2015 | tedxroyalholloway

2015: Elements of Change

TEDxRoyal Holloway 2015 took place on the 17th October on the university campus in Egham.

Our theme for this year is "Elements of Change".

“Many philosophies and worldviews have a set of classical elements believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything can consist or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of everything are based”. This definition of classical elements demonstrates the constant presence of elements in all things: chemical, philosophical, natural. Elements surround us and shape us: but how have we begun to shape them? The aspects which have grounded us in the present can also be taken advantage of to shape our future. So what are the elements of change, and how exactly can we take advantage of them?

Recordings of each of the talks done as a part of this event are available by clicking on the pictures below and choosing to "Go to link".

Rozina Ali is a highly trained and experienced consultant Plastic surgeon, with a specialist expertise in microvascular reconstructive surgery. She graduated from St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, London with first-class honours in Anatomy and went on to pursue postgraduate surgical training in London and various international specialist units. Rozina is aware of the responsibility to be an open and honest role model to inspire women to achieve their dreams.	Kusal belongs to a small group of highly qualified professional advisers holding the internationally acclaimed Certified Financial Planner (CFP) licence, one of the best reassurances of genuine high quality financial planning and independent financial advice. After gaining his spurs working with some of the country’s best senior advisers he departed in 2003 to start his own fee-based operation.	Anna McNuff is a London based endurance athlete and adventurer. Voted as one of the City of London's 50 most inspirational people, Anna runs 'Project Awesome': London's fastest growing free fitness initiative, designed to get people of all ages moving and loving life. Passionate about the positive impact that adventure and sport can have on the lives of youngsters, Anna uses her projects as a platform to inspire and enable kids to get outside, and get exploring.
After graduating with a degree in pharmacy from the Victoria College of Pharmacy, Australia. Yvonne has now focused her efforts towards helping vulnerable children in Kolkata (Calcutta) She is the Founder and Executive Director of VITAL, a non-profit, whose vision is of a world where no child must suffer the injustice of poverty.	Cosima is a doctor and health tech consultant. She is currently working with Outcomes Based Healthcare on a project funded by Innovate UK using machine learning and smartphone behaviometrics to monitor health outcomes in diabetics. She is an alumnus of the Singularity University Graduate Studies Programme and currently on the Academic Foundation Programme at St Thomas's Hospital. She is the founder of AXNS Collective, a curatorial collective funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Arts Council.	Roman is described as "the new voice of women talking about science and engineering and making it cool” by The Telegraph and the "most prolific [of] women in engineering tweeters" by The Guardian. She is a structural engineer and has worked with signature architects during her ten year career designing footbridges, towers and sculptures including six years on The Shard, the tallest tower in Western Europe.
Mariam Jade Tuma is a second year International Relations student at Royal Holloway. Although she is of Iraqi descent, she grew up as a child of expats in diaspora in Saudi Arabia. Thus, she was sheltered from many of the realities of war, dictatorship, and struggle in the Middle East. This was the case until her own family was effected by the war in Iraq. Suddenly, all the numbers became people. In response to this realisation, she invested her time in humanizing the Middle East.	Steve is a seasoned entrepreneur having founding MX Publishing in 2006. MX has become the largest independent Sherlock Holmes publishers in the world with over 100 authors and around 200 titles. The publisher is a non-profit which support several causes – the main one being the Happy Life children’s rescue program in Narobi in Kenya where Steve and his wife Sharon spend each Christmas and New Year volunteering in the rescue centre.	Bonnie works as a Consultant at The Social Investment Consultancy, a philanthropic advisory firm where she advises leading charities including Save The Children and World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, as well as high net worth individuals, on social innovation. Prior to London, she gained valuable insights on cross-sector collaboration through her diverse working experiences, ranging from big corporations like HSBC, to international NGOs like Amnesty International and Equality Now.
With over five years experience across international markets, Sian Vandermuelen works in the field of fashion, cultural community development and corporate engagement with extensive experience in Australia, Asia, UK, UAE, and the United States. Currently working across a diverse portfolio of clients, Sian Vandermuelen specialises in marketing & global communications, press and buyer relations, and production.	A lifetime ago, Geoff began studying psychology in South Africa. That was his passion at the time, and he loved learning all sorts of things about how and why humans function the way we do. In 2010, he was working on a Masters degree in psychology, teaching psychology to undergraduates and supplementing his income by teaching music in high schools. Things were fruity and good, but life wasn’t exactly right. He knew, without being able to explain why, that he wanted to try working in the theatre.	London is a sexual explorer and spiritual seeker with a passion for empowering people to be all they can be. Faerie believes that those who seek the life they want are kinder, happier, more abundant people. His work is about helping you to seek the life you want. Faerie leads Sacred Pleasures, a sex-positive learning community based in London. Here Faerie offers workshops and individual sessions focused on love, sex and relationships.
Karoline Wiesner studies complex systems, searching for similarities between seemingly unrelated systems such as bee hives, brains, or the economy, finding insights through the mathematics of information. Karoline Wiesner trained as a physicist. She joined the School of Mathematics at Bristol University in 2007 and is now a Associate Professor in Complex Systems. She is co-managing the Centre for Complexity Sciences and has won several awards for her work on the mathematics of complex systems.	Bahijja is a pharmacist and an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded postdoctoral research associate at the University College London (UCL) School of Pharmacy. Her research interests lie in the area of formulation science (small and biological molecules), pharmacoengineering, nanofabrication and the interface between pharmacy practice and pharmaceutics.