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).

SwissTech Convention Center
Route Louis Favre 2
Ecublens, Vaud (fr), 1024
Switzerland

Alexandre Alahi

Alexandre Alahi is an assistant professor at EPFL leading the Visual Intelligence for Transportation laboratory (VITA). Before joining EPFL in 2017, he spent multiple years at Stanford University as a Post-doc and Research Scientist. His research lies at the intersection of Computer Vision and Machine Learning applied to transportation & mobility. To make Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven systems such as autonomous vehicles a safe reality, his lab works on a new type of Artificial Intelligence (AI), namely socially-aware AI, i.e., an AI augmented with social intelligence. In 2022, Alexandre was recognized as the top 100 Most Influential Scholar in Computer Vision over the past 10 years. His work has been licensed to several companies and covered internationally by BBC, abc, PBS, Euronews, Wall street journal, and other national news outlets around the world. Alexandre has also co-founded multiple startups such as Visiosafe, and won several startup competitions.

Chan Cao

Dr. Chan Cao is head of the Laboratory for Bio and Bio-Inspired Nanosystems at EPFL. Following her award of the prestigious PRIMA grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation in 2020, she founded her own research group at EPFL’s School of Life Sciences. Her work covers different aspects of molecular nanotechnology with a high focus in biological nanopore sensing, including the design of nanopores, detection of protein biomarkers, and nanopore-based molecular digital data storage. With her research in single-molecule approaches, Dr. Cao is addressing major questions in life science and also in diagnosis. Moreover, Dr. Cao is heavily investigating how DNA Nanostructures could be used as a completely new way of storing digital data. This new biological data storage system could have the potential to replace conventional storage systems such as servers and hard disks, thereby mitigating a range of detriments that these storage systems are causing to our planet such as the massive energy consumption that is continuously increasing from year to year.

Eline Van Der Beek

Head of Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences

Eline is head of Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences (EPFL) since April 2021. She was the research director Early Life Development at Danone Nutricia Research in Singapore, the first center in Asia to focus on maternal and child health. She has been appointed as Special Professor Nutritional Programming at the University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen. Her work surrounds mainly the study of the effects of nutrition on health and nutrient quality and specific needs during different stages of development. Eline is a (co)inventor more than 25 patent applications and has published more than 80 articles in peer reviewed journals.

Hai Nhu Pham

"In 2005, I was a six-year-old Vietnamese girl who, for the first time in her life, was leaving her native country to live in Switzerland, to learn foreign languages, to meet new people from an entirely different culture. Thus, very early on, I was exposed to the cultural divergences between East and West, to the effects of the culture shock deployed by this drastic experience. I was constantly living in a cultural opposition. Between the Swiss part of my identity which I acquired at school, and the Vietnamese part of me which remained from my upbringing, I no longer knew in which world I belonged: they were parallel universes – polar but complementary at the same time. Now, as a 23-year-old Master’s student who has spent half of her life in Switzerland, I have solved this riddle. By sharing my experience with other individuals who have the same background, who have lived through the same dilemma as me, I was able to find solace in my sense of rootlessness, to appreciate it and let it blossom into a sense of belonging. Hence, my purpose is to share this process with other people who may be fighting the same battle, in order to help them find their own global identity." - Hai Nhu Pham

Kees Van Der Pols

Head of department at ClearSpace

Kees van der Pols is head of Ground Segment and Mission Operations at ClearSpace, a ground-breaking intiative based in Switzerland to clear up Space debris. ClearSpace provides in-orbit services to support institutions and commertial operators in accomplishing their space missions safely and sustainably.

Lucie Chollet

French cellist Lucie Chollet started playing cello at the age of six. Her first teacher was Anne Réjiba; later she had lessons with François Girard and Matthieu Lejeune. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Haute Ecole de Musique of Lausanne in the class of François Salque; during her studies she also attended masterclasses with Xavier Gagnepain, Miklos Perenyi, Marc Coppey and Frans Helmerson. Passionate about orchestra, period playing, and contemporary music, she is an alumni of the Academy ›Les Siècles‹ and the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra as well as the Lucerne Festival Academy. She is also extra player in the Zürcher Symphoniker since 2019. Lucie Chollet loves to teach and currently studies music pedagogy at the Bern Academy of the Arts, in the class of Conradin Brotbek.

Matteo Pariset

Matteo studies Computer Science Theory at EPFL and devotes most of his days to signal processing, algorithms, data structures and sunbathing. Despite not knowing much about biology, he got fascinated by the beauty of proteins. As a result, he is now using artificial intelligence to help a biotech startup teach the charm of these molecules to computers. Besides trying to understand – and to debug – machine learning models, Matteo is also deeply interested in the societal impact of this technology: he has officially selected online misinformation as his favorite topic of discussion, replacing the much beloved endless debates about politics and food. Meanwhile, to move from words to deeds, he is developing nugget.news – a decentralized news distribution platform designed to promote a fair and open access to information.

Romane Picheral

Romane Picheral, a clarinet teacher from a very young age, began clarinet lessons at the Conservatoire Régional de Nice at the age of 7. After obtaining her Diploma of Musical Studies (DEM) in 2015, she had the opportunity to work for 2 years in the class of Michel Lethiec in Nice. She entered the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne in 2016 in the class of Frédéric Rapin and obtained her Bachelor's degree. Interested in chamber music since 2017, she is part of the Aquarela trio (cello, guitar, clarinet). She also participates in concerts given by the HEMU Lausanne Orchestra.

Saype

Guillaume Legros is a self-taught artist and a nurse by training. He began painting at the age of 14 with graffiti in the street in France. His pseudonym Saype is formed from the contraction of "Say" and "Peace", two words he used in graffiti from an early age. His first works, produced in his studio, were exhibited in galleries at the age of sixteen. Passionate about philosophy and existential questions, his paintings most often explore issues around the human being. His work is a way to share his vision of the world. It invites the public to question our deep nature, our spirit, our place on earth and in society. He is famous for painting large frescos on grass, and his style is a mix between land art (contemporary art movement using the framework and materials of nature) and graffiti. His paint is 100% biodegradable and the ephemeral works evolve according to the weather, the regrowth of the grass, the passage of visitors… Between physical, logistical and technical challenges, the artist expresses the “humility” of man against the world and nature. He is now considered a pioneer of a new land art movement. In 2019, Forbes ranked him among the 30 most influential people in the world under 30 in the field of art and culture.