In this series we present talks of the Helmholtz Horizons Symposium 2018. Today’s featured talk is by Obi Felten. Her keynote was titled: ‘Solving problems that matter: Insights from X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory’. Helmholtz Horizons took place 6 November 2018 in Berlin. The motto was ‘The Digital (R)Evolution in Science’.
Video: Helmholtz
About the talk
Obi Felten works at X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory: the team behind projects like self-driving cars, delivery drones and internet from balloons. She is responsible for getting early stage X projects from the lab into the real world, or ensuring they fail fast. Previously she was Director of Consumer Marketing for Google EMEA. Before Google, Obi launched the ecommerce business of a major UK retailer, worked as a strategy consultant and led eToys.com’s expansion to Germany during the first dotcom boom.
About Obi
Obi is a startup mentor and angel investor, focusing on women founders. She set up Campus, a Google-funded space for tech entrepreneurs in London. She is on the board of Springer Nature, a world leading research, educational and professional publisher. She is also on the board of Picasso Labs, a tech startup offering real-time image analytics based on machine learning algorithms, and on the board of Shift, a charity designing products to address social problems such as youth mental health. Obi Felten grew up in Berlin, studied philosophy and psychology at Oxford University, and lives in San Francisco with her husband and young children.
About Helmholtz Horizons
Our society is facing major challenges but also huge opportunities. We at Helmholtz combine cutting-edge research and outstanding technology in order to meet these challenges to shape a better future. The Helmholtz Horizons Symposium 2018, hosted by the President of the Association, highlights scientific breakthroughs of Helmholtz’s established researchers, showcases our talented early career researchers, and gives a platform to the entrepreneurs and innovators, who ensure that our research has societal impact. This year’s overarching theme is ‘The Digital (R)Evolution in Science’.
For more information visit the Helmholtz Horizons website.