Sophia HaussenerSophia Haussener is an Associate Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modeling. Her research interests include: thermal sciences, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, electro-magnetism, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales. She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. Between 2011 and 2012, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Energy Environmental Technology Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). She has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), and the Raymond Viskanta Award (2019), and is a recipient of a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014). She is a deputy leader in the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research (SCCER) on energy storage and acts as a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Helmholtz Zentrum.
François AvellanLe professeur François Avellan, directeur du Laboratoire de machines hydrauliques de l'EPFL, est Ingénieur hydraulicien diplômé en 1977 de l'Ecole nationale supérieure d'hydraulique, Institut national polytechnique de Grenoble, France. En 1980, il obtient, son titre de docteur ingénieur de l'Université d'Aix-Marseille II, France. Engagé à l'EPFL en 1980 en tant qu'adjoint scientifique, il est depuis 1994 directeur du Laboratoire de machines hydrauliques de l'EPFL et il a été nommé en 2003 professeur ordinaire en machines hydrauliques.
Directeur de 37 thèses de doctorat de l'EPFL, il a été distingué par la Société hydrotechnique de France qui lui a décerné son "Grand Prix 2010 de l'hydrotechnique". Son activité de recherche est centrée sur l'hydrodynamique des turbomachines, pompes et pompes-turbines incluant en particulier les domaines de la cavitation, l'hydroacoustique, les interactions fluide-structure, la conception et l'évaluation des performances des machines hydrauliques et systèmes associés.
De 2002 à 2012, le Professeur Avellan a présidé la section machines hydrauliques et systèmes de l'Association internationale de recherche hydraulique, AIRH. Le Professeur François Avellan a dirigé avec succès plusieurs projets de recherche aussi bien suisses qu'internationaux en partenariat avec les principaux acteurs industriels et exploitants du secteur hydro-électrique, parmi ces projet-on peut citer notamment:
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Coordination du projet de recherche FP7 n° 608532 "HYPERBOLE: HYdropower plants PERformance and flexiBle Operation towards Lean integration of new renewable Energies" (2013-2017);
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Directeur adjoint du pole Suisse de compétence en recherche énergétique – approvisionnement électrique (SCCER-SoE) pour développer une recherche innovante et pérenne dans le domaine des géo-énergies et de l'hydro-électricité pour la phase I (2013-2016) et la Phase II (2017, 2010).
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Projets de recherche EUREKA: N° 4150 et N° 3246, "HYDRODYNA, Harnessing the dynamic behavior of pump-turbines", (2003-2011), N° 1605, "FLINDT, Flow Investigation in Draft Tubes", (1997-2002). N° 2418, "SCAPIN, Stability of Operation of Francis turbines, prediction and modeling";
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Projets de recherche de la Commission pour la technologie et l'innovation, CTI, avec GE Renewable Energy (anc. ALSTOM Hydro), Birr, ANDRITZ Hydro, Kriens, FMV, Sion, Groupe E, Granges-Paccot, Power Vision engineering, Ecublens et SULZER Pompes, Winterthur.
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Domaine des EPF, Projet HYDRONET du Centre de Compétence énergie et mobilité, PSI Villingen.
Enfin, il est impliqué dans l'expertise scientifique et les essais contractuels indépendants des performances des turbines et pompes-turbines des centrales hydro-électriques les plus importantes du monde. En reconnaissance de son activité de responsable du groupe de travail du comité TC4 en charge de la nouvelle édition de la norme CEI 60193, la Commission internationale électrotechnique, CEI, l'a distingué par le "IEC 1906 Award". Alexandre SchmidAlexandre Schmid received the M.Sc. degree in microengineering and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1994 and 2000, respectively. Since 1994, he has been with the EPFL, working with the Integrated Systems Laboratory as a Research and Teaching Assistant, and with the Electronics Laboratories as a Postdoctoral Fellow. In 2002, he was a Senior Research Associate with the Microelectronic Systems Laboratory, where he has been conducting research in the fields of bioelectronic interfaces and implantable biomedical electronics, nonconventional signal processing and neuromorphic hardware, and reliability of nanoelectronic devices, and also teaches with the Microengineering and Electrical Engineering Departments of EPFL. Since 2011, he is a Maître d'Enseignement et de Recherche (MER) Faculty Member with EPFL. He is a coauthor of two books, Reliability of Nanoscale Circuits and Systems, Methodologies and Circuit Architectures, Springer, 2011, and Wireless Cortical Implantable Systems, Springer, 2013, and a coeditor of one book, as well as over 100 articles published in journals and conferences.
Dr. Schmid has served as the General Chair of the Fourth International Conference on Nano-Networks in 2009 and has been serving as an Associate Editor of the Institute of Electrical, Information, and Communication Engineers Electronics Express since 2009.
Catherine DehollainShe got the Master Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1982 from EPFL. Then, she worked in Geneva up to 1990 as a Senior Design Engineer in telecommunications at the European research center of Motorola. From 1990 up to 1995, she did her PhD thesis at the Chaire des Circuits et Systemes at EPFL in the domain of impedance broadband matching circuits. Since 1995, she is responsible at EPFL for the RFIC group. She has participated to different Swiss research projects as well as European projects dedicated to data communication of sensors nodes (e.g. MuMoR, Minami European projects) as well as remote powering of sensor nodes. Her main domains of interest are telecom applications (e.g. Impulse radio Ultra-Wide Band, super-regenerative receivers, RFIDs)as well as biomedical applications. She has been the coordinator of European projects (e.g. FP6 SUPREGE, FP7 Ultrasponder)and of Swiss projects (e.g. CAPED CTI project, NEURO-IC SNF project).
Franz-Josef HaugI studied Physics between 1990 and 1996 at the Universities of Ulm (Germany) and Waikato (New Zealand). While specializing mostly on Theoretical Physics and Quantum Theory during my studies, I turned towards Experimental Physics for a graduate work on gas-phase epitaxy of silicon. After that, I pursued a PhD program at ETH Zürich (Switzerland), studying Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells. As PostDoc, I went to EMPA (Switzerland) to work on plasma processes for hard coatings of TiN and to the Jülich Research Centre in Germany to study light scattering ZnO front contacts for solar cells. In 2005 I joined the Institute of Microengineering (IMT) at the University of Neuchatel to lead a research group on thin film silicon solar cells within the PV-Lab. In 2009 the IMT was integrated into EPFL. My main research interests are optics, charge transport in semiconductors and renewable energy in general. My current work is devoted to passivating contacts for crystalline silicon solar cells, using thin silicon films as contact layers. In 2015 I was appointed Maitre d'Enseignement et Recherche (Senior Lecturer and Scientist) and member of the Faculty of STI. From 2013 to 2015 I was member of the EFPL Teachers Council (CCE) and from 2016 and 2018 I was elected into the Council of the Engineering School (CF-STI). In 2020 I was elected to become a member of CF-STI. My main objective for the legislature is to represent the role of EPFL's intermediate staff and to raise the awareness for concerns of the satellite campuses.
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.
