Theme: Future: Loading...

Changes. Challenges. Opportunities. Chances. They are all waiting to happen. And one thing is certain: the future is constantly loading. It is up to us what we do with it.

FUTURE: LOADING... is the theme of the 7th TEDxEroilor edition. On Sunday, May 22nd 2016, we will be waiting for you, so that together we will discover the kind of future that we can create. With the help of our valuable speakers, we will start writing stories of the future and imagining where it is that we want to get.

We support the United Nations’ initiative and we will be focusing on the sustainable development goals outlined by them: quality education, good jobs and economic growth, responsible consumption, innovation and infrastructure, gender equality etc. How we will manage to integrate all these in a more and more digitalized society is up to us. And TEDxEroilor wishes to be once again a catalyst of ideas for the future, for the community.

Teatrul National Cluj-Napoca
1 Piata Stefan cel Mare
Cluj-Napoca, Cluj, 400000
Romania

Andrei Botescu & Alexandru Manda

Alexandru Manda and Andrei Botescu are two entrepreneurs who have managed to revive Pegas bicycles, the most famous and beloved brand of bicycles that used to exist in Romania during communist times. However, they are not only working to build bicycles, but wish to recreate an urban Romanian identity and a reinvented national pride, in a country where occidental influences have diminished the perceived value of local products.

Blanilla & Solartis Quartet

Blanilla & Solartis Quartet is a project of fusion between electronic and classical music. Practically, the synthetic rhythms and sounds of electronic music are complemented by the organic, natural sounds of the string quartet, resulting in a unique and complex sound. All tracks from their performances are 100% original compositions. Angel Rusu (Blanilla) writes the electronic part, while Sabin Penea orchestrates the tunes for the quartet.

Alexander Penzias

Urban farmer and co-founder of Ponix Systems, Alex has the vision of changing the way we think about our food. He wants to break the geographical and psychological distance between consumers and food producers by bringing food production to everyone’s doorstep. He studied Business Administration at the University of Vienna and worked for several years as a management consultant in the UAE. Feeling tired of the daily rut, he moved back to Vienna and co-founded Ponix Systems, an indoor farming startup, whose aim is to bring the joy of urban farming to each house in the world. Together with his co-founder, they combine modern, smart technology with hydroponics to minimize the land, water and energy used in farming. The ultimate goal is to make indoor farming simple and clean, and enable everyone to do it at home.

Andrei Ceclan

Andrei Ceclan is active in the field of energy efficiency for industries and buildings, through his passionate involvement and the competencies he possesses and puts into practice. Since 2005, within the company for energy services Servelect, he performs energy evaluations and implementations of solutions for the whole energy chain, from production, transport and distribution to the actual use of energy. He is now the Energy Manager for Cluj Napoca.

Augusta Ene

As a passionate physicist, Augusta Bianca Ene could have been part of an experts group in spectroscopy or a member of different research institutes working on topics like superconductor research or space re-entry simulations. After analyzing the catalytic reaction of benzene with oxygen to phenol on a molecular level she obtained her PhD with “Summa cum laude” from the University of Stuttgart. But no, in 2011, Augusta decided to join Bosch, a multinational company in Germany, Reutlingen, in the automotive industry. There, she deeply engaged in the semiconductor manufacturing processes, developing new plasma etching processes and implementing different automation and fault detection systems. Today she is back in Romania, since 2015. Why? Because the same company for which she was working for the past 6 years decided to start the Industry 4.0 “revolution”.

Claudiu Butacu

Claudiu Butacu, the president of Solar Decatlon Bucharest, is 27 years old and in the last three years has contributed to the implementation of the EFdeN project, an initiative involving the construction of a solar house. Being as efficient and energy independent as possible, the house has been awarded nationally and internationally. Claudiu is a “Professional Energy Manager” (certified by the Institute of Energy Professionals), a “Sustainability Manager” (achieved through ECQA – the LEAD SUS program), a member of the Future Energy Leaders 100 program, run by the World Energy Council, representing Romania. Moreover, late last year, he received the “Young Energy Professional” distinction at the Energynomics Awards gala and became the Personal Advisor of Secretary of State Cristian Busu, within the Ministry of Energy.

Dan Perjovschi

Dan Perjovschi lives in Bucharest and Sibiu. He has had personal exhibitions at Tate Modern in London, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACRO) in Rome, at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, at the Reykyavik Art Museum, at the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu or at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, as well as group exhibitions at Centre Pompidou in Paris, at Tate Liverpool, at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, at Castello di Rivoli in Torino, at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, at the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico, at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, or at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova in Ljubljana. He took part in the following art biennials: Manifesta, Istanbul, Venice, São Paulo, Moscow, Sydney, Lyon, Dublin, and Jakarta.

Ehsan Mashadi

Ehsan Mashadi is an Iranian-American filmmaker, musician and former taxi driver, currently living in Romania. His music project “BadMashadi” started in Chicago with a group he put together in 2011. Most of the music is originally composed and written, with influences from Persian and Balkan music that focuses on his experiences as a Middle Eastern immigrant and the social undertones of American culture through the lens of a taxi driver. Ehsan travelled to Romania in 2013 to learn more about “lăutari” and Romani music, particularly of Clejani. In 2014, after living there with the family of the late great violinist Nicolae Neacşu, he produced an album for the Clejani family of musicians, titled “Bahto Delo Delo”. He also collaborated with them on some of his own songs that were released in 2016, in his album “Taxidriving under-City”.

Elena Calistru

Elena Calistru is the chair and founder of Funky Citizens, a Romanian-based NGO. Funky Citizens builds research-based, data-driven advocacy tools. Their aim is to be educational and actionable, encouraging citizens to engage in accountability and government responsibility initiatives in which they can see an impact. Elena has more than 5 years of experience in civil society projects, both at national and international level. Her expertise is mainly in the area of good governance, transparency, public finance and advocacy. She strongly believes that data and online tools can empower citizens to influence public sector reform.

George Jiglău

George Jiglău is a lecturer at the Political Science Department of the Babeş-Bolyai University, and a researcher at the Center for the Study of Democracy, a think tank aiming to make a contribution to the improvement of legislation in the area of education, citizens’ rights and their participation in the political life, national security, and the political system as a whole. Together with a group of professors and students, he initiated, in 2013, the “Warm Meal” program for a group of 50 persons with difficulties in procuring food. Today, the program, developed exclusively through volunteering, serves over 400 beneficiaries in four Romanian cities.

Jacob Medrea

PERFORMER Jacob Medrea is a one-man-orchestra: Saxophone, Beatbox, Vocals, Drums, Keys, Percussion and a shot of comedy combined with a storm of digital effects provide for entertainment in an urban avant-garde style. His versatility reaches from House, Drum’n’Bass, Dubstep to Dub & Reggae, Hip-Hop, Funk and even Jazz. Through exploiting the most modern technologies, loop-artist Jacob Medrea takes improvisation to another level and carries handmade live music to the electro dominated Millennium.

Kai Brand-Jacobsen

Kai Brand-Jacobsen has been described as “one of the leading pioneers, innovators and practitioners in the field of peacebuilding and dealing with conflicts and crisis in the world today.” For 20 years he has worked across all continents and many of the most challenging war zones and crisis situations in the world. He is the Director of the Department of Peace Operations of PATRIR and the UN supported Nineveh Paths to Peace project in Nineveh, Iraq (KRG), one of the areas worst affected by the ongoing war with ISIS.

Mihaela Dragan

Mihaela Drăgan is a Roma actress, activist and playwright, who lives and works in Bucharest. Her performances focus on the connection between theatre, Roma identity and social justice. She is the president of the Roma Actors Association and the president of the board of E-Romnja – The Association for Promoting Roma Women’s Rights. In 2014, she founded Giuvlipen Theatre Company, the first Roma feminist theatre group, formed by professional actresses of Roma origins in Bucharest. Their latest performance, Gadjo Dildo, talks about sexuality, love, queerness and exotization of Roma women. She studied acting and Romani language and collaborated over the years with Logos Theatre and Theatre for Few in projects that focused on expressionism, eurhythmics and acrobatics.

Mircea Popa

Mircea Popa is the cofounder of SkinVision, a company which developed a mobile app detecting melanoma with an accuracy of 80%, based only on a photo, using a technology called fractal geometry. This technology is developed through an algorithm on which the team is continuously working, in order to enhance it. The company was founded in Bucharest and the original team members are still working side by side to bring innovation and safety for people everywhere.

Oana Băluţă

Oana Băluţă has a double belonging: academic and civic. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Bucharest and she is also a feminist activist. After more than eight years of experience leading a nongovernmental organization, in 2013 she chose to become a “freelance feminist”. Understanding the sources of women’s oppression, and working as a female public intellectual to promote the protection and empowerment of women has long been her vocation.

Roxana Damaschin

Roxana is Portfolio Director for NESsT, working with social enterprises from Central and Eastern Europe and South America. She responds for the way social enterprises in which NESst invests are supported and for measuring their performance, related to the area of social impact (work places for disadvantaged individuals) and financial results. Being an economist, she received a master’s degree in social sciences and, in 2012, she became an Eisenhower Fellow for Romania.

Ştefania Druga

Ştefania is leading the organization HacKidemia (a mobile lab for Maker Education, present in 40 countries), Afrimakers (a community of Maker projects in 10 African countries), and MakerCamp (global camps for learning how to build and run makerspaces). Ştefania is also an ambassador for global Maker Faire in Berlin and Shenzhen, and a collaborator for digital fabrication at Samsung Research.