


THE PROGRAM
CARINA POPOVICI - AI FOR ART: FORGERY OR HIDDEN MASTERPIECE?
Who is Carina Popovici?

ANTONIA CRUEL - HOMEOFFICE - OFFICEHOME: HOW CRISES HELP US SOLVE THE HOUSING SHORTAGE

Have you ever wondered what will happen to the ever-growing empty office space? COVID-19 has led to a “work from home revolution” with the profound and lasting effect of office space lying vacant. Simultaneously, we experience an urban housing shortage. Perhaps instead of building new we can repurpose existing spaces and solve two problems at the same time: housing shortage and climate change. In her talk, Antonia reveals the high potential of transforming offices into temporary housing facilities and as a byproduct reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Listen and learn how we could not only provide more people with homes but at the same time prevent accelerating global climate change by simply not building.
Who is Antonia Cruel?
Antonia Cruel graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the TU Munich, having studied architecture there and at ETH Zurich for the past few years.
After her collaboration with the Urban Think Tank, where she designed infrastructural solutions in squatted urban settlements, her architectural focus shifted to the social responsibility of architecture. Since then, architecture without socially relevant added value has been inconceivable to Antonia, although beyond the implications for climate change, architecture must meet diverse site-specific requirements. Antonia founded the initiative „Inzwischen München“, which aims to inform about the potential of built space resources. Since then, she sees herself as a lobbyist for intelligent multiple use of buildings.
FLORIAN WILLOMITZER - A HOLOGRAPHIC CAMERA THAT CAN SEE THE UNSEEN
A hologram is like a window to another world. It produces a perfect replica of a previously recorded scene that we can observe from every angle – exactly like we would look at the original scene itself. What if we could use holograms to produce virtual replicas of scenes or objects that we cannot directly look at and which are normally hidden from our view? Can we use holograms to see the unseen? In his talk, Florian Willomitzer introduces a novel holographic camera that can “see” hidden objects around corners or through diffusive light scattering materials like tissue or fog. The technique has multiple potential applications, e.g., in medical imaging, autonomous driving, industrial inspection, or virtual reality.
Who is Florian Willomitzer?
Prof. Dr. Florian Willomitzer is an Associate Professor of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona, where he directs the Computational 3D Imaging and Measurement Laboratory (3DIM Lab). The Lab’s goal is to invent, develop, and build the next generation of computational imaging and display devices that overcome traditional limitations to “make the unseen visible.”
Florian was born and raised in the Nuremberg area and graduated from the University Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he received his Ph.D. degree with ‘summa cum laude’. During his doctoral studies, Florian investigated fundamental physical and information-theoretical limits of optical 3D-sensing and implemented sensors that operate close to these limits.
He joined Northwestern University as Postdoc in 2017 and became Research Assistant Professor in 2019. In 2022, Florian joined the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona as Associate Professor.

CREATIVE PERFORMANCE BY BERRY SEASON


VUGAR AZIZOV - LEADERSHIP IN SCIENCE THAT WE NEED NOW

Who is Vugar Azizov?
In 2018, Vugar started his doctoral studies with Prof. Dr. Mario Zaiss at the Universitätsklinikum Erlangen where he studied the effect of alcohol consumption on the immune system. Since completing his doctorate in 2021, he has been continuing as a postdoctoral researcher and has secured his first research grant advancing and growing his project.
In 2019, Vugar was elected to the advisory board of German Society for Immunology-Young Immunologists working group and selected to serve as co-spokesperson. Vugar, together with the fellow advisory board members, helped to bring light to issues of equality, diversity, and inclusion in academia.
Driven by his subjective experiences Vugar is aiming to raise awareness about leadership in science and academia. He believes that if we, as scientists, would act and develop ourselves to become better leaders today, we will most certainly reap the benefits in the future.
CARINA BAYERLEIN - HOW TO VALUE UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS
Who is Carina Bayerlein?
Disagreement and society-splitting debates are often perceived as stressful and unpleasant. Nevertheless, Carina turns to customers, co-workers and friends she disagrees with instead of avoiding potentially uncomfortable situations.
That’s why her TEDxTalk is going to be about how we can talk to each other in a healthier and happier way. She is convinced that it only takes 3 steps to #DisruptAndChange the way we debate as well as to change our society afterwards.

JOSEF FLEISCHMANN - DATING WITHOUT SCRATCHING YOUR HEAD

Who is Josef Fleischmann?
What comes as a little surprise is the fact, that he uses a wheelchair because of a condition called “spinal muscular atrophy” which barely enables him to reach his mouth with his hands, let alone drink or eat by himself. Despite this, or maybe even because of this, he leads a very joyful, self-fulfilled and mostly “regular” life.
He has a way of dealing with obstacles that underline his positive outlook on life. Like when he met his first friend in a new city by asking a complete stranger to warm his hands when they got too cold while being outside and thus, not being able to drive his wheelchair home by himself.
Josef inspires the audience with interesting, funny and thoughtful stories about his daily life and encourages to simply love life.
A big thank you to all our volunteers!
Nina Tauscher
Jens Schlatmann
Tobias Vogel
Nicole Lavrov
Alexandra Borkowski
Annika Fischer
Rebecca Greiner
Fabian Renner
Felix Burgahn
Luisa-Maria Stiller
Anton Kudryavtsev
Carolina Castello Branco Widuch
Franziska Niebler
Kairun Daikoku
Lucas Wittmann
Lukas Mechs
Stephen Niemann
Frederic Mayer
Marie-Lena Seidl
Daniel Geiger
Jessica Pistoia