Theme: The Secret Ingredient

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Bannari Amman Institute of technology
Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu, 638401
India

Meenakshi Umesh

Managing Trustee and Full time Teacher at Puvidham Learning Center

Meenakshi Umesh is an educationalist, who has fine-tuned her own method of learning through life and experience. She holds an undergraduate degree in the architectural domain. Meenakshi went about to build a community of people whose passion in farming and education could be translated into opportunities. This activity has evolved into the Puvidham learning center, “An education to sustainable living and rural development”. This learning centre, suited in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu was the outcome of a long cherished dream of hers and has 90 students presently. For her efforts in alternative education she gained recognition from an “Aval Vikatan” article.

Sahar Mansoor

Environmentalist

Sahar Mansoor is a University of Cambridge alumna, with a background in environmental planning, policy and law. Sahar, currently lives a zero waste lifestyle in Bangalore; living his lifestyle lead her to found Bare Necessities. Bare Necessities is a zero-waste personal care and home care brand and a hub for awareness on waste-free living! At BN we take a cradle-to-cradle approach to every product, from the design to manufacturing to distribution. All our products are powered by natural, bare ingredients; which have no harmful impacts on our health or environment. Our raw materials are ethically sourced. All of our packaging is recyclable or biodegradable, which means nothing ends up in a landfill. All products are handcrafted in India. BN is a completely women-run enterprise. Sahar formerly worked at the World Health Organization in Geneva and SELCO Foundation on decentralized energy policy. She is also a freelancer for Huffington Post UK and India.

Senthil Kumar M

Innovator | Research Engineer

Senthil Kumar M hailing from Madurai has a great passion for innovating through technology to solve real-life problems. He worked in fields like a wireless network, defence, maternal healthcare, and safety solutions and filed nearly 10 patents for the same. He began his career as an engineer in – Samsung | Qualcomm, but he quit his job to found two tech startups, GeoMeo and JioVio, in urban infrastructure and healthcare sector respectively. His vision is to build technology-enabled self-sustaining communities. He believes that we can achieve this only by bridging the digital divide in the society and by empowering the powerless/vulnerable.He actively engages in community empowerment and education initiatives especially among girls through ‘MetooMentor’ – an NPO that mentors young women to innovate through technology.With a handful of dedicated volunteers, He reached over 1000 girls in Madurai.He has been honoured as the top 5 Technology Explorers in India by Nasscom.

Shyam Sundar Ramaswami

Digital Detective, Security Researcher

Shyam Sundar Ramaswami is a Security Researcher with Cisco -Umbrella India Security Research Org. He is a security Ninja Black belt, a security blogger, boot camp trainer, conference speaker, mentor, a Batman fan and a python enthusiast. His publications include “The Dark Knight of security – Pen-testing series” and “Domain names: Are you watching closely” which talks about a new concept called Modern way of parking domains ( https://umbrella.cisco.com/blog/blog/2017/03/28/domain-names-watching-closely/ ), where his research was instrumental in stopping a new format of attack. He runs a mentoring program called “Being Robin”, where he mentors students across the globe and helps them with their master's projects on security. Currently, there are 100 students around the globe in “Being Robin”.

Siva Balasubramani

Historian/Researcher

Orissa Balu @ Mr. Siva Balasubramani is a researcher and archaeologist by profession. His research works are mainly concerned on the “Kumari Kandam” and Turtle Guided ocean routes. One big step in his life was moving to Orissa which served as a turning point for him, kindling his interest on the Orissan royalty, the works for which he is popularly known as Orissa Balu. His research on the Kalinga-Tamil relationship made him the passionate about Tamil history that paved the way to approach the existence of the Lemuria Continent. Presently, he is working on his Integrated Ocean Culture Research Foundation.

Sowmya Krishnamurthy

Entrepreneur, Founder - Aatike

Sowmya Krishnamurthy gets fascinated while learning and creating new business opportunities by exploring new paradigms. She has worked for over 15 years in the fields of Telecommunications, Insurance & Web technologies in reputed multinational organisations. She has experience in playing pivotal roles across Business Development, Marketing and Product Management. She also holds a dual, MBA in Marketing & IT. She began to explore new business opportunities that would be truly sustainable, have a significant social impact and contributes to protecting, promoting and empowering India’s artisan community. Currently, she promotes AATIKE ™, a brand developed by SK Nirmiti, a company founded by her in 2007, which was an outcome of this thought. AATIKE ™ creates products under the toys, home and office décor categories that are relevant today, by basing it on the rich domestic history and craftsmanship of wooden toys, which are non-toxic and made from sustainable materials.