Theme: UNCHARTED WATERS

With every milimetre we chart of the unknown depth, the ocean floor sinks miles further beneath us—and you never know what you’ll find under the waters.

Curiosity has been and still remains the instinctive motivation that drives mankind forward, both in our individual growth as well as in our collective advances. Generations of restless explorations and innovations, we have seen the unimaginable becomes daily reality. Yet every millimetre we venture below, miles and miles the ocean floor sinks beneath us.

With the theme Uncharted Waters, TEDxRWTHAachen is delighted to welcome you at a full-day TEDx experience to explore and question novel perspectives. Where will the currents turn? When rises the tide of the next pivotal change, one that will rip our world apart then build it anew? Are we headed towards the brilliance of a guiding star, or the white-hot burning of a warning?

Lenthe-Lennep Auditorium, Technologiezentrum Aachen (TZA)
Dennewartstr. 25—27
Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, 52068
Germany

Bob Smeets

Bob Smeets studied in various schools across Europe, each with their own education system, including schools in Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and his home country, Netherlands. During his studies, he was lucky to have had the opportunity to teach at two high schools in the Netherlands and one in Sweden. He works in for a stock trading company in Amsterdam. He has a major in Business and IT. And in his leisure time, he works for a project called BES that teaches kids about the value of money, and runs a website for information about student events across the Netherlands.

Christina Guthier

Occupational health psychologist Dr. Christina Guthier creates ways to engage people in their work environments, resulting in more productive and healthier conditions. She has been a guest researcher at the University of South Australia as well as a guest lecturer at the City University of New York, Université de Fribourg, and the University of Klagenfurt for her work on burnout and personnel selection. Dr. Guthier received the prestigious Schmidt-Hunter Meta-Analysis Award 2022 from the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Division of American Psychological Association) and a dissertation award by the Alfred Teves foundation for her research on job stressors and burnout. As a self-employed scientist, she builds bridges between science and practice through speaking (e.g., Corporate Health Convention), interviews (e.g., Quarks.de), writing (e.g., PERSONALquarterly) as well as corporate training and consulting in the areas of executive development and stress management. Guthier received her B.Sc. from Ruhr-University Bochum, M.Sc. from Heidelberg University, and Ph.D. from the University of Mainz. She plays the ukulele, loves to travel by train, and lives in Düsseldorf with her husband and daughter.

Eddy Smits

Eddy Smits is born in Belgium, 54 years old and a retired professional clown. He developed more than 25 theater productions, directed a short movie, published a book, created 5 educational projects, trained dozens of hospital clowns, and had a unique world-class balloon act just to name a few things… During this clown career, he volunteered as a hospital clown, where he visited between 8000 and 10,000 sick and palliative children in more than 10 hospitals. This work had a profound influence on his life.

Emilie Uttrup

Emilie Uttrup is a keynote speaker, writer, content creator and holds a Master’s Degree in Marketing. Growing up in Denmark, she competed in show-jumping with horses and at the age of nineteen she moved to China to work professionally within the equestrian industry. A tragic car accident in 2009 turned Emilie’s life upside down, and forced her to confront everything she had ever known and go out on uncharted waters. Fast-forward ten years later, and Emilie has since lived in three different countries, represented her country in both the European and the World Surfing Championships, and most importantly, has opened up about her struggles throughout.

Mark Fox

Mark Fox is an opera tenor, singing teacher, composer, and the founder of “True Voice®” an opening process for the voice. A California native, he studied singing at Central Washington University, graduating Magna cum Laude in Vocal Performance. He continued his studies privately in San Francisco with John DeMerchant, eventually participating in the Merola Opera Program under the auspices of the San Francisco Opera in 1981. There he continued his training under Jess Thomas, Kurt Herbert Adler, Wesley Balk and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Parallel to his first performances in opera, he began offering singing lessons to seasoned colleagues and aspiring singers. Over time, it became apparent that his passion as a teacher lay in exploring how the voice can be utilized as a means for personal transformation and empowerment. He had an evolving realization that a person’s sense of personal identity is expressed and revealed in their vocal sound. After a decade of engagements on the opera and concert stage in America and Europe, he decided to devote his time to developing his own process-orientated approach to the voice. After moving to Europe permanently in 1991 he became the singing teacher and vocal coach for the ensemble of the Bavarian State Theater in Munich, Germany. Since 1996 he has been internationally under way offering seminars, vocal retreats, TrueVoice®teacher trainings and individual sessions for people interested in experiencing a more authentic vocal expression and way of being. Along with his own concertizing and recording projects, he has supported thousands of people in over fifteen countries to find their true voice and come in contact with the essence of a more authentic self.

Martin Zenke

Martin Zenke is a German biochemist and cell biologist, Professor for Cell Biology and founding director of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering – Cell Biology at RWTH Aachen University, who is conducting research on stem cells and biomedical engineering. Martin did his PhD work at German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg and received his PhD from Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany. His postdoctoral training on gene regulation and on cogenes was at University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France, and European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany. Before coming to Aachen, Martin was a Junior Scientist and Group Leader at Institute of Molecular Pathology, IMP, Vienna, Austria and Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin, Germany. His current research focus is on stem cells and genome editing with CRISPR/Cas9 to study human disease.

Sergey Bespalov

Sergey Bespalov is Industry X (Industry 4.0) consultant in Accenture's Industry X Consulting Practice with base in Zürich, Switzerland. His foci are technology strategy and technology implementation projects across Life Science industry. He studied Chemistry and Business Studies with minor subject in Applied Probability and Statistics at the University of Zürich in Switzerland.

Shubhabrata Roy

Shubhabrata is originally from Kolkata, India, where he finished his undergraduate studies. After working for a couple of years as a software engineer, he joined Scuola Superiore San’t Anna in Pisa for masters followed by a PhD in signal processing at ENS Lyon, France. After working in Budapest as a data scientist for a startup, Shubhabrata joined HERE Technologies as a Senior Researcher. He worked on computer vision related problems for map applications that yielded 3 patent applications. Since 2020, Shubhabrata has been working as a lead data scientist at Huawei Technologies Amsterdam Research Center and leading the map enhancement team that focuses on many different problems (e.g., 3D vision, NLP for maps) to improve map experience. Shubhabrata is also due to complete his Executive MBA from the Maastricht School of Management this year, when his thesis is on AI applications to combat mental health issues.

Tim Leonhardt

Tim Leonhardt is leading the Accenture’s Technology Innovation Quantum Computing Initiative in German-speaking regions. His foci are technology and technology strategy projects across financial services and automotive industry. He gained 5 years of experience in quantum computing research and holds a double M.Sc. in physics, and economics, business and management from RWTH Aachen.

Ulrich Laven

As a professional filmmaker, screenwriter and author, Ulrich has accompanied many film and media companies in their production from the first idea to the final cut. He focuses on producing documentaries and short films, both as commissioned work as well as his independent creation. Since 2015, Ulrich has also worked as a freelance journalist. He publishes film-theoretical contributions, articles and illustrations in various print and internet magazines. In addition, he designs and leads film workshops for young people, media educators and public institutions.