Theme: Ideas 4.0

The theme of our event, Ideas 4.0, is a tribute to the core component of TED and TEDx events, and at the same time a playful pendant to today’s buzzword Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution. The latter should not be understood as a sign of our event being an industry event, but rather that we are interested in the many revolutionary developments taking place today, some enabling and with great future potential, some disturbing, posing a clear danger. Our speakers will get the audience thinking about the full spectrum of on-going revolutions, opening up to exciting future opportunities, but also identifying potential pitfalls of the rapid development the world is experiencing. Ideas can be totally new ways of thinking, breaking new ground, but they can also be cautionary observations, identifying at an early stage risky future scenarios towards which we may be running without realizing.

University of Luxembourg
2 avenue de l'université
Esch sur Alzette, Luxembourg (fr), Luxemburg (de), 4365
Luxembourg

Chris Woolston

Freelance science writer and defender of young scientists' working conditions

From galaxies to genes, we live in an age of discovery. But the people behind the breakthroughs are struggling. As a freelance science writer and a reporter for Nature, I’ve heard stories of overwhelming pressure, stress, and despair—the hallmarks of a broken system in need of repair. The future depends on science, but first we have to save the scientists.

Emilie Allaert

Finance futurist

Emilie is Head of Operations and Projects at The LHoFT Foundation (Luxembourg House of Financial Technology), a public/private sector initiative that drives innovation in Fintech (Financial Technology) in Luxembourg. Following a career in the financial industry as a consultant in regulatory and IT projects, she wanted to help find innovative solutions that deliver efficiency to the financial industry. Her talk has the title „Fintech: paving the way to a new era”.

Helmut Wiland

Computer scientist and challenger of project management paradigms

Computer scientist, experience in research & software development over 25 years. Software architect at SUBITO AG, a German software company.

Jean-Guillaume Weis

Jean-Guillaume has danced with Pina Bausch Tanztheater, Mark Morris Dance Group and Tanztheater Basel a.o. Throughout his career he has participated in many creations, repertoire pieces with numerous choreographers, composers, musicians, dancers, actors, directors and other artists in the world. Since 1998 he dances mostly in his own work and choregraphs for his company, Dance Theatre Luxembourg, Jean-Guillaume Weis & guests. He has choregraphed over 20 eveningpieces, shorter pieces and performed his work in Belgium, Germany, France, Poland, Luxembourg and the United States. He is guesting regularly with other companies and in various art and theater projects as a dancer, choreographer, performer and actor. At the University of Luxembourg TEDx eventwe will have the opportunity to enjoy one of his creations.

Jean-Guillaume Weis (Ensemble)

Jean-Guillaume has danced with Pina Bausch Tanztheater, Mark Morris Dance Group and Tanztheater Basel a.o. Throughout his career he has participated in many creations, repertoire pieces with numerous choreographers, composers, musicians, dancers, actors, directors and other artists in the world. Since 1998 he dances mostly in his own work and choregraphs for his company, Dance Theatre Luxembourg, Jean-Guillaume Weis & guests. He has choregraphed over 20 eveningpieces, shorter pieces and performed his work in Belgium, Germany, France, Poland, Luxembourg and the United States. He is guesting regularly with other companies and in various art and theater projects as a dancer, choreographer, performer and actor. At the University of Luxembourg TEDx eventwe will have the opportunity to enjoy one of his creations.

Johannes Heuschkel

Fearless psychology student conducting experiments on himself

2015: Live performances at „Composer Slam“ at the Heidelberger Frühling 2015-2016: Beatbox workshops (Teaching young adults how to beatbox) 2018: Co-founding the startup „Silver Valley“ to tackle loneliness in older people

Leonello Tarabella

Computer scientist and musician pioneering the intersection of the fields

Leonello Tarabella, originally a sax player, began working on his gesture recognition technology for computer music in 1995 through his activity as a researcher for the National Council of Research in Italy. During the years he developed two interactive systems to perform electronic music in a new and unconventional way with bare hands.

Li Bennich-Björkman

Professor, public communicator, defender of academic freedom

In 2007, Li Bennich Björkman became the first woman professor at the Department of Government at Uppsala University. The following year, she was the first woman appointed Skyttean Professor of Eloquence and Government, with an official residence in the 18th century building called Skytteanum. Ms Bennich Björkman is an untiring defender of academic freedom and long-term research projects.

Marion Grace Woolley

Education revolutionary

They say ‘life is short’, but it can feel extremely long if you’re stuck doing something you don’t enjoy. From my first career in sign language to building pianos in Rwanda, I’ve always been led by a little ‘click’ of fascination. We have never had greater access to life-evolving resources, yet our approach to education, and inspiration, remains stiflingly old-fashioned.

Paul Wilmes

Professor, promotor of the important roles of microbes

Paul Wilmes is Associate Professor of Systems Ecology at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg, where he is Deputy Head of the Systems Biomedicine Department and Head of the Eco-Systems Biology research group (Wilmes Lab). Paul’s main primary research focus is on using Systems Biology approaches to identify key functionalities of microbial communities including human associated microbiota. His group has pioneered appropriate methodologies for carrying out systematic molecular measurements of microbial consortia over space and time. This allows for example to define lifestyle strategies of distinct populations and link these to genetic and functional traits. The same approaches allow the study of microbiome-host molecular interactions.

Richard Roberts

Professor of Family Medicine, Family Doctor

Professor of Family Medicine and past Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, where he practiced for 32 years as a family doctor in Belleville. He is also the past president of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) and American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). A physician and a lawyer, his scholarship has focused on guidelines, evidence-based practice, patient safety and primary care redesign.

Sara Rigon

Family Doctor

A general practitioner / family doctor from Italy, registered to practice in Italy and New Zealand, working for MSF and a member of a European working group of primary care doctors who tackle health inequalities.

Silvia Vignolini

Physicist with a passion for the optics of Mother Nature

Silvia Vignolini works at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge. Silvia does research in Materials Science, Optics, Photonics and Bio-mimetics.

Sitta (Performance 1)

As the daughter of an Iranian opera singer and a Berlin stage actor, Swiss-born vocalist Sitta has made Luxembourg her home base since 2007. Sitta has been performing as independent artists at various events, among them concerts sponsored by the Luxembourg City Tourist Office. She is also a regular at the Grund Club’s Songwriters concerts and collaborates with numerous artists locally and internationally, thus having become a vivid part of the regional music scene. Sitta’s first solo record, “Part Of Me” is planned for release in the near future. Her style is best described as “Urban Soul with Persian Spice”. These original songs were conceived at the Da Town Studio in Marseille and culminated in a cooperation with Grammy winning producer, engineer and mixer Joe Chiccarelli at Sunset Sound Studio in Los Angeles. At University of Luxembourg’s TEDx conference SITTA will give an unplugged and intimate performance of two songs from her upcoming EP “Part Of Me”. She will be accompanied by Sri Nassú Bowe on guitar, Sebastian “Schlapbe” Flach on bass, Shafi Badreddin on oud and Boris Dinev on percussion.

Sitta (Performance 2)

As the daughter of an Iranian opera singer and a Berlin stage actor, Swiss-born vocalist Sitta has made Luxembourg her home base since 2007. Sitta has been performing as independent artists at various events, among them concerts sponsored by the Luxembourg City Tourist Office. She is also a regular at the Grund Club’s Songwriters concerts and collaborates with numerous artists locally and internationally, thus having become a vivid part of the regional music scene. Sitta’s first solo record, “Part Of Me” is planned for release in the near future. Her style is best described as “Urban Soul with Persian Spice”. These original songs were conceived at the Da Town Studio in Marseille and culminated in a cooperation with Grammy winning producer, engineer and mixer Joe Chiccarelli at Sunset Sound Studio in Los Angeles.

Susanne Sommer

Openminded software developer and project manager with a mathematics background

Mathematician, over 20 years experience in leading positions in software development, currently member of the Executive Board of the German software company SUBITO AG.

Tanja Gabriele Baudson

Psychology researcher with an interest in democracy

Since October 2016, Postdoctoral researcher (in the function of a visiting professor for Developmental Psychology), University of Luxembourg