Speakers
TEDxBroerstraat 2026
Portfolio
Gracie Waltono
BIO
Gracie Waltono is a third-year International and European law student at the University of Groningen, focusing on the intersection of law, technology, and ethics. She designs legal curricula for high schools all across the Netherlands under ELSA the Netherlands, and served as President of the Genesis nternational Toastmasters Club for a year. Her work bridges continents through academic dialogues on data governance and extends into research on cultural rights and digital sovereignty.
HER STORY
While working with legal documentation of state sanctioned violence, Gracie began to notice how easily extreme human suffering could be processed and set aside. After reviewing cases detailing torture and murder, her thoughts would quickly shift to ordinary routines. This quiet dissonance raised deeper questions about how modern systems train us to witness, record, and analyze pain without truly remembering it. Her story reflects on attention, numbness, and the effort required to reclaim responsibility in an overstimulated world.
Prisha Goyal
BIO
Prisha Goyal is a 4th-year student at Minerva Art Academy. Born deaf, her journey reflects resilience and transformation. Guided by AVT speech therapy and creative mentorship from her mother, Ruchi Goyal, and Mrs. Alaka Hudliker, she now speaks and is fully integrated into society. An artist, disability advocate, public speaker, Co-Founder of Voce Mea, and Bollywood dancer, she demonstrates that Deaf people can achieve anything.
HER STORY
Prisha Goyal, born deaf, has experienced firsthand how memory shapes learning, communication, and identity. Through Auditory Verbal Therapy and immersive everyday experiences guided by her mother and mentor, she turned sights, vibrations, and emotions into a rich “memory bank” that strengthened her speech and comprehension. This process revealed memory as an active, creative tool: one that enables resilience, self-expression, and growth, inspiring her TEDx talk on how memory empowers individuals to overcome challenges and find their voice.
Malaysia H. Harrell
BIO
Malaysia H. Harrell is a board-certified psychotherapist, military veteran, and founder of Align Success Academy. She supports high-achieving women in transitioning from survival-based success to sustainable, embodied leadership. Integrating trauma science, nervous system regulation, and lived experience, her work bridges mental health, identity, and purpose, inviting leaders to redefine success in ways that honor both ambition and well-being.
HER STORY
Malaysia H. Harrell’s exploration of memory began not in theory, but through lived experience. After years of functioning at a high level in military, leadership, and healthcare environments while suppressing bodily signals, a near-death medical crisis forced a reckoning. In that moment, she recognized that her body had been carrying unprocessed memories of trauma, pressure, and survival. This realization reshaped her understanding of memory as not only cognitive, but somatic and emotional, revealing how healing requires listening to what the body remembers.
Anastasiia Liulina
BIO
Anastasiia Liulina is a PhD candidate from Ukraine, conducting research and teaching at the University of Groningen. Her work focuses on the use of open-source digital evidence in the investigation and prosecution of international crimes, with particular attention to fair trial guarantees. She has conducted OSINT investigations with the International Partnership for Human Rights and has published in the International Criminal Law Review and Opinio Juris.
HER STORY
In February 2022, Anastasiia’s hometown, Bucha, was occupied by the Russian army, forcing her and her family to evacuate. As evidence of mass killings emerged, she recognized the names and faces of victims - people she knew. The house she had lived in was looted by soldiers. Determined to ensure these crimes would not be erased or denied, she joined an organization documenting atrocities. This experience shaped her academic path and led her to focus her master’s and PhD research on open-source investigations and digital evidence of international crimes.
Atakan Tekparmak
BIO
Atakan Tekparmak is a 24-year-old AI researcher at Dria, born and raised in Istanbul and based in Groningen since 2019. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and has been contributing to open-source AI research since 2024. His work focuses on large language model agents, including memory, alignment, and multi-agent systems. He introduced Pythonic Function Calling, now used across state-of-the-art LLMs.
HIS STORY
Days before discovering the TEDx Broerstraat theme of “Memory,” Atakan released a research paper on mem-agent, a system that enables AI agents to manage and use their own written memory through reinforcement learning. The coincidence highlighted a deeper parallel he had long been exploring: just as human societies rely on shared memory to progress, artificial agents may need similar mechanisms to evolve responsibly. With a background in public speaking and a passion for explaining complex ideas clearly, applying to TEDx felt like a natural next step.
Imaan Kanji Lalji
BIO
Imaan is a third-year Law student at the University of Groningen. She has grown up in Tanzania and is also part Canadian with Indian heritage, leading to her speaking English, Swahili, and Gujarati. She has oriented her life around community service as reflected in her work providing young girls in Tanzania with an education, raising awareness on HPV through her first TEDx Talk, and more. Her current passion lies in advancing technical governance and AI literacy.
HER STORY
Imaan, like many others in her generation, relies heavily on technology. Whether it be social media, communicating, working, or studying, she lives on her phone and computer. However, her LLB in Technology Law opened her eyes to the realities of being online, particularly in data collection. Learning about this, at first, felt hopeless and like she had no control over her privacy. However, she soon learned that the first step to controlling your data is knowing who collects it, where it is going, and what it is being used for. Imaan hopes to take the information she has learned and share it with others through the TEDx platform to help others take back their data autonomy.
Mihai Coca-Constantinescu
BIO
Mihai Coca-Constantinescu is a PhD candidate in International Technology Law at the University of Groningen, where his research focuses on privacy, data protection, dark patterns, and online user autonomy. Alongside his academic work, he serves as Regional Business Development Manager for Central and Eastern Europe at Dealsuite.com, Europe’s largest M&A network, bridging legal research with real-world digital business practices.
HIS STORY
Mihai’s interest in privacy and data protection emerged from a simple observation: people routinely exchange personal data for convenience, often without understanding the long-term consequences. What begins as a single click on “agree” can quietly enable extensive profiling, influencing not only online experiences but also real-world decisions. Recognizing how digital platforms increasingly predict and shape user behavior led him to research the limits of legal protection in a data-driven society.
Natasha Macri-Schaffer
BIO
Natasha Macri Schaffer is a multilingual law student at the University of Groningen, specialising in International, European, and Technology Law. She is a law tutor at AKC and the president of the MSF Alumni Association. Having worked as Chief of Staff and Legal & Operations Associate at a technology startup, she is fascinated by the intersections of law, language, technology, and neuroscience, and by how interdisciplinary thinking can bridge academic theory and real-world impact.
HER STORY
Natasha’s interest in memory and learning grew from her lifelong engagement with languages. As a polyglot, she observed how each new language not only expanded communication but also sharpened her thinking and strengthened her ability to connect ideas across disciplines. While studying and teaching law, she began exploring the neuroscience behind language learning, memory, and cognitive resilience. This intersection of personal experience and research led her to examine how small, consistent learning habits, even a single new word a day, can support long-term brain health and adaptability.
Ilija Lichkovski
BIO
Ilija Lichkovski is an AI researcher and engineer with a physics background. He oversees and supports AI safety research projects at the AI Safety Initiative Groningen, builds machine learning solutions at Researchable, and pursues research in AI post-training. Ilija is inspired by the prosocial potential of AI systems ranging from traditional machine learning to large foundation models and strives to realize it.
HIS STORY
Ilija Lichkovski’s involvement in the AI Safety Initiative Groningen has exposed him to a wide range of often competing visions of the future of artificial intelligence. Through his research on continual learning and safety related behaviors in large language models, he came to see memory as a central and unresolved challenge in current AI research. This realization motivated his desire to distill and share key principles around memory, safety, and learning, framing his talk as an invitation to critically reflect on how intelligent systems remember, adapt, and behave.