At TEDxDelft 2013 the Jongens van de Tekeningen (‘the drawing guys’) made a visual representation of the talks. Drawing from dusk till dawn, the first draft was made on an electronic tablet based on sketch notes taken during the talk. Using a large format printer this was printed on a roll of paper after which connecting elements and finishing touches were added by hand. Read more
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 Einstein-inspired hairdo and his party light headband, he is most of all entertaining and fun. That ties in with his motto: keep things playful. Bring a playful spirit into your work.
John says he is at his most creative, influential, productive and happy when he is playful at his work. With playful he means being in a state of childlike innocence. So playfulness is not just about enjoying your work, you are even more creative, as studies show. You can also reclaim that childlike state, by imagining you are still seven years old.
Life however, has a way of taking play away from us. The harder life gets, the more we have to work at staying playful. If work is not playful anymore, than it is just work. Which is why they call it work, incidentally. Six years ago, life became very difficult for John, when his son Sam died in a car crash. Sam was an organ donor, and when his life ended he saved the life of four other people. Needless to say, John’s life changed forever. And trying to get his life back on track involved a playful element, although he didn’t think of it like that at the time. John and his family started making SamStones, small stones with Sam’s name on it. Now, over six years later, some 40,000 SamStones have travelled all over the world, and each stone tells a story. One of them even went to space and back.
Life will give you reasons not to play, and you have to fight back!
An article on TEDxDelft2012 performer Bas Lansdorp’s Mars One project is on TIME.com.
A very nice “behind the project” video was made and they included some TEDxDelft footage as well. Read more
With his talk “How the oceans can clean themselves” Boyan Slat was the first to climb the TEDxDelft 2012 stage. This 19 year-old student from Delft stole our hearts with his idea to clean the oceans of plastic in just a few years.
Last week, his story was shared on several websites and got picked up on Twitter, Facebook and especially YouTube. The views went from about 2.000 two weeks ago to 15.000 last Tuesday. On Wednesday it was 35.000 and now (Thursday 28 March 2013) it’s nearing 50.000 views.
Well done Boyan! We are very proud of you and all the best with the Marine Litter Extraction Project.
See Boyan Slat at TEDxDelft 2012:
We were excited to have Spinvis (Erik de Jong) play at TEDxDelft 2012 last October. You can see his performance here:
On the day itself, it was still unclear if Erik could even make it to Delft due to family business, but he came anyway. That is the kind of artist he is; completely committed and using his emotions in all of his performances.
At TEDxDelft we made the announcement Spinvis will be the new cultural professor at the Technical University of Delft. Next week he will have his own show premiered at Theater de Veste in Delft . See more information (in Dutch) on their website.
Here you can hear and see for yourself how he tells a story in cut-up mini films disguised as pop music. Using letters written (or perhaps not written) to Justine Keller, he sculpts a portrait of this woman. Highly acclaimed in the national press, we are looking forward to seeing more of Spinvis in Delft.
Inspired by the human body, Martijn Wisse 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. Read more
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. Read more
Ionica Smeets (@ionicasmeets) at TEDxDelft: 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. Read more
Our TEDx sign (without the “Delft” part) went on tour to…. TEDxTilburgUniversity. They made a nice teaser movie with it. Read more
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
Wednesday 17 October, Eva Lantsoght talked about fifty shades of concrete at TEDxDelftSalon.
Well-designed structures interact with their surroundings: they can enter into a dialogue with the natural light, stand out as a landmark and shape the landscape or become part of it. As for concrete structures, we typically associate these with grey buildings from the second half of the 20th century, or the monotonous bridges in the highway network — concrete offered a cheap solution for the housing and transportation needs of the increasing population. Read more
At TEDxDelft, Jongens van de Tekeningen made live visualizations of all speakers and performers at TEDxDelft, 5 October 2012.. This giant drawing was made on a 1,5 by 5 meter piece of paper and it sold afterwards; the money was donated to charity. During the day, the process was streamed live over the internet and everything was recorded. In this timelapse video, the whole day is captured in just 1,5 minutes. Read more
To introduce TEDx to the TEDxDelft audience in 2012, we created a mini-fairytale in animation style. We thought it fitting to choose for a fairytale, because of the theme Never Grow Up. The drawings were made by Rosa Cerruto, Aldith Hunkar did the voice and Improve/Firos Kariman did the editing. We are very proud of the result and are very pleased to have started TEDxDelft off with this animation. It really worked out well, we think. Read more
The integrated approach of arts, science and technology is one of great value: It can make performances better, more astounding. It makes things easier. Thanks to the advances in science and technology, art becomes an (even) more limitless medium.
Opera, for example, is art where creativity and technology are combined optimally. Therefore it’s no surprise Floris Visser delivers this TedTalk. He teaches the master class: Deus ex machina at the University of Delft; he is both an opera director as a cultural professor at the University of Delft this fall. His previously produced operas have been very well received and he is now working on a production of ‘Carmen’ with the Delftsche Opera Compagnie and the Technical University. Read more
We’ve introduced Dr. Marwa Al-Ansary to you as a civil and environmental engineer, working for Shell on (amongst others) sulfur utilization in materials such as Thiocrete (a type of sulfur concrete).
But what is sulfur concrete really, and why do we care about this? As with many questions we might have, Wikipedia has an answer to that: Read more
All performers (everybody on the TEDxDelft stage is a performer) at TEDxDelft are offered coaching. Seven coaches help them with their performance with story structure, stage performance, English, finding out the purest form of their idea worth spreading. Read more
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). Read more
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
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. Read more
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
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. Read more
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 with a broad audience. Read more
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 (@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 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.
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. Read more
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
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
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
An assistant professor in theoretical and applied mechanics who is into bicyles : Meet TEDx Delft – 2012 performer, Arend Schwab from Delft University of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Arend did his BSc Engineering at Dordrecht (1979) and MSc Engineering (1983) and PhD (2002) at Delft. He runs the bicycle mechanics lab and teaches mechanics. 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 slighlty. Considering bicyles constitute 40{95388bbb2e9df0f2b3d26445fc24fe82185b1b567dbb094bc3a45074083d0a2b} of the Netherlands traffic making it the bicycle capital of the world, his work is very interesting not only for the dutch people but anyone who ever rode a bicycle. Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
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 (Belgium, 1969 – @lampadedromy) 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.
Erik Meijer (born 18 April 1963, Curacao) is a Dutch computer scientist who is currently a software architect for Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio and the NET Framework. At Microsoft he heads the Cloud Programmability Team. Erik previously worked within Microsoft Research. Before that, he was a teacher at Utrecht University. He received his Ph.D. from Nijmegen University in 1992. Erik did his first (18 minutes) speech as a professor in the Netherlands on 7 November 2011, during TEDxDelft Read more
Progression stunts is the largest group of specialists in the field of parkour, freerun, acrobatics, tricking, stunts and handbalancing in the Netherlands. They appear in advertisements, demo’s, stunt-doubling, television shows, movies and lots of other places. Progression stunts entered the “Holland’s got talent” show in 2011 Read more
Felienne Hermans (@Felienne) is Ph. D student at the Delft University of Technology in the Software Engineering Research Group. She works in the PerPlex project which focuses on bringing together business and IT, in particular on extracting and visualizing information from spreadsheets.
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