Meet the Spring 2021 Changemakers
Missing one sadly because of lack of space
We are delighted to present the 16 young talents that are part of the second edition of the Changemakers!
During the course of 3 months the group is following an intense programme encompassing a series of learning sessions, community exchanges, access to expertise, resources and many more.
Find out more about each of the participants! Check out the Award Ceremony that happened online on 9 June 2021 (here)
Amael is a Bachelor student in Environmental Engineering. He is passionate about the digital world and computer science, while remaining critic to its impact on the world. He has been involved in the student-led initiative of Zero Emission Group which ignited his interest around digital sobriety and is running his own start-up project.
His startup is developing a state-of-the-art Life Cycle Assessment model, that allows customers, such as EPFL, the cantonal administration and international companies, to assess their digital impact and improve their measures at large. While digital activities represent 2 times the worldwide GHG emissions of civil aviation, not enough attention is paid to this aspect even though it is clear that urgent action is needed.
Thanks to his SaaS platform, customers are able to follow a more sustainable path in their digital transformation journey.
Clément is an EPFL Bachelor’s student in Microengineering passionate about electronics. His thirst for discovering new things and learning is an everyday motivation to pursue his dreams. He is passionate about aeronautics and enjoys flying in his spare time.
He’s currently developing an electronic system that could be adaptable on any kind of baby-foot. The aim of his project is to raise the awareness of children about electronics and develop their building skills by making themselves this electronic system.
Fadel is a highly optimistic and ambitious Master’s student in Computational Science, who believes that technologies can greatly help improve living conditions in his home country, Niger, when properly re-adapted.
He is currently working on a project to tackle the inefficiency of the waste management system in Niger. Currently, 60% of the generated waste is not collected and no efficient treatment solution exists which puts a lot of burden on the environment through landfills and wild dumpsites. He believes waste-to-energy to be a way to both produce energy and raise awareness regarding environmental issues.
His mission? Valuing local resources of any kind to benefit society in various forms.
Jonathan strongly believes that friends do not see each other often enough to share all the experiences they would like to. He wants to create a social network that aims to gather friends in an environment of competition. By making friends participate in common challenges, he hopes to make them forget the physical distance that separates them.
Currently finishing his Master’s degree in Data Science at the EPFL, Jonathan had the opportunity to develop strong IT skills. He realised it is time for him to move toward the direction of gaining entrepreneurial experience to launch his startup in the next months.
Josué is a Master’s student in Financial Engineering, completing his degree with an internship in electronic trading at Credit Suisse. Rational but passionate, he believes it is possible to have a deep impact on this world and is looking to make it positive in the most efficient ways. Primarily focused on climate change, he seeks to solve the most pressing problems of our world.
Aware that being an expert in all fields would take too long, he intends to use his already acquired knowledge to fund existing and future solutions by creating a non-profit finance company. It would be able to grow donors’ and/or investors’ money with electronic trading strategies applied on the foreign exchange market before investing it wisely into non-profit organisations, startups, or even corporations.
Karol believes in the creation of an enriching volunteer community. Ever since high school and her Bachelor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at ITESM Mexico, Karol has found out that there are many existing needs around the world, such as education, healthcare, environmental improvement, etc., especially in developing countries.
Working in the automotive industry for almost four years as a quality engineer, Karol decided to quit and start her Master’s studies in Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship at EPFL to be able to develop an app that makes volunteering as easy as getting an Uber for encouraging the world to be a better place.
Since she started her Master’s degree in Architecture, Marina has been involved in community life, with the conviction to create new potentials and partnerships, to highlight an emerging environmental ethic. Her curiosity led her to take part in large-scale projects in India and to volunteer for the construction of emergency shelters in Chile. She is currently finishing her master project on the biopolitical reading of the territory and a scenario of radical urban phenomenological coexistence.
Her project aims to create an inter-school collective with a cross-cutting approach that allows to centralise the theoretical base around the ecological transition and establish links between research, professionals, and students.
As a Bachelor’s student in mechanical engineering, Mathieu deeply believes that innovation is the best tool for change and progress. Therefore, his involvement, passion in the start-up, entrepreneurship, and technology world gives him the willpower to move forward. He is also ready to face the multiple challenges & obstacles ahead.
Over-consumption, waste of resources, and lack of a sense of community are real problems in our modern society. A first step, in getting closer to a solution, is to implement a sharing platform of goods and services within the EPFL community.
Megane is a graduate EPF engineer in the field of environmental science and engineering. Her Master’s thesis allowed her to win the François Lancoud prize of the ARPEA association. The environment is particularly important to her, which is why she is active in various associations such as ProNatura. In her spare time she enjoys hiking and climbing.
During her studies, Megane specialized in the valorisation of bottom ash, the solid residues of household waste incineration plants. She has developed, on a laboratory scale, a way to recycle this material. The ambitious objective of this urban mining project is to enable Switzerland to develop a circular consumption capable of transforming its polluted waste into a valuable resource.
Paola is a Bachelor’s student in Communication Systems at EPFL. She has always been passionate about entrepreneurship, challenges, and crazy ideas. Growing up in Lebanon gave her a sense of urgency concerning the need for sustainable solutions in the long term.
After reading Bill Gates’ latest book, How To Avoid a Climate Disaster, Paola realized how essential individual initiatives were. To be able to get to zero carbon emissions, we will need every idea we can get, and it will require breakthroughs.
She, therefore, aims to support and encourage a culture of creativity and problem solving by connecting co-founders with aspiring entrepreneurs. She believes that compatible and complementary teams are the greatest catalysts for game-changing innovations, and her online platform aims to do these matchings.
Pierre is a Master’s student in Microengineering. He is passionate about physics because of its esthetic. He teaches it to second and first-year EPFL students as a teacher assistant to spread out his passion. For him who played piano since he was a child, there are strong connections between art and science. He is highlighting these connections through the watchmaking startup he created, Time Designers, and which motto is: “We want to enhance a new science in watchmaking”.
His profile is a half engineer, half commercial one. He worked as a team leader for the fundraising company Wesser & Partner where he got excellent results, and in his free time, he is active in the civil community being a fireman.
Pierre-Amaury is a first-year Master’s student in Microengineering at EPFL. He is passionate about watchmaking, art, and travel. This open-minded student spent a full year in Milan where he was able to develop his love for cooking arts. Helping others succeed is also very important for him. During his studies at EPFL he was involved in the coaching program and was a teaching assistant for first-year Bachelor’s students.
Choosing the Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship minor program to complete his Master was an obvious choice for this startup enthusiast who is currently designing the first watch prototype for his startup called Time Designers. In parallel with his studies, Pierre-Amaury is constantly learning new skills such as how to use new CAD and graphic design software.
Pierre-Jean is an EPFL student in the first year of a Master in Robotics and follows a minor in Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship. After a Bachelor’s degree in Microengineering during which he became involved in a large number of student associations such as the AGEPoly committee and its commissions or even Dynamic the Microengineering student association, he embarked on the great adventure of entrepreneurship.
Despite the global Covid crisis, he is still very invested in his non-academic life: he is currently a fireman in Ecublens and is constantly working on new projects such as his startup, which aims to create a revolutionary new watch product!
Riccardo is a Master’s student in financial engineering with a passion for technology and innovation. He is always ready to challenge himself with new projects, meet new friends and travel the world in search of adventures.
Nowadays, people are incentivized to fill up their houses with objects and goods they do not necessarily need. His project aims at reducing waste and supporting local communities by building a sharing platform backed by blockchain technology. He is highly motivated to make a positive impact on communities from all over the world and believes that the most recent outbreaks in the field of cryptocurrencies may perfectly serve this scope.
Rodrigo is a Bachelor’s student in Engineering Physics. He is part of the Eagle X Robotics student group, with whom he had the honor to qualify for the final of the international robotics competition ‘University Rover Challenge’ thanks to their Martian exploration robot, thus becoming the first Latin American team to do so. Besides, Rodrigo is part of four research projects in the areas of electrokinetics, particle physics, and energy, in which he works on applied physics phenomena.
He is a recipient of the Academic Excellence Scholarship in Tecnológico de Monterrey, as well as passionate about sports such as soccer, car racing, and tennis. Additionally, he is co-founder of the “Dook” project, a platform that helps young students improve their curriculum through extracurricular activities.
Thibault is a Bachelor’s student in Microengineering. He is interested in developing his skills in entrepreneurship and in learning how to build a startup. As a fan of scuba diving and marine life, he feels impacted by plastic waste management around the world. There is a lot of plastic in our oceans and the environment, which causes severe damage to our ecosystems. According to Thibault, we must react now as it may be too late very soon. He strongly believes that it is possible to reduce the impact of this issue while bringing something to the market that could help society.
His project aims to use plastic waste to recycle it into building blocks and use it to offer decent housing conditions to people living in poverty. With his solution, cities could enhance their attractiveness and their economy while increasing the life’s quality of their inhabitants.
Contact
Marius Aeberli
[email protected]
+41 21 693 08 08
Vice Presidency for Innovation (VPI)
EPFL Innovation Park
Building J – 1015 Lausanne