TEDxZurich

The future of mapping

Google Maps is aiming to publish the world’s most comprehensive map. Bernhard Seefeld will be talking about how this enterprise is evolving and is sharing his thoughts on who will be doing the mapping in the future and what is driving that.

Bernhard Seefeld, Product Manager for Google Maps
Bernhard Seefeld is the product manager for Google Maps. Prior to Google, Bernhard was the Lead Software Engineer at Endoxon AG and CTO and Co-founder of search.ch, one of the first local search engines and the first AJAX-based mapping site. Bernhard holds a master’s degree in theoretical physics from the University of Berne, Switzerland.

Daily Life in Extreme Science

The LHC project at CERN has hit the headlines in the last couple of years. Everything on the big detector projects such as ATLAS is of a colossal scale from the fundamental nature of the science being done through to the size of the collaborations themselves. But comparatively little is said about the individual experience of the scientists – does the day-to-day life on ATLAS match up to the hype? Ellie Dobson gives her take on her experience of being involved in this huge endeavour, and asks whether there are any lessons that can be learnt in other disciplines from the collaborative scientific spirit that has been fostered at CERN.

Eleanor Dobson, CERN fellow
Ellie Dobson spent most of her early life planning to be a musician but did a rather unexpected u-turn at the age of 18 and after a brief foray into teaching ended up reading physics at Oxford University. She was awarded her PhD in 2009 in particle physics, and currently works as a CERN fellow. These days she can mostly be found hunting particles in the ATLAS detector as part of the LHC project, and will soon embark on a Marie Curie fellowship in affiliation with University College London.

Houdini meets cutting-edge technology

We’ve had him at TEDxZurich 2010 already and those who have seen him know why we invited him back for TEDxZurich 2011. He says: “I blend the line between what is incredibly real and what is incredibly not.” We say: “It’s magic.”

Marco Tempest, magician and illusionist
Marco Tempest’s imaginative combination of computer-generated imagery, quick-cut video and enthusiastic stage presence has earned him a place in the pantheon of great illusionists. At 22, the Swiss magician won the New York World Cup of Magic, launching him into international prominence. Tempest’s award-winning television series “The Virtual Magician” airs in dozens of countries worldwide, while his lively phonecam postings on YouTube, done without post-production and video-editing tricks to astonished people on the street, get millions of views (search on “virtualmagician”).

Web: marcotempest.com – Twitter: @virtualmagician

A monkey appetite for science – why we need interdisciplinary scientists

In today’s academic culture, doing science usually means having a specialization. An in-depth, focused knowledge of a particular topic is essential for an individual to contribute in research, otherwise we may be reinventing the wheel all too often. However, researchers with interdisciplinary interests may see connections between unusual subjects as they cross boundaries and transfer knowledge; enhancing the collective wisdom. Dr. Arzu Çöltekin tells us how vision science, image and video processing, spatial perception and cognition, eye tracking, DNA sequencing, visualization, human computer interaction and geography come together in one research agenda.

Arzu Çöltekin, Senior Researcher at Department of Geography in University of Zurich

Arzu works in the Department of Geography in University of Zurich as a Senior Researcher and Lecturer. Arzu has lived and worked in interdisciplinary teams in shorter and longer stretches of time in five different countries; her home country Turkey, The Netherlands, Finland and Canada. Not surprisingly, she travels a lot and takes lots of photographs.

Is Australopithecus sediba the missing link?

In 2008 Peter Schmid and his team made a discovery that would have a profound impact on the way we explain the emergence of mankind. The bones and fragments of this new species they had discovered, showed both human and australopith, or pre-human, characteristics. After publishing many articles in “Science” about the discoveries, overthrowing decade-old theories with his new evidence, and creating a stir within the anthropological community, Mr. Schmid wants to tackle the following question for us: Is Australopithecus sediba the missing link?

Peter Schmid, Anthropologist
Peter Schmid, senior lecturer at the Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich
Peter Schmid got his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich in 1983, and has been doing research in the field of anthropology ever since. He is also the curator of the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Zurich.

Web: Museum of Anthropology

Exploring the distance between zero and one

Jojo Mayer will give a brief synopsis on the emergence of rhythm culture and its relationship to technology and communication in the western world. In regards to this, he shares his thoughts on interacting with digital culture and cross examines the relevance of a human performance in the digital age.

Jojo Mayer, drummer

Growing up in the influence of a musical environment, Jojo picked up the drumsticks at age 2, and learned to play the drums autodidactic.
His pioneering work of reverse engineering programmed electronic music in real time with his band NERVE and his international bestselling drumming tutorial “secret weapons for the modern drummer” established him as one of the leading voices in the drumming world today. Besides his work as a musician, he has also contributed award winning product design for major drum companies. Jojo Mayer lives in New York City and his touring schedule continues to take him to all five continents.

Web: jojomayer.com – Twitter: jojomayernerve

Live music act

All Hands

For about one year Manuel Bürkli (Mañana) was recording bits and pieces of music, taking the freedom to have no expectations in his work and collect as many rough ideas as possible. “I felt a need to play around with music and words without having a final product in mind – I wanted to stop writing songs for some time”. Since Summer 2011 he has now been shaping and creating songs out of this archive of melodies and sounds, together with his friends Ralph Tharayil (The Hoanhiêu) + Simon Hauswirth and Jascha Dormann (laFayette). At TEDxZurich, we’re lucky to get to prelisten three songs of All Hands’ upcoming first release.

Nanosensors are our future guardian angels. Or: What do you dream about?

As a research engineer you’re always at the avant-garde of technological development. And depending on your imagination, estimates and success you’ll drive scientific progress. As we’re about to apply for the biggest EU-project yet, we’re dreaming ten, fifteen years ahead: What will it be like when nanosensors are multifunctional? Will energy harvesting work? Will computing run on ultra-low energy? And what does it all mean for us?

Christofer Hierold, Professor of Micro- and Nanosystems, ETH Zürich
Prior to his academic engagement, Christofer Hierold worked for Siemens AG,
Corporate Research, and Infineon Technologies AG in Germany. At ETH Zurich his
research is focused on the evaluation of new materials for Micro-Electro-Mechanical
Systems (MEMS), on advanced microsystems, and on nanotransducers. He is
co-chairing the FET Flagship Pilot „Guardian Angels for a Smarter Life“.

Web: ga-project.eu

BLOCH – a global art project by Com&Com

In Appenzell, there is an old Carnival custom: Every other year, the last fir tree felled that winter is decorated and pulled by twenty men from the village of Urnäsch to neighboring Herisau and back. At the end of the day-long procession, the trunk is auctioned off on the Urnäsch town square to the highest bidder. Usually, the trunk is bought by locals. Not this time. Swiss artist duo Com&Com won the auction and are bringing the trunk to TEDxZurich. In his talk, Johannes Hedinger will explain what this project is all about.

Johannes Hedinger, Artist & Art Historian
Johannes M. Hedinger is an artist, director, curator, publisher, lecturer, writer and art historian. He lives and works in Zurich, Amsterdam and at the project places. Hedinger holds a MA art history from the University of Zurich, a MA of fine arts from Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ZHDK and a postgrad. art degree from UCLA Los Angeles. Currently he is a PhD candidate at the philosophical faculty of the University of Zurich and a lecturer at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ZHDK and the University of Cologne. In 1997 he founded the artist duo Com&Com with Marcus Gossolt and has since taken part in more than 120 exhibitions in 18 countries.

Web: bloch23781.com – Twitter: @ComComArt

Live music act

OY
“Switzerland’s most innovative female singer”, music blog 78s calls her. Joy Frempong aka OY plays a wild mix of styles, making it hard to put a label on her, making it easy to be fascinated by her sounds. Drawing upon jazz, electronica and improvisation, Oy creates a matchless chemistry made up kiddy-toy sounds, scraps of hip-hop, and various paeans of scat. After releasing her critically acclaimed solo debut “First Box Then Walk” early last year, Oy played gigs at SXSW in Texas, Eurockéenes in Belfort and Montreux Jazz Festival, to name just very few.

Facebook – MySpace

Foto by Patrick Principe / schrillerille.ch

Lets talk about taboos in a playful manner

A lot of global problems are being tabooed. Prejudice and incapacity are the bad consequences. How should young people get sensitized if there is a lack of interactive teaching aids? The internet as isolated information source doesn`t replace reflexion and exchange of a discussion forum. Karin Stierlin’s game „Loveland“ is a taboo breaker of the global HIV/ Aids problem which is played in groups and enables sensibilisation and comprehension in an intercultural and direct exchange.

Karin Stierlin, Sexual Health Teacher
Related to her education as a sexual health teacher and her current work as a lecturer at the Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich, Karin Stierlin is regularly confronted with taboo topics. For her, discussing this topic is an essential part in the educational context. Surprised by the lack of available educational tools, she started developing them by herself. “Loveland – HIV /Aids prevention in a playful manner” is the first in a row of taboo breaker tools she created.

Web: ti-ka.com

How world leaders use and abuse social media

Political leaders are slowly warming to social networks, notably during election campaigns. But when votes are not at stake, just how open are world leaders? Do they engage their online fans and followers? Are they using and abusing social networks? Which of them should we ‘like’? And which had we better unfriend?

Matthias Lüfkens, Head of Digital Media at World Economic Forum
Head of Digital Media at the World Economic Forum, Matthias Lüfkens brings the world to Davos through the innovative use of Social Media. Previously a journalist, he was Baltic States correspondent for Agence France Presse, Libération and the Daily Telegraph (1991-96); and later Deputy Editor-in-chief of EuroNews television (1996-2004). In 1991 he founded the In Your Pocket city guides in Lithuania, Europe’s premier publisher and provider of city information.

Web: lufkens.wordpress.com – Twitter: @luefkens