Theme: All or Nothing

The world we inhabit today is one full of challenges, opportunities and contradictions where our ability to grapple with the future is grounded in our choices. And although we are beginning to realize that life isn’t a grand zero sum equation, sometimes we must polarize others and wager everything we have in order to realize our full potential. In this spirit, the theme for TEDxBangalore in 2015 is “All or Nothing”.

Session 1: New Power
If power is simply the ability to produce intended effects then we aim to inspire others now to replace their passive consumption of ideas and goods with agency and the desire to create a better world. New Power isn't built overnight but when a billion people unite to take ownership of a future built around radical transparency then all barriers fade away.

Session 2: On the Fringe
We are all, for the most part, reasonable men but as George Bernard Shaw pointed out "all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Thus it is vitally important to involve those who lie on the fringes of our society so that they can add to the discourse and shape our larger collective narrative. These outliers may harbor opinions that are contradictory to the mainstream, but it is the distinct diversity of their thoughts and convictions that allows them to pervasively manifest a better reality.

Session 3: Disrupt Or Die
Will privacy cease to exist? What will climate change do to us? The future always poses more questions than answers and only a handful on this planet ever embrace them. They are future pioneers because their choices will affect each one of us and we would be lost without them. They have seen much further than us and now encourage others to wander with them as they shape our future.

MLR Convention Centre - Whitefield
No. 35, Dyavasandra, 4th Cross, Next to Fire Station, Mahadevapura Post, Whitefield Crossroad
Bangalore, Karnataka, 560048
India

Aathma

Started as a college band in 2011, presently making lives happier with great music! Aathma derives its name from the word 'Aathmavu' in malayalam which means 'the inner soul'. Through music, they attempt to touch the inner soul of people and most importantly keep the relevance of Indian music in power. Formed as a college band in 2011, Aathma was an attempt of its founders to build a stronger music culture in Christ University. The name ‘Aathma’, was given spontaneously on stage! With consistent high energy performances, they have built a reputation for having a high entertainment quotient.

The Esperanto Project

The Esperanto Project aims at evolving a seamless new blend of music. Deep melodic raga dives of Geetha Navale's Veena & the funky groove of songwriter Gopal Navale framing the picture. Esperanto is a language formed by combining various languages of the world with the objective to evolve a musical Esperanto, a common language so that some of the great musical traditions of the world can meet, exchange and explore new frontiers.

Ambika Behal

Ambika Behal grew up reading any book on mythology that she could lay her hands on. That was the motivation for Ambika and her friend to come up with an app, Mytha, which is combining mythology and art. "It's about the re-invention of the lost art of storytelling with an artistic twist, using modern day-technological tools," Behal says. For the first of its kind app, they've roped in emerging artists to represent the ancient tales. The stories are meant for a wide age group—for the young to understand and enjoy them, and the elderly to re-look at tales, some of which they might have forgotten.

Anu Vaidyanathan

Dr. Anu Vaidyanathan is the Founder of PatNMarks, an Intellectual Property Consulting firm. Anu received her PhD in Electrical Engineering at UC Canterbury setting the Department and University record in 26 months. She has been affiliated with both the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad teaching courses in Computer Architecture, Innovation and Business Policy. Anu is a regular speaker at forums on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership. Anu is also an award-winning endurance athlete representing India in long-course triathlon and a new mom!

Arturo Vittori

A wizard at solving real world architectural problems by combining traditional and modern schools of thought, Arturo Vittori in an Italian Artist, Architect and a Designer. His work is internationally known for merging cutting edge technologies together with ancient traditions resulting in projects on the edge between art and science that answer our society’s most urgent needs. Vittori, since 2002, is directing the research and design studio Architecture and Vision; he is also the CEO of the American NGO Warka Water Inc. Warka Water captures potable water from the air by collecting rain, harvesting fog and dew for rural communities in Ethiopia.

Ashwin Karthik

Ashwin Karthik has a long list of achievements. And not once has the quadriplegic - afflicted with a severe form of cerebral palsy that affects all four limbs - let his medical condition come in the way of his dreams. His earnestness is apparent from the records of his schooldays - in 1999, he scored 84% in his SSLC exams, the highest percentage ever scored by a student with cerebral palsy in 2003, he received the National Scholarship for his engineering studies, given to just one physically challenged student across the entire country. And he is the first quadriplegic cerebral palsy student in India to have become an engineering graduate. Today, Karthik is a computer science engineer who works with ANZ as a Business Analyst.

Chandni -

18 years old Chandni, a former rag picker and now veteran journalist for Balaknama lives with her mother in Noida. She is an icon among 10,000 street children for her passion to raise voice against plight of street children. Her courage to empower herself and continue her study through open school, till 10th grade, shows her desperation to be a mainstream journalist and change the world in favor of her peers.

Devina Kothari

Data driven designs that drive social change by aiding clusters of users who need solutions. Devina is an industrial designer and an innovator who believes in ‘design for cause’ and making it affordable and easily accessible to the users. Recognising that no design journey is without hurdles, she believes in marching ahead till the Holy Grail is achieved while adhering to “do not quit till you achieve what you believe in”. When the world is drifting towards disruption, she is gliding towards generating aggregates and clusters to address the unmet needs of the users. This is reflected in her design of the closed-loop insulin delivery system, Mizu Ha (a B2B platform for farmers along with smart irrigation clubbed with IoT) and the design for Child healthcare and Immunisation Records. She has been conferred with the Red Dot Award, 2014 for the insulin delivery system.

Dr. Pramod Varma

Dr. Pramod Varma is currently Chief Architect at UIDAI. He leads the overall technology and application architecture and development within UIDAI Technology Unit and is based in Bangalore. Before joining UIDAI in July 2009, he was the Chief Technology Architect and Vice President of Research at Sterling Commerce. He worked across the organization and customers to evangelize technology and helps product teams make strategic technology and architecture decisions.

Natasha Singh

A pioneer of generative art in India, using technology to demonstrate the combined power of mathematics and art. Natasha Singh graduated from NIFT Hyderabad in Product Design and Lifestyle and followed it up with a degree in Communication Design from Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London. She then started TimeBlur, a digital experience studio, in 2015. Natasha has always done things differently and is passionate about promoting the ancient practices of India like yoga with the help of cutting edge technology. In addition to this, she wants to enrich the user experience by integrating yoga with technology and bridging the gap between the physical and digital world.

Pavan Kumar

Workbench Projects began as an idea that plagued Founder and Director, Pavan 'I just want to make stuff' Kumar for two years. His first question every time he meets people who introduce themselves as engineers is "what have you engineered?" The blank looks that invariably followed convinced him of the need to build an institution that could rekindle the spark of creative productivity in what he calls an inert society. He's got a Bachelor's and Master's in Mechanical Engineering. He was head of products and communication at Brains for Science and Technology Aided Reforms in Society (BrainSTARS). Before that, he was an Associate Process Engineer with 3D Systems Inc in South Carolina, USA, where he worked on optimising 3D printers. His energy levels are off the scale and the only way to calm him down is to grab him and shout out a new idea.

Rohit Varma

Rohit Varma believes that hobbies and passions should enable individuals to do something constructive. He used his passion for nature & wildlife in creating a festival called “Nature InFocus”. This festival was established to promote wildlife photography so that more & more human beings come closer to nature and to build more awareness about nature & wildlife conservation. He is also on the Advisory board of Karnataka Bird Festival which was established to promote Birding as a hobby.

Stephen Larson

Stephen is the co-founder of Open Worm, an open science project to digitally reconstruct a whole organism. The purpose driving OpenWorm is fascinating, to say the least! "Science still does not understand the human brain to the level needed to cure diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Believe it or not, science doesn’t even fully understand the brain of a simple worm! If we cannot build a computer model of a worm, the most studied organism in all of biology, we don’t stand a chance to understand something as complex as the human brain." He is also the CEO of MetaCell, a systems biology informatics company, has co-developed a patent, authored over a dozen peer-reviewed articles, and has been featured on 'Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman', the Economist and CNN.

Sushmita Mohanty

If being a spaceship designer wasn't cool enough, Susmita, protégée of Arthur Clarke, the late science fiction writer and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, is voted one of FT's 25 Indians to watch out for and is often called 'The Moon Walker' and 'Prodigy'. Susmita Mohanty is a spaceship designer and entrepreneur extraordinaire. She seamlessly straddles the worlds of technology, business, design, architecture, and art. Susmita is blurring the boundaries between science fiction and reality via her orbital enterprise. In 2001, Susmita launched Moonfront, an aerospace consulting firm based in San Francisco. In 2003, she co-founded Liquifer, an aerospace architecture and design firm in Vienna. In 2008, she launched Earth2Orbit, a company that provides expertise in crew systems design for human space exploration, robotic systems, high-tech facilities, and also offers launch and satellite services in collaboration with Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the ISRO.

Ute Wiemer

Ute Pauline Wiemer is the co-founder of Lovetreats, a space for Indian women and couples to learn about topics regarding sexuality and intimacy, explore and buy intimate lifestyle products. Ute and her partner Balaji, co-founded Lovetreats in Bangalore in 2014. Ute was born and and raised in Berlin and has a degree in Philosophy and Economics. She has lived, studied and worked in Germany, the US, Uganda and India for varying stints, amongst them a coffee startup, UNESCO and Fairtrade. Her interests include behavioral economics, social entrepreneurship and travel.

Vani Murthy

Vani’s passion is composting and organic terrace gardening. Her terrace, where she carries out 4 different kinds of composting, is a training place for thousands of visitors . Her dream is to see every household take up composting and send their dry waste for recycling. Right now she and her team are working at reaching 10 lakh Bangalorians to start composting! In 2009, Vani and others involved in waste management initiatives in Bangalore city, joined together to form the Solid Waste Management Round Table for Bangalore (SWMRT). This organisation has gone from strength to strength, winning the Namma Bengaluru award, recently, in April 2012.

Viki Vaurora

Selected as "The Next Big Thing" by TEDxBangalore to share ideas on the grand stage.

Yonatan Raz Fridman

Yonatan drives the overall direction, strategy and global growth at Kano, and was instrumental in helping the company design, manufacture and ship over 40,000 Kano computer kits to 86 countries in just 24 months. Inspired by Kelvin doe, a 16 year old inventor from Sierra Leone, he has a strong desire to equip young people all over the world with tools to create the innovation of the future by making what they play with.