When Jenny Dankelman read an article on women in Africa who were abandoned by their communities, she was shocked. “As a complication from childbirth, they had become incontinent, and they did not have access to any kind of surgery,” she said, just like 2 billion people around the world. In fact, out of 7.5 billion […]
Harteveld & Fretz are best friends, and brothers, or at least it feels that way. They have just turned 30, and that made them wonder whether they are still holding on to the big dreams of their youth. Fretz would like to spend a week at the Hilton hotel making love to his girlfriend for […]
“There is something spectacular about stories from the perspective of my research,” said Max van Duijn. Through talking, people send out various verbal and non-verbal signals. But something changes when stories are told. Van Duijn started talking around his first birthday, and he has been fascinated by language ever since. His current research focuses on […]
“I sing, play, and compose,” said Daan Verlaan. “And for me in a song, all of these worlds come together.” Accompanying himself on the harp, he sang an 800-year old song composed by a troubadour, “an accomplished and serious artist.” He explained the text of the first verse: the image described a lark flying happily, yet […]
Many of us may never have heard of nanostructured porous materials, but this is about to change. “They are fantastic tools to address some of the environmental challenges our society faces nowadays. For example, they can help us to solve the problem of air pollution,” said Beatriz Seoane, postdoctoral fellow. Seoane studied chemical engineering at […]
“There are currently gross disparities in access to safe, essential surgical care worldwide, and an alarming lack of global focus on widespread provision of quality surgical services,” says Jenny Dankelman, professor. “I was astonished that after developing surgical tools for years, I did not know about the size of this problem.” The emergence of minimally […]
“There is a huge gap between why people think they behave the way they do and the actual reasons,” says Roland Dietvorst. At the NeuroLabs research facility in the Netherlands, neuroscientist Dietvorst and his team use neuroscientific methods and models to search for new and better ways to comprehend human behaviour. “We use EEC to […]
“Hello world! This year I celebrate my tenth anniversary as a programmer.” That is how Puck Meerburg greets the audience. Meerburg is clearly a digital native. He was developing iPhone apps at the age of ten, and already has fifteen apps to his name. Now, at fifteen, he has joined a team that is actually […]
There were reportedly some issues with the heating system at the start of the event, but if anyone was still feeling cold after the performance of Drum Cafe, it was not for lack of trying by the band. Drum Cafe had the audience clapping, drumming, shouting and shaking to their hearts’ content. Stretching exercises were […]
“Every breath you take, half the oxygen you exhale was produced by micro algae,” say Peter Mooij. He calls them global players, who have been here before all of us and even before the dinosaurs. “And all this time they have been engaging in photosynthesis. In fact, without them, we would not be here. Because […]
Television and radio presenter, talk show host, author, journalist, columnist and VJ; Zarayda Groenhart has done it all. Dutch television viewers know her from shows such as Try Before You Die, where she performed feats of daring, including being walked on by an elephant, working as a cycle courier in New York and getting her body […]
“If you want something done, ask a busy person.” This pearl of wisdom describes Edward Valstar to a T. Valstar is a professor at the Department of Orthopaedics of the Leiden University Medical Center. He is also an Antonie van Leeuwenhoek professor at the Department of Biomechanical Engineering at TU Delft and this double appointment makes him […]
A three hundred-large audience gathered for the third TEDxYouthDelft at Theater De Veste on January 27, 2015. It was a day filled with music, ballet, cabaret and TED films, featuring talks from eleven speakers ranging in age between 13 and 30. Here’s a recap of their stories: Data journalist Winny De Jong works for OneWorld, which, according […]
Al meer dan 25 jaar is TED voor velen internationaal een bekend begrip. Ooit begonnen als vierdaagse conferentie in Californië, is TED nu een wereldwijde non-profit organisatie die zich richt op ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’. Tijdens TED bijeenkomsten krijgt iedere spreker met een ‘Idea Worth Spreading’ maximaal 18 minuten om z’n idee te presenteren en om anderen […]
Dr John Cohn is a self-confessed nerd. He already knew he wanted to be an engineer at the age of eight, found himself a nerdy college, a nerdy job and even a nerdy wife, or at least a fellow-engineer. As a nerd he breaks the mould though. Because onstage, with his rainbow-coloured lab coat, his […]
Professor Maarten Frens is not just brainy, he is a brain professor, and a specialist on the subject of brain enhancement. At TEDxDelft 2013 he tells us all about Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation or TDCS. Transcranial what? Basically, it is low voltage electricity applied to the skull. It is supposed to increase the speed at which […]
A very special moment for the audience: after a year of virtual media silence, Boyan Slat is back on the TEDxDelft stage to be interviewed by host Sipke Jan Bousema. His talk from last year – “How the oceans can clean themselves” – passed a million views on YouTube an hour before he comes on […]
Rutger de Graaf is a man with a mission: to build the first floating city on earth. Why? Because by the year 2100 earth’s population is expected to rise to ten million, and we’re simple running out of space. Rutger the Graaf dazzles us with some big numbers. We already live in giant cities along […]
At TEDxDelft 2012, Boyan Slat captivated the audience with his idea for cleaning up marine litter. In a nutshell, he proposed to remove plastic from the oceans with the help of floating booms that run on natural energy. A green solution in more ways than one: no fossil fuels needed, no by-catch, and with clean […]
Best-known for his work as a presenter, Sipke Jan Bousema (@SipkeJanBousema) is a man of many talents. Over the years, he has starred in film and television shows, worked as a voice-over and voice actor, developed his own television formats, directed and produced television and theatre productions, and much more. From crime reconstruction show ‘Opsporing […]