most of the radioactivity
106
330440
3296
05:45
has been washed away
from the Japanese coast,
107
333760
2096
05:47
and most of it is now --
it looks like it's safe, it's blue.
108
335880
2816
05:50
Well, reality is a bit
more complicated than this.
109
338720
3416
05:54
So I've been going to Fukushima
every year since the accident,
110
342160
3656
05:57
and I measure independently
and with other scientists,
111
345840
2536
06:00
on land, in the river --
112
348400
1856
06:02
and this time we wanted to take the kids.
113
350280
2736
06:05
So of course we didn't take the kids,
the parents wouldn't allow that to happen.
114
353040
3776
06:08
(Laughter)
115
356840
1336
06:10
But every night we would report
to "Mission Control" --
116
358200
3936
06:14
different masks they're wearing.
117
362160
2176
06:16
It could look like they didn't take
the work seriously, but they really did
118
364360
4376
06:20
because they're going to have to live
with radioactivity their whole life.
119
368760
4200
06:25
And so what we did with them
120
373640
2056
06:27
is that we'd discuss the data
we collected that day,
121
375720
2616
06:30
and talk about where
we should be going next --
122
378360
2191
06:32
strategy, itinerary, etc...
123
380575
2121
06:34
And to do this, we built
a very rough topographical map
124
382720
3616
06:38
of the region around
the nuclear power plant.
125
386360
2856
06:41
And so we built the elevation map,
126
389240
2016
06:43
we sprinkled pigments to represent
real-time data for radioactivity,
127
391280
4616
06:47
and we sprayed water
to simulate the rainfall.
128
395920
4336
06:52
And with this we could see
that the radioactive dust
129
400280
2976
06:55
was washing from the top of the mountain
into the river system,
130
403280
3056
06:58
and leaking into the ocean.
131
406360
1536
06:59
So it was a rough estimate.
132
407920
1600
07:02
But with this in mind,
we organized this expedition,
133
410680
2936
07:05
which was the closest civilians have been
to the nuclear power plant.
134
413640
3616
07:09
We are sailing 1.5 kilometers away
from the nuclear power plant,
135
417280
4336
07:13
and with the help of the local fisherman,
136
421640
1953
07:15
we are collecting sediment from the seabed
137
423617
2239
07:17
with a custom sediment sampler
we've invented and built.
138
425880
3456
07:21
We pack the sediment into small bags,
139
429360
3256
07:24
we then dispatch them
to hundreds of small bags
140
432640
2256
07:26
that we send to different universities,
141
434920
1936
07:28
and we produce the map
of the seabed radioactivity,
142
436880
2976
07:31
especially in estuaries
where the fish will reproduce,
143
439880
2536
07:34
and I will hope that we will have improved
144
442440
2056
07:36
the safety of the local fishermen
and of your favorite sushi.
145
444520
3096
07:39
(Laughter)
146
447640
1296
07:40
You can see a progression here --
147
448960
1576
07:42
we've gone from a local problem
to a remote problem to a global problem.
148
450560
4536
07:47
And it's been super exciting
to work at these different scales,
149
455120
2953
07:50
with also very simple,
open-source technologies.
150
458097
3559
07:53
But at the same time,
it's been increasingly frustrating
151
461680
3336
07:57
because we have only started to measure
the damage that we have done.
152
465040
3696
08:00
We haven't even started
to try to solve the problems.
153
468760
4080
08:05
And so I wonder
if we should just take a leap
154
473640
2776
08:08
and try to invent better ways
to do all these things.
155
476440
4640
08:13
And so the classroom
started to feel a little bit small,
156
481520
3576
08:17
so we found an industrial
site in Hong Kong,
157
485120
2696
08:19
and we turned it into
the largest mega-space
158
487840
3256
08:23
focused on social
and environmental impact.
159
491120
3176
08:26
It's in central Hong Kong,
160
494320
1296
08:27
and it's a place we can work
with wood, metal, chemistry,
161
495640
3216
08:30
a bit of biology, a bit of optics,
162
498880
1626
08:32
basically you can build
pretty much everything there.
163
500530
2492
08:35
And its a place where
adults and kids can play together.
164
503047
2969
08:38
It's a place where
kids' dreams can come true,
165
506040
3576
08:41
with the help of adults,
166
509640
1336
08:43
and where adults can be kids again.
167
511000
1816
08:44
Student: Acceleration! Acceleration!
168
512840
3136
08:48
Cesar Harada: We're asking
questions such as,
169
516000
2135
08:50
can we invent the future of mobility
with renewable energy?
170
518159
2817
08:53
For example.
171
521000
1200
08:55
Or, can we help the mobility
of the aging population
172
523320
4296
08:59
by transforming very standard wheelchairs
into cool, electric vehicles?
173
527640
4400
09:05
So plastic, oil and radioactivity
are horrible, horrible legacies,
174
533240
6536
09:11
but the very worst legacy
that we can leave our children is lies.
175
539800
4520
09:16
We can no longer afford
to shield the kids from the ugly truth
176
544760
5216
09:22
because we need their imagination
to invent the solutions.
177
550000
3920
09:26
So citizen scientists, makers, dreamers --
178
554720
4976
09:31
we must prepare the next generation
179
559720
2696
09:34
that cares about
the environment and people,
180
562440
3056
09:37
and that can actually
do something about it.
181
565520
2200
09:40
Thank you.
182
568200
1216
09:41
(Applause)
183
569440
3160

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Cesar Harada - Inventor, environmentalist, educator
TED Senior Fellow Cesar Harada aims to harness the forces of nature as he invents innovative remedies for man-made problems like oil spills and radioactive leaks.

Why you should listen

Cesar Harada believes that ocean currents, the wind and other naturally occuring phenomenon can provide unique inspiration and novel solutions to mankind’s worst disasters, like oil spills and radioactive leaks. A French-Japanese inventor and TED senior fellow, he is the creator of Protei, a revolutionary sailing technology -- featuring a front rudder, flexible hull and open-soure hardware -- that allows for efficient clean up of both oil and plastics from the sea. Currently based in London, Harada recently traveled to Japan and is designing Protei to measure radioactivity along the country's coast.

The general coordinator of the future International Ocean Station, Harada teaches at Goldsmiths University London. A former project leader at MIT, he graduated form the Royal College of Arts Design Interactions in London and worked at the Southampton University Hydrodynamics laboratory on wave energy. Harada has also studied animantion, and his films and installations have been seen at festivals and events across the world, from the United States to Japan.

More profile about the speaker
Cesar Harada | Speaker | TED.com

Data provided by TED.

This site was created in May 2015 and the last update was on January 12, 2020. It will no longer be updated.

We are currently creating a new site called "eng.lish.video" and would be grateful if you could access it.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to write comments in your language on the contact form.

Privacy Policy

Developer's Blog

Buy Me A Coffee