Christoff Heunis
Dr. Christoff Heunis is a young South African researcher at the University of Twente. Christoff has devoted his life to develop robotic technologies that should help surgeons with complex cardiovascular operations. In 2020, Christoff co-founded a startup 'Flux Robotics,' which was named the best startup of Twente in 2021. He is the recipient of the NWO Take-Off grant for feasibility studies and the Pioneers in Healthcare Award to market his product. He was among the top 10 nominees for the Prince Friso Engineer of the Year Title of KIVI.
Harm Jan Kamphof
Harm Jan Kamphof is an applied physics student at University of Twente. He is also wildly passionate about music and has been performing and playing piano since he was a small child.
Kaspar Rothenfusser
Kaspar Rothenfusser’s background is hard to describe. He has studied a multitude of disciplines in several different countries and depending on who you ask, he is a musician, engineer, consultant, entrepreneur, or just a problem solver. Driven by an endless curiosity about how our world works and what motivates each and everyone of us he travels trough disciplines and professions on his continues quest to understand how we can work together to make this world a better place.
In his current study at the University of Twente, he focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration and investigates how people from different backgrounds can create a common objective.
Margo Dietrich
She is a third-year Bachelor's student at the University of Twente. Her study is focused on sustainable development and nature-based solutions. Margo is an American-German who grew up in Dakar, Senegal, and calls Berlin, Germany her home. Frustrated by the lack of change in the climate crisis, she is now pursuing how a real difference can be made.
Matei Bucur
Matei Bucur is a 21-year-old computer science student at the University of Twente. For him, studying abroad was one of the best experiences and helped him discover new passions like negotiation and entrepreneurship. But deciding to leave his home country, Romania, was the toughest decision of his life.
Mohamad Ibrahim
Mohamad Ibrahim is a 21 year old coming from a Lebanese (arab) background. He shares how a major event changed his life by only doing one thing different. A change in perspective. He points out that adversity can be the ultimate gift received. Mohamad says “this is not the generic “how to overcome hardships” talk found on multiple media outlets but an idea worth sharing. Making adversity your best friend”.
Nienke van Bezooijen
Nienke van Bezooijen (1967, the Netherlands) shifted from being a nurse and healthcare professional to her real passion: helping people give voice to their ideas and contributing to the world for the better. Training people globally for their talks and presentation was her profession for over a decade. However, her public speaking stopped with this TEDx talk because life kicked in. Listening to her heart’s intuition instead of the brain is now the only option for Nienke to walk her talk.
Shreyas Harsha
Shreyas is a PhD researcher in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Twente. Sustainability among other global challenges has always been a keen interest for him. He realized that though most people were aware of the problems, most of us procrastinate in taking action and often blame lack of time. In 2021, just before starting his PhD, he decided to take up the challenge along with a couple of his friends to take action in addressing these global issues by merely spending 3 hours every week. Now, apart from his PhD research, he continues to address these issues while encouraging others too to take action by spending merely 3 hours per week.
Vera Boertien
Vera Boertien is a content specialist at a non-profit organization and a writer-to-be. From a young age, her passion was to write stories. During one of her darkest moments, she found the courage to pursue her dream of becoming a writer.