Dario FloreanoProf. Dario Floreano is director of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Since 2010, he is the founding director of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Robotics, a research program that brings together more than 20 labs across Switzerland. Prof. Floreano holds an M.A. in Vision, an M.S. in Neural Computation, and a PhD in Robotics. He has held research positions at Sony Computer Science Laboratory, at Caltech/JPL, and at Harvard University. His main research interests are Robotics and A.I. at the convergence of biology and engineering. Prof. Floreano made pioneering contributions to the fields of evolutionary robotics, aerial robotics, and soft robotics. He served in numerous advisory boards and committees, including the Future and Emerging Technologies division of the European Commission, the World Economic Forum Agenda Council, the International Society of Artificial Life, the International Neural Network Society, and in the editorial committee of several scientific journals. In addition, he helped spinning off two drone companies (senseFly.com and Flyability.com) and a non-for-profit portal on robotics and A.I. (RoboHub.org). Books
Manuale sulle Reti Neurali, il Mulino (in Italian), 1996 (first edition), 2006 (second edition)Evolutionary Robotics, MIT Press, 2000
Bio-Inspired Artificial Intelligence, MIT Press, 2008
Flying Insects and Robots, Springer Verlag, 2010
Philippe RenaudPhilippe Renaud is Professor at the Microsystem Laboratory (LMIS4) at EPFL. He is also the scientific director of the EPFL Center of MicroNanoTechnology (CMI). His main research area is related to micronano technologies in biomedical applications (BioMEMS) with emphasis on cell-chips, nanofluidics and bioelectronics. Ph. Renaud is invloved in many scientifics papers in his research area. He received his diploma in physics from the University of Neuchâtel (1983) and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Lausanne (1988). He was postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley (1988-89) and then at the IBM Zürich Research Laboratory in Switzerland (1990-91). In 1992, he joined the Sensors and Actuators group of the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) at Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was appointed assistant professor at EPFL in 1994 and full professor in 1997. In summer 1996, he was visiting professor at the Tohoku University, Japan. Ph. Renaud is active in several scientific committee (scientific journals, international conferences, scientific advisory boards of companies, PhD thesis committee). He is also co-founder of the Nanotech-Montreux conference. Ph. Renaud is committed to valorization of basic research through his involvement in several high-tech start-up companies.
Rakesh ChawlaOriginaire d'Inde, Rakesh Chawla y est né en 1947. Après avoir obtenu son doctorat en génie nucléaire à l'Imperial College de l'Université de Londres en 1970, il travaille jusqu'en 1972 à Winfrith comme Research Fellow de la United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
De 1972 à 1978, il est engagé comme professeur assistant par l'Institut Indien de Technologie à Kanpur dans le cadre du programme Génie Nucléaire et Technologie. Depuis 1978, il travaille à l'Institut Paul Scherrer (PSI) à Würenlingen-Villigen dans le département de recherche Energie Nucléaire. En tant que chef de projet, il est responsable des divers travaux R&D, comme les études faites sur le réacteur de recherche PROTEUS.
En 1994, il est nommé professeur extraordinaire en physique des réacteurs au Département de physique de l'EPFL, poste qui comprend les activités d'enseignement à l'EPFL et la direction du Laboratoire de physique des réacteurs et de technique des systèmes au PSI. En 1997, il est nommé professeur ordinaire son enseignement porte sur les aspects physiques du génie nucléaire et les travaux pratiques utilisant le réacteur CROCUS à l'EPFL. Ses recherches actuelles comprennent les travaux expérimentaux et analytiques liés à la sécurité des systèmes avancés, au cycle de combustible et à la transmutation des déchets, ainsi qu'au comportement dynamique des centrales nucléaires.
