Meet your Program Directors

David Atienza leads the embedded systems laboratory at EPFL. He is an expert on the next-generation embedded systems for the Internet of Things, working for last 10 years on smart wearables both for humans and a wider range of other objects including cars. He focuses on how these objects can interact with each other to create new business opportunities – helping businesses be ready for these opportunities. His expertise also covers 2D/3D thermal modeling and management for multiprocessor system-on-chip, electronic design automation, wireless body sensor networks, memory optimizations, low-power hardware and software co-design.

Auke Ijspeert is a full professor at EPFL and head of the Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob). He has a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh (1999) and has been at EPFL since 2002. His research interests are at the intersection between robotics, computational neuroscience, nonlinear dynamical systems and applied machine learning. He is interested in using numerical simulations and robots to gain a better understanding of animal locomotion, and in using inspiration from biology to design novel types of mobile, walking robots and locomotion controllers. He is also investigating how to assist persons with limited mobility using exoskeletons and assistive furniture.

Dr Adi Seredinschi has a PhD in Distributed Systems from the EPFL. He is Product Lead at a cooperative-startup in blockchain technologies, called Informal Systems, which is building the infrastructure for next-generation digital systems with a focus on correctness, reliability, and sustainability.

Leila is the founder and Chairwoman of the Empowerment, a swiss based foundation advocating for a human centered technology. She is also a committed entrepreneur, she has created several companies, including Be Curious TV, a citizen cable TV channel (sold in 2019), and Amplify, a digital platform which democratizes access to the advertising market. Convinced that individual responsibility is crucial in the digital age, she is interested in tools that enable citizens to make enlightened decisions, to adapt and to benefit from the changes brought by technological evolution.

Dr. Yves Pigneur is a professor at the University of Lausanne since 1984, and has held visiting professorships at Georgia State University, University of British Columbia, National University of Singapore, and HEC Montreal. He earned his doctoral degree at the University of Namur, Belgium. He was the former editor-in-chief of the academic journal Systèmes d’Information & Management. Together with Alexander Osterwalder, they invented the Business Model Canvas and authored in 2010 the international bestseller “Business Model Generation” (million+ copies in 40 languages); and more recently “Value Proposition Design”.