Theme: Conscious Reflection

Nowadays it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the pace of change and the amount of information surrounding us. The increased complexity of our lives leaves us in a state where conscious reflection has become rare, but vital. The challenges we face today require fruitful, holistic cooperation -- by embracing our diversity, we as communities can collectively tackle challenges that may remain too elusive and ominous to the individual person.

This diversity is both a great challenge and a great chance for synergy. Although it’s easy to only see our differences, let’s remember that underneath there are similar, profoundly human desires: to be heard, to be respected, to be needed, to belong. If we recognize that we as individuals influence our community and that everyone contributes in their own way, how much better could our collaboration become? Could we inflict positive change through our mindsets and actions and find our place in the bigger picture?

At TEDxTUM 2018 we invite you to take that much needed time to stop and reflect, deliberately and consciously, on ideas from a variety of fields and disciplines.

TUM Main campus
Arcisstraße 21
Munich, Bayern
Germany

Christoph Lüthi

Professor of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development

Christoph Lüthi heads the Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (Sandec) department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag). He gets inspired from field visits to the slums of Africa and Asia, and practices what he preaches, by supplementing his urban garden in Zurich with fertiliser produced from the urine of his Eawag employees!

Gustavo Strauß

Musician & Composer

Gustavo Strauß is a German-Peruvian violinist and composer, with a background in music theory, musical education, improvisation and jazz composition. His performance areas range from classical to jazz to world music, fueling his passion for breaking barriers between musical styles. Gustavo regularly tours the globe with his projects as well as other ensembles, bands and orchestras.

Ilona Grunwald Kadow

Professor of Neural Circuits and Metabolism

Ilona Grunwald Kadow is a neurobiologist and professor of Neural Circuits and Metabolism at TUM, researching why and how physiological and metabolic states like hunger can affect decision making and neuronal processing in humans and other animals. Using interdisciplinary approaches and model organisms, her group’s research focuses on establishing connections between behaviour, neuronal circuits and genes.

Justus Schütze

Energy Entrepreneur

Justus Schütze is one of the founders of ‘BUZZN - People Power’ and has been fighting for a new energy culture since 2007. BUZZN’s mission: enable people to purchase electricity produced by their friends and neighbors.

Lin Kayser

Entrepreneur

Lin Kayser is a self-taught software engineer-turned-entrepreneur, who has been building startup companies for more than 20 years. With Hyperganic, a software company he co-founded in 2015, he is working on the future of manufacturing in a world of 3D printers and biological processes.

Maria Spletter

Developmental Geneticist

Maria Spletter holds a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University and leads her own research group at the LMU in Munich. Growing up in a small northern Wisconsin town with woods, lakes, swamps, and rivers in her backyard, she learned to love observing nature early on, which fuels her scientific curiosity to this day.

Ralph Ammer

Interaction Designer, Illustrator, Writer

Ralph Ammer is a professor at the Munich University of Applied Sciences and teaches biophilic design, which aims to create life-friendly objects, images, and services based on nature. Ralph believes in the diversity of 21st century craftsmen, regardless of whether they produce well-written programming code, carefully crafted prints, or the occasional ceramic vessel.

Sema Karakurt & Urs Jandl

Dancers

Urs Jandl is a choreographer and tap dancer who has been teaching at Tanzforum München for over 20 years. Sema Karakurt is a research assistant and process engineer who took one tap dancing class with Urs and never looked back. Together their rhythm lights up the stage!

Steffen Linßen & Daniel Kühbacher

Students

Daniel Kühbacher loves the voluntary service work he does, whether it’s helping in a mountain emergency, a car accident, or someone in a wheelchair who just needs assistance at the train station. Since he was little, Steffen Linßen has been fascinated by creating his own solutions to problems. One of his goals is to create an accessible world that enables him and other people with disabilities to manage daily life without additional problems.

Tommaso Gecchelin

Physicist & Industrial Designer

Tommaso Gecchelin is a physicist and an industrial designer from Padua, Italy. Inspired by the beauty of science and the correlations between patterns that cross the boundaries of disciplines, he co-founded the company NEXT, where he's turning his vision of the future of mobility into reality.

Xiaoxiang Zhu

Professor of Signal Processing in Earth Observation

Xiaoxiang Zhu is the professor for Signal Processing in Earth Observation at TUM. Xiaoxiang has always been fascinated by space and enjoyed solving mathematically demanding tasks as a child, which are perfectly entwined in the field of satellite Earth observation.