Drowned in Mainstream

Engineering is about people! While preparing my lectures and advising my PhD students, I naturally came across many exceptionally creative figures. Most are of course famous and well known, they developed « mainstream » science and technology. Some of these figures, however, have been quite forgotten, maybe just because they were ahead of their time or otherwise did not fit into what was then considered « Mainstream » . I will present some of these men and women, their achievements and what they have contributed to today’s science and technology.

Quelques personnalités oubliées
Les sciences de l’ingénieur reposent sur un savoir accumulé depuis des siècles. En préparant mes cours et en suivant les recherches de mes doctorants, je me suis moi-même appuyé sur le travail d’innombrables scientifiques et ingénieurs. Beaucoup d’entre eux sont bien connus et reconnus, mais quelques-uns et quelques-unes sont un peu tombés dans l’oubli. Ce cours sera une tentative de leur rendre justice.

Programme :
- Introduction by Prof.Christian Enz, Director of the Institute of Microengineering
- Honorary lecture of Prof. Hannes Bleuler: "Drowned in Mainstream"

Inscription is required :
https://go.epfl.ch/bleuler

Bio :

Swiss, Born 19.2.1954
1973-78 ETH Zurich, M.S. in Electrical Engineering
1979-84 Teaching Assistant, Doctorate Student at ETH (Inst. of Mechanics)
1984 Ph.D. thesis in Mechatronics (magnetic bearings, Prof. G. Schweitzer)
1985-87 Research Engineer at Hitachi Ltd, Japan, Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory;
1987 Invited researcher at The Tokyo Institute of Technology (Precision Mechatronics, Prof. K. Ono)
1988-91 Lecturer and Senior Assistant at ETH ; co-foundation of MECOS-Traxler AG
1991-95 Toshiba Chair of "Intelligent Mechatronics" and then regular Associate Professor at The University of Tokyo (Institute of Industrial Science)
1995-present Full Professor at EPFL Lausanne on micro–robotics, biomedical robotics;
2000 Co-founder of xitact SA, Morges (robotic surgery instrumentation & simulators)
2002-2006 President Conference of Professors and Lecturers of EPFL, member of Assemblée de l'Ecole
2006 Chairman of ISMB10 (10th International Symposium on Magnetic Bearings, Martigny, Switzerland)
2006 Nomination as member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences (SATW)
2009 Fellow, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo