Rebuilding ourselves

As a kid I remember the TV show ‘The six million dollar man’. Bionic legs let him run at 60 mph, a bionic arm gave him superhuman strength and a bionic eye gave him telescopic and infrared vision. But Steve Austin didn’t choose to have these cybernetic replacements installed. He was injured in a crash…

RoboCup 2013

“Welcome to the final of the 2050 FIFA World Cup! And here are the teams – England versus the Robots.” Sounds hopelessly optimistic? Like something out of a fantastical science fiction novel? But it may surprise you to know there really are people out there who think England could make a World Cup final again.…

Can we reprogram ourselves?

In the future, will we be able to create smart viruses that only target cancer cells or fix genetic defects in our DNA? Professor Jan Madsen from TU Denmark believes we can. At the ESI Symposium this year, Jan talked about the characteristics of systems and how they can be applied to that ultimate system,…

How to give a great talk

A good talk or presentation can have a major impact on the success of your company or product. So you want it to be powerful, convincing and to deliver a clear message. In this video on “How to give a TED talk”, TEDxBrainport organisers Arthur Turksma and our own Colin O’Neill give a number of…

More than MakerBots

About 18 months ago I saw a demonstration of 3D printing at TEDxYouth@Flanders and watched as these homemade devices built up layers of plastic to create small toys and other items. I was impressed but at the same time somewhat disappointed. They were a long way from Star Trek replicators and only seemed useful for…

A walk on the wild side for sick kids

  It’s one of those moments that you think at the time, “that’s a great idea”. So when I learned that Yorkhill Children’s Foundation (a sick children’s charity close to my heart) had become one of the beneficiaries of the Kiltwalk, I suddenly found myself signing up to walk 42 km. In April (Sunday 21st…