What are the things that make us take actions to bring a change in society? For Christophe Debard, it was cancer and disability. His optimism and the lesson learnt from this experience, make him realize that altruism is a key to transform adversity into an opportunity. Today, he has created an initiative called "Humanity Lab" to empower employees of his company (Airbus) as volunteers to use their competences to help other human beings. Christophe Debard is the leader of Toulouse ProtoSpace, a lab dedicated to innovation in Airbus, this is a place where new ideas take shape. He is also the founder of the Humanity Lab, an initiative that gives the opportunity to every Airbus employee to contribute to meaningful innovation to make a difference in areas such as disability, education, humanitarian and environment. The volunteers join self-organized teams and can use the ProtoSpace facilities (mostly digital fabrication tools) and Airbus emerging technologies to develop their projects in collaboration with the end-users: individuals, NGO or institutions.

As an amputee since 13 years old, Christophe wanted his prosthetic leg to become more than a “tool” and viewed it as an opportunity to display his differences proudly. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx