Neurodiversity Awareness Day 2024

In this video, Caitlin Begg discusses Neurodiversity in the Workplace during Neurodiversity Awareness Day 2024 at Columbia University, sharing insights on how to create inclusive environments and support neurodivergent individuals in professional settings.

Caitlin Begg is the founder of Authentic Social, a sociological researcher, and host of the Progression to Analog podcast. Her research is focused on technology's effect on conversation, sociotechnical systems, and artificial intelligence.

Caitlin founded Authentic Social in 2016 after writing her undergraduate Harvard sociology honors thesis on digital communication. Authentic Social (offices in New York and Amsterdam) brings an education-forward approach to sociotechnical systems strategy.

Caitlin speaks and presents research around the U.S. and Europe, most recently at the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Forum in Munich. Her efforts have also been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Mashable, and Business Insider.

As the host of the Progression to Analog podcast, Caitlin speaks with practitioners and academics across Europe about ways to explore a more human everyday life amidst technological modernity (guests include Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson and Oxford Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger).

In her free time, some of Caitlin's other interests include film photography, dérives, vintage collecting (including out-of-print technology and history of the internet magazines), rowing, and editing Wikipedia. Since 5 September 2022, and without exception, she has begun each day reading nonfiction before any cell phone or computer use.

In this video, Ara Bakhteyar delivers the closing remarks for Neurodiversity Awareness Day 2024 at Columbia University. 

As the Co-founder, Chair, and Co-organizer of Neurodivergent @ Columbia, Ara served as a co-organizer of this event. She is autistic, a full-time wheelchair user, and a master's student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University. Ara graduated with an undergraduate degree in biophysics from Columbia. She is deeply passionate about advocating for neurodiversity, both in academia and beyond.

Ara serves as a Social Impact Fellow at Columbia World Projects for the 2023-2024 term and is completing the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Other Related Disabilities (LEND) fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her research focuses on evaluating the transition from pediatric to adult medicine for individuals with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Ara's commitment to ethical research is reflected in her leadership of a multi-center IRB-approved project titled "Neuroengineering Transitions in Bridging Diagnostic Modalities for Adolescents Transitioning from Pediatric to Adult Neural Care." This project explores the intersection of engineering and bioethics, addressing the ethical challenges faced by individuals with intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities and emphasizing the importance of adhering to bioethical principles in biomedical engineering research.