TEDxDelft 2012 took place on October 5th. These 19 performers were on stage:

Nupur Kohli – Life lessons from our children
Nupur Kohli (@NupurKohliNL) won the TEDxDelft Award 2012 at 23 years. Inspired by children she saw in different situations, she will share her experiences on stage. Let her surprise you at TEDxDelft 2012! Fascinated by the human body and how it works, she obtained Masters degree in Medicine from Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, together with studying Medical Entrepreneurship at University of Utrecht. Read more

Marwa Al-Ansary – How to blend in and stand out
Marwa is working for Shell Global Solutions and has recently moved to the Netherlands from Qatar in October 2012 as an Environmental Lead for  a major petrochemical project. Marwa joined Shell in 2007 and was appointed as Research Lead for Sulphur utilization (Shell Thiocrete) project at Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre (QSRTC). Her work involved investigation of  waste streams in Qatar and employing them as a value added materials in Thiocrete technology. Additionally, she designed formulations to the sulphur-concrete matrix and conducted material testing in tandem with her virtual team in Amsterdam lab.   Prior to her work with Shell, Marwa worked for 4 years in the field of Project Management in the construction sector and also has 4 years of teaching experience at Cambridge University. Read more

Judith Adema – 16 year old singer-songwriter
Judith Adema (@judithadema) was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She had her first piano lesson when she  was just 6 years old and kept on playing since then. At the age of 11 she began to sing and by the time she turned 14 she had taught herself how to play the guitar.
She started to make her own songs and learned from one and another. Now she is 16 years old and still make her own songs. Read more

Floris Visser – Scientists are artists
Recall Leonardo da Vinci. He was a painter, architect, engineer, sculptor, designer of weaponry, made the first opera decors and much more. According to Floris Visser there is no difference between a scientist and an artist, but nowadays we just do not see the similarities anymore. As a young Dutch director Floris Visser is particularly known for his opera productions. In response to his production of Handel’s Agrippina the press praised him as ’a most promising asset to the opera world.’ Visser was first educated as a director and actor at the Theatre Academy of Maastricht. Later he also studied classical singing at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In the fall of 2012 he is appointed Cultural Professor at Delft University of Technology. Read more

Roland Schmehl – Renewable energy – Kite Power
Current wind power generation relies on rigid supporting structures and is limited to altitudes up to 200 m. Wind at higher altitudes is significantly stronger and more persistent. To access this major potential of renewable energy, Kite Power is the solution. Roland Schmehl graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1994. From the same university he received in 2003 a PhD degree “summa cum laude” about the computational modelling of fuel sprays. Read more

Guus Roeselers – My Microbial Self & I
As a child Guus Roeselers developed a great passion for the living world, and as a true naturalist he had the urge to investigate everything. But it was during his biology studies at Utrecht University that he became smitten by the mostly invisible nature: microbiology.

He received his PhD in Environmental Biotechnology in 2007 under Professor Mark Van Loosdrecht at TU Delft, the Dutch cradle of microbiology. Subsequently, he received a grant from Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and moved to the US, where he joined the lab of Professor Colleen Cavanaugh at Harvard University. Here he spend several years conducting research on various topics including symbioses between gutless marine invertebrates and sulfur oxidizing bacteria. Read more

Bennie Mols – The one thing computers and robots will never be able to do…
When he was eight years old, Bennie Mols (1969) wanted to become a professor. He failed. Instead, he became a science journalist, science writer and science communicator. He holds master degrees in physics (TUE) and philosophy (UvA), as well as a Ph.D.-degree in physics (TUD, 1999). He never stops wondering about science in general and physics, computer science, mathematics, neuroscience and psychology in particular. And he tries to make a living by sharing the fruits of his wondering. Read more

Nynke Tromp – disrupting democracy
Nynke Tromp works as a design researcher at the department of Industrial Design, Delft University of Technology and social designer at KVD reframing in Amsterdam. In both positions, she works on the social implications of design. Nynke is also member of ‘Redesigning Politics’, a creative think tank aiming for redesigning thinking, institutes, structures and interaction in the field of politics. Read more

Boyan Slat – How the oceans can clean themselves
Boyan Slat (@BoyanSlat, Delft, 1994) combines environmentalism, creativity and technology to tackle global issues of sustainability. Currently working on oceanic plastic pollution, he believes current prevention measures will have to be supplemented by active removal of plastics in order to succeed. With his concept called Marine Litter Extraction, Boyan Slat proposes a radical clean-up solution, for which he won the Best Technical Design award 2012 at the TU Delft. Read more

Erik Schlangen – self healing concrete and asphalt
Erik Schlangen is Professor “Experimental Micromechanics” and director of the Microlab at Delft University of Technology, faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

The main research topics of his chair consist of  studying mechanical properties of materials to be able to understand failure mechanisms and to develop materials with improved properties. A further focus of his research is the field of chemo-mechanics which tries to study degradation due to coupled chemical and mechanical actions in materials. In 2005 he was amongst the first to develop new materials with self-healing properties. He took the initiative in developing self-healing concrete using Bacteria and he was the inventor of the self-healing Asphalt using steel-wool fibres and induction energy. Read more

Pim van den Akker – Making everyday life extraordinary
Surprising and playful. Touchingly honest. Extraordinarily natural and naturally extraordinary. The Delft based floral designer and artist, Pim van den Akker, makes everyday things extraordinary. Take a fresh new look at clothing and design. Take a fresh new look at flowers and plants. Take a fresh new look at daily reality.

His floral art is contained in six books by now, which are firm favourites in more than thirty countries. In real life, international trendsetter Van den Akker is matchless. The whole world wants him; he is requested to give shows everywhere, to (re)style houses and to design events. In doing so, he creates customised work as standard. Whether it’s a business party or a product presentation, Van den Akker makes it a unique show in keeping with the moment, transforming that moment into an inspiring and amazing sensory experience. Read more

Martijn Wisse – the future of robots
Martijn Wisse (1976) researches the mechanics of robots. He develops mechanisms and motions that make it easier for the robots to fulfill their task.

Inspired by the human body, he develops hands that make it easy to grasp oddly-shaped objects, legs that walk almost by themselves without motors or controls, and arms that efficiently and robustly reach their target positions. His work is part of a greater effort in Delft – and worldwide – to develop the robot technology that is so dearly needed in the developed countries.

The Netherlands and other countries are facing an enormous demographic challenge due to aging, resulting in a labor shortage across the board, ranging from production and packaging to distribution and personal assistance. Wisse’s designs and ideas help create affordable and effective robotic solutions. Read more

Arend Schwab – bicyles
Meet TEDx Delft – 2012 performer, Arend Schwab from Delft University of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Whenever Arend comes up with an assignment for his students, the hallway of the faculty is crammed with all sorts of very strange objects that resemble bikes only slightly.  Read more

Manon Ossevoort – the tractor girl
Manon Ossevoort is a professional actor and theatre-maker from the Netherlands. During her studies at the ‘Amsterdam School of the Arts’ (AHK Theatre) Manon learned that for every story you want to tell, you have to find the right form. Sometimes a story is best told in words. Read more

Bas Lansdorp – Getting humanity to Mars
Bas Lansdorp (1977) has never been one to let bold ventures intimidate him. A born entrepreneur, he sees potential and opportunity when others shy away. He utilizes an articulate vision and genuine enthusiasm coupled with infectious powers of persuasion to get his point across. These attributes are useful in his new company, Mars One, that will send humans to Mars in 2023. Read more

Ionica Smeets – The danger of mixing up causality and correlation
Ionica Smeets (@ionicasmeets) is joining TEDxDelft Never Grow Up: A mathematician and science journalist with plenty of media experience. Using her vast knowledge and enthusiasm, she can explain everything about her favorite topics in science and statistics. She does it well on paper and face-to-face: She writes blogs, columns and books and is also asked to appear as a speaker, live, on television and on radio shows.
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Tom de Bruyne – Why designers eat advertising people for breakfast
Tom De Bruyne (@TomdeBruyne) is passionate about making stuff with the ambition to excite people. Tom is founder and director at SUE Amsterdam, a startup with the ambition to become an international creative agency for the digital era. Tom is obsessed by the game to persuade the homo digitalis into interacting, talking, liking, evangelizing and buying.
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Spinvis – Cut up mini film stories disguised as pop songs
Erik de Jong (Spijkenisse, February 2, 1961) is Spinvis. Once a student of composition at the conservatory of Rotterdam, De Jong debuted in 2002 with “Spinvis” The music could be described as lo-fi singer/songwriter/sample music, or as cut up mini film stories disguised as pop songs.

De Jong’s success story was an unlikely one. He was already in his forties when he debuted as a pop artist. His self-titled debut album released in 2002 became a massive success, surprising critics, music industry peoples and De Jong himself. Read more

Wendy Lampen – See the world through her Asperger eyes
Wendy Lampen (Belgium, 1969) works as a lecturer for a university of applied sciences. She got diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome herself. Trained as a teacher in English, History and Ethics she later on worked with adolescents with autism in a school setting.

Next to being an MA in autism, she extensively studied neurotypical (non-autistic) behaviour in order to understand people better. It gave her insight into what really set her apart from (most of the) others: sensory processing and its ongoing processes and the way the two braintypes give meaning to the world they experience.
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Aldith Hunkar – Host and perfomer in between performers
Photo: Babet HogervorstAldith Hunkar (@Aldith_Hunkar) will be the host of and performer in between of performers at TEDxDelft 2012!

Aldith is a global freestyle multimedia journalist with over 25 years of experience in Dutch mainstream media. She is the child of many cultures, and a perfect fit for Delft with its large international community around the Delft University of Technology. Because of her father’s job, she lived in Suriname, Malaysia, Brazil and Tunisia. Nowadays, she lives part-time on Jamaica and infuses her speaking with some Caribbean spontaneity.
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