Stefana ParaschoTeaching & PhD PhD Students Jingwen Wang, Gabriel Vallat, Maxence Grangeot, Eleni Maria Skevaki, Wenqian Yang, Megi Sinani Courses Capitalizing on Uncertainty AR-809 SUMMER SCHOOL - Capitalizing on Uncertainty is a 6-day Summer school exploring uncertainty as a productive resource in design and fabrication through lectures, hands-on experiments, and the collaborative design and construction of a full-scale structure in a human-robot fabrication setting. Digital design and making: A criti
Virginia LangVirginia started in the medical research field as a Coordinator of Research at the Clinical Research Unit Kennedy Institute of Johns Hopkins Medical Center. She was responsible for the initiation, coordination, and management and/or analysis of research projects in the Clinical Research Unit. These projects were funded by various Federal Government Agencies. Subsequent to Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Virginia entered the field of Human Factors through the doctoral program at SUNY Binghamton. Virginia held a fellowship at the Aeromedical Research Laboratory of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio and a fellowship at NASA. Her research dealt with cognitive factors that differentially affect the characteristics of visual displays. Applications of this research are directly related to various medical devices and software applications providing Medical Device Human Factors by HirLan clients with 30 years of Human Factors experience. In addition, Virginia has extensive experience in the areas of product design, Customer Centered Participatory Design processes, and product lifecycle management. She is also known in the Human Computer Interaction and Usability Communities for her innovative techniques for collecting and incorporating user/customer feedback throughout the product lifecycle. In July 2014, Virginia founded and established the HirLan Institute of Human Factors with labs in Carlsbad, California and a Consortium arrangement in London, UK. HirLan supports Top Ten pharma/medical device companies, as well as, start-ups with consulting and testing services. These services are in conjunction with their clients’ FDA 510(k) and CE mark applications. Virginia holds a PhD in Cognitive-Experimental Psychology from SUNY Binghamton, and a Master of Science (ABT) in Applied Technology, Systems Science from SUNY Binghamton.
Marc GruberAdministrative & Editorial Positions
2017- Vice President for Innovation at EPFL
2013- Deputy & Associate Editor: Academy of Management Journal (AMJ
2009-2016 Director of the MTE Master Program at EPFL
2000-2005 Manager of the LMU Entrepreneurship Center
Academic Positions
10/2005 - present
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Assistant Professor (2005-2008), Associate Professor (2008-2010), Full Professor (since 2011)
9/2004 -12/2004
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Visiting Scholar
9/2000 - 9/2005
University of Munich (LMU), Munich School of Management
Habilitand
Vice-Director of the Institute for Innovation Research, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship (Director: Prof. Dietmar Harhoff, Ph.D.)
Manager of the ODEON Center for Entrepreneurship
1/1999 -12/1999
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Visiting Scholar
10/1995-12/1998
University of St. Gallen, HSG
Research Assistant, Ph.D. candidate
Degrees and Nominations
4/2005 University of Munich (LMU), Munich School of Management
Venia Legendi for Management (Habilitation)
10/2000 University of St. Gallen, HSG
Ph.D. in Management
10/1995 University of St. Gallen, HSG
Master in Business Administration (lic. oec. HSG)
Aude BillardExpertise
RoboticsMachine LearningArtificial IntelligenceHuman-Robot InteractionMechatronicsDynamical Systems ControlComputational Neuroscience
Aude Billard is full professor and head of the LASA laboratory at the School of Engineering at the Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), and the Director of the Swiss Innovation Booster on Robotics. Dr. Billard acts as the President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), after serving in several roles in the administrative and executive committe
Solomzi MakohlisoTeaching & PhD Courses Development engineering ENV-470 This course teaches the fundamentals of technologies for development (Development Engineering) to design, pilot, and deploy appropriate, affordable and robust technologies to address sustainable development challenges and especially those related to extreme poverty in Low-income settings. Science, Technology & Vulnerability HUM-287 This course explores how science and technology can address extreme vulnerability caused by
Klaus Benedikt SchönenbergerVision: Scientific research and technology development can be mobilized to help the poorest and most vulnerable in this world. Klaus Schönenberger obtained an MSc in Microengineering (1993), followed by a PhD (1996) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). After a post-doc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, he spent over 10 years in the medical devices industry in leading positions such as Vice-President of Worldwide R&D in a 100mcompanyandGlobalVice−ResidentofResearchandTechnologyina1bn company. In 2009, as he was working for a medical devices company, he received a shock: he realized that there is a huge imbalance in access to medical technology in industrialized versus low and middle-income countries. After a closer look, he discovered that he imbalance’s main cause is a mismatch between existing technologies and business models, with those needed in low and middle-income countries. He decided to leave industry and, in 2009, he co-founded the EssentialMed Foundation, an innovative non-profit venture. In 2011, realizing that both technology and business models needed a profound rethinking, he joined EPFL where he launched EssentialTech, an initiative inspired by the philosophy of EssentialMed but expanded to a much wider portfolio of "essential" technologies. The university-wide program aims to develop innovative technologies and business models, for the benefit of sustainable development in low and middle-income countries. In this role, he has already launched and overseen a dozen large projects. Major Humanitarian actors such as the ICRC, MSF and Terre des Hommes took notice of the innovative approach proposed, and decided to collaborate in 2015-2016. This has resulted notably in the joint creation between EPFL and ICRC, of the Humanitarian Tech Hub at EPFL. In May 2017, Klaus directed and launched a MOOC(Massive Open Online Course) entitled “Technology Innovation for Sustainable Development” which aims to spread the unique methodology and approach worldwide. As of today, more than 6000 people have enrolled. In 2018 a first spin-off company was created. Award winning Pristem SA will deploy an innovative new digital xray imaging system, specifically designed for low-income contexts. In December 2018, the creation of the EssentialTech centre was announced by EPFL's presidency, and Klaus is now the Centre's director. Another spin-off of the EssentialTech Centre is the company HMCare, launched in 2020, which is deploying a transparent surgical mask. Mario PaoloneMario Paolone received the M.Sc. (with honors) and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. In 2005, he was appointed assistant professor in power systems at the University of Bologna where he was with the Power Systems laboratory until 2011. In 2010, he received the Associate Professor eligibility from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Since 2011 he joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland, where he is now Full Professor, Chair of the Distributed Electrical Systems laboratory and Head of the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research (SCCER) FURIES (Future Swiss Electrical infrastructure). He was co-chairperson of the technical programme committees of the 9th edition of the International Conference of Power Systems Transients (IPST 2009) and of the 2016 Power Systems Computation Conference (PSCC 2016). He was chair of the technical programme committee of the 2018 Power Systems Computation Conference (PSCC 2018). In 2013, he was the recipient of the IEEE EMC Society Technical Achievement Award. He was co-author of several papers that received the following awards: best IEEE Transactions on EMC paper award for the year 2017, in 2014 best paper award at the 13th International Conference on Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems, Durham, UK, in 2013 Basil Papadias best paper award at the 2013 IEEE PowerTech, Grenoble, France, in 2008 best paper award at the International Universities Power Engineering Conference (UPEC). He was the founder Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks and was Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. His research interests are in power systems with particular reference to real-time monitoring and operation, power system protections, power systems dynamics and power system transients. Mario Paolone is author or coauthor of over 300 scientific papers published in reviewed journals and international conferences.
Gabriela Tejada GuerreroGabriela has extensive expertise in international cooperation in education, research and innovation. She joined EPFL as scientist at the Cooperation and Development Center (CODEV) where she led the EPFL Leading House Program (2014-2017) of the Swiss government, which upheld Swiss bilateral research cooperation with Brazil, India, Vietnam and Latin America. Her research focused on scientific diasporas and skilled migration with diverse international collaborations under her leadership. She worked at the University of Zurich, and the UNDP in Moldova and Geneva, and taught at the Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM). She was visiting researcher at the CES at Harvard University and the CIS at ETH Zurich. Gabriela obtained a BA in International Relations from the UIA (Ibero) in Mexico, and a PhD in Political Sciences from the UAB in Barcelona. She obtained a CAS IPA - International Policy and Advocacy of the D-MTEC, ETH Zurich (2019). Since 2020 Gabriela is Vice-President of the Swiss Commission for UNESCO (member since 2016), where she promotes science-society linkages and advocates for an inclusive development and dialogue through education, science and culture.Since May 2019, Gabriela is Academic Deputy at the Direction of the College of Humanities (CDH). She serves the Scholars at Risk program (SAR) at EPFL in an advisory capacity.