Dario FloreanoProf. Dario Floreano is director of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Since 2010, he is the founding director of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Robotics, a research program that brings together more than 20 labs across Switzerland. Prof. Floreano holds an M.A. in Vision, an M.S. in Neural Computation, and a PhD in Robotics. He has held research positions at Sony Computer Science Laboratory, at Caltech/JPL, and at Harvard University. His main research interests are Robotics and A.I. at the convergence of biology and engineering. Prof. Floreano made pioneering contributions to the fields of evolutionary robotics, aerial robotics, and soft robotics. He served in numerous advisory boards and committees, including the Future and Emerging Technologies division of the European Commission, the World Economic Forum Agenda Council, the International Society of Artificial Life, the International Neural Network Society, and in the editorial committee of several scientific journals. In addition, he helped spinning off two drone companies (senseFly.com and Flyability.com) and a non-for-profit portal on robotics and A.I. (RoboHub.org). Books
Manuale sulle Reti Neurali, il Mulino (in Italian), 1996 (first edition), 2006 (second edition)Evolutionary Robotics, MIT Press, 2000
Bio-Inspired Artificial Intelligence, MIT Press, 2008
Flying Insects and Robots, Springer Verlag, 2010
Yves WeinandBiography
Architect and civil engineer, Prof. Dr. Yves Weinand is one of the most recognised researchers in the field of contemporary wood construction. Founder of the Bureau d'Etude Weinand, he has, since 1996, designed and worked on many emblematic wooden buildings, such as the Saint Loup Chapel, the new Vaudois Parliament or, more recently, the Timber Pavilion of Vidy in Lausanne. His fundamental research questions the technical and static possibilities of wooden materials. The interdisciplinary exploration carried out at the EPFL's Laboratory for Timber Constructions (Ibois), of which he is director, concerns wood in all its aspects, from round wood to manufactured wood. The recent research carried out at Ibois on free structures with wood-wood connections (without screw nor glue) has been the subject of several technological transfers, and stands as tangible proof of new possibilities for wood construction. Yves Weinand is currently working on a large-scale project for a hall for the head office of a joinery in Luxembourg, consisting of a succession of arches with spans of 22.5 to 53.7m, entirely assembled in wood ). Through new innovative approaches, the ambition of his research is to develop a new generation of renewable and ecological wooden construction.He is regularly invited to present his work at international symposia on timber construction.
Fields of expertise
Architectural designTimber structuresDigital FabricationRobotic AssemblyStructural Wood mechanicsIntegrally Attached Timber plate structures
Distinctions
2012 Grand Prix d'Architecture de Wallonie
2014 Best Paper Award, Advances in Architectural Geometry conference. (IBOIS team)
2017 Medal for Research and Technique by the Academy of Architecture. 2018 Mention Régionale, Prix Lignum for the Timber Pavilion of Vidy-Lausanne
2019 "Disctinction Bois 2019" for the Nouveau Parlement vaudois.2019 Grand Prix d'Architecture de Wallonie____________________________________________________________________________
Selected publications
Les Cahiers de l'Ibois/ Ibois Notebooks 1, F. Fromonot, S. Berthier, Y. Rocher, publication directors: Y. Weinand et C. Catsaros, 2020 EPFL Press Le Pavillon en bois du Théâtre de Vidy, under the direction of Yves Weinand; V. Baudriller, J. Gamerro, M. Jaccard, C. Robeller; 2017, PPURAdvanced Timber Structures - Architectural Designs and Digital Dimensioning, Y. Weinand, 2017, Birkhaüser, publié en trois langues (french : Structures Innovantes en Bois (2016); german : Neue Holztragwerke - Architektonische Entwürfe und digitale Bemessung (2017)Grubenmann Project / Projekt Grubenmann, Y. Weinand, 2016, Stiftung Grubenmann-SammlungTimber Project: Nouvelles formes d’architectures en bois, Y. Weinand, 2010, PPURArchitexto, Y. Weinand and D. Darcis, 2009, Editions Fourre-Tout, LiègeLe bois soudé, B. Stamm and Y. Weinand, 2004, Architecture Bois & DépendanceNew Modeling - projeter ensemble, Y. Weinand, 2003, PPUR Jamie PaikProf. Jamie Paik is founder and director of the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL) of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and a core member of Swiss NCCR robotics group. The RRL leverages expertise in multi-material fabrication and smart material actuation for novel robot designs. She received her PhD in Seoul National University on designing humanoid arm and a hand while being sponsored by Samsung Electronics. This 7-DoF humanoid arm was the lightest in the literature at that time being 3.7kg including the 8-DoF hand. During her Postdoctoral positions in the Institut des Systems Intelligents et de Robotic in Universitat Pierre Marie Curie, Paris VI, she developed laparoscopic tools named JAiMY that are internationally patented and commercialized now by Endocontrol-medical.com. At Harvard University’s Microrobotics Laboratory, she started developing unconventional robots that push the physical limits of material and mechanisms. Her latest research effort is in soft robotics including self-morphing Robogami (robotic origami) that transforms its planar shape to 2D or 3D by folding in predefined patterns and sequences, just like the paper art, origami.
Patrick JermannAfter studies in Geneva (TECFA) and Pittsburgh (LRDC) I joined EPFL in 2003 to coordinate eLearning projects and conduct research in the field of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). Starting 2013 I am responsible for MOOCs production at the Center for Digital Education (CEDE).Former Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies and former Member of the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (iJCSCL). Specialties: Interaction analysis, research methods, statistical methods, prototyping, software development, pedagogical design.
Jeffrey HuangJeffrey Huang is the Director of the Institute of Architecture at EPFL (starting May 1, 2020), that comprises 25 laboratories and groups. He is also the Head of the Media x Design Laboratory and a Full Professor in Architecture and Computer Science, at the Faculty of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC), and at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC). He holds a DiplArch from ETH Zurich, and Masters and Doctoral Degrees from Harvard University, where he was awarded the Gerald McCue medal for academic excellence. He started his academic career as a researcher at MIT’s Sloan School of Management (Center for Coordination Sciences). In 1998 he returned to Harvard as an Assistant Professor of Architecture and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001. In 2006 he was named Full Professor at EPFL in Switzerland where he holds joint professorships at I&C and ENAC, and heads the Media x Design Lab. He was also a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s d.school, a Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield, and a Berkman Fellow and Faculty Associate at Harvard University (Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society). Professor Huang’s research examines the convergence of physical and digital architecture. His recent work investigates new artificial design paradigms (design decoding and encoding), theories of experience design, and the application of algorithmic urbanism in Chinese cities. His current teaching examines the possible role of artificial intelligence in architecture (see MxD studios). In collaboration with Muriel Waldvogel, he heads Convergeo, an award-winning, international strategic and experience design firm. From 2014-2017, while on leave from EPFL, he led the creation of a ground-breaking, new school of architecture in Singapore, as the Head of the Architecture and Sustainable Design Pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), established in collaboration with MIT.
Juan Carlos FarahJuan Carlos Farah received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard University, completed studies in Computer Science at Stanford University, and a Master of Science in Computing at Imperial College London. Since 2017, Juan Carlos has worked as a researcher and software engineer at the Interaction Systems Group (REACT) of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He is the technical lead for the Graasp Ecosystem, a suite of native and web applications that support digital education activities and are the core technology behind the Horizon 2020 Next-Lab and GO-GA European Innovation Action Projects. As a part of these projects, Juan Carlos conducted research on privacy-preserving systems for technology-enhanced learning. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Robotics and Intelligent Systems at EPFL, focusing on human-computer interaction and the perception of anthropomorphic traits in intelligent conversational agents. As part of his teaching duties, he gives a yearly lecture on trust, privacy and reputation frameworks for social media platforms.
Dieter DietzDieter Dietz has been educated at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and has studied at the Cooper Union in New York City with Diller/Scofidio. He has received his degree in architecture in 1991 at ETH Zurich. He has worked with Diane Lewis Architects in New York and with Herzog & de Meuron in Basel. With partner architect Urs Egg he was a founding member of UNDEND Architecture in Zurich in 1997, an architectural practice with award winning entries in national and international competitions. Currently he is building up dieterdietz.org, a firm engaging in projects in urban design, media and architecture. From 1996 to 1999 Dieter Dietz has taught as Junior Faculty with Professor Marc Angélil at ETH Zurich. Since 2006 Dieter Dietz is Associate Professor for Architectural Design at EPFL in Lausanne and director of the ALICE laboratory in the ENAC faculty. He collaborates with the ALICE team on research projects at diverse scales with labs inside and outside EPFL. His teaching activities include the direction of the first year architectural design course as well as projects at master and thesis level.
