Amber Yang | The Space Debris Apocalypse: Finding Unexpected Solutions Through STEM Education

The world is a better place when we support each other and lean in together. When we fall into the trap of believing preconceived notions and stereotypes such as “girls can’t be scientists or mathematicians,” we are tearing down ourselves and preventing humanity from accelerating forward. As a teenager and passionate advocate of STEM education, Amber Yang will share the story of how she learned to be fearless about pursing her goals and making a difference. The encouragement of the next generation of potential scientists, argues Yang, should never be undermined by preconceptions about gender.  

When Amber Yang spoke on the TEDxJacksonville stage, she was a 17-year-old innovator and scientist attending Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park, FL. Yang has dedicated herself to studying novel and effective techniques for the tracking of space debris.

When Yang was 16 years old, she developed a novel Artificial Neural Network system capable of tracking the orbits of space debris to an accuracy that is ten times more effective than current systems. In 2017, Amber won the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award, a top award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Amber has presented her research at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. Most recently, she has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Today, she is pursing a Masters in Computer Science at Stanford University, and is the Founder and CEO of Seer Tracking.