The Impact of Technology

Thomas Stieglitz discussing with Tanja Schultz (KIT) and Christiane Woopen (Univ. of Cologne). Photo: Deutscher Bundestag / Thomas Trutschel

Biomedical engineer Thomas Stieglitz is speaking about the future of neurotechnology in front of the Bundestag

25 years of scientific political consulting and technological impact assessment in Germany: the Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment of the German Parliament celebrated an anniversary last December and Prof. Dr. Thomas Stieglitz from the cluster of excellence BrainLinks-BrainTools was there. The Festschrift of the event has just been published.

Talking about what’s possible with biomedical technologies today and in the future, Thomas Stieglitz is always highly sought-after as a dialogue partner. In the context of the anniversary event, the Bundestag invited him to a panel together with other renowned scientists and a myoelectric prosthesis user. From the perspective of the engineer Stieglitz, the upcoming medical-technical challenges do not only lie in the capability improvement of microsystems per se but also in their adjustment to the human body. A high performance electrode, for instance, doesn’t pay as long as the immune defense of the organism is fighting against it. Whether it comes to feasibility studies, lab tests or certifications – everything that is important for practice, will play a leading role in the future of this area of research.

The commemorative event took place on December 2, 2015 in the Paul-Löbe-Haus, Berlin. It was opened by President of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert. The panel discussion was moderated by technology writer Volkart Wildermuth, who is known for his reports for Deutschlandfunk.

The recently published Festschrift can be found here ...

A video recording and more info about the event (both in German) can be found here …