WIRED2014 is very close now and here is the last of the speakers that will be providing you with inspiring and world-changing debates and talks. Remember you can use the WTRANSMIT10 code to get 10% off tickets.
will.i.am
Musician, entrepreneur and philanthropist
will.i.am is a multi-faceted entertainer and creative innovator – as well as a seven-time Grammy Award winner. He is also a founding investor in Beats Electronics, the founder and chairman of i.am.plus, creator of EKOCYCLE in conjunction with partner The Coca-Cola Company, chief creative officer of 3D Systems, and co-creator and partner in ill.i Optics eyewear.
Mark Chapman
Chief engineer, Bloodhound Project
Trained as an aeronautical engineer, Mark Chapman has designed everything from helicopter parts to sewage works. He’s worked for Boeing in Seattle, Rolls Royce in Bristol and spent four years as part of the design team for the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter. He has been involved with Richard Noble’s Bloodhound Project – a world land speed record attempt it’s hoped will surpass the 1,000mph mark.
Ron Arad
Industrial designer
Arad’s designs range from a concrete turntable to Israel’s sweeping Design Museum. His career was launched in 1981 with the Rover chair – a luxury armchair made of junk material. His studio, Ron Arad Associates, was founded 1989 and has turned out such designs as the “D” Sofa – one of which was sold for over £235,000 at auction. The studio is currently working on some 20 projects, including Curtain Call an 18-metre cinema screen viewers can step inside. Arad’s public sculptures include Big Blue in Canary Wharf; Evergreen! in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo; Kesher, in Tel Aviv and many more.
HRH The Duke of York
The Duke of York focuses his activity to support British prosperity on three core areas in which he believes he can have the greatest impact: Education and Skills, Entrepreneurship and Science, Technology and Engineering. HRH seeks to recognise and support the people and organisations striving to ensure that Britain has the workforce, intellectual property and entrepreneurial culture to remain a global economic leader. As part of this work, The Duke has recently founded a number of his own initiatives, including Pitch @ Palace which first took place in April, 2014 and iDEA (Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award) which was launched in March, 2014.
Anne Wojcicki
Cofounder, 23andMe
23andMe provides rapid genetic testing for individuals curious about their ancestry and genetic make-up, and is a platform for researchers looking for study participants. It has one of the world’s largest databases of individual genetic information. Anne co-founded the company in 2006 after a decade spent in healthcare investing, focused primarily on biotechnology companies. Its web-based approach allows for fast participant recruitment and reduces the time and cost of research.
Suleiman Bakhit
Anti-extremist comic-book publisher
Suleiman Bakhit is a Jordanian social entrepreneur, best selling comic book creator and social activist. He is the founder of the Hero-Factor project, an organisation dedicated to promoting heroism as an antidote to extremism among Middle Eastern youth. Motivated to create his company after experiencing discrimination in the USA after 9/11, Bakhit focuses on developing stories, myths and heroes that promote tolerance and fight the culture of extremism and misogyny. In 2010 Bakhit’s company, Aranim Media Factory, sold 1.2 million comics.
Lincoln Wallen
Chief technology officer, DreamWorks Animation
Lincoln Wallen is responsible for providing strategic technology vision and leadership for DreamWorks. He joined in 2008 as head of research and development, where he was oversaw the strategic vision, creation and deployment of the studio’s CG production platform and software tools. Prior to joining DreamWorks Animation, Wallen worked at Electronic Arts where he led the gaming company’s technical approach to publishing and video game development for mobile.
Helen Arney
Geek songstress
Presenter Helen Arney has a degree in physics from Imperial College, London. Today, the singer, stand-up artist and comic has returned to science writing quirky stand-up and songs inspired by her days in the lab. Arney has toured the UK with Uncaged Monkeys, an outfit including comedian Robin Ince and scientist Brian Cox. She later took her own award-winning solo show Voice of an Angle to the Edinburgh Fringe. Arney also makes up one third of science comedy project Festival of the Spoken Nerd.
Obi Felten
Google[x]
Obi works on product development and business strategy for early stage Google[x] projects, helping them get from the lab into the real world. Previously she was director of consumer marketing for Google EMEA. Obi is also a startup mentor and angel investor, and set up Campus London, Google’s space for tech startups.
Before Google, Obi set up the ecommerce business of a major UK retailer, worked as a strategy consultant and led eToys.com’s (unsuccessful) expansion to Germany during the first dotcom boom. Obi grew up in Berlin, went to Oxford University, and lives in San Francisco with her husband and young children.
Demis Hassabis
Founder & CEO, DeepMind Technologies
London-based DeepMind Technologies is an artificial intelligence company inspired by neuroscience, which was recently acquired by Google. Demis is a former chess prodigy, who finished his A-levels two years early before coding the multi-million selling simulation game, Theme Park, aged 17. Following graduation from Cambridge University with a double first in computer science, he founded the video games company Elixir Studios. Demis recently returned to academia to complete a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at UCL.
César A. Hidalgo
Network and complexity artist, MIT Media Lab
César A. Hidalgo aims to improve our understanding of the world’s complexity. At MIT Media Lab he works on the construction of visualisation tools that make unwieldy volumes of data intelligible. His recent projects include Place Pulse, a crowd sourced platform to quantify opinions of urban spaces; DataViva, a site dedicated to visualising the Brazilian economy; and Immersion, a web tool that shows you who you comunicate with most frequently over email.
Blaise Aquera y Arcas
Machine intelligence specialist
Blaise leads an applied research team at Google focusing on Machine Intelligence on mobile devices. Until recently he was a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft, where he worked in a variety of roles, from inventor to strategist, and led teams with strengths in interaction design, prototyping, computer vision and machine vision, augmented reality, wearable computing and graphics. Blaise has given TED talks on Seadragon and Photosynth (2007, 2012) and Bing Maps (2010). In 2008, he was awarded MIT’s prestigious TR35 (“35 under 35”).
Pablo Rodríguez
Innovation director, Telefónica
In additional to his role at Telefónica, Rodriguez is an adjunct professor at Columbia University in New York. His research focuses on large scale distributed systems and improving internet´s performance. He previously worked at Microsoft Research and at several Silicon Valley startups. He holds a Ph.D. from the swiss federal institute of technology and collaborates with chef Ferran Adria (elBulli) to develop Bullipedia, a culinary Wikipedia, and with FC Barcelona to define new strategies for playing football.
Simon Wheatcroft
Ultramarathon runner
Simon lost his sight at seventeen and began a journey of adapting technology to achieve the impossible. “Technology gives me a great opportunity to compete with everybody,” he says. “I can’t hide from the fact I’m blind, but I would rather compete with everybody else and not be put into a special section.” Simon learnt to run solo outdoors and ran his first race seven months later – a 100 mile road race. The day after WIRED2014, Simon flies to the States to run from Boston to NYC, raising money for The Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind.
Ben Medlock
Cofounder & chief technical officer, SwiftKey
SwiftKey is a British technology company making it easier for everyone to create and communicate on mobile. Best-known for its smart keyboard apps on Android and (more recently) iPhone, the company’s technology features on more than 200 million devices worldwide. SwiftKey was last year named as the number one hottest startup in London by WIRED. Ben cofounded the company in 2008 after completing a PhD in natural language and information processing from the University of Cambridge.
Nico Sell
Organiser of DEF CON hacker event
Nico Sell is a professional artist, athlete, and entrepreneur based in California. She is CEO and cofounder of r00tz Asylum, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching children about the values of white-hat hacking; and Wickr, a free messaging app enabling anyone to send self-destructing messages that are anonymous, private, and secure. Sell is also an organizer of DEF CON, the largest hacker gathering in the world. She has helped launch over 20 security companies.
Stuart Turner
Roboticist
Stuart Turner was a computer science undergraduate when he began to lose the ability to control his body. Today he is a quadriplegic who has created a voice-activated system that enables him to code – hands-free. He has beta-tested software such as the Alfred productivity app for Mac and Apple’s iOS 7 operating system. In 2013 Turner joined the Robots for Humanity project in America, testing accessible browser interfaces for different robots. He later founded robotsandcake.org to connect roboticists and disabled people in the EU.
Mariano Tomatis
Magician and wonder injector
Science writer and stage magician with an academic background in IT, Mariano Tomatis merges science with sorcery. Using his work Tomatis aims to encourage people to approach life in a state of wonder. He has had books published by Rizzoli, Kowalski, Sperling & Kupfer and Mondadori. And his latest book on wonder has been defined by illusionist Derren Brown as an “homage to an elusive state of mind, which… requires the intellectual engagement of an adult to stir us most powerfully.” Tomatis was previously art director for Moleskine.
Nina Tandon
Stem cell researcher, EpiBone
Nina Tandon’s company EpiBone grows living human bones for skeletal reconstruction. She is the co-author of Super Cells: Building with Biology, a book that explores the new frontier of biotech. Tandon has published ten journal articles, six book chapters, and she has three patents. Her work has appeared in Nature Protocols and Lab on a Chip, and she was named one of 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. As of 2014, Tandon has run marathons in Rome, Reykjavik, San Francisco and Istanbul – she has completed the New York marathon three times.
Mina Girgis
Ethnomusicologist, The Nile Project
Mina Girgis is an ethnomusicologist and entrepreneur who curates and produces cross-genre musical collaborations. In 2009, he founded Zambaleta, a nonprofit community world music school based in San Francisco. In 2011, Girgis created the Nile Project – an initiative to inspire, educate and empower university students to work together to foster the sustainability of the Nile ecosystem. He is also the founder of Egypt’s Arts Enterprise Network and writes about World Music education.
Nelly Ben Hayoun
Designer of experiences
Designer and artist Nelly Ben Hayoun has been called the “Willy Wonka of design and science”. She works with leading scientists and engineers, to devise subversive events and experiences. Ben Hayoun has collaborated with Beck, Bobby Womack, Damon Albarn and others in a musical collaboration that took music into space. In August 2013, she assembled the International Space Orchestra – the world first orchestra of space scientists. She is also training to be an astronaut.
Jennifer Broutin Farah
Home-gardening champion
Jennifer Broutin’s career has been focused on developing sustainable urban systems that prioritise small-scale actions to create large-scale impact. Her company, SproutsIO Inc. is leading the development of new technologies that redefine our interactions with food. SproutsIO has developed an easy to use microfarming kit for people to easily grow fresh fruit and veg at home.
Broutin is the recipient of awards such as the Spark Design Award, SARA Design Award, and the IBM Research Award for Smart Cities.
Ionut Alexandru Budisteanu
Computer scientist, Romania
Alexandru aims to use his knowledge to create software and devices to help people. At the 2013 Phoenix Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, he won top prize for his low-cost self-driving car that relies on Artificial Intelligence. In 2011 he created an AI device that helps blind people see using their tongues, and an system that can recognise traffic jams or natural disasters – such as hurricanes, arson, oil spills or floods – from satellite images
Rachel Wingfield
Designer, researcher and educator, Loop.pH
Rachel Wingfield is a designer, researcher and educator who cofounded collaborative design lab Loop.pH, in 2003. Its projects include a lighting installation inspired by molecular biology and a woven membrane-like wall for a 2014 Paul McCartney music video. Wingfield trained at London’s Royal College of Art and specialised in adaptive, smart materials for the built environment, inspired by biology. Her work can be found at MoMA, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Norman Foster’s Art Collection and others.
Sandesh Reddy
Chef and creator of Kichin, India
Self taught chef Sandesh Reddy is one of India’s most promising food entrepreneurs. Based in Chennai, he oversees a range of restaurants including pizza joints, a chocolate laboratory, steak house and a dessert parlour. His interest in technology has got him working on Kichin, an on-demand food platform that brings fresh food closer to diners. The platform identifies users likes and dislikes and enables them to make decisions about food based on mood or dietary requirements.
Uma Ramakrishnan
Biodiversity ecologist, India
Uma Ramakrishnan believes that by understanding the past we can predict the future. Her biological research uses evolutionary science to explain biodiversity in the Indian subcontinent. She does this by studying the evolution of species in human-dominated environments and seeking to discover the impact of humanity on carnivore and bird populations. Ramakrishnan has studied tigers in the subcontinent to learn about variation and connectivity in the big cat’s small population.
Emiliano Kargieman
Private space pioneer, Satellogic
Emiliano Kargieman – aka “EK” – has spent the last 25 years building technology and technology companies. Prior to founding Satellogic satellite company he was a founder and MD of venture capital firm Aconcagua Ventures, and a founder of Core Security, a global leader in the Information Security market. Emiliano is also co-founder of GarageLab, a problem-solving laboratory based on an innovative multidisciplinary approach involving science, technology, art and business.
Joel Jackson
Founder, Mobius Motors, Kenya
Mobius Motors designs, manufactures and sells durable, affordable vehicles for Africa’s mass market. Prior to its founding, Joel Jackson worked on business strategy with an acclaimed micro-forestry social enterprise in rural Kenya. Here he experienced the challenges facing millions of people in Africa without access to appropriate transport. Jackson also worked as a management consultant, advising top Fortune 500 companies across Europe and North America.
Dhairya Dand
Researcher and artist, MIT Media Lab
Dhairya Dand is a designer and researcher at the MIT Media Lab. His work focuses on creating objects and platforms that augment senses and emotions, incite curiosity and serendipity and explore intersections of mythology and science-fiction. He has created shoes that tickle, a malleable elastic display screen, ice-cubes that know how much you drink, and toys made from electronic waste materials. Dand is particularly interested in the development of whimsical wearable devices.
Skylar Tibbits
Artist and computational architect, MIT Department of Architecture
In addition to his role at MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab, Skylar Tibbits also teaches graduate and undergraduate design studios and co-teaches How to Make (Almost) Anything, a seminar at MIT’s Media Lab. He has created installations at galleries around the world, has been published in the New York Times, WIRED, Nature and as well as various peer-reviewed journals and books.
Initiated in 2007, Tibbits is also the founder and principal of multidisciplinary design practice SJET LLC.
For more information, go to the WIRED2014 website. WTRANSMIT10 will give your 10% off tickets.
The post WIRED2014 – Final Speakers appeared first on Transmit Start-Ups.