Feed your curiosity with the TEDxTUMStudio talks! With diverse topics ranging from spacecraft technology to actual neural networks, our mission is as passionate as ever—spreading innovative ideas while procuring remarkable talks.

What is TEDxTUMSTUDIO?

During this pandemic we realized it is more important than ever to provide you with striking talks and fascinating ideas. By remotely filming our speakers in a high-quality setting, the studio talks offer a taste of TEDxTUM when it is needed the most.

Our Talks 2021

Why our current satellites aren’t as smart as you think | Alexandra Wander

Satellites – marvelous, sophisticated machines orbiting planetary bodies – are operated like the toaster on your kitchen counter. They need constant human supervision. If there is a problem on board, they stop their scientific operation until a human operator intervenes. But why has this not changed? Why haven’t we made them smarter?

Solving these problems inspires Alexandra Wander, a space engineer, AI researcher and winner of the Amelia Earhart Fellowship from Zonta International. She envisions a future in which not only the ground systems and procedures, but also those on board the spacecraft are intelligent and more sophisticated.

In Alexandra’s TEDxTUMStudio talk, she takes us from the current problems faced in the industry to the next generation of aerospace engineering.

My brain, my pain | Laura Bok

A stubbed toe, a paper cut, hitting your funny bone. Who hasn’t experienced these small pains before?  But what happens when our aches won’t disappear even though their source is long gone?

Laura Bok, a pain researcher at TUM and one of the original members of PainLabMunich, is fascinated by the human perception of pain. Most notably, Laura is on a mission to uncover the brain’s mechanisms surrounding the subjective nature of pain perception—in other words, why we don’t always feel pain in the same way each time a painful event occurs.

In Laura’s TEDxTUMStudio talk, we learn about the importance of pain in our daily lives, and what role our brains play in shaping how the sensation affects us.

How dinosaurs teach us how our brain works | Lutz Kettler

While trying to understand such a complex structure like the human brain, we are often required to take a creative approach. For instance, what could a human and a dinosaur possibly have in common?

Lutz Kettler is a postdoc at the Chair of Zoology at the Technical University of Munich, where he studies the brain’s sensory systems by researching how different species perceive sound. By understanding these species deeper and finding similarities, Lutz can help uncover the brain’s auditory functions in a new way.

In Lutz’s TEDxTUMStudio talk, we learn how the observation of animals’ reliance on their sense of hearing can teach us about our own perception of sound and how this can potentially enable us to improve our treatment of hearing loss.

The bacteria-eating virus that can prevent a global health crisis | Patrick Großmann

We are heading towards another global health pandemic – the antibiotic crisis. Over the past century, antibiotics have saved hundreds of millions of lives but with increased use, we also increase the likelihood of developing a resistance against them. But what can we do in order to combat this global threat?

To solve this problem, Patrick Großmann, an entrepreneur and scientist, is working with bacteriophages, a type of virus that attacks bacteria. After studying bioinformatics, data science, and genome research at various institutes including Harvard Medical School and ETH Zurich, Patrick founded his biotechnology company, Invitris, in order to fight against these treatment-resistant illnesses. In effect, bacteriophages can help us stave off a massive wave of preventable deaths.

In Patrick’s TEDxTUMStudio talk, we learn how these life-saving bacteria work, what their true potential is, why they are not widely used yet and much more.

How science helps us break records | Veronica Bessone

Joy, anger, fear, these are just some of the primitive emotions you experience when watching any sporting event. But nothing comes without a price. Athletes constantly push the boundaries of their bodies – sometimes at the expense of their safety for our entertainment. But how can we improve their safety?

Veronica Bessone, a biomechanist, aids ski-jumpers to improve their technique and also works on minimizing the risk of injuries. Veronica has a degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy) and obtained her PhD in Sport Biomechanics at the Technical University of Munich, where she was part of an interdisciplinary team focusing on the modelling, simulation and optimization of a ski jump.

In Veronica’s TEDxTUMStudio talk, she takes us on the scientific journey of perfecting the ski-jumpers’ performance while ensuring their safety.

Partners

Thanks to our partners, we can provide high-quality studio talks. If you’d like to get involved, please contact us. Images in the talks are courtesy of Shutterstock.