Just a few days ago the town of Lund hosted 5th annual conference Innovation in Mind. The goal of this annual event is to spur discussion and collaboration between different areas of knowledge. After all we tend to learn much more when engaging with someone who sees the world differently, don’t we? The conference’s crowd included researchers, educators, business people, and representatives of the cultural and public sectors and that’s exactly what has made this event thought-provoking.
Interesting presentations came from Ray Hammond, Eric Warrant and Kristian von Bengtson. Futurist Hammond who was quite accurate in the past predicting future trends touched upon the challenges of the modern age and tried to look into what to expect from the world in 50 years time. Eric Warrant, a professor in functional zoology, who studies brains of insects suggested a possibility of developing clever neural circuits that solve complex problems with a fraction of a volume based on studies of insect brain. Kristian von Bengtson with his amateur rocket for manned space travel has definitely made a point that it is possible to solve problems (building a liquid propeller rocket engine) using details that could be bought around the corner or found on your kitchen counter. It is obvious that the world of science has much to offer, but it is important to establish a dialogue with a general audience, so people could actually understand these things better and take advantage of them. And that’s what it was all about. Videos from conference material is available here.
Apart from discussions the conference was also a place for presenting some new developments such as Cardiopad, a touchscreen medical tablet that enables heart examinations in remote locations invented by by Cameroonian engineer Arthur Zang and Gadogi, a new interactive platform for social collaboration, founded by Torkel Stålhand.
Innovation in Mind 2013 has definitely tapped into interesting areas and gave some food for thought. Since the conference covered the question of innovation form different angles it seemed that everyone could find something of interest. On top of that dynamic and interactive set-up, good speakers and nice organization made Innovation in Mind into event worth attending again.
