Meet the Fall 2020 Changemakers

The 20 young talents that are part of the first 2020 edition of the Changemakers! In the picture, we are missing 2 students.

We are delighted to present the 20 young talents that are part of the first edition of the ChangeMakers!

During the course of 5 months the group followed an intense programme encompasing a series of learning sessions, community exchanges and access to expertise, resources and many more.

Find out more about each of the participants! Check out the Award Ceremony which took place on 10 March 2021 (here): 

The Award Ceremony prizes were sponsored by our partner Logitech.

Adrian is a Master student in Data Science most passionate about technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly applied to digital health. He is currently conducting his thesis in the Distributed Information Systems Lab of Prof. Karl Aberer, using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques on social media data to understand people’s satisfaction in treating medical conditions with Cannabidiol (CBD). During his free time, you will find him practicing yoga, meditation or playing football.

Adrian’s project Naturally aims to build a NLP engine to deliver personalised well-being product recommendations.

Alessandra is a Master student in Space Technology and Robotics with a mechanical engineering background. While watching many documentaries on nature and biodiversity on her free time, she was confronted with the eye-opening consequences of the human actions in the last century. Alessandra believes that actions have to be taken now to change the unsustainable ways we are living today – everyone can have an impact, we just need to start.

Her project aims to foster a more sustainable shopping in the easiest way possible.

Amara Slaymaker is a Master student in Energy Science and Technology with a passion for sustainability topics such as energy and others. While participating in a social innovation workshop in Bengaluru focused on improving access to education in vulnerable migrant communities, she became inspired to continue developing her team’s ideas.

Her project aims at providing teachers with a user-friendly application and database useful to fill records such as attendance and health that can improve their workload considerably.

Antoine is a Master student in MTE deeply concerned about access to clean energy. In a world that is facing big increasingly complex challenges, he sees energy as a pivot to solve tomorrow’s global issues. Antoine dreams of a world where every human being will live with dignity while respecting the limits of our planet and its ecosystems – a world that can only be reached if the notion of consumption is challenged to achieve a better standard of living within the framework of thoughtful, conscious, and sustainable development.

Antoine’s project sun’n’go provides a solar, modular and compact energy kiosk to entrepreneurs living in off-grid communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Camille is a Master student in Computer Science. She is always in action, willing to try new things and experiment in different fields.

Her project aims to provide gamification as a service.

Jean-André is a Master student in Environmental Engineering, passionate about environment conservation and access to basic rights. He is a student representative at the ENAC faculty council and worked as an engineer in Colombia, Senegal and Indonesia on water and energy issues. He also did a social innovation camp in India on education challenges.

His project Global Earth Horizon Talk is driven by a committee of young people with the ambition to refocus the environmental debate around scientific facts.

« L’essentiel était de bien faire son métier ». This quote from Albert Camus’s The Plague is a good introduction to Hugo Hueber’s way of thinking. “Stache”, as he is mainly called, thinks that nothing cannot be learned, and tries to learn and apply innovative and challenging techniques to everyday problems, often using disruptive media such as memes and video games to get his point accross.

His project aims to provide gamification as a service.

Jules is a PhD student in education with lots of ideas and too little time. He loves trying out all kinds of stuff – besides being a full time PhD he also coaches the Swiss Freestyle Diving team while juggling with a liquor import company and a modern sports center.

His project aims to provide B2B and B2C Ecological, Ethical and small scale logistic solutions.

Laure is a Master student in Life Science Engineering with a dual skill set in programming and health. As a life science engineer with an interest in data, microbiology, and marine conservation, she thrives in pluridisciplinarity and values creativity and open-mindedness. Her biculturality between the United States and Europe has made her a travelling enthusiast. Her curiosity made her partake in a neuroscience research project in Japan and an anthropological fieldwork in the Colombian Amazon. She cares about having an impact, at her own scale, on the world around.

Laure’s project aims to create and sustain ecotourism in areas where locals don’t benefit from the development of tourism.

Marc is a Master student in Computer Science. He enjoys learning, creating or competing at the highest level. This reflects in his studies, his love for basketball playing and officiating, as well as his interest in start-up creation.

His project aims to offer a real-time solution to help users take care of your plants.

Mohamed is a Master student in Computer Science currently working at VPSI as a junior full stack dev/ops. He enjoys explaining himself to computers and rubber ducks, only for them to scream error codes back. But as they say, a healthy mind in a healthy backflip, as he is very invested in showing gravity who’s boss by starting acrobatic martial arts coaching soon. People say he has good skills, but he is always looking for a way to use them in something other than a 12 credit school project, so Changemakers here he comes!

His project aims to provide B2B and B2C Ecological, Ethical, and small scale logistic solutions.

Nazareno Sacchi is a Master student in Nanotechnologies for IcT. Currently, he is leading a team trying to record and stimulate nerves of a rat. He considers himself as a curious person who asks and look for opportunities to be amazed by other people. He has not the fear to fail, and he gives 100% of himself if he believes in the cause. Finally, he likes electronics and its history (Westinghouse and Tesla vs. Edison)!

Nazareno’s project is to use neuromorphic computing for edge computing in harsh environments.

Notash is pursuing her masters degree in Materials Science and Engineering with a minor in Computational Science. She is an outgoing person who is passionate for science and loves painting and dancing in her spare time.

Notash’s project aims to develop a delivery application that proposes a new delivery system.

Olivier is Master student is Robotics with a big passion for programming and finance. He learned his financial knowledge through discussions, books and articles and even hesitated to do a Master in finance at some point. His hope is that one day he’ll be able to work in a field that combines all three.

Together with his team, he is developing Capital Legion, a Hedge Fund based on deep learning & finance.

Raphael Ausilio is a second year Master student in Microengeenering. He has always been interested in the creation of complete products, combining small mechanical and electronic components to solve concrete problems and he has had the opportunity to carry out many of these type of projects. His personal passions involve drawing, design and writing.

With his teammate Valentin, they are currently working on an optical electronic device to help blind people. This small non-invasive device with haptic feedback is to be fixed on existing white canes. In this way, they are capable of adding a vertical dimension to the range of the cane, increasing the user’s security and serenity.

Sadra Boreiri is a master student in Data Science with a B.Sc. in Physics and Computer Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. In his research, Sadra is focusing on the connections between Computer Science, Physics, and Mathematics. Moreover, he is very interested in more applied sciences to create values for society. He is an outgoing person and he loves traveling.

Sadra’s project aims to develop a delivery application that proposes a new delivery system.

Sergey Arzoyan is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) with a background in Physics and Telecommunication. His current research topic is the Energy Efficiency of Building Stock and Cement Industry in Switzerland. He is passionate about languages (speaks 7) and would like to learn more!

His current interest is connected to new technical solutions in the construction industry that aim to decrease CO2 emissions in the world. Sergey’s project aims to decrease the energy consumption of new constructions.

Valentin is a second-year Master student in Microengineering, with a minor in Neuroscience. He is very motivated to engage in side projects with friends, mainly because he feels the need to expand his academic education in terms of topics and experience. Valentin believes we should do even more personal projects to stimulate our creativity and allows us to innovate in the way we conceive things. Asides his strong interest for hi-tech innovations, he is passionate for analog photography and music creation.

With his teammate Raphaël, they are currently working on an optical electronic device to help blind people. This small non-invasive device with haptic feedback is to be fixed on existing white canes. In this way, we are capable of adding a vertical dimension to the range of the cane, increasing the user’s security and serenity.

Leticia is a Bachelor student in Microengineering holding a master in Public Management and Policy. She has experience in project management and sales and is a critical and creative thinker with communication skills. She enjoys learning, reading and managing and developing new projects. Leticia comes originally from Guadalajara.

Leticia is working on developing an intelligent irrigation system for house plants.

Jean-Baptiste is a Master student in Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship with a background in computer science, specifically in mobile app development. He loves undertaking meaningful projects and aspires to be an entrepreneur. He loves to learn new skills, especially artistic ones and enjoys doing graphic design, composing music, playing piano and photography.

Jean-Baptiste, together with his co-founder, are developing a platform to ease video creation and documentation for firms.

Contact 

Marius Aeberli
[email protected]
+41 21 693 08 08

Vice Presidency for Innovation (VPI)
EPFL Innovation Park
Building J – 1015 Lausanne