EPFL

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne

CURRENT PROJECTS

Check-y

A smart headband for athletes tomonitor head impacts

Roots

Team 4 – 2019-2020 –Enhance the relationship between plants and humans with a modern and new technology.

Odeji

Make your meetings more efficient

Canary

Less is more…

CHIC is not only a great opportunity to practice and learn technical competencies, but also a really rewarding human experience where different people from different background become a team.

Lucie Houel - Team Todoo - CHIC 2017

Working in team where each brings its own field of expertise was a very rewarding experience, especially since initially no one knew each others

Mikhail Vorobiev - Team Okeep - CHIC 2015

CHIC shown me first hand what it is like to work on your own product, and I know I want to do it again.

Antoine Albertelli - Team Illanga - CHIC 2017

It starts with an idea lying on paper but after one semester only you and your team built a prototype ready to be pitched in front of investors in China.

Mikhail Vorobiev - Team Okeep - CHIC 2016

I wish every day could be as full of learning, challenge and fun as a day with CHIC

Florian Lemarignier - Team FiMi - CHIC 2015

A full experience: as well on the professional side, as on the human one. Indeed, not only have I learned and improved so much in my own field, but also have I discovered a lot of new concepts and practices in my team mates’ fields. Moreover, I have met great people and learned how to collaborate in a multi-disciplinary team, which is something I hadn’t the chance to do while studying.

Alexis Duburcq - Team Aimo - CHIC 2016

The best you can get from an experience are the discoveries you make. CHIC is all about experience and discovery, from the first meetings to the very last day of the entire project I never stopped to learn and discover. Not only in terms of knowledge related my field, but in terms of team management, time scheduling and presentation skills: these are abilities that cannot be studied on books.

Ludovico Novelli - Team Tikku - CHIC 2016

CHIC is absolutely a fantastic experience for me. I learned much more than I expected, from technology to start-ups incubation, commercialisation, and even some manufacturing procedures... Also, we became good friends."

Ziyu Zhao - Team Dory - CHIC 2015

CHIC has been a unique experience, giving me the opportunity to take away more than just a grade from a project at EPFL.

Florian Maushart - Team Fimi - CHIC 2015

If taken separately, engineers, designers and business people, are probably good at what they do. If you mix them in a team, they will for sure find a way to transform a Shuttle launch in a piece of cake

Szabolcs Balási - Team Tikku - CHIC 2016

CHIC is a unique opportunity to experience the process from idea to start-up in a safe environment.

Tobia Wyss - Team Livelo - CHIC 2017

COMPLETED PROJECTS

AKANE

Akane is a tool that will help you manage your noise level in the class room. If it’s to loud , the plant will clo [...]

Ilanga

We are protecting children from risks linked to sun exposure thanks to a connected hat.

Trobak, give value to your waste

Trobak is a smart composter that helps you reduce your impact on the planet by sorting your food-waste and turn it into [...]

CARING

Secure, trusted and simple communication for a better healthcare

Livelo

A low-priced & connected probe engineered for easy water level assessment.

FLUID

We are an interdisciplinary team whose goal is to make technology understandable by 3 years old kids and useful to respo [...]

Fimi

Understanding the needs of a baby is not always easy. that’s why we invented a device that helps parents to better con [...]

Flowlin

A smart object that makes it easy to stay focused at work by preventing interruptions from coworkers and apps

Aimo

The first connected mailbox lock that will turn your traditional mailbox into a safe and shared deposit box!

Okeep

OKEEP is a connected bicycle helmet for urban areas. It is designed to bring you safety with style. Be seen with front & [...]

Tengo

Joy is spontaneous. Our product has it and rents it, whenever you want at the place where you need it the most.

Hapstick

More than a pair of sticks,a connected recovery experience.

Todoo

Todoo is the first watch specially designed for children with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) to help them to get on wi [...]

Hibachi

Hibachi is the first self-heating lunchbox that warms your homemade meal to the perfect temperature, everywhere at any t [...]

Vesta

Older generations have a hard time to adapt to new means of digital communications. Vesta is a connected device adapted [...]

Tikku

Tikku is a pair of connected musical sticks, that will allow you to generate the sound you imagined without any constrai [...]

Dory

Dory is a simple and multifunctional research tool dedicated to kids in the age of 8-14. with its pluggable sensors, it [...]

ToyGether

A plush toy for kids that connects to their parent’s smartphone.It enables parents to interact and play games with the [...]

People involved

Marius Aeberli is the Head of Education at EPFL+ECAL Lab. Interaction Designer by training, he co-created Novertur, a B2B matchmaking platform to help firms to make international business development. In addition, he worked as a strategic design consultant for Siemens and Nagra. In CHIC, Marius advises teams about experience design and product’s strategy.
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  • Marius Aeberli

  • Supervisor
Professor at hepia and associate research post at epfl, he is specialized in embedded systems design with microcontroller and FPGA. He is teaching at hepia and epfl since more than 30 years with many industrial contacts and projects. Implication in CHIC supervision at hepia and epfl.
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  • René Beuchat

  • Supervisor
Damien Buchs is a Scientific Project Assistant at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). He holds a Master Degree in Information System from the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) at the University of Lausanne and a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from the School of Engineering and Management Vaud (HEIG-VD). Trained as an economist with management and business development orientation, he has specialized in the fields of Information Technology with a strong interest in Information Architecture, Business Models, and Design Thinking. Passionate about those areas, he designs and develops applications for public and private companies. In parallel, his Master thesis looks at a psychological factor for fostering innovation, learning behaviors, and team performance where innovation projects are complex, uncertain, and interdisciplinary.
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  • Damien Buchs

  • CHIC Team, Full Stack Developer
Dr. Cédric Duchêne is an electrical engineer currently working as senior project engineer at the EPFL+ECAL Lab where is project leader on the Montreux Jazz Heritage Lab archive experiments. He is lecturer at ECAL/Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne where he teaches BA and MA courses on practical electronics. He has build-up the experimental platform Electronic Maker Lab, to teach and learn electronics at the EPFL/Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.
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  • Cédric Duchêne

  • CHIC Team, Supervisor
Marc is a scientific collaborator in the College of Humanities at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and lecturer at the University of Lausanne, where he teaches BA and MA course in the field of Asian studies with an orientation on technology and innovation. Trained as an economist, then in Chinese studies, his research looks at innovation in emerging markets both from a macro perspective (e.g., implications on the global innovation landscape) and a micro perspective (business model innovation in emerging markets). In addition his research looks at specific aspects of China’s innovation landscape (e.g., shanzhai, makerspaces, etc.). He also explores applied pedagogy and, in particular, experiential learning (e.g., summer camp for HEC students in an emerging market). Marc obtained his PhD on China’s telecommunication reforms from the London School of Economics. He holds a Master Degree in International Management (HEC, 1997) and an undergraduate degree in Business Management from the University of Lausanne (1993) with a Minor in Information Systems. He studied Chinese Language and Economics for two years at Fudan University, Shanghai (1993-1995) and one semester at the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada (1996).
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  • Marc Laperrouza

  • CHIC Team, Coordinator
Raffael is a fresh Electronics Engineering graduate of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and was one of the first participants of CHIC in 2015. His expertise ranges from PCB design to firmware development and some flavours of design thinking and systems engineering. He co-founded Octanis, a non-profit association based at EPFL providing an interdisciplinary work environment while developing new ways to make rapid prototyping tools accessible to everyone. Together with Octanis, he helped building from scratch a 3D-printed, solar-powered rover which was sent to Antarctica in Winter 2016. His Master thesis was carried out at Stanford University, in which he designed the analog front end for an airborne ultrasound imaging system.
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  • Raffael Tschui

  • CHIC Team, Project Engineer