Theme: Emerging Technological Applications

In a world shaped by rapid innovation, technology's transformative power is reshaping industries at an unprecedented pace. This TEDx event explores the latest technological applications and breakthroughs, from artificial intelligence and blockchain to biotech and renewable energy, revealing how these advancements are revolutionizing sectors like healthcare, finance, agriculture, education, manufacturing, and beyond.

Our lineup of visionary speakers will dive into the impact of cutting-edge technologies, showcasing real-world examples and emerging trends. Learn how AI is optimizing business operations, how blockchain is ensuring data integrity, and how biotechnology is addressing global health challenges. Uncover how quantitative and algorithmic advancements are transforming the future of trading markets, equipping investors and financial institutions with tools for precision, speed, and insight-driven decision-making like never before.

Through thought-provoking talks and interactive demos, attendees will gain insights into the interconnected future of industry and technology. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a professional looking to understand the next wave of industrial change or a curious learner, this event will inspire new ways of thinking about technology’s role in shaping a sustainable, inclusive, and intelligent future. Join us to explore, learn, and discuss the boundless possibilities and ethical considerations of emerging technologies in today’s world!

Prepare to be inspired, challenged, and connected with a community of forward-thinkers eager to unlock the future of innovation.

Rutlish
Watery Lane
London, Merton, SW20 9DY
United Kingdom

Bijan Aghdadi

Financial economist

Bijan is a financial economist who holds a PhD in Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE), a Master of Science in economics, and a bachelor's degree in theoretical mathematics. His research has been focused on asset pricing, innovation, networks, information diffusion, and institutional investors. In his latest paper, he studies the financial spillovers resulting from firm-level innovations. By leveraging financial markets as a measurement tool, he quantifies the impact of one firm’s innovation on other companies, potentially generated through different channels such as inter-firm knowledge dependencies. His findings show that financial markets can effectively capture the social value of corporate innovation. This approach also provides insights for policymakers, enabling them to identify the most influential firms within the innovation network and strategically allocate R&D subsidies to optimize social and economic outcomes.

Kairo Maynard

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist

Kairo Maynard is an HCPC-registered Dramatherapist and a BPC-registered Time-limited Adolescent Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (TAPP) practitioner, based in London, UK. She works in a Community NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and is currently completing a Doctorate in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Part of her doctoral research is focused on the conscious and unconscious impact of trauma and race on families, therapists, and wider networks such as schools. Kairo’s interest in intergenerational trauma, racial injustice, and health inequalities has led her to publish: ‘Can Dramatherapy Help Black women discover their true self despite racial and gender oppression?’ (2018, Dramatherapy Journal) and ‘A Black Therapist Sees Herself: Exploring sameness and difference in the aromatherapy room’, in ‘Intersectionality in the Arts Psychotherapies’ (2022, Jessica Kingsley Publishers).

Madalina Sas

Researcher at Imperial College London

With a computer engineering master's from Imperial College, she's currently pursuing a PhD in complex systems at Imperial's Centre for Complexity Science. Her research focuses on the emergence of self-organized collective behavior across scales, from microscopic to social. Madalina's work combines quantitative scientific analysis with qualitative artistic exploration. She studies collective behavior in mathematical simulations, natural phenomena, and complex human activities. Her research is particularly relevant in today's social alienation and political division world. Drawing inspiration from eusocial insects and social animals, Madalina will explore how self-organizing behaviors in nature can benefit human societies. She investigates swarm intelligence in birds, ants, and slime molds, relating these to human collective activities like rituals, protests, and artistic performances.

Mengyun Qiao

Research Associate in Medical Imaging and Machine Learning

I am a Research Associate at Imperial College London, specialising in the application of artificial intelligence and medical imaging to healthcare. My work focuses on developing AI-driven models for personalised diagnostics, particularly in cardiovascular diseases. I have created a 4D digital twin of the heart, significantly improving diagnostic accuracy for early-stage disease detection. In my TEDx talk, I will explore how generative AI and digital twins can transform the future of medical diagnostics, paving the way for more personalised and predictive healthcare.

Orfeas Stefanos Thyfronitis Litos

Research Associate (PostDoc) on Cryptography & Blockchains

Orfeas is currently a Research Associate at Imperial College London. He obtained his PhD in Cryptography and Blockchains at the University of Edinburgh in 2021, under the supervision of Aggelos Kiayias. He has worked on building and analyzing decentralized applications on blockchains, layer-2 protocols, payment channels, and voting solutions, all through formal cryptographic methods. Among others, he has formally analyzed the security of the Lightning Network and created a novel virtual payment channel construction. He is knowledgeable in software engineering and secure architecture. His interests further include formal verification, incentive analysis, and provable security.

Thomas Norskov

Chief Operating Officer at AlphaGrep UK

Thomas has a master’s degree in engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and a 2nd master’s in finance from the London Business School. Over 20 years of experience in systematic trading, portfolio management, and systems development in global top-tier investment banks and leading prop firms and hedge funds. Early in his career, he worked as a quant/developer before moving to trading for banks and later hedge funds/prop firms and eventually occupying more senior roles such as managing director and COO. Thomas’s current firm AlphaGrep is a proprietary trading firm focused on algorithmic trading in asset classes across the globe. The firm has over 400 employees with multiple offices globally. Thomas is the current head of London, Amsterdam, Paris and Geneva AlphaGrep is one of the largest firms by trading volume on Indian exchanges and has a significant market share on several large global exchanges as well.