Theme: Ideas lead the way

TEDxNTU intends to encourage the young population of NTU (Nanyang Technological University) and Singapore to see beyond academics dream bigger, aim higher and come up with better ideas. TEDxNTU will serve as a platform, which brings up innovative & creative thinkers on to the NTU community, Their talks shall encourage the NTU community to unleash their creativity and boldly come up with bigger and better ideas.

Nanyang Technological University
Singapore, 637458
Singapore

Dr. Andrew Giger

Perception has been the common thread through Andy’s academic and professional career, including his current position as Director of Research & Web Outreach at the Science Centre Singapore. Whether as an ant herder, a bee tamer, a double agent in the war against pests, an artist or a science communicator, he has always dealt with how we and our fellow creatures make sense of the world around us. There is so much that escapes our attention while we notice a lot that isn’t really there, yet we are convinced we know what’s going on. In ‘We don’t know how little we know’ Andy explores this phenomenon and its implications for all of us

Richard Hartung

Richard is a consultant and payments professional who on works with financial services companies on payments strategy, operations enhancement, merchant acquiring, risk management and market entry. He was part of the team that started up retail banking for Citibank in Japan, headed Asia Pacific Operations & Systems for MasterCard, launched a brand new credit card program at Keppel TatLee Bank, ran the card center at OCBC Bank and has worked as a consultant since 2002. Along his work in consulting, Richard is a freelance writer who regularly blogs for the Singapore International Foundation’s Kopitiam, writes commentary for Today newspaper, serves as the Asia Bureau Chief for gtnews and writes regularly for water publication OOSKAnews as well as the European Financial Marketing Association. Richard is also a passionate volunteer in community organizations. He currently serves as president of the Stanford Club of Singapore, treasurer for the Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore), treasurer of the American Club of Singapore and a volunteer in microfinance for Bankers with Vision. Richard has a BA from Pomona College and an MBA from Stanford University. He is proficient in Japanese

Meng Weng Wong

Wong Meng Weng is a serial entrepreneur. While studying at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1990s, he co-founded an email company, pobox.com, together with his then girlfriend, who is now CEO. Working closely with Microsoft and with the opensource community, he co-authored an antispam standard, RFC4408, which is now deployed worldwide. He moved to Silicon Valley to co-found his second company, karmasphere.com, which subsequently received VC funding. After moving back to Singapore a few years ago, he co-founded hackerspace.sg and also JFDI.Asia, a seed accelerator inspired by Y Combinator and TechStars. Meng organized TEDxSentosa in 2009 and plans to speak at TEDxNTU on the importance of design, dissatisfaction, and disobedience, in a talk titled "Six Visions of the Future." Meng likes to cook sous vide and believes that carbohydrates are not an essential part of the human diet. Meng's favourite TED talk is by Ken Robinson. Meng's grandfather had six wives. JFDI's mascot is a frog.

Allan Lim

Allan graduated from Nanyang Technological University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Engineering Degree. Since then, he has embarked on startup projects varying from microbial research to biodegradable plastics. In 2005, he was awarded the Spirit of Enterprise Award by President Mr. S R Nathan for his enterprising spirit and his efforts in promoting the enterprising spirit to the youth.Allan has served as panel judges for Startup@Singapore business plan competition and has mentored youth groups hoping to start enterprises in Singapore.

Vinika Devasar Rao

After completing her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Vinika Devasar Rao spent the first 14 years of her corporate career following the typical MBA career path, working with MNCs and regional conglomerates across Asia Pac. From starting off with an MNC bank in India, to being the Managing Director of a public listed real estate company in Indonesia, Vinika had just begun to feel like she’d been there, done that, when she ‘fell’ into the education sector quite by accident - and found her calling. After teaching business strategy to MBAs, she is now using her corporate experience and network to help young managers find their dream careers. She sits on the board of two boutique advisory firms and is a sought after speaker on career development and business strategy. In her current role heading career services at INSEAD in Asia, Vinika tells both the young MBAs and the senior corporate practitioners that she counsels to - “find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”.