Once in a while, I encounter a student that blows me off my sock. With her enthusiasm, her inventiveness, her cleverness. Mileha was one such student. Mileha spoke at TEDxDelft 2015 about her small inventions that made life bearable again for her relative with Parkinson. As host of that event, I had the privilege of introducing her to our audience. And now, her awesome talk is hosted on the main TED.com website!
When TEDxDelft curators Rob and Caryn first told me that Mileha would speak at TEDxDelft 2015 I had that "I know this person" feeling. And I did! I first encountered Mileha in 2013 when she signed up for the "tram car race" that I organized as part of TEDxDelft 2013. The idea: student teams had to build contraptions on top of old tram undercarriages (1000 kg each!) and then compete in a hundred meter dash along the tramtracks that run on our campus. Mileha was the first to sign up. She had brought together a team of international students that would build an awesome bicycle wheel & chain contraption. I was over the world with Mileha and her "team India" being part of my event. We sometimes have difficulty in involving our international students in student activities outside of the curriculum and here was a student that had brought together her own team, bridging the gap between our "native" and "international" students.
https://flic.kr/p/gpPNxH
Mileha brings this pro-active attitude to all her work, no wonder that Rob and Caryn invited her to speak at TEDxDelft. And no wonder that TED.com now features her awesome talk on their main website!