M.Sc. projects

More than 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci sketched a vision of man walking on water, a dream of freedom and mechanical harmony. Yet, despite half a millennium of technological progress, current commercial solutions are heavy, inefficient, and unsatisfactory. Skis drift apart, poles offer little mechanical advantage, and existing designs fail to harness the full power of the human body.

The goal of this project is to bridge this gap by developing Cross-Water Skiing, an innovative discipline merging cross-country skiing mechanics with the sensation of gliding on water. 
This project offers a unique opportunity for two motivated students to work at the forefront of sports engineering.
Student 1: Mechanical systems & Flexure design. 
Your mission is to engineer the ski system’s structural backbone. Following a preliminary comparative analysis of flexure architectures, materials, joint configurations, and load paths, you will design, model, and prototype high-performance flexure mechanisms—including dedicated post flexures—and structural solutions that preserve perfect ski parallelism under dynamic loads. The goal is to achieve precise force transmission, controlled compliance where needed, minimal energy loss, and lightweight, reliable performance in real-world conditions.
Student 2: Fluid dynamics & Propulsion optimization. 
Your mission is to master the interface between the ski and the water. A preliminary comparative analysis of alternative geometries, kinematics, and control strategies will guide design selection. You will conduct advanced CFD simulations and physical prototyping to optimize hinged flap propulsion systems that maximize forward thrust while minimizing drag, ensuring that every movement translates efficiently into explosive speed.

Common Goals
Both students will collaborate closely on 3D manufacturability and prototyping. 
This is not just a simulation project — you will build, test, and iterate. Together, you will develop a functional prototype of the complete ski system, based on commercial inflatable platforms, demonstrating that the centuries-old dream of running on water is finally within our grasp.

The start-up Elecyor is developing a flexible fiber-format linear motor, based on a PhD thesis done at EPFL-LMTS. Working near Lyon, France, the student will develop advanced manufacturing methods and automated test benches to characterize this new type of linear actuator.

Detailed info in this pdf

We aim to create transient metallic conductors and device elements by electroplating zinc onto laser-induced graphene (LIG) patterned on eco-responsible bipolymeric substrates. LIG serves as a conductive seed enabling localized Zn growth at low temperature, yielding maskless, low-waste metallization with higher conductivity versus bare LIG. We will optimize electrolyte composition, current density, plating time. We will validate performance on passive and sensing demonstrators, including printed resistors (with tunable resistance via geometry/plating thickness), paper-based humidity sensors (tracking resistance/impedance changes with RH), and simple RF antennas (loops/meanders). In the frame of a master project, reliability will be evaluated under bending and humidity; end-of-life will be assessed through controlled Zn dissolution to benign Zn²⁺ and substrate recyclability/compostability. The outcome is a practical recipe for greener metallization that enables low-power sensing and wireless/passive components on transient platforms.

In this project, you will develop zinc-electroplated, laser-induced graphene (LIG) conductors on eco-responsible biopolymeric substrates and turn them into simple passive and sensing elements, with dedicated work on the LIG itself. You will optimize LIG formation by adjusting process parameters and perform microstructural, electrical and mechanical characterisation of the layers. . Building on this, you will tune zinc electroplating parameters to achieve low-resistance, well-adhered metallization. Patterned test structures will include printed resistors with geometry- and thickness-tunable values, sensors tracked by resistance or impedance, and compact loop or meander RF antennas characterized by basic S-parameters. In the frame of a Master project, work will address the mechanical and chemical reliability and the end-of-life looking at dissolution or composting of the structures.

We propose a fully biodegradable, chipless wireless biochemical sensor for point-of-care detection of biomarkers in biofluids, designed to reduce e-waste from single-use diagnostics. The device consists of a printed radio-frequency resonator on an eco-friendly, biocompatible substrate together with a green biofunctional layer that binds the target analyte. Binding events change the electrical properties of the resonator, which can be read wirelessly by monitoring shifts in amplitude and/or resonant frequency of the returned signal. We will use impedimetric studies to optimize both the resonator architecture and the interface between the resonator and the biofunctional layer. The goal is to demonstrate a transient biosensing label that operates reliably during its intended use window and can safely enter recycling, composting, or benign dissolution at end of life.

In this project, the student can focus on three complementary tracks. For transducer development, they can design and print LC resonators on biodegradable substrates, tune geometry and materials to control resonance and Q-factor, and establish simple, repeatable readout conditions. Students can develop eco-friendly surface treatments to realise sensing elements from the LC resonator, add recognition layers , and verify basic stability and sensing behaviors in relevant fluids. Finally, in the frame of a Master project the processes can be fully studied and integrated from printing to biofunctionalisation, and wireless measurement, including the evaluation performance through controlled laboratory assays that track resonance or amplitude shifts versus analyte concentration, alongside basic reliability checks.

We will develop biodegradable biointerfaces on zinc and carbon (printed carbon and/or graphene) electrodes that can be functionalized for a broad range of analytes. Water-compatible chemistries will immobilize diverse receptors while preserving full device transience and avoiding persistent materials. Functionalization efficiency will be evaluated with surface analysis (e.g., XPS, FTIR, Raman, and contact-angle) to confirm composition, coverage, and uniformity. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) will be performed in relevant electrolytes, fit with appropriate equivalent-circuit models.  It will be applied to quantify interfacial parameters (charge-transfer resistance, film/double-layer capacitances, and diffusion elements) across baseline, post-functionalization, and target-binding states. The outcome is a general, environmentally conscious set of methods and validation guidelines for transient electrode functionalization.

In this project, students can focus on developing and testing biodegradable biointerfaces on zinc and carbon electrodes. They may formulate water-compatible surface chemistries, prepare and activate electrode surfaces, and attach generic recognition layers while preserving device transience. They can build a light surface-analysis workflow, such as XPS, ATR-FTIR or Raman, and contact-angle, to verify composition, coverage, and uniformity, and then implement electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in relevant electrolytes, fitting data with simple equivalent-circuit models to extract interfacial parameters and compare functionalization routes. Depending on interest, they can prototype basic sensing tests that track electrical changes before and after functionalization and upon exposure to representative analytes, examine nonspecific interactions and simple blocking strategies, and run short stability checks in relevant fluids.

Currently, wireless IoT RFID devices used for identification and sensing rely on some harmful components making their environmentally friendly disposal impossible after service life. In the frame of an European project with partners in France, we are developing eco-friendly RFID and NFC sensing tags made by the additive manufacturing of biodegradable materials on paper substrates. These tags can aim at identification of items or at the monitoring of perishable goods during their transport. At their end of life, these tags being developed could be recycled or safely disposed not being harmful to the environment.

In this student project, work will be performed on the development of biodegradable sensors and their integration on eco-responsible RFID tags. The biodegradable RFID tags are based on the printing of a biodegradable metal and dielectric layers, with the silicon chip being the only non biodegradable component remaining. The project will focus on the development of temperature threshold sensors, address the design and fabrication of RFID tag and the characterisation of the different components (sensors, antenna, tag) and of the whole system, including their biodegradation.