EPFL EssentialTech Centre

Engaging with the youth! Our colleague Gregoire Castella is presenting the work of our center in favor of vulnerable people at the EPFL college day. Very positive feedback from the audience about the importance of our work. Thanks to them! 🫶

I am excited to share our latest publication, "Science and Technology: A Framework for Peace" https://lnkd.in/dgryCpJQ. In a world where escalating conflicts increasingly impact our daily lives, we felt it was time to bring together our experiences in PeaceTech—not from the traditional perspectives of social or political sciences, but from STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). This article represents our commitment to inviting "hard sciences" to join the peace agenda, with 4 foundational principles designed to help scientists reframe and orient their work toward peace-seeking actions. A huge thanks to the many colleagues and organizations who collaborated with us, sharing insights, brainstorming, and consulting along the way. These discussions have been invaluable in outlining actionable steps for the hard sciences community to engage meaningfully in peace efforts. I welcome reactions to this article—especially provocative ones!!! Bridging disciplines for peace requires open-minded, constructive exchanges, and I’m eager to hear your thoughts. #Peace #PeaceTech #STEM #Sciences #Tech #Engineering #Maths #Cooperation #Interdisciplinary #Innovation EPFL EPFL EssentialTech Centre

We are proud to show you Video 3 from our series of videos that puts the Geneva Technical Hub (GTH) in the spotlight supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. This video presents how to optimize spatial layouts in humanitarian contexts  UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. This guidance was developed at EPFL with the support of Yves Pedrazzini and Lesslie Astrid Herrera Quiroz from LASUR laboratory and Nadia Carlevaro and Rama Nimri (UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency). The guidance documents are aimed to support sustainable planning of #displaced populations and host communities to improve their #socio-economic opportunities as well as access to #healthcare and #education. We welcome you to review this guidance! Alexander Widmer, Francesca Coloni, Grégoire Castella, Cara Tobin https://lnkd.in/eB-JBHHC

We are proud to show you Video 2 from our series of videos that puts the Geneva Technical Hub (GTH) in the spotlight supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. This video presents the new GHG Emissions Calculator developed with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. This tool was developed at EPFL EssentialTech Centre with the support of Cara Tobin, Natalia Andrea Montoya Arévalo (Eawag), Diana B. (UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency) and Manuel Krähenbühl (UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency).  The simplified GHG Calculator is aimed to support the greening of field operations where there is limited energy and WASH data. We welcome you to try this open-source tool! (UNHCR-TSS) Alexander Widmer, Francesca Coloni, Grégoire Castella #energy, #environment, #WASH https://lnkd.in/eUGVTG9N

Brown University School of Engineering

🌟 Inspiring Presentation by Prof. Amos G. Winter from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's K. Lisa Yang GEAR Center 🌟 Yesterday, we had the privilege of hosting an insightful presentation by Amos G. Winter from the K. Lisa Yang GEAR Center at MIT. Amos shared ground-breaking innovations in desalination, irrigation, and prosthetic foot design—fields with immense potential to improve lives across the globe. His work on desalination technology aims to make clean water accessible in regions facing critical shortages, while advancements in irrigation promise to help farmers boost yields sustainably. And his developments in prosthetics, specifically the design of a highly functional prosthetic foot, offer new possibilities for individuals to regain mobility and independence. This project resonated strongly with our own work on the Agilis prosthetic foot which EPFL conducted in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC. Overall, we discovered that our respective methodologies and strategic approaches shared many commonalities, and that we seem to have come to a very similar view of the key factors of success in such projects. Thank you, Amos for your visit and great talk!

Wonder how Science and Technology can contribute to Peace? Read our brand new article published today! Congrats to co-authors, Mariazel Maqueda López, Ph.D. Sheena Kennedy, Solomzi (Soli) Makohliso, Yves Daccord EPFL, Anna Fontcuberta-Morral, Edouard Bugnion, Martin Vetterli, David Atienza, Patricia Danzi, Jürg Lauber, Alexandre Fasel, Federica Du Pasquier, Gilles Carbonnier, Gilles Cerutti, Robin Geiß, Giacomo Persi Paoli, Hansjörg Eberle, Florence Tinguely Mattli, Félix Baumann, Stephane Rey, Jean-Marc Flükiger, Katharina Füglister, Michaël Thémans, Joël Mesot, Isabel Guenther, Adina Rom, Kathryn Hess, Wendy Queen, Katrin Beyer, Jean-Philippe Thiran, Veronique Michaud https://lnkd.in/eV99kZ2X

🌟 Inspiring Presentation by Prof. Amos G. Winter from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's K. Lisa Yang GEAR Center 🌟 Yesterday, we had the privilege of hosting an insightful presentation by Amos G. Winter from the K. Lisa Yang GEAR Center at MIT. Amos shared ground-breaking innovations in desalination, irrigation, and prosthetic foot design—fields with immense potential to improve lives across the globe. His work on desalination technology aims to make clean water accessible in regions facing critical shortages, while advancements in irrigation promise to help farmers boost yields sustainably. And his developments in prosthetics, specifically the design of a highly functional prosthetic foot, offer new possibilities for individuals to regain mobility and independence. This project resonated strongly with our own work on the Agilis prosthetic foot which EPFL conducted in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC. Overall, we discovered that our respective methodologies and strategic approaches shared many commonalities, and that we seem to have come to a very similar view of the key factors of success in such projects. Thank you, Amos for your visit and great talk!

On November 4th, the EssentialTech Center will host Prof. Amos G. Winter, Director of the K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research (GEAR) Center-MIT, to discuss Global Design: Leveraging Engineering Science for Global Development with the EPFL community. We look forward to seeing many of you there! Massachusetts Institute of Technology EPFL

📣Don’t miss our upcoming information session 🙋♀️ for the 5th Call for proposals of the Humanitarian Action Challenges! 📅 Wednesday 23 October 2024 at 12pm. REGISTER here for our online joint information session with ETH Zurich: https://lnkd.in/eYZEZAvz If you’re a researcher who wants to make a real impact to save lives, this is for you. Further information: 🔹 Applications deadline: 16 January 2025. 🔹 HAC Programme webpage https://lnkd.in/efANg_wR 🔹 For questions, please contact the Research Office: [email protected] We want to express our gratitude for our partners Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), ROLEX and the Foundation for the ICRC for supporting the EHA initiative. International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC, ETH Zürich, ETH for Development - ETH4D, PSI Paul Scherrer Institut, Empa, Eidg. Forschungsanstalt WSL, Eawag.