Transatlantic Sync
Germany & Silicon Valley: Shaping a shared digital future
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
October 27 - 29, 2019
We have a joint mission:
Building a new transatlantic bridge resting on technology cooperation
Our conference
- Creates a vibrant forum for a German-Silicon Valley dialogue about the impact of digital technologies on business and society
- Builds a strong network for German-American collaboration in digital innovation, business, and policy-making
- Excite, connect and inspire: Participants meet the movers and shakers of the digital future from business, academia, and politics
Our Goal
- Develop a shared vision for a prosperous digital future resting on a technology-focused Transatlantic partnership by bringing together leaders, experts and young talents from business, academia, and politics
- Identify new opportunities for collaboration between Silicon Valley and Germany in business, research and policy-making to realize this vision
- Inspiring insights on key topics:
- Future Technologies and Data-Driven Innovation
- Future of Work & Big Data for Policy Design
- Urban Life & Mobility
- Digital Human Rights & Governance
- Digital Health & Human Enhancement
Speakers
The key minds and shapers of the transatlantic future
Professor Dr. Susan Athey
Professor of Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Susan Athey’s research is in the areas of industrial organization, microeconomic theory, and applied econometrics. Her current research focuses on the design of auction-based marketplaces and the economics of the internet, primarily on online advertising and the economics of the news media. She has also studied dynamic mechanisms and games with incomplete information, comparative statics under uncertainty, and econometric methods for analyzing auction models.
Professor Dr. Christian Bauckhage
Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS
Christian Bauckhage is professor of Computer Science at the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (b-it) and also a scientist researching multimedia pattern recognition at the Fraunhofer IAIS. He is the author of a number of published scientific papers in Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition, Advanced HCI and Behavior Analysis and regularly acts as an assessor for conferences and journals as well as for the European Union’s IST program.
Andreas "Andy" Bechtolsheim
Co-Founder of Sun Microsystems, First Investor in Google, Chairman of Arista Networks
Andreas “Andy” Bechtolsheim is Chairman, Chief Development Officer and Co-Founder of Arista Networks, a leading vendor of cloud networking solutions.
Previously, Andy was a Co-Founder and Chief System Architect at Sun Microsystems, responsible for next generation server, storage, and network architectures.As a private venture investor, Andy has been involved in the funding of numerous companies including Google, VMware, Mellanox, and Brocade. He has served on the Board of Directors of over 25 companies, the majority of which went public or were acquired.
Andy earned a M.S. in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1976 and was a doctoral student in Computer Engineering at Stanford University from 1977 to 1982. He has been honored with a Fulbright scholarship, a Studienstiftung scholarship, the Stanford Entrepreneur Company of the year award, the Smithsonian Leadership Award for Innovation, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Professor Dr. Gerhard Casper
9th President of Stanford University
Gerhard Casper is President Emeritus of Stanford University. He is also the Peter and Helen Bing Professor, Emeritus, and a Senior Fellow at both the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He has written and taught primarily in the fields of constitutional law, constitutional history, comparative law, and jurisprudence. Mr. Casper serves as a trustee of the American Academy in Berlin as well as a trustee of the Central European University in Budapest. He is a member of international advisory councils at the Israel Democracy Institute (chairman since 2014), the European University at St. Petersburg, and Koç University, Istanbul. His most recent book, The Winds of Freedom—Addressing Challenges to the University, was published by Yale University Press in February 2014. He is also the author of numerous scholarly articles and occasional papers.
Professor John Hennessy
Chairman, Alphabet & Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford
John L. Hennessy is the James F. and Mary Lynn Gibbons Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Stanford School of Engineering, and the Shriram Family Director of Stanford’s Knight-Hennessy Scholars, the largest fully endowed graduate-level scholarship program in the world. He is chairman of Alphabet and serves as a trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Formerly the tenth president of Stanford, he is also a computer scientist who co-founded MIPS Computer Systems and Atheros Communications. John is the coauthor (with David Patterson) of two internationally used textbooks in computer architecture. His honors include the 2012 Medal of Honor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the 2017 ACM A.M. Turing Award (jointly with David Patterson). John earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in computer science from the Stony Brook University.
Dr. Gottfried Ludewig
Head of Directorate General, Digitalisation and Innovation, Federal Ministry of Health Germany
Dr. Ludewig is a German Politician and since April 2018 head of the Directorate General for Digitalisation and Innovation of the German Federal Ministry of Health. Between 2011-2018 he has been member of the Berlin Parliament. There he served as speaker for health policy with focus on digitalisation in healthcare. With his current position at the German Federal Ministry of Health he aims to promote digitalisation and innovation in healthcare for a better and more efficient health care for patients in Germany.
Lloyd B. Minor, MD
Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine
Lloyd B. Minor, MD, is the Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine. With his leadership, Stanford Medicine has established a strategic vision to lead the biomedical revolution in Precision Health, a fundamental shift to more proactive and personalized health care that empowers people to lead healthy lives. Dr. Minor is also a professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and a professor of Bioengineering and of Neurobiology, by courtesy, at Stanford University. With more than 140 published articles and chapters, Dr. Minor is an expert in balance and inner ear disorders. In 2012, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Hans-Ulrich Suedbeck
German Consul General in San Francisco
Before becoming Consul General of San Francisco Mr. Suedbeck was Head of the Western Balkans Division at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, Germany. Prior posts had brought him to Afghanistan, Serbia, Ukraine, Brussels, and The Hague in the Netherlands.
Dr. Hinrich Thoelken
Special Representative for International Digitalisation Policy and Digital Transformation of the German Federal Foreign Office
Ambassador Hinrich Thoelken was appointed Special Representative for International Digitalisation Policy and Digital Transformation of the German Federal Foreign Office in August 2018. In this position he is tasked to analyze the effects of digital transformation in economy, society and on an international level with a view to developing a strategy for the German Federal Foreign Office.
Hinrich Thoelken is a career diplomat with a strong scientific background. On his previous posting as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Rome based UN Agencies he oversaw a trebling of Germany’s contribution to the World Food Programme and was instrumental in establishing the WFP Innovation Accelerator in Munich.
Sebastian Thrun
Founder of X, CEO of Kitty Hawk
Sebastian Thrun is a scientist, educator, inventor, and entrepreneur. Sebastian is the CEO of Kitty Hawk, whose vision is to free people from traffic. He is also the founder, chairman, and president of Udacity, whose mission is to democratize education.
Sebastian was the founder of X (previously Google X), where he led the development of the self-driving car, Google Glass, and other projects. He spent several years as a professor at Stanford University where he led the Stanford Racing Team, whose “Stanley” won the DARPA Grand Challenge. Stanley is now on display at the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
Professor Dr. Hal Varian
Economist at Google & University of California, Berkeley
Hal R. Varian is the chief economist at Google. Since 2002 he has been involved in many aspects of the company, including auction design, econometric analysis, finance, corporate strategy and public policy.
Hal also holds academic appointments at the University of California, Berkeley in three departments: business, economics, and information management.Hal is a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the Econometric Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was co-editor of the American Economic Review from 1987-1990 and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Oulu, Finland and the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
Andreas Weigend
Former Chief Scientist, Amazon; Member, Digital Council to the German Government
Dr. Andreas Weigend’s expertise is to turn data into decisions. He was the chief scientist at Amazon where he worked with Jeff Bezos on the company's data strategy. In 2018, Angela Merkel appointed him to Germany’s Digital Council ("Digitalrat") to help create a positive mindset towards digital transformation ("Digitalisierung").
Andreas studied electrical engineering, physics and philosophy in Karlsruhe, Cambridge and Bonn, before moving to Stanford for his Ph.D. in neural networks. His book “Data for the People” (2017) has been translated into eight languages. He has taught at NYU/Stern, Stanford, UC Berkeley and in China. He lives in San Francisco, Bangkok and on http://aweigend.com.
Other speakers:
Siegbert Schefke, Journalist
Samir Saran, Commissioner of The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace
Sheila Colclasure, SVP Global Public Policy Officer for LiveRamp
Heinz Bude, German Sociologist
Dr. Peter Schardt, CTO Siemens Healthineers
More speakers announced shortly!
- Hosting OrganizationGABA is an established partner for German-American cooperation in Silicon Valley
GABA is a member-driven non-profit organization that fosters transatlantic knowledge
sharing and networking among German-American and Californian business and tech
communities. The GABA programs address critical business, technical and leadership
issues, with specific industry programs text here.Share knowledge. Gain insight. Expand connections.
Non-profit organization, founded in 2003
- Ca. 400 paying members
- Corporate (~120) as well as individual members (~280)
- Mailing list of over 10,000 contacts
- More than 50 events per year
- Over 3,500 attendees per year
GABA promotes:
- German-American business and trade
- Extensive US/German network of industry professionals
- Extended platform to build industry specific relationships
- Local networking events with high visibility
Our Partners and Sponsors
Thank you to our supporters
Deutschlandjahr
From October 2018 until the end of 2019, Germany and its deep ties to the U.S. will be on display all across the United States. The campaign “Deutschlandjahr USA” will travel across the entire U.S., bringing with it a collection of events and exhibits revolving around business and industry, politics, education, culture, and science, to highlight the importance of transatlantic relations.
The Representative of German Business for the Western United States (GACC West)
The Representative of German Business for the Western United States (GACC West), located in San Francisco in direct proximity to Silicon Valley, acts as a link between German and American companies and organizations.
Fraunhofer-Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS
Fraunhofer IAIS is a leading scientific institute specializing in applied research into intelligent data and knowledge analysis. More than 250 data scientists and IT experts support companies and organizations putting intelligent information management into practice.
Future of Work Initiative
by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany
In its current High-Tech Strategy 2025, the German Federal Government has defined “Economy and Work 4.0” as one of six priority topics for the promotion of research and innovation. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is taking this goal to an inter- national level with its current campaign “The Future of Work”.
Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes
Germany's largest, oldest and most prestigious scholarship foundation. It supports "the university education of young people who, on account of their exceptional academic or artistic talents and their personalities, can be expected to make an outstanding contribution to society as a whole.
ZEIT-Stiftung
Hamburg's liberal spirit and Gerd Bucerius' open-minded way of thinking are the two sources of inspiration that have made the ZEIT-Stifung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius what it is today. The foundation promotes research and scholarship, art and culture, as well as education and training. It also initiates debates on political and social topics and provides forums for digital development.
The Volunteer Team: The Young Professionals at GABA
We are a group of digital enthusiasts
Transatlantic Sync is a grassroots project initiated and lead by Young
Academics and Professionals: Our motivation and drive will ensure quality
and successCo-President
Katharina is a Ph.D. Candidate in Management Science & Engineering at Stanford focusing on Computational Social Science. She works with several industry partners to study team interactions using Artificial Intelligence.
Co-President
Lars is a Ph.D. Candidate in Electrical Engineering at Stanford, where he works on computer-aided design for additive manufacturing of charged particle device. Moreover, he teaches creativity in research at Stanford's d.school and is an ERP scholar.
Director: Content Integration
Vincent is a Ph.D. Candidate in Electrical Engineering at Stanford working on Computer Vision and a Fulbright Scholar. His passion is to connect modern Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence with Imaging.
Richard Gruner
Director: Co-Head of Workshops
Richard works as an Autonomous Driving Engineer for Mercedes-Benz in the Bay Area. His work focuses on machine learning based techniques and robotics for self-driving cars.
Nikolaus Volk
Director: Co-Head of Workshops
Nikolaus is the tech lead of UMI.systems, an early stage AI mobility startup. Prior to that, he graduated with a Master's Degree in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford University and worked as a Machine Learning Software Engineer at Uber.
Dr. Henrike Steimer
Director: Future of Work
Henrike is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Susan Athey's lab at the Stanford University. In her research, she is interested in the economics of digitization and the intersection of machine learning and causal inference.
Jonas Metzger
Director: Policymaker Bootcamp
Jonas is a Ph.D. Student in Economics at Stanford University. He is interested in econometrics, game theory and reinforcement learning. He holds a Master's Degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Robert Ruhlandt
Director: Operations
Robert is a Ph.D. Candidate in Civil Engineering at Stanford University. His research interest are smart cities. He worked as a consultant for Bain&Company after the completion of his Master's Degree in Management Science & Engineering and before starting his Ph.D.
Dr. Pavlos Tsantilas
Director: Future Human
Pavlos is a postdoctoral scholar at the Division of Vascular Surgery, School of Medicine, Stanford University focusing on atherosclerotic disease. He strives to bring innovative and meaningful technologies to healthcare.
Lars Jebe
Director: Co-Head of Marketing
Lars is a M.Sc. candidate in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He is specializing in signal processing for computer vision. Prior to Stanford, he studied at the RWTH Aachen.
Carolin Thomas
Director: Co-Head of Marketing
Carolin is a Visiting Student Researcher at the Graduate School of Business. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Economics at Stockholm School of Economics.
Maximilian Zoller
Director: Mobility & Urban Living Panel
Maximilian is an MBA candidate at Stanford Universities Business school. He is interested in the intersection of tech and clean energy and has worked as the Managing Director of Thermondo Energy prior to his time at Stanford.
Marc Brunssen
Director: Mobility & Urban Living Panel
Marc is an MBA candidate at Stanford Universities Graduate School of Business. His interest is the future of the automotive industry. Prior to his MBA, he worked as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group and co-founded an Ed Tech start-up.
Dr. Christoph Leuze
Director: Digital Human Rights & Future Human
Christoph is the instructor for Rad206 , the Mixed Reality in Medicine bei Stanford University where he works on the visualization of MRI data using virtual and augmented reality devices.
Jana Meiser
Director: Finance & Social Experience
Jana is a Ph.D. Candidate in Chemistry at Stanford University. Her research is in the Dynamics of Photon-Catalyzed Reactions. Prior to Stanford, she studied and worked at the Leibniz University in Hannover.
Mathias Klenk
Blockchain Workshop
Mathias is the Co-Founder of Passbase, an identity verification start-up. He obtained a Master's degree from the Technical University of Munich and was a Visiting Student Researcher at Stanford.
Steffen Dibke
Marketing
Steffen studies Economic Geography at the Leibniz University in Hannover, focusing on start-up and innovation ecosystems. He currently works as Marketing & Operations Manager at German Silicon Valley Innovators.
Samuel Loebell
Future Human
Samuel is a medical student at the Heidelberg University. He pursued his doctoral research in Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology) at the Stanford University Medical School.
Dr. Caroline Zeisbrich
Future Human
Caroline is the Medical Director at Vave Health, a start up for connected and personal assessment tools.
Dr. Christoph Olivier
Future Human
Christoph is a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Center for Clinical Research.
Jan Felix Heyse
Marketing
Jan is a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, doing his research in the Flow Physics and Computational Engineering group. Prior to his graduate studies, he received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University.
Conference Team
Other Members
- Constantin Dory, Marketing, Ph.D. Student (Electrical Engineering) at Stanford University
- Johanna Ehlers, Autonomous Driving Workshop, Ph.D. Student (Mechanical Engineering) at Stanford University
- Lisa Simon, Future of Work, Postdoctoral Researcher (Economics) at Stanford University
- Izzy Ernst, Future of Work, MBA Candidate at Stanford University
- Fabian Frank, Operations, Product Manager at Microsoft
- Dr. Anna Katharina Heid, Operations, Consultant at McKinsey
