San Francisco Regional Mensa Presents Brilliance by the Bay

8:00 AM | Registration Opens

9:00 AM | Designing for Belonging: Creativity Connects Us | Yiying Lu
What makes a design feel like it belongs? Drawing on two decades of cross-cultural creative work, Yiying Lu explores how visual language connects people across cultures. From the web cultural icon Twitter Fail Whale, to bringing Asian culture to billions of keyboards through 🥟 and 🧋 emojis, to localizing Disney for Shanghai and creating global brand identities, she shares how color, typography, and iconography can make cultures feel seen and communities feel connected.

9:00 AM | Wired for Pressure™  | Sonia K. Singh
Wired for Pressure™ explores how pressure can override even our most sophisticated thinking, activating predictable emotional and behavioral patterns. Drawing on neuroscience and psychology, this talk reveals how these hidden patterns shape the way we think, feel, communicate, and respond, and introduces a practical framework for interrupting them and responding with greater awareness, intention, and choice.

9:00 AM | What Lights You Up? Write It! | Amari Sims
What sparks your interest? In this hands-on workshop, youth participants will choose a topic they care about, develop a strong hook, and shape their ideas into a short, engaging article. Finished pieces can be submitted to “The Bright Side,” San Francisco Regional Mensa’s youth publication, for consideration in a future issue. Approved work may also qualify for volunteer service hours.

9:00 AM | Overview of an Amazing Career | Pete Antoniak
Pete Antoniak will talk about his recollections: Received a Presidential Pardon from JFK.  Very First in his Naval Academy Class into Vietnam. Commanded a Navy Seabee Team. Sang in the White House at the request of the First Lady. Program Manager for the Initial Confinement Fusion Project. Once sued by George Lucas over a spreadsheet program he wrote. Once testified before a Congressional Committee.  Awarded one of the first software patents.  Was elected as a union president and more

10:30 AM | Ten Things Your Gifted Child or Teen Would Like You to Know: But Probably Won’t Tell You | Melody Lowman
With over 50 years of experience raising 2 gifted children and counseling hundreds of gifted children and their parents Melody would like to share her experience and evidence based approaches to parenting.  Gifted children and teens have different developmental timelines and different perceptions and perspectives from typical children. Giftedness is just one aspect of a child but it interact with every other aspect of personality. These differences impact the children and their families in every way, not just in school. This will be a presentation and discussion format.

10:30 AM | Simplify to Thrive | Bernadette Hill
A practical workshop for high-capacity thinkers buried under their own complexity. Through a three-part arc – Reflect, Simplify, Thrive – attendees build a personal Less List, a Micro-Planning worksheet, and a Simplicity Strategy Map connecting a 24-hour micro-goal to a 90-day vision. Grounded in research on attention, decision fatigue, and implementation intentions. 45 minutes of content plus Q&A (one hour). A mini clinic, not a lecture – attendees leave with a skill they can apply immediately.

1:30 PM | Level Up: Launching Tech Careers with Gameheads | Damon Packwood
Gameheads is a nonprofit that empowers youth through video game design, technology, and career development. Students learn coding, digital art, storytelling, game design, and leadership while building real-world skills. Through mentorship from professionals at leading gaming and tech companies, participants gain hands-on experience, create portfolio-ready projects, and explore pathways to college and careers in the gaming and technology industries.

1:30 PM | Research Like a Reporter: A Writer’s Guide | Geri Spieler
Journalistic skills can make every kind of writing stronger. Whether you’re writing fiction, memoir, essays, articles, or a book, your use of careful research, fact-checking, interviewing, observation, and attention to context will give your work depth and credibility. Readers may forgive an occasional mistake, but when the details feel wrong, they stop trusting the writer. Learn how to ask the right questions, verify what you know, and get the details right.

1:30 PM | Stress Less, Live More | Patricia Cheng
When was the last time you made it through a full day without feeling too stressed?  Stress is one of the biggest contributors to mental health struggles — it can worsen existing conditions and quietly erode wellbeing over time. In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn 7 simple, usable tools to reduce your stress. You’ll leave with:

• A clearer understanding of how stress affects mental health
• Specific ways to monitor and reduce your stress
• Practical micro-changes you can use right away

3:00 PM | Gameheads Student Showcase | Randi Dean
Discover the next generation of game design at this interactive exhibition featuring original video games and digital media projects created by talented, diverse youth developers. Born out of an intensive, mentor-backed accelerator program, these student-led projects blend technical skill with rich, multicultural storytelling. Stop by to hear the creators pitch their concepts, play through 5-to-10-minute gameplay demos, and explore the cutting edge of Bay Area multimedia talent.

3:00 PM | Lead, Forgive, Connect, Transform | Erica Yew
After over 24 years as a Superior Court Judge and 2 stints in treatment court, I left to be the CEO of the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley.  We teach transformational leadership based upon the work of Jaworski, Gardner, and Greenleaf.  The premise is that good leadership releases human possibilities for the individual and their organization.  Combining what I learned as a judge and what I see at ALFSV, it is clear that forgiveness is an integral piece of building a winning team.

3:00 PM | Live Book Club: Jr.TaleBlazers  | Advik Arun
What makes a book impossible to put down? Why can two readers have completely different opinions about the same character? In this interactive session, participants will then take part in a live mini book club involving book scenarios, predictions, character questions and friendly debate. No advance reading is required. The group will also create a collaborative Brilliance by the Bay reading list and vote for a Readers’ Choice selection.

3:00 PM | Find Your Flock: Too Many Interests, Not Enough Time | Billie Lee

For the multipotentialites, serial hobbyists, and people who are always onto something new. Come meet others whose curiosity refuses to stay in one lane

3:00 PM | A Musical Respite with TheSurfaceSpins | TheSurfaceSpins (Robert)
Join the TheSurfaceSpins in a moment of musical appreciation. Sit and listen, stand and sway, or dance your heart out to the music we love. We hope this program will be a welcomed respite from the rest of your day.  Pop in and check us out briefly or stay longer and enjoy the music anyway you like. Please check out the song binder and make a musical request.

4:30 PM | Find your Flock: First to Fly | Find Your Flock

It takes courage to go first. Meet people who were the first in their family, field, community, or generation to take a new path, from going to college or immigrating to entering an unexpected career or breaking a barrier. Hear how they navigated unfamiliar territory, overcame obstacles, and opened doors for those who followed. Youth and adults are invited to ask questions, share experiences, and learn from those who know what it means to go first.

4:30 PM | Writing Between Fact and Fiction | Anna Citrino
“How can narrative embody life in words and at the same time respect what we cannot know?” writes Saidiya Hartman. Anna’s presentation explores using imagination to build from facts to tell a story that blends genres of poetry and historical fiction. Anna will talk about her writing process and challenges, as well as offer suggestions for places to look for publishers and awards.

4:30 PM | Analyzing Voynich Manuscript Using AI Tokenization | Noah Siva
The Voynich Manuscript is an undeciphered text from the early 15th century, containing about 170,000 characters and 8,000 words. This talk explores AI tokenization and embeddings, and how they can be applied to unknown languages and scripts. We’ll examine the manuscript’s history, compare my approach with previous research, and explore interesting patterns I found. This could help analyze and preserve lost languages.

6-8:30PM | Saturday Dinner and Keynote: Engineering an Authentic Life | Lisa Pruitt
This personal leadership forum examines the foundation for engineering a life with purpose and joy. We explore the power of introspection, reflection and visualization.  Through introspective work we can find our authenticity, strengths and talents; hone self-awareness and emotional intelligence, identify our core values and zones of genius, and map out an actionable plan that integrates our time and energy to make way for a life aligned with our true north.

8:30 PM | Gonzo Trivia! | Mark Jackman
Our popular Gonzo Trivia! returns, with its potpourri of devilishly difficult questions, much like regular general-knowledge trivia only way more Gonzo! This is pro-grade trivia, crafted to be interesting and enlightening with answers that make you go “Ah!”. Hosted with a gameshow vibe by Mark Jackman and grading whiz Richard Poppen, the scoring awards more points for knowing things that others don’t. Come as a group or by yourself, with teams of 3–6 (size depending on attendance) to be formed.

8:30 PM | The Technology of Space | Ronald Baraze
Discussion of scientific space-based instruments developed at Lockheed Martin over the last 30 years in collaboration with world-wide universities.  Includes instrumentation on current NOAA weather satellites providing lightning detection for tornado forecasting and wildfire reporting, testing Einstein’s gravitational theories, space dust measurements, and other science payloads.

8:30 PM | Joke Off | Ed Marshall
Mensa members share their unique humor. There may be a winner?

8:30 PM | Chocolate History and Tasting | Michael Eager
Chocolate has been described as the food of the gods and it has a long history, from it’s discovery by the Aztecs to becoming a worldwide multi-billion dollar industry.  Michael will present the history of chocolate, how it is produced from the beans of the cacao tree, the different varieties, and what to look for when tasting chocolate.  The presentation will include tasting a variety of domestic and international chocolates.

8:30 PM | Find Your Flock: Second Act, Third Act, Next Act | Billie Lee
Whether you’re changing careers, retiring, launching something new, or reinventing what comes next, meet others exploring new possibilities too. <

10:00 PM | A Musical Respite with TheSurfaceSpins | TheSurfaceSpins (Robert)
Join the TheSurfaceSpins in a moment of musical appreciation. Sit and listen, stand and sway, or dance your heart out to the music we love. We hope this program will be a welcomed respite from the rest of your day.  Pop in and check us out briefly or stay longer and enjoy the music anyway you like. Please check out the song binder and make a musical request.

7:30 AM | Hike Along Bay Trail From Hotel to Coyote Point | Dick Duker & Roberta Maguire
Join us for a short 4-mile R/T walk along the bay as we walk from the Hilton Hotel to Coyote Point and back.  The paved path is flat, and our pace will be moderate.  We will meet at 7:25 am inside the entrance to the hotel for a 7:30am departure.  Expect to return around 9 am.

9:00 AM | Making the Internet Trustworthy Again | Arshad Noor
Before the internet was commercialized, only people from institutions participating in its development had access to it – their focus was on making it work; consequently, trust was implicit. With multiple billions of humans, devices and applications on it currently, the internet requires explicit controls to establish trust. This program describes necessary controls and investments that must be made lest the internet collapse prematurely.

9:00 AM | Protein Transformers and the Future of Health  | Melanie Swan
One of the most consequential challenges in AI today is the push toward universal health and longevity solutions. Biological systems present a formidable mathematical and physical puzzle with nonlinear, high-dimensional, dynamic mechanisms. This talk examines how emerging protein transformer architectures are advancing the computational infrastructure required for molecular-scale modeling, enabling the design of targeted therapeutics that address disease and aging with unprecedented precision.

9:00 AM | Turning Chaos into Creativity: Journaling | Lynna Do
Have you been seeing “junk journal” or “sisterhood of traveling journals” or other creative journals all over the internet? Are you like me and collect “souvenirs” from trips/daily life and want to do something creative with it? Or you just want to learn to journal more creatively. Here’s your chance to learn to make one. Come join me to learn how to creatively journal, make a “junk journal”, and learn a new creative outlet for your busy mind.

9:00 AM | Introduction to Family History Research | Anthony Mazy
Presenting a survey of family history research methods, with emphasis on local resources and software tools like Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker

9:00 AM | The Future of Biomimetics and Soft Robotics in AI | Nirbhuy Arun
The pace of AI is advancing at an unprecedented rate; however, there is a large gap between a human and an AI assistant. In the human body, neurotransmitter levels in the 10th cranial nerve are crucial for emotional regulation. Furthermore, the flexibility of the epidermis or the compression of ball-and-socket joints in the knees make an individual’s locomotion natural. AI has lots of room for improvement, and the future of expressive AI lies at the intersection of biology and robotics.

10:30 AM | Meet the New SFRM ExComm | SFRM ExComm (incoming)
Meet the leaders helping guide SFRM into its next chapter. Join members of the newly elected Executive Committee for a casual introduction, learn a little about their roles and priorities, and bring your questions. It’s also a chance to share what you’d like to see from SFRM in the year ahead.

The Varlet Model of Physics | John Caywood
‘‘Varlet’ is a re-used archaic word meaning, among other things, a rascal. There are four varlets. The shape of a quark is a tetrahedron, with one varlet at each vertex. Three-quark particles have three quarks arranged around a triangle with gluons at the three apexes of the triangle holding it together. Two-quark particles have two possible arrangements.

City of Burlingame Historical Society
Discover the fascinating history of Burlingame, our host city for Brilliance by the Bay! Join the Burlingame Historical Society for a look at the people, places, and events that shaped this Peninsula community, from its early beginnings to the city we know today. Learn about the local history and hidden stories of the place we’re calling home for the weekend.

The Mensa Foundation’s Study of Unmet Needs | Nguyen Pham, Billie Lee
In 2024, the Mensa Foundation’s Board of Trustees commissioned its first-ever formal research initiative: the Study of Unmet Needs Among Highly Intelligent Individuals, conducted with Dr. Tracy Cross and Dr. Jennifer Riedl Cross of the William & Mary Center for Gifted Education.  Learn more about the needs of gifted individuals and the challenges they face in accessing resources and support across the lifespan.

Milk’s Night Off (21+ Only) | Jen Storm-Alves, Kat Estrada
Oreos paired with wine (Jen) and beer (Kat)

Reignite Their Spark: Challenge in the Age of Ease | Rick and Jen Tuten
In a world optimized for smooth sailing, gifted learners may be missing something essential: the challenge of navigating open water. In this thought-provoking session, fellow gifted educators and parents Rick and Jen Tuten make the case that today’s age of ease may be dimming the spark of gifted youth and offer practical strategies for rekindling curiosity and purpose through productive struggle, creativity, and authentic, hands-on experiences.

Game Design Basics: Make Your First Game! | Golden Gate Gamers
Come and make your first game with Golden Gate Gamemakers! The first 10 minutes will go over basic concepts in game design. Individually or find a group of 3-4 people, receive components with a prompt and spend 40 minutes to come up with ideas and challenge yourself to make a “playable” prototype. Get 10 min of feedback from experienced designers. Keep the components and continue your design by attending the regular Golden Gate Gamemakers designer meet-ups all throughout the Bay Area!

Lunar Operations Coordination and Management | Swati Saxena
NASA’s Artemis Program aims to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon, supported by diverse crewed and uncrewed vehicles performing transportation, exploration, construction, and resource-utilization missions. This growing activity requires a lunar operations management architecture to safely coordinate traffic. This talk presents a Moon Digital Twin for strategic and tactical trajectory planning, conflict management, and testing of operational scenarios and contingencies.