Theme: The Art of Progress

Progress is one of the pillars upon which our modern societies build and thrive. But what fuels progress and does progress always equal progress? Join us in May for the 4th edition of our full-day conference in a day of surprise and sparking ideas. Explore together with us the intricacies and The Art of Progress.

Aula I, main building of RWTH Aachen University
Templergraben55
Aachen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, 52062
Germany

MODUS

Inspired by their psychedelic heroes like Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd and by the latest electronic acts like Caribou, Bonobo and Chet Faker, MODUS create their own unique sound using kalimba, melodica, synthesizer, Guitar, Bass and their voices. Everything you hear during their performance, with exception of the electronic drums, is produced live on stage.

Florian Aigner

Florian Aigner is a physicist and science journalist based in Vienna, Austria. With his unique ability to explain complicated things in a clear way, he uses a broad variety of media such as specialist journals, newspapers and texts for children, in his attempt to combat pseudo-science. In spite of an overall great popularity of so-called pseudo-sciences, they are often based on exoteric claims that cannot be upheld through scientific evidence.

Frank Piller

Prof. Dr. Frank Piller is a professor for technology and innovation management at the RWTH Aachen University. He has held positions at multiple well known institutions around the world, such as the Technical University Munich, the Hong Kong University of Science and the MIT. A co-founder of the MIT Smart Customization Group, he is considered one of the leading experts in this field. He works in particular on innovation interfaces, researching methods like customer co-creation and tournament-based crowdfunding in order to optimize the interface between the organization and external players. As part of strongly industry focused RWTH Aachen his current focus is towards the challenges of innovation in the age of Industrie 4.0.

Günther Schuh

Günther Schuh is a professor for production engineering at RWTH Aachen University and member of several different directorial boards such as the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering and the Fraunhofer Institute of Production Technology. His research covers a wide range of aspects of modern industrial engineering, from production and innovation management to business development for manufacturing companies and factory planning. With a strong commitment to real life industrial challenges and as a founder of both StreetScooter and e.GO Mobile, two electric car manufacturers initiated at RWTH Aachen, he makes a stand for the Aachen academic landscape as a breeding soil for product and process innovation.

Karlheinz Meier

Karlheinz Meier is a professor of experimental physics at Heidelberg University in Germany. He has more than 30 years of experience in the field of experimental particle physics, contributing to several projects at the CERN and DESY laboratories. Since 2005 his interest shifted towards customized hardware implementation of neural circuits. He has led two major European initiatives in this field, FACETS and BrainScaleS, and is one of the founders of the Human Brain Project, a flagship research project of the European Commission.

Martin Kohlstedt

The young composer Martin Kohlstedt, who grew up in the forests of Thuringia, doesn’t just put on an anonymous fingerplay – he perpetually opens himself up with each and every moment, with every stroke of the keys. It’s an attempt to create something close and personal beyond sophisticated classics or artificial pathos. The first captivating ideas are formed with the piano – but when space and audience require it he may electrify your mind with noise and bass or abruptly fall silent.

Stephen Lu

Stephen Lu, professor of Manufacturing Engineering at University of Southern California, has spent the last year as a visiting professor at RWTH discussing industry 4.0 and digitization. His scientific interests include design thinking, collaborative engineering, technology innovation and education reform. Driven by his vision of a virtual classroom overcoming physical boundaries he developed the iPodia program, enabling students from all over the world to learn together. To this date, the program bonds countless students at 13 universities on four continents.

Sven Eul

Still a student, Sven Eul was thinking about ways he could improve the status quo. When he found out about how much food actually goes to waste in German supermarkets, he saw an opportunity and together with a friend founded BeBananas, a food start-up based in Düsseldorf with a simple but unique business plan: to buy bananas rejected from the shelves of local supermarkets, turn them into banana bread which they then sell to cafés all around the region, thus, one rejected banana at a time, setting an example against food waste.

Ulf Bosch

Ulf Bosch is a practical-empirical strategist and organizational developer. Having worked more than 17 years for strategy and Big4 consultancies, he brings in a strong methodological and practical focus that yields quantifiable benefits in real-world settings. He has a high aptitude to tell these stories through emotionally engaging as well as narrative-based interaction. Apart from being passionate in his professional pursuits, Ulf has a strong personal commitment to running. He has finished the London marathon over 20 times and counting.