Michaël UnserExpertise
Image Processing, Medical Imaging, Biological Imaging, Wavelets, Splines, Multiresolution
Michael Unser is Full Professor with EPFL’s school of Engineering and the academic director of EPFL's Center for Imaging, Lausanne, Switzerland. His primary areas of investigation are signal processing, biomedical imaging and applied functional analysis. He is internationally recognized for his research contributions to sampling theory, wavelets, the use of splines for image processing, stochastic processes,
Eugen Brühwilerbirth date: 19.11.1958 nationality: Swiss (native from Dussnang, Canton of Thurgau) Education : - July 1988 : doctoral degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland with a thesis entitled Fracture mechanics of dam concrete subjected to quasi-static and seismic loading conditions - December 1983 : civil engineering diploma (university degree) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland Professional Experience : - Since 1st April 1995 : Professor of Structural Engineering at EPFL and Head of the Laboratory of Maintenance, Construction and Safety for Civil Structures (MCS) (often considered being the first chair worldwide devoted exclusively to existing civil structures). - 1991-94 Project Manager and structural engineer with the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), Division of Bridges and Structures, Zurich: Monitoring and maintenance of bridges and structures, Project manager and checking engineer for the construction of new bridges and rehabilitation of existing bridges. - 1989/90 Research associate at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA : Fracture mechanics of concrete and fracture of concrete dams. - 1986-88 Doctoral student at EPFL-LMC (Building Materials, Prof. Wittmann) : Fracture mechanics of concrete, fracture of concrete dams under seismic loading - 1984/85 Research engineer at EPFL-ICOM (Steel Structures, Prof. Badoux and Prof. Hirt) : Fatigue behaviour and fracture mechanics of riveted bridges
Paolo GermanoFORMATION
Mars 1990 : Engagement au Laboratoire d'électromécanique et de machines électriques (LEME), devenu entre temps le laboratoire d'actionneurs intégrés (LAI), comme assistant puis comme fonctionnaire scientifique.
Janvier 1990 : Diplôme d'ingénieur EPF en microtechnique.
Juillet 1985 : Maturité de type scientifique.
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- EXPERIENCES ET DOMAINES DE COMPETENCES
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Modélisation et simulation de l'alimentation des moteurs de l'avion Solar Impulse sur la base des résultats de la modélisation par éléments finis (FEM) de la structure magnétique Développement du banc de mesure (mécanique et software) du moteur Solar Impulse (dès mars 2004);
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Dans le cadre d'un Projet CTI en collaboration avec l'entreprise Medtronic (Projet ColoStim), développement d'un appareil de traitement de la constipation consistant en des électrodes implantées le long du colon et alimentées par induction, à haute fréquence, à l'aide d'une bobine primaire placée autour du thorax du patient (janvier 2006 - mars 2007);
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Développement du modèle équivalent d'une montre à glace tactile et analyse de l'effet des décharges électrostatiques sur cette montre. Projet CTI en collaboration avec l'entreprise ETA-Swatch Group (avril 2003 à octobre 2004);
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Développement d'un système de transfert d'énergie pour navettes automotrices de machines d'assemblage. Projet CTI en collaboration avec l'entreprise Montech AG (octobre 2001 à octobre 2002);
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Développement d'une installation de transfert d'énergie pour des wagonnets de transport de rouleaux pour l'industrie du papier avec l'entreprise Valmet AG (Groupe Metso Paper) (2001);
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Développement d'un banc de mesure pour actionneurs linéaires dans le cadre d'un mandat avec l'entreprise Sonceboz SA (mars 1998 - juillet 2000);
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Développement d'une installation de transfert d'énergie pour un convoyeur d'outils dans le cadre d'un mandat avec l'entreprise MCM SpA (Italie) (juillet 1998 avril 1999 et déc. 1999 avril 2000);
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Développement d'un banc de test pour vibreur électromécanique dans le cadre d'un mandat avec l'entreprise ASULAB SA à Marin (octobre décembre 1999);
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Développement et responsabilité d'une installation de démonstration d'un Système de transport automatique à transmission d'énergie par induction - Projet Serpentine 2 PSEL (déc. 1996 juin 1999);
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Développement d'un banc de mesure et d'analyse pour moteurs à courant continu dans le cadre d'un projet d'impulsion RAVEL (sept. 1995 - mars 1997);
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Développement d'un convertisseur de fréquence à résonance de 2,4 kW pour l'alimentation d'un transformateur sans fer dans le cadre du transfert d'énergie sans contacts Projet Serpentine PSEL (février 94 déc. 1995);
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Développement d'un banc de mesure pour moteurs pas à pas dans le cadre d'un mandat avec l'entreprise Sonceboz SA (mars 1992 nov. 1995);
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Développement d'un convertisseur direct de fréquence AC/AC de basse puissance dans le cadre du projet du cur artificiel Suisse (mars 1990 - mars 1992);
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Suivi d'une vingtaine de projets de semestre et de master EPFL;
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Divers projets de moindre envergure (alimentations, démonstrateurs, acquisitions de données, micro-informatique, circuits imprimés).
PUBLICATIONS
DOMAINE DU TRANSFERT D'ENERGIE PAR INDUCTION
M. Jufer, L. Cardoletti, B. Arnet, P. Germano, Ch. Koechli, N. Macabray, M. Perrottet, "Dispositif de transmission d'énergie électrique à un véhicule, sans contact, par induction - Projet PSEL N° 16 - Magnéto-glisseur", Rapport de synthèse 1995, EPFL-DE-LEME, Lausanne - Suisse, 18 octobre 1995;
M. Jufer, L. Cardoletti, P. Germano, B. Arnet, M. Perrottet, N. Macabrey, "Induction Contactless Energy Transmission System for an Electric Vehicle", ICEM96, International Conference on Electrical Machines, Vigo, Sept. 10-12, 1996, Vol II, pp. 343-347;
P. Germano, M. Jufer, "Contactless power transmission: Frequency tuning by a maximum power tracking method", EPE '97, 7th European Conference on power electronics and applications, Trondheim, Sept. 8-10, 1997, Vol IV, pp. 693-697;
M. Jufer, L. Cardoletti, P. Germano, B. Arnet, M. Perrottet, Swiss Federal Institute of Techno-logy, DE-LEME, 1015 Lausanne, Switzer-land, "Inductively powered automatic vehicles - Ser-pen-tine", EVS-15 '98, 15th International Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition, Brussel, Belgium, Sept. 29 - Oct. 3, 1998, pp. 403-404;
P. Germano, Nicolas Macabrey, M. Jufer, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, DE-LEME, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, "Contactless Power Transmission: Linear Positioning of the Moving Element", EPE '99, 8th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, Lausanne, 7-9 September, 1999, Art Nb 685;
P. Germano, M. Jufer, L. Cardoletti, B. Arnet, Ch. Koechli, N. Macabray, M. Perrottet, "Système de transport automatique à transmission d'énergie par induction. - Projet PSEL N° 115", Rapport final 1999, EPFL-DE-LEME, Lausanne - Suisse, 31 août 1999;
P. Germano, I. Stefanini, W. Montella, L. Cardoletti, Y. Perriard, "Système de transfert d'énergie pour navette de machines d'assemblage Projet CTI n° 5780.1 KTS", Rapport final, EPF Lausanne-LAI, Suisse, mars 2004;
I. Stefanini, P. Germano, L. Cardoletti, W. Montella, Y. Perriard, "Inductive Charge System for Assembly Plant Shuttles", CD-ROM, EPE 2003, Toulouse, (France), 2-4 Septembre 2003;
P. Germano, I. Stefanini, Y. Perrirad, "Stimulation colique pour le traitement des troubles de la motilité Projet ColoStim Projet CTI n° 7362.2 LSPP-LS", Rapport final, EPF Lausanne-LAI, Suisse, mai 2007.
DOMAINES DES BANCS DE MESURE - MESURES
P. Germano, "Système automatique de mesure", Rapport technique vol. I & II, EPF-Lausanne, 1995;
P. Germano, Ch. Kuert, "Banc de mesures automatisé pour entraînements électriques", Présentation et mode d'emploi, EPF-Lausanne, 1997;
P. Germano, Ch. Kuert, M. Jufer, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, DE-LEME, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, "Automated test bench for electric drives: Modular layout of soft- and hardware", EPE '99, 8th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, Lausanne, 7-9 September, 1999, Art Nb 683;
Y. Perriard, P. Germano, I. Verettaz, "Banc de test pour vibreur électromécanique", Rapport technique, EPF-Lausanne, janvier 2000;
P. Germano, Ch. Kuert, M. Jufer, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, DE-LEME, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, "DSP controlled automated Test Bench for linear Actuators Design and Choices", EPE 2001, 9th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, Graz, 27-29 August, 2001, Art Nb 709;
P. Germano, M. Crivii, D. Demarco, Y. Perriard, Swiss Federal Instutute of Technology, LAI, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland & L. Paratte, R. Marquis, Service Unit RD, ETA SA (Swatch Group), 2540 Granges, Switzerland, "Analysis and Modeling of Electrostatic Discharge in a Tactile Glass Featured Watch", IAS 2004, 39th Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, USA, October 3-7, 2004;
P. Germano, M. Crivii, D. Demarco, Y. Perriard, Swiss Federal Instutute of Technology, LAI, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland & L. Paratte, R. Marquis, Service Unit RD, ETA SA (Swatch Group), 2540 Granges, Switzerland, "Analysis and Modeling of Electrostatic Discharge in a Tactile Glass Featured Watch", IEEE Transaction on Industry Applications, Volume 43, Issue 4, July-aug. 2007, Page(s): 1091-1098; Henry MarkramHenry Markram started a dual scientific and medical career at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa. His scientific work in the 80s revealed the polymodal receptive fields of pontomedullary reticular formation neurons in vivo and how acetylcholine re-organized these sensory maps.
He moved to Israel in 1988 and obtained his PhD at the Weizmann Institute where he discovered a link between acetylcholine and memory mechanisms by being the first to show that acetylcholine modulates the NMDA receptor in vitro studies, and thereby gates which synapses can undergo synaptic plasticity. He was also the first to characterize the electrical and anatomical properties of the cholinergic neurons in the medial septum diagonal band.
He carried out a first postdoctoral study as a Fulbright Scholar at the NIH, on the biophysics of ion channels on synaptic vesicles using sub-fractionation methods to isolate synaptic vesicles and patch-clamp recordings to characterize the ion channels. He carried out a second postdoctoral study at the Max Planck Institute, as a Minerva Fellow, where he discovered that individual action potentials propagating back into dendrites also cause pulsed influx of Ca2 into the dendrites and found that sub-threshold activity could also activated a low threshold Ca2 channel. He developed a model to show how different types of electrical activities can divert Ca2 to activate different intracellular targets depending on the speed of Ca2 influx an insight that helps explain how Ca2 acts as a universal second messenger. His most well known discovery is that of the millisecond watershed to judge the relevance of communication between neurons marked by the back-propagating action potential. This phenomenon is now called Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP), which many laboratories around the world have subsequently found in multiple brain regions and many theoreticians have incorporated as a learning rule. At the Max-Planck he also started exploring the micro-anatomical and physiological principles of the different neurons of the neocortex and of the mono-synaptic connections that they form - the first step towards a systematic reverse engineering of the neocortical microcircuitry to derive the blue prints of the cortical column in a manner that would allow computer model reconstruction.
He received a tenure track position at the Weizmann Institute where he continued the reverse engineering studies and also discovered a number of core principles of the structural and functional organization such as differential signaling onto different neurons, models of dynamic synapses with Misha Tsodyks, the computational functions of dynamic synapses, and how GABAergic neurons map onto interneurons and pyramidal neurons. A major contribution during this period was his discovery of Redistribution of Synaptic Efficacy (RSE), where he showed that co-activation of neurons does not only alter synaptic strength, but also the dynamics of transmission. At the Weizmann, he also found the tabula rasa principle which governs the random structural connectivity between pyramidal neurons and a non-random functional connectivity due to target selection. Markram also developed a novel computation framework with Wolfgang Maass to account for the impact of multiple time constants in neurons and synapses on information processing called liquid computing or high entropy computing.
In 2002, he was appointed Full professor at the EPFL where he founded and directed the Brain Mind Institute. During this time Markram continued his reverse engineering approaches and developed a series of new technologies to allow large-scale multi-neuron patch-clamp studies. Markrams lab discovered a novel microcircuit plasticity phenomenon where connections are formed and eliminated in a Darwinian manner as apposed to where synapses are strengthening or weakened as found for LTP. This was the first demonstration that neural circuits are constantly being re-wired and excitation can boost the rate of re-wiring.
At the EPFL he also completed the much of the reverse engineering studies on the neocortical microcircuitry, revealing deeper insight into the circuit design and built databases of the blue-print of the cortical column. In 2005 he used these databases to launched the Blue Brain Project. The BBP used IBMs most advanced supercomputers to reconstruct a detailed computer model of the neocortical column composed of 10000 neurons, more than 340 different types of neurons distributed according to a layer-based recipe of composition and interconnected with 30 million synapses (6 different types) according to synaptic mapping recipes. The Blue Brain team built dozens of applications that now allow automated reconstruction, simulation, visualization, analysis and calibration of detailed microcircuits. This Proof of Concept completed, Markrams lab has now set the agenda towards whole brain and molecular modeling.
With an in depth understanding of the neocortical microcircuit, Markram set a path to determine how the neocortex changes in Autism. He found hyper-reactivity due to hyper-connectivity in the circuitry and hyper-plasticity due to hyper-NMDA expression. Similar findings in the Amygdala together with behavioral evidence that the animal model of autism expressed hyper-fear led to the novel theory of Autism called the Intense World Syndrome proposed by Henry and Kamila Markram. The Intense World Syndrome claims that the brain of an Autist is hyper-sensitive and hyper-plastic which renders the world painfully intense and the brain overly autonomous. The theory is acquiring rapid recognition and many new studies have extended the findings to other brain regions and to other models of autism.
Markram aims to eventually build detailed computer models of brains of mammals to pioneer simulation-based research in the neuroscience which could serve to aggregate, integrate, unify and validate our knowledge of the brain and to use such a facility as a new tool to explore the emergence of intelligence and higher cognitive functions in the brain, and explore hypotheses of diseases as well as treatments.
Andreas PautzTeaching & PhD PhD Students Sofia Portolan, Michel Saliba, Bishal Torrente, Alexis Paul Boris Claude Dupont-Bembinoff, Cynthia Camila Güttlein Past EPFL PhD Students Ting Zhu, Vladimir Vladimirov Brankov, Boris Aviv Hombourger, Damar Canggih Wicaksono, Petra Mala, Adolfo Rais, Valentyn Bykov, Daniel Jerôme Siefman, Evgeny Nikitin, Dionysios Chionis, Oskari Ville Pakari, Friederike Bostelmann, Jiani Gao, Efstathios Vlassopoulos, Alessandro Scolaro, Stefan Radman, Alexander Aures, Lubomír Bures, Ahmed Salah
Oskari Ville PakariEducation PhD | Physics 2016 – 2020 EPFL MSc | Nuclear Engineering 2014 – 2016 ETHZ BSc | Physics 2011 – 2014 KIT
Teaching & PhD PhD Students Michel Saliba Courses Radiation and reactor experiments PHYS-451 The reactor experiments course aims to introduce the students to radiation detection techniques and nuclear reactor experiments. The core of the course is the unique opportunity to conduct reactor experiments with the EPFL react
Yves LeterrierYves Leterrier joined EPFL in 1993 and is a faculty member of the Materials Institute. He is a senior scientist and lecturer in the Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites (LPAC, previously Laboratory of Composite and Polymer Technology, LTC). Activities
2000-2005: Foundation and Chair of the Korea-Switzerland joint symposia on materials and micro-technologies2004-2008: Board member of FLEXIDIS (the European flexible display consortium) 2004-2009: Group leader on lightweight materials for Solar ImpulseSince 2008: Board member of the French Adhesion SocietySince 2000: President of the EPFL Materials Science Library commissionSince 2012: Editorial board member, Applied Surface ScienceSince 2014: Associate Editor, Frontiers in MaterialsSince 2021: Coordinator of the EPFL Minor on 'Engineering for Sustainability'
Background
1987: MS in materials science and solid state physics (INPL, France) 1991: PhD in materials science (Ecole des Mines, INPL, France) 1992: Research Associate, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, USA)
Jürgen BruggerI am a Professor of Microengineering and co-affiliated to Materials Science. Before joining EPFL I was at the MESA Research Institute of Nanotechnology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, and at the Hitachi Central Research Laboratory, in Tokyo, Japan. I received a Master in Physical-Electronics and a PhD degree from Neuchâtel University, Switzerland. Research in my laboratory focuses on various aspects of MEMS and Nanotechnology. My group contributes to the field at the fundamental level as well as in technological development, as demonstrated by the start-ups that spun off from the lab. In our research, key competences are in micro/nanofabrication, additive micro-manufacturing, new materials for MEMS, increasingly for wearable and biomedical applications. Together with my students and colleagues we published over 200 peer-refereed papers and I had the pleasure to supervise over 25 PhD students. Former students and postdocs have been successful in receiving awards and starting their own scientific careers. I am honoured for the appointment in 2016 as Fellow of the IEEE “For contributions to micro and nano manufacturing technology”. In 2017 my lab was awarded an ERC AdvG in the field of advanced micro-manufacturing.
Igor TomicTeaching & PhD PhD Students Jakov Oreb Courses Seismic engineering CIVIL-522 This course deals with the main aspects of seismic design and assessment of buildings including conceptual design. It covers different structural design and evaluation philosophies for new and existing reinforced concrete, steel and unreinforced masonry buildings. Stone masonry: Past, present, and future PENS-232 This course introduces students to the historical, structural, and environmental aspe
Mohammad Amin ShokrollahiAmin Shokrollahi has worked on a variety of topics, including coding theory, computational number theory and algebra, and computational/algebraic complexity theory. He is best known for his work on iterative decoding algorithms of graph based codes, an area in which he holds a number of granted and pending patents. He is the co-inventor of Tornado codes, and the inventor of Raptor codes. His codes have been standardized and successfully deployed in practical areas dealing with data transmission over lossy networks.
Prior to joining EPFL, Amin Shokrollahi has held positions as the chief scientist of Digital Fountain, member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories, senior researcher at the International Computer Science Insitute in Berkeley, and assistant professor at the department of computer science of the university of Bonn. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, and he was awarded the Best Paper Award of the IEEE IT Society in 2002 for his work on iterative decoding of LDPC code, the IEEE Eric Sumner Award in 2007 for the development of Fountain Codes, and the joint Communication Society/Information Theory Society best paper award of 2007 for his paper on Raptor Codes.
